Hi everyone

 

I can't believe it is so long since I posted. I knew it was awhile, but never dreamed it was so many months ago.  

I have been very busy making a very large quilt.

I managed to sneak down to my studio every morning at about 6am, so I didn't wake my DH to make a block, which took some time. No templates, just cutting random sizes to end up with a 16" block. Totally unplanned scrappy. 

I also bought a Mystery Quilt kit from Quilters Lane in NZ. I don't normally buy kits, but as I loved the Anna Maria Horner fabrics, and am not used to this style of using bold fabrics, I thought it was a good way to get started. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting the fabric, PRECUT I might add, each month, and stitching them up, not knowing how it would end up.

This is as far as I have got, putting the blocks together, as the baby quilts had to be made first!

In the meantime, I have been knitting and have made these little gifts for my Great Grand-daughter, due in April.

 

I have also made these six bibs, which turned out pretty good. Right and wrong side showing.

 

An update: I found out 6 months ago, that two grand-daughters are expecting babies. The youngest girl due in late March, and her older sister due in April.

So, I had to get on with making a couple of baby quilts. I don't go to alot of effort for these, as I hope they will get thrashed in the washing machine. Their first bed quilts I take alot of time and effort over. 

Close up of the back.
 

 Backs of the quilts

 I ended up making 3 baby quilts, so now have one in storage until needed.

The babies have been born, so I will write about that next time.

Bye for now

Sue

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

Life is Ticking Along

There seems to be a run on new babies in our family. My sister's 3rd great grandchild arrived, and is a lovely healthy little girl.  I used some of my pastels, of which I don't have many, and made her a cot quilt.

  It measures approx. 40" x 48"

I love making these scrappy backs, which uses up more of the stash and orphan blocks.

Sorry about the photo quality, and although this quilt hadn't been folded long, it seems to have kept the fold line.

The local quilt group I am in makes cushions for the Heart patients at the city hospital. These 14" cushions are held against the chest when they have to cough after surgery. They get to take them home and use them under their seat belt in the car.

I managed to make 8 from my stash. Obviously they have to have inserts.

My friend and neighbor and walking mate for 15 years has just moved to another town which is great for them, but not for me. :-(

I wanted to give her a quilt, for her bed, and decided 30's stars was the one.

She had packed up most of the house, but I wanted a photo of it on her bed.

I have just finished piecing and appliqueing   'Don't Leaf Me' by Wendy Williams

I did this using Invisible machine appliqueing for the stems and leaves, and hand applique for the felt flowers. 

Thanks everyone for dropping by.

Would love to hear from you, so please leave a comment. 😉💓

http://susannasquilts.blogspot.com

Another Baby Quilt , A Block finished & A Christmas gift completed.

Another Baby quilt finished for my niece this time. I was fortunate enough to take a class at the Auckland Symposium, with Angela Walters, which was such fun, and gave me the confidence to try different quilting, other than my stock standard large stippling. I really enjoyed trying out different stitches, and also using my rulers. I still need loads of practice, but when the binding is on, it looks pretty OK. Baby quilts are a good way to practice...not too large! The pattern was from an idea I saw on Missouri Star Quilt Company,

I have also managed to finish a block from another class I took. This time back-basting applique with Wendy Whellum from Adelaide, Australia. This is such a great way to needle turn hand applique.

And, to finish off two cushions made as Christmas gifts for a daughter-in-law. She doesn't look at my blog, so I can show them on here.  The hexagon one was made with advise/instruction from my friend Linda at Flourishing Palms in Florida.

 Kelly's favourite colour is teal. I made both of these 16"cushions with a flapped zipper, which was so easy.

I got the idea for this from Scissortail Studio: How to make a Perfect Zippered Pillow on you tube.

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks for stopping by

A beautiful Spring Day!

The time flies when you are having fun, so they say!  I sew almost every day which is so wonderful. I am very lucky having such a large space in which to do this, although I don't seem to have alot to show at the moment. 

One thing I have finished is two cot/baby quilts for our new neighbours, who 8 weeks ago had a little girl.  They also have a 2 year old boy, so I thought I can't make for one and not the other! 

I managed to buy a panel of a unicorn, and added some sawtooth stars made from my 30's stash.  I also pieced the back using the same stash cut into 5" squares.

I must say it was a perfect rectangle, but my hanger leaves a bit to be desired! LOL!  I had to chop out his fingers and slippers! Not literally of course...haha!

 Unfortunately I didn't get a close up of the machine quilting, before I gifted them.

You can see it on the animal quilt. I did wavy lines about 1 1/2" apart, and then went the other way, which made it more like criss cross.

The sashings were from my stash again. YEAH!

 The backing was one that went with the panel fabric, so it was nice to get it matching. I had to join of course to be large enough.  Both quilts measured approx. 45" x 50"

The mum of these two littlies sent me a photo of them both with their quilts, and the 2 year old loved his!

I always remember my mother, who was a dressmaker, saying it was much harder to alter a garment than to make a new one from scratch.  Well, in my opinion the same could be said for adding onto a quilt.  I made a quilt for my grandson who was 15 at the time, see here.
 About 6 months ago he moved into a large bed ( he is now 6' 2" ) and I found his quilt in the cupboard, cause it was too small for the bed. I brought it home, and added a strip after removing the border on the side and top and bottom. 

It looked and sounded easy, but I wouldn't want to do it again!  Anyway he now has a quilt he can use. I've always liked this quilt, so felt it was worth doing, and of course I still had plenty of fabric in the STASH! 

Photo taken on my spare bed.

showing the border.

Thanks for dropping by

http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com

The Latest Baby Quilt

is finished. I decided to try and baste this little quilt on my design wall, which turned out to be quite successful! 

I used some 9 patch blocks that I had sitting on the drawer for a zillion years for the backing. It saved me buying fabric, and used up MORE stuff.

 

I pieced this quilt, using one of the new methods I read about online. I joined 4 squares together...a 4 patch. I made two of these, the placed them right sides together. I sewed around the 4 edges, then cut diagonally through them twice, as in a large X.
The only problem I had using this method, was that all edges are on the bias.

All in all I don't think I enjoyed this way of making half square triangles.

 I used an orange peel template to draw around, and quilted using my free motion foot.

 

 I quilted it from the front, and was really pleased to see how it turned out on the back. Actually I like the back of the quilt more than the front.

 From the photo it looks like I colour washed it, but its the camera in my phone that's done that, and the fact that I have a very large window off to the right of my design wall.

This is now winging its way to another Great Grand-daughter in Western Australia.

Thanks for dropping by

http://www.susannasquilts.blogspot.com