Prairie Point Quilt in Batiks,

A while back I started a quilt-as-you-go project.  I had never done one before and thought I should try this method.

Making up the blocks was a breeze and they were fun to quilt, especially as I could turn the block as I quilted - the only benefit to making a quilt this way- I discovered.

The blocks measured 18.5" square and I did a 3 x3 arrangement.  The trouble started when I decided to add borders.  It was time consuming and fiddly work having to splice wadding, then backing fabric and finally quilt.

To get the puffy effect I wanted, I used a 4 oz polyester wadding.
A mistake I think as the quilt has turned out to be pretty heavy.

I needed the extra support of my ironing board whilst quilting it.

The border quilting went well - more feathers. and why not?  I love them.

All the coloured fabrics I used are gorgeous batiks.  I get them from a shop in Southport, UK.
Twice a year they come to the quilt show, so I get to stock up.  They are called Crafts and Quilts.  You can find them on Facebook too.

                                                                  Back of the quilt.

I'll be keeping this quilt for myself just because I love the batiks.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict fo Can I get A Whoop Whoop and TGIFF

Enjoy your weekend quilty friends :)

Rhianon.

Oranges and Lemons - a quilt in progress.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be asked to make a quilt for a lady.
  She wanted pale lemon, orange, white and no floral fabrics and lots of  quilted feathers!

After thinking about it for a while and searching around, I opted for this block. It's called Goose in the Pond,

It measures a whopping 221/2" so it was a perfect size to provide me with biggish areas to quilt.

I made 6 and arranged them in a 2x3 layout with some narrow sashing and cornerstones.
I finished with a wide border as I'm planning lots of swirly feathers there.

This is the quilting underway ....

I'm using a lightweight 4oz polyester wadding as I wanted quite a puffy effect.  I had originally basted the quilte with Hobbs Heirloom bleached white wadding.  It was lovely and soft but rather flat looking, so I decided to switch.

Here is a close up of the quilting. I am using one of those water soluble pens to mark the center circle in the squares and the spines in the triangles.

The sun is casting strange shadows in this photo - looks like it has dirty marks on it but it hasn't!



Two blocks done!



And this is as far as I've got so far.  I ran out of white thread, but am fully stocked again and ready to go.
Hoping to get the bulk of it finished this week.
Have a great week and I'll be back soon.
Rhianon.

Teddy Bear Baby Quilt - Part 1

Sometimes I will be inspired to make a quilt from just one fat quarter of fabric and this is what happened here.

 This is the FQ  and the teddy bear drawing I did for the appliqued center block.

I used Bondaweb to build up my design.....

... then machine appliqued the shapes in place.

I kept the border of the main fabric wide so as not to loose the pretty pattern.

Getting bigger......

I made these blocks for the next round but decided that it didn't look right and I didn't like them.
Onto plan B....

Plain border ?   Nah  didn't like that either.

Finally decided on a stripey border which I think looks nice.

Couldn't resist putting some feathersin the beige border.

To my disgust, after I finished the quilting, I realised  I had nothing suitable for making the binding, which I need to cut on the bias.
So at this point I will leave it here until part 2.   I need to get to the fabric shop pronto.
Hope you come back to see the finished quilt.
Enjoy your day
Rhianon.

Linking up with Connie's blog Quilting By the River.  Why not go and check out the work on display there ?

Kaylee's Owl Cushion

Over the weekend I found time to make this cushion for a little 3 year old girl who is fighting ( and winning !) cancer.   She is the great grandaughter of my friend Miriam who lives in America.

It all started with this fabric, which Miriam had sent me quite a while ago...

Cute eh?

I drew my version onto card and used this to work the applique from.

Then I added Kaylee's name, a few borders and it was tme to quilt.

I kept the quilting simple - a bit of stippling behind the owl and stitching in the ditch with invisible thread.

For the back I used this cute lime green owl fabric - I love purples and greens together.

A little ruffled edging finishes the cushion nicely and it is all ready to be posted.

Today I'm linking up with Connie's excellent blog, Quilting by the River for her linky party. 
Back to quilting the butterfly quilt for me today - nearly at the outer border!!!!
See you all again soon.
Rhianon.

More Quilting !

Hi everyone

I've spent the week quilting the butterfly quilt.

This is by far the largest quilt I have machine quilted.

I'm working pebbles in the turquoise border and a small stippling in the churn dash blocks.  In this photo they still have to be worked in the center.

So far I am up to the second turquoise border.

I don't know if i will be doing much on this today as I have a very sore back - must've pulled a muscle and didn't sleep much last night because of it.

I have started another project using up leftovers.  I will show it to you soon. In fact I might work on that today as it is much smaller.

Have a good weekend .

Rhianon.

PS today I'm linking up with Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Head over to her blog - she has a beautiful, colourful Jacobs Ladder quilt today.  enjoy.

Shimmering Seahorses Wall Hanging.

Hi there

I finished my seahorses wall hanging last night.
Here it is:

Unfortunately I didn't get it finished in time to take a photo before the sun went down.

For the seahorses I worked the machine embroidery with a layer of wadding underneath, then I cut away the excess before making a proper quilt sandwich.

I stupidly added the beads by hand before I machine quilted it.  This made it difficult to quilt close to the edge of the seahorses.  You live and learn!

I quilted simple stippling in on the background and pebbles on the inner dotty border.

In the HST section I quilted a swirly circles pattern to represent water.

I had fun using a variety of varigated and metallic threads.

The following photos were taken before it was finished but I like how they show up the quilting.

I had worked an outline around the seahorses and corals but didn't like it so I had some unpicking to do :(

I quite like how it turned out in the end.

Today I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and also TGIFF, which is hosted today by Dreaming in Patchwork.  It's been a while since I had a friday finish so it's nice to take part again.

I'm off to crawl about the floor now - basting a quilt.
Enjoy your day.
Rhianon.