Tortoise Cushion

I have another finish to show you today - the second custom ordered cushion.

                                                     This time I went with a tortoise theme.

After I'd found this cute nursery Noah's Ark fabric, I decided to recreate the tortoise -this is my drawing.

I used my favourite method of applique - bondaweb followed by machine stitching.......

.........added the lettering and a couple of borders and it was ready to quilt.

After quilting, I thought the center block looked a little bare so I added some flowers.

The flowers were ready made, crocheted in cotton and I embroidered the stems with stranded cottons.

Here it is with the ruffle sewn down and just awaiting it's soft fleece backing.

Finished!

Hope you have all had a great weekend celebrating International Quilting Day.

Be back soon with more quilty stuff!

Rhianon.

Quilted Bags

I had a bit of a bag making frenzy last week, thanks to Jenny Doan from the Missourri Star Quilt Co.
I watched Jenny's video and thought it would be great to make one for my Mum for Mother's day.

I've used all batiks for my bags - the blue ones were a Tonga Treats (Coastal) charm pack from The Fat Quarter Shop in the US and the reds were a charm pack I was gifted from Crafts and Quilts here in the UK.

This bag used 12 charms and the bigger one used 24.

I used a spare piece of the handles to make a tab for closing it.  A simple press stud fastener cover by a Suffolk puff just finishes it off nicely I think.

Couldn't resist working some feathers....

These bags have got to be the easiest pattern I've ever done.  If you'd like to make one, you can find Jenny's tutorial here.

I tried my hand at some snow dying this week, it was fun and I'll show you the results in my next post.

Til then

Happy Stitchin'

Rhianon.

Cupcake Cushion

Hello there.
This week I've been working on a pair of commissioned cushions. They are for 2 little girls and I hope they are gonna love them.

The lady who asked me to make them had seen my owl cushion but said I could do something different if I wanted.  Ok then, thinking cap on!

I found this cute cupcake fabric and decided to use that.  I drew the design from the fabric.

Then used Bondaweb to do the applique.

The lettering was put down the same way and it was then ready for quilting.

                                                          Center section completed.

                                                  Big stippling for the outer borders.

                                                             Close up of lettering.

The second cushion is almost complete and I have been working on another couple of small items.

This is the back of one of them...... I'll show you what it is next time and the other cushion.
Enjoy your weekend everyone.
Rhianon.

Pineapple Blossom Quilt

Woo Hoo, I have a finish this week.  A pinapple blossom quilt, made for my daughter Ursula.

I started this 2 years ago and finished the top quickly but then it was put away in a cupboard and forgotten about. I only decided to finish it when Ursula had her room decorated and as luck would have it, this matched perfectly.

This is the original block and I used a jelly roll mixed with the black dotty fabric to make my blocks.

Here, I had fun playing with layouts.......

.......and then again with the borders

........These border blocks were the cut off bits  from the main blocks and would have made a cute little baby quilt but I decided to use them for the borders.

Quilting was pretty straightforward - I did a large meandering stipple in the coloured parts and Ursula insisted she wanted feathers somewhere.  I did tell her they wouldn't show up much but she still wanted them regardless.

The feathers are in the black and outer border sections.  you can hardly see them, and I did use a contrasting thread but they are nice and subtle.

Of course you can see the quilting much better on the back

                                                                     Corner section

One of the best things about using a jelly roll is that you have ready made binding - brilliant!

So that's another UFO finished.  I have another jelly roll quilt top to quilt for my oldest daughter.  That's next on the list.
If you would like to make a pineapple blossom quilt, you can find the instructions here.  It's a Bonnie Hunter pattern. 

I did also finsih an ipad cover but I cannot remember where in the computer I put the photos - Doh!
Hopefully by next post I will have found them.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend .