I find myself in a Grandchild free zone so thankfully my sewing, being allowed out for a walk, and being fortunate enough to have a garden all makes it easier to cope. Face Time is a big help too.
So March saw the joint birthday of two grandchilren, brother and sister, just 7years apart! For Ava's first birthday I made rather an elaborate fabric book with each month depicting a significant development in her first year.
Before her brother Murray came along, we were blessed with another Grand daughter Macie and she turned one last November. For her birthday I made her a Patchwork Pup.
Murray's birthday book was quickly conceived and executed with the help of my new embroidery machine. It was great fun to make. I was able to use little scraps of faux suede for some animal faces that I found squirreled away, which proves that things do come in handy.
Although I won't see them at Easter, I still felt the need to make little bunny bags for the kids after seeing Judith's great free tutorial. Again I made use of my embroidery machine and managed to source a pattern for a bunny face. Whilst doing that I also found a bunny's bottom, not something I say every day. I constructed the bags from fine calico with a solid yellow lining and then picked out bunny details and ears using a patterned fabric in pink or blue. Ignore silly arrow, it's that iPhone motion thingy.
It would be a long time before I attempted any sort of construction and by then I had changed my mind about inserting the rather brightly coloured (my choice) 16" blocks. I still have them and will put them to good use but for this quilt I wanted a lot more LV to tone in with the triangles I had received. So I set to and made 6 x 16" blocks with some precious scraps of my focus fabric (??) for the block centres.When construction had taken place I then hit on the idea of a little applique dresdens to break up the LV and add a bit of balance.
With enforced stay at home time on my hands I put on my biggest girl's pants and attempted to quilt, having layered up at my last monthly Social Saturday sewing group.
I started in the centre and did concentric circles went so far until it became obvious the shape would dictate the rest of the quilting.
In a mad moment I opted to free machine the big square blocks, treating each patch with a different pattern and referring back at times to a cushion I had made in a previous life, at a Sheena Norquay workshop.
I think I became a little obsessed, it isn't perfect, but I like the texture and it won't be looked at by any quilting judges.
and the front -
I did wonder about trying to square it off but thought I'd just embrace it's shape and (I found it too hard) Binding the weird angles was interesting too. It measures 60" across from any straight edge to another.
Thank you to my Bee Mates for their contribution, I am so glad to call this a finish.
Whilst finishing I couldn't helpt starting to play with scraps, just to keep busy (wink) I began sort of improv log cabin using creams and beiges on one side and darker beiges through orange to pink on the other. No real measuring but a lot of trimming later I have 16 little 6" blocks and I think I am going to use those blocks as the centre of a quilt sort of medallion style. Before the final trip I added a bit of wonk and I quite like it so far.
As always I am linking to Mini Archie's Furtle thro the Blogosphere
Say home, stay safe, stay well. x
