Second Quilt for the Dandelion Challenge : St Bats Retreat May 2014

I have now finished both my baby quilts for the St Bats Retreat Challenge. The second one focuses on a bunch of Kaffe Fassett blues. I love his clear bright pastels and I think these go especially well with white. I backed the quilt with a new cot sheet I got from somewhere. I used a pattern I have been wanting to try for some time so it's not original to me.

Xmas Handbag made in America

Similar to the handbag I made in the previous post, this one was made of leftover strips from a quilt one of my friends was making. The colours are more muted to suit the taste of the recipient.

Handbag and Crocheted Shawl

In the meantime, as well as trying to finish my two challenge quilts for the retreat, I have been making gifts for a few friends. The red and black handbag below is about the simplest handbag anyone could make. I call it a stitch and flip handbag. I started sewing by stretching the wide red strip across each corner  and pinning it down. From there, it's just stitch and flip on the wadding. No gussets, it's just sewn across the corners on the inside at the bottom to give it a bit of shape. There are no special catches, just a pretty button and a bit of cord. Inside are a couple of pockets for phone and keys. A couple of different sized Suffolk puffs provide the decorations. I'll post a similar one I made at Xmas in Georgia. They look very different but are basically the same style.

It's always nice to have busy fingers when you are watching TV. This triangular shawl is a very simple one, just trebles with a pretty picot edge. It will keep my friend's shoulders warm when she is in hospital.

St Bats Retreat May 2014 coming up!

 Here is a little bit of the quilt detail . You can see how an "eye spy" quilt could be as much fun as a book for early learning.

Each year I go on a quilting retreat, usually in the Blue Mountains somewhere. It's my job to organise a challenge for that retreat. I set the parameters, make up the rules and remind people to get going every three months.
 For 2014 we are all making children's quilts. These quilts will be donated to a local Sydney charity which helps families in crisis. The quilts will be displayed at the retreat and prizes awarded to the best. St Ives quilters have generously organised people and businesses to donate prizes. It's always fun marvelling at the beautiful creative sewing that retreat members do.
 I'm doing two quilts. One  is a traditional scrap quilt (above). I used a lot of leftover scraps of novelty and children's fabrics to make this "eye spy" quilt for children to have fun with. I have made the quilt top for a second one and now have to quilt and bind it. Hope I finish it in time!

Easter Gifts

I don't usually give my grandchildren eggs and lollies for Easter because they get heaps from their parents and others. This year I sewed something for the two older boys. Felix needed a new library bag. I made him a monster one in  when he was in Kinder and he's still using it. When I asked him what he wanted on it he said he wanted a guitar. Very cool indeed. Fortunately I also had some black fabric with musical notes on it. I know he'll love this.

Theo gets a book cushion. It's made of white linen.The front has his initial on it and the back has a black pocket to fit his current book in. The fastening of the cushion cover has four buttons and the handle has two buttonholes which simply attach to the buttons on the back opening. I made this ingenious invention after I had forgotten to put the handle on Felix's book cushion. It works a treat and I like it better than attaching it to the seam. Happy Easter everyone!

Cushion Covers

I had seven blocks left over from the beach quilt (see last month's post) so I made an extra block, sewed them together  and added a few borders. Two cushion covers emerged. I had fun figuring out the colours within the limitations of "leftovers". I like a challenge which defines limitations.

Jane's Quilt is called: MAROUBRA

Hello, I've just finished a big quilt. It's a housewarming present for a friend who moved to Maroubra. She wanted something that reflected this beachy suburb. She liked a quilt I had pinned on Pinterest which had half square triangle blocks. There was no pattern so I collected a bunch of beachy looking fabrics and made lots of blocks. Ruling up halfsquare triangle blocks is pretty tedious unless you have company so I took it along to my craft group and we ate cake and drank coffee and chattered while I ruled up 150 blocks. The time passed quickly believe me!

Here is a photo of the whole quilt (above). I like the touches of sunny yellow.

In the photo above you can see the backing fabric I used, the label and some of the quilting. Lyn Hudson in Portland did the quilting in a continuous wave pattern - very appropriate. The wave pattern added curves to an otherwise angular quilt.

I used a leftover block fro the label and leftover binding to edge the label.

Above is a close-up of the half square triangle block and the wave continuous quilting.

Here's a picture of the random strip binding I love to do. I cut random-length strips 2 and a quarter inches wide, string 'em together, iron them in half and my binding is made. I use the left over scraps of fabric to do this so of course they fit in beautifully.