Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2011

Amy at Amy's Creative Side is hosting the bloggers quilt festival - and being a very newbie quilt blogger I thought I'd get involved in my first one :) - its so inspiring to see all the fabulous quilts being created around the world!

This isn't a new quilt, but it IS a recent one (last month I think...) and it is my favorite I've made so far. I'm a big fan of making baby quilts and this one is no exception. My inspiration for this one was Alissa's great Spark's baby quilt tutorial (found here).

Fabric: Magenta Bird Tree by Saffron Craig

Size: 40 1/2" x 54"

I'm not usually a fan of pink, but I love the combination of pink, green and purple in this quilt. I am also a HUGE fan of Saffron Craig's fabrics and I thought they lent themselves perfectly to this style of quilt. I was a bit dubious about using black in a baby quilt, but I love the effect it has bordering the squares.

I quilted it along the black sashing in black thread, and then hand-stitched around each of the centre squares.

Thanks for checking out my small space in quilty-bloggy land!

happy stitching,
Jess

Funky-ing up my sewing space Part 1

For the last few weeks my partner has been working interstate, so I've been single-parenting my three kids. This has NOT been conducive to much sewing time, sadly - although I have managed to start a new quilt (using Lizzy House's 1001 Peeps which I LOVE!). And I've decided to funk up my sewing space a bit by making a new sewing machine mat, cover and pincushion (from a couple of patterns in Australian Homespun (Vol 11 #11, and Vol 12 #1).

I finished off the mat last night...

and it now has a new home under my machine!

The red birdy-circley fabric was part of a bundle I won on ebay a while ago - its quite heavy weight so it was perfect for this project (and I'd been trying to find the perfect use for it for a while!) It is designed by Australian fabric company Surface Art - it's called Mikko (cotton drill) and I just love love it. In fact I have a new fabric obsession - Moyra's work is just divine (and I couldn't resist ordering another piece of her cotton drill fabric!) The pieced part is bug spot and dandelion circles from Saffron Craig, along with tomato Kona, snow Kona and some grey homespun I picked up from Spotlight. Its a bit hard to see from the pics, but the part that hangs down in front of my machine is a series of pockets (that are about to be filled up with all my bits and pieces). I am hoping this means I won't lose my quick unpick, and embroidery scissors quite as often (well I can hope, can't I?)

Happy stitching!

Jess

Magenta Bird Tree Quilt

I am completely obsessed with Saffron Craig fabric. Especially the Bird Tree range in magenta and green. If you haven't discovered her, check out her online store here - it is totally worth it, I promise! Her fabrics are just beautiful!

I have made a few quilts using her fabrics (Beetle Bugs and indigo Bird Tree) - and I happily have a lot more of them left in my stash. I really wasn't sure how I was going to use the magenta bird tree fabrics though - until I came across this tutorial (thanks Alissa!!). So I based this quilt loosely on Alissa's Sparks baby quilt.

I made the inner blocks a bit bigger, and added an extra border of fabric around each block, but the general design is the same. Apart from the Bird Tree fabric, I used Kona solids (hyacinth, plum, cactus and black) and Amy Butler quilting solids in fuchsia. I have to admit I felt a bit weird using black in a baby quilt, but it works so well with the other colours!

 I quilted along the black sashing 1/4" away from each seam, but because the blocks are so big I needed to do some more.

It took me ages to decide what to do - I toyed with free motion quilting the solid areas in each block (leaving the centre square un-quilted), but decided to hand-quilt around each centre square instead. I used DMC embroidery thread (from my past life as a cross-stitch fanatic :) )

 I really, really love this quilt - definitely my favorite I have made!

Beetle Bugs Quilt Finished!!

So this quilt has taken me a bit longer than I thought - not because it was tricky, but because I got distracted by a couple of other quilt projects. I tend to procrastinate when it comes to hand stitching binding for some reason...

Anyhoo, this is my finished Beetle Bugs quilt, using fabric from the Beetle Bugs range from Saffron Craig.

I LOVE this fabric range - the colours are superb, and I think it works really well with the dark grey, crimson and orange borders. I machine quilted it in the ditch using some fab black/red variegated thread - although in retrospect it would have looked better had I quilted away from the seam lines... but still, it looks pretty good.

I am actually writing this up for my first pattern (gasp!!) and would LOVE some pattern testers if anyone is interested? I have plans to make a girly one using the fields range from Saffron Craig as well (once I finish the other 2 quilts I have on the go!!!)

Baby Blanket Giveaway!!

Spring has sprung! To celebrate the return of the sun, and to promote my facebook page for The Elven Garden, I am having a give-away being drawn next Saturday at 9pm EST. Up for grabs is this super sweet patchwork baby blanket:

The blanket measures 66cm x 77cm and features fabric from Saffron Craig's Fields range. It is backed with super-soft white flannel, so its the perfect light-weight blanket for spring/summer and its the perfect size for a pram (or just for tummy time on the floor). These will be selling for $45 in my madeit shop.

To be in the running to win, simply 'like' my Facebook page. For extra entries, suggest me to your friends, and get them to write on my wall who sent them :)

My Bird Tree Quilt

I get excited about fabric a lot, but especially so when it comes to fabric designed by Saffron Craig - they are just so inspiring and gorgeous!

I have finally finished my bird tree quilt, made using fabrics from the amazing Saffron Craig's Bird Tree range. I started this one ages ago (I only had a few small pieces of her fabric and bordered the squares with yellow - which I just didn't like). I got hold of some more of her fabric and designed the quilt to use more colours for the borders and am so happy with the result.

This one is up for sale in my made it store (link here) - and I am working on a cushion to go with it which will be listed in the next day or two.