Sunday 18 December 2011

Joseph's Quilt

A few months ago we went to the first birthday/baptism for our friends Mark and Michele's little boy Joseph. I rashly decided with less than a week before the party that this would be a really great excuse to make another quilt. With the time restriction in mind, I decided to use some of my favourite large scale prints (Castle Peeps, by Lizzy House) and simply sashing some 8" squares together.


joseph finished


I had a go at diagonal grid quilting, using masking tape to mark my quilt lines as I went. (The other conventional technique is to use a fabric pen/marker with disappearing ink, but I haven't added one of those to my arsenal, yet.)


joseph finished detail


As usual (three out of three, hah!), I pieced the back as well. For some reason this gives me a 50s bowling shirt vibe, which was completely unintentional, but I dig it.


joseph finished back


I've only met Joseph a couple of times, but he is a pretty laid back baby (the word "lazy" has been bandied about by his mum and dad, hehe), so I'm hoping the calm blue, black and white palette is going to be a good match to his personality. :)

Sunday 11 December 2011

Play Date with Olivia

Yesterday we had Matt, Ying & Olivia over for baby cuddles and movies, etc. I opportunistically asked them to bring the quilt along so I could add the label. I made a bunny rabbit applique in baby pink; I think it turned out ok, and I like that it's something a bit different.


olivia label


Olivia is nearly three months old already, and I think she may have doubled in size since the last time I saw her. I took a snap of her on the quilt, because action shots are the best. Incidentally I made the bib (with some of my favourite Heather Ross fabrics), and the skully onesie, too. I'm thinking since it's black on white, and the skulls are kinda cutesy and piratical, it won't be too out there for all those people who think babies shouldn't wear dark colours.


olivia on quilt


Matt and Ying told me that Olivia is already getting fussy about who can and can't hold her, so I was really pleased that she was happy to be cuddled by/sleep on/drool on/fart on her aunty Kim. :P

Tuesday 6 December 2011

Olivia's Quilt

Having had reasonable success with my first quilting endeavor, I decided to make a quilt for my friends Matt & Ying, who were also expecting their first baby. Unfortunately I wasn't going to get away with another black & skully baby quilt (dad would have approved, mum not-so-much), so I decided to go with a red, pink & aqua colour theme. I also wanted to include some fabric with bunnies on them, as Olivia was born in the year of the rabbit.


The quilt top was constructed using a Disappearing Nine Patch block.


olivia finished


I pieced the quilt back with some strips, giving me the opportunity to use a fairly gratuitous amount of that bunny print from Spoonflower. :3


olivia finished back


G (an-object-that-tells.tumblr.com) kindly took some beautiful sun-dappled detail shots of this quilt.


pastel2


pastelquilt


This is a great shot of Girl in a Tree Swing (I can't tell if this is the Vanilla Ice Cream or Pink Lemonade colourway... XD), my favourite print from the Sherbet Pips collection.


pasteldetail


Oh yes, these prints are so ridiculously sweet. Never fear, I balanced it out with a nice frosty glass of Paulaner during its construction, hehe...


olivia paulaner


I gifted the quilt at the baby shower before Olivia was born, so I still need to add a label to the quilt with her full name and birthday. Any clever ideas?


Cheers,
Kim

Sunday 4 December 2011

Juliet's Quilt

My first quilting project was for baby Juliet, beautiful first born child of my friends James and Sarah. The proud parents are also metalheads, so I was under strict instructions to avoid pastels. In fact, the more black, the better. It was great to make a baby quilt in a palette that I was already comfortable with, and using some of my favourite skully fabrics.


The quilt top is pretty basic piecing, as I thought it best to start simple. Gotta start somewhere, right? It's been through the washing machine already, giving it that cuddly crinkly look.

juliet finished


The quilt back is also pieced, and I made the label with some ribbon, which I have hand stitched on in a marquee shape (ooer, rah-ther fancy).


juliet finished back


So those were my photos. They give you a good overview of the quilt, but I'm extremely useless at any kind of photography. Instead, I left that up to my incredibly talented friend, G (an-object-that-tells.tumblr.com).


skulldetail


flowers


Mmm I would trade my whole stash for a thimbleful of her talent... (Incidentally, I absolutely adore this poppy print.)


skullquilt


nametag


IMO, the quilt is a great match to baby Juliet and her parents. I've since seen some great photos of her in her black tie-dye jumpsuit using the quilt as play matt. And that was definitely the most gratifying part of the whole process. :)


Update: James kindly permitted me to share said action shot:


juliet on quilt


Well, I did make a promise to limit the amount of this boring text stuff in my blog, so I might leave it at that.


Cheers,
Kim

Inauguration

I've been a crafter pretty much all of my life, and this year saw my induction into the dark art of quilting. When constructing my very first quilt, I decided I wanted to document that quilt and future creations, both as a means to share my crafts with others who may be interested, and perhaps as some form of catharsis (quilting is a fairly time consuming business, though as with any hobby definitely considered a labour of love).

So uhmm, this is my blog. I hope some people read it; I promise not to be too verbose.

Cheers,
Kim