Flying Geese

I'd been wanting to make a flying geese quilt for a while after having seen one of Rita's (I think she's made a few!), and then Jeni's pink monochrome mini quilt gave me the idea to make it black and white.

For the back I tried my hand at paper piecing and made a large circle of flying geese for the centre. Typically these blocks measure about 12.5" square when complete, I enlarged the template to finish with a 16.5" square.

I quilted some diagonal lines inspired by this flying geese quilt I stumbled across, and added the old infallible black and white striped binding.

It's become a favourite and now lives on our couch. I'm actually snuggled under it right now... :3

Offbeat Baby Knits

I have another quilt or two currently in progress, and until they're done I thought I would post some knits I did a few years ago. I made them for my friends Tiff & Nick's first baby Samara, who is now of course a toddler. (Shame I wasn't quilting back then -- a missed opportunity for another offbeat baby quilt!)

I'm not sure if they ever got worn, although I totally appreciate how babies often outgrow "special" garments before they ever get an occasion to wear them. Regardless, I derived great joy in the making, and maybe now they will make suitable teddy/doll clothing. :)

I also made a little cow print set of a bib, booties, and nappy cover. I definitely saw Samara getting some wear out of this cow print bib -- Tiff's advice to me was that you can't have too many bibs. :)

Hmm seeing these old pics gives me the itch to pick up the knitting needles again. Maybe once my quilting bug subsides...

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 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.

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

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.

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).

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).

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

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:

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