Birdy Quilt.

We had a poor bare area of wall in our hall which I felt desperately needed a nice cosy quilt to keep it warm.

I fell in love with Valori Wells range of fabrics called "Nest" and decided to use the birds panel as a central design surrounded by borders. I free motion quilted it. There's a section of spiral quilting just above the middle bird which I don't like but can't face pulling it out.

There's a strange rumour going round that we may get some sun on Monday. We may all melt!

Maria. 

Linking up with,

Brit Quilt post 2. (mini star quilt)

I've made a few more star blocks for the Brit quilt swap.

I've really enjoyed making them. The biggest block is 8 inches and the smallest 3.5 inches. The idea for this mini is to have quite a lot of empty space i.e. the Kona ash and as the maximum size for the quilt is 24x24 inches I won't need to make too many stars.

I posted a progress photo on the group's flick page and asked for opinions as to whether to make any more blocks. I received some lovely comments and quite a few people suggested making a few more tiny ones. I've now made a teeny tiny star which measures just under two inches with an overall block size of 3.75 inches. They're actually fairly easy to make using the wonky star method. I'll do a few more teeny ones and another ones about the size of the star in the bottom left of the photo.

I wonder if the quilt being made for me has been shown on the site yet. There's some lovely ones being posted.

Bye for now, Maria

I'm linking this post to Fabric Tuesday on the Quilt Story blog.

Brit Quilt Swap - post one.

I haven't participated in a swap for a while but couldn't resist joining round 3 of the Brit Quilt Swap on flickr.  In the last round the group swapped cushion covers but this time we are making a mini quilt for our partners.
I was pleased to receive my partner details as she has similar tastes to me. It's a secret swap so we don't know who is making for us.

The inspiration for my quilt is the Constellation quilt by Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey. The pattern is published in the FatQuarterly E-Zine, I'm not following the pattern exactly but using the style as inspiration.

My first block is a 6 inch Constellation Star block using scraps from my stash fabrics in colours I think my partner would like. The background in Kona Ash.

The fabric in the background is Echino Story, it's a linen, cotton mix. I plan to make more stars in different star patterns up to a maximum of 9 inches. I may even try one smaller than 6 inches. 

I posted a picture on the flickr group and was thrilled at the lovely comments, however one member raised the question of whether the fabrics in the star go with the Echino. I've had a think and I'm going to go with using all the fabrics as although the blues aren't in the Echino I think they all blend in OK.

Any thoughts dear readers??

Bye for now, Maria.

Siblings Together

I read on Lynne's blog, Lily's Quilts, about a wonderful charity called Siblings Together. The charity runs camps for siblings who have been seperated by the care system where they can spend valuable time with their brothers and sisters. Lynne put out a call for quilts which could be given to the children at the camp as a personal momento to remind them of the wonderful time spent with their siblings. Lynne has written an excellent post here about the quilts etc. and Delma who runs the charity gives a very moving account of the charity and the camps.

I was concerned that there may be a lack of quilts for older boys (the age range is 7-17) and I had limited fabrics to make a whole quilt so I decided to volunteer to make a quilt from donated blocks.
 This is part of the discussion that I posted on the flickr group which explains my reasoning for wanting to make a quilt for a young man.

"Hi, I'm Maria and i would like to make a quilt for a teenage boy. It probably won't be long before some of these boys reach the age when they leave the care system and have to make their own way in the world. I am guessing that many probably don't have much in the way of personal possesions to take with them to their new home which, ( I'm guessing again) may be a bedsit or a room in a hostel. Perhaps his own personal quilt may give some comfort to a young man in his new home."

I thought simple 9 patch blocks would be quick and easy for the volunteers to make. A wonderful bunch of quilters from England, Canada, Holland and Isreal sent fabulous blocks and the lovely Charlotte volunteered to provide the backing and binding and quilt and bind the quilt. Katy of I'm a Ginger Monkey fame donated some fabric which I made into blocks. In the end we had enough blocks to make two quilts in two colourways. I put the quilt tops together and Charlotte quilted the blue one and I quilted the brown one. Here are the completed quilts.

I haven't got a picture of the blue quilt quilted but there is one on flickr here...............................I pressed publish and then remembered that I made another quilt! This one is certainly not for an older boy!

Bye for now, Maria.