Category Archives: Quilting

Miniature Baltimore Quilt

As I have been quilting during the day i have needed to have some armchair fodder to do in the evening. As I have an ever lasting list of samples to work with deadlines for them to be completed it made perfect sense to me that the evenings need to be used for this. So I have been hand stitching my small blocks for the Miniature Baltimore hanging planned to be taught end of May.

These little blocks are 4″ x 4″ and are worked using simple hand stitched embroidery, seed beads and yes sparkly flower sequins which i absolutely love working with and if i could get away with it would stitch them to everything.

Later this week they will be sewn together and have a final pain border added around them before i finally embroider and sequin a swag design round the border. I might even bead the edge of the quilt just because i won’t be able to resist. We will see.

Train Quilt Days

Hi there

It’s been a while because I have been having a lovely time doing lots of things that I shouldn’t be doing. When I next complain that I am running behind schedule i will only have myself to blame.

Or i could blame it on my daughter Julia who had a weeks holiday over Easter where she got all crafty. I cant remember the last time we did anything creative together due probably to the fact that she has spent the last four years getting her teaching degree and there has been little and no time left for creativity but boy did we make up for it with four small quilts being made and lots of quality time spent together doing them.

One of the baby quilts went to Gemma, Julia’s friend when we hosted her baby shower last Sunday and was very well received. The only problem was my niece saw a picture on Facebook prompting a post to me asking where her one was that I had promised for Jamie who is now one year old and minus his quilt. So there was nothing for it but to get going on his quilt while I was still inspired.

It made such a pleasant change working with a different medium as I usually work only in Organza fabric.

I kept the main design very simple so that it was quick to make and also durable to wash over and over again but i just had to pick the train design from the fabric and make bigger interpretations of it to go round the central blocks. I used bondaweb to adhere the train and carriages with a fairly open satin stitch over the edges followed by free motion detailing in the form of writing Jamie’s name on the engine and adding pattern to the carriages. Simple ditch machine quilting was done around the blocks with free motion quilting giving texture to the train border. Finally a narrow edging was added and hand stitched over to the reverse to finish the edges.

Oh its for me

It’s not a technical quilt and it wouldn’t win any prizes but it is practical and hopefully will with stand my nieces washing regime.

Mermaid Doll No 2 and Quilting with my Daughter

Today I finished another mermaid doll and I think I like her better than the blue/green one. I certainly enjoyed drilling and colouring the small cockle shells and then sewing them on to her body and tail to add texture and a 3D feel.

Yes I hear you say mermaids are not pink. But having never seen one and pretty unlikely that i ever will has allowed me artistic licence to create her.

She was a devil to turn through and stuff but patience being something at long last I have learnt enabled success in the end. I love goats as they produce this wonderful curly fleece which when dyed makes fantastic curly hair for any doll. Add a few beads and sequins to control the hair style and it makes wonderful idiot proof hair for many dolls not just this mermaid.

Julia has been very busy again today and has managed to make and finish another cot quilt for a colleague leaving in the next month or two and she is ready for Christmas having made up and finished her class room advent hanging. Shes so organised. I’m just getting over the last one let alone looking forward to the next.

Sewing over for today as off to the pics with Adam and his friend.

A Patchwork Quilt for Gemma’s Baby Shower

I’m not sure I can sew a straight line mum

Oh it all comes flooding back to you once you relax into it

Wow! Look what i have made for my best mate Gemma’s baby

Today was a really weird day. It all started off with us over sleeping and Julia nearly missing her doctors appointment and it got more weird as the day went on. It is very u unusual for Julia and I to find time to be creative together but today we worked along side each other so well that within 3 hours we had made a floor quilt, a toy bag and a play cushion, all from a nursery rhyme panel that i had brought from Patchwork Corner many months ago and never managed to find time to make up. Julia did all the sewing together and I was quality control, making sure all the pieces went together and checking and cutting to size. When it was complete Julia went off to Matalan to buy some yellow and cream baby grows, booties and mitts to go with the quilt colours while i machine quilted it and finished the edges. We sent my mum off to Tudor rose patchwork shop to get a pillow pad and cord to use as a drawstring to the bag and by 6pm we were finished with everything complete and ready to pack in clear cellophane and yellow ribbons. I had a lovely time quilt making with my daughter. It was a special time that doesn’t happen very often.