Bella Garden

 Dawn has been very busy making this beautiful quilt by McKenna Ryan called

Bella Garden. The amount of patience and time this quilt must take is mind blowing.

I was very nervous quilting this quilt, because I knew how precious this quilt is. I started out with a plan for the centre piece and then as I was quilting it each section came to me.

 Bella Garden

For the background fill for this centre piece I did small C shapes and

just repeated throughout. I ditched all around the outlines of the flowers......

yes it took me a long time.

How cute is Mr Frog, I just love him. I just did a water background behind the lillies

and fronds.

 Feahters!! who doesn't love feathers. We had to squeeze them in 

somewhere, I love the movement they give to a quilt.

There was a lot of in the ditch on this quilt, but it was so worth it.

it just adds to the finish.

Pop on over to Dawns Blog http://sewmuchtoquilt.blogspot.com.au/

I'm sure she will be blogging about this and her journey with this quilt soon.

Have a great day

Mandy

Garden Tea Party

Here is a sweet quilt that I have machine quilted for

my good friend Dawn. Its called Garden Tea Party.

I quilted daisies in every two inch square and did

feathers and swirls in the borders which gave it

a whimsical look.

In the blue borders I quilted hearts and loops and stippled 

in the embroidered sections, so as to not take

away from Dawns beautiful stitching.

 

 

 I think this is such a pretty quilt that Dawn has made

for her Mums 80th Birthday.

"Happy Birthday Jean" I hope you have a 

fabulous birthday and enjoy your quilt.

Have a great week

Hopscotch Daze

  

Finally its finished.......yay!!!!

I first saw this quilt in Bloggers Quilt Festival 2012 by

Happier Than a Bird by Lindsey Gustafson 

I knew this would be perfect for my little granddaughter and I was excited to get going

on it........ what little girl can resist hopscotch ....... right!! So hubby and I sat down 

and nutted out the pattern and off I went. It has 

taken me about 15 months to complete but it is done now just in time

for GD's 5th Birthday.

 

 I have added flowers, butterflies, lady bugs and birds, her favorites and

traced her hand prints and appliqued them on.

I used blanket stitch on my machine for the applique and did a 

scrappy piano key border. This is a great quilt for using up your

scraps, I just grabbed all my bright colours and off I went.

I machined quilted this on my longarm, I stitched in the ditch around the hopscotch and 

numbers then did an all over free hand for the background. I got the idea from

Angela Walters Book "Free Motion Quilting" the design I used for the background

was called "Flower Power".

I am really happy with how this has turned out

I just love how bright and cheery this quilt is, I know that everytime

I look at this quilt it puts a smile on my face and hopefully hers as well.

 

 

Love this angle, you can see the great texture the quilt has.

 And the best photo of all 

was that as soon as she opened her present

she laid it out and started playing........heart melts.....love her to bits.....so gorgeous!!

Have a great Day!

Santa Sack

 I know I haven't posted for a while but I have been really

busy making lots of things, that I just can't show for

a little bit longer.

But today I finished my little Grandsons Santa Sack,

I just made this up as I went along and I think it turned out

great.

 

I used homespun for the sack and lined it with a

red and white stripe and made a bow to tie the

top with.

I appliqued rudolph on the front and taadah!!!

one Santa sack.

Here's the little munchkin sitting up, 8 months old

already, time goes by so fast.

Hope you're not stressing too much about Christmas!

Have fun.

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Spring 2013

I have been hanging out for Bloggers Quilt Festival, held by Amy from Amy's Creative Side,
I have been

counting down the days and now we are finally here yippee!!

I am entering a quilt
I made for my Grandson

called "A Boy Story" by Annie Downs.

It's a cot size quilt made with scraps from my stash.

It is appliqued with a blanket stitch on my

machine (because I am too impatient to do it by hand)

 

I mainly stuck to the three colours Blue, Green and 

Yellow, I did at one stage try red which would be nice

but my daughter is not a lover of red.

 

This would have to be my favorite block

It was a lot of work stopping and starting for the

train tracks but  by this stage it was coming together

and looking great, I have learnt over the years not to take short cuts ha ha!!

  

Another favorite of mine the Robot, most boys love

Robots and I'm sure my GS will be no different, I have

machine quilted the background quite heavily with swirls and pebbles

 on my longarm.

I think I worked out it took me about 14 hours of quilting,

for the whole quilt, no wonder my back was aching.

 

Ships Ahoy!!!

 Fly me to the moon Nana!!

 

With this block I was going to put two dogs on the hill 

as my daughter has two fur babies, but it

looked a little crowded, so I have put them on the

sheet set instead.

 

I wonder if there is a Princess in this Castle!!

 

I'm sure Dad will be taking him fishing at some stage

 

 I was a little concerned with having some areas densly

quilted and some not, and I figured this would show up when I

washed it, but all was fine, my main concern was the colours

running but thanks to Colour Catchers there was not a problem.

  

  

I did a whimsical feather meander in the outside border, I love quilting

feathers and knew I had to work them into this quilt somehow.

And....finally every little mans accessory matching

Sheets and Pillowcase with little Robots, the doggy ones

are on the machine now.

 I throughly enjoyed making this quilt and have now 

accepted that I am drawn to applique quilts even though thay take time
and rather than fight it I'm going with it.

Enjoy the festival

 

Monster Cushion

I couldn't resist making my little GS

a Monster Cushion,

 I so love how bright and colorful these cushions are.

 It's machine appliqued with a blanket stitch, then I machine quilted 

the lines in the  background.

 I made one of these for my GD and I have it

on good authourity (mum) that she uses

it most nights

 

I traced the Monsters from an old Homespun Magazine

from a pattern by Kelly Wulfsohn

Aren't they just adorable??

Happy Quilting!

A Boy Story

Well, it's only three weeks to go now till my little GS arives.

so

I decided to make Anni Downs "A Boy Story"

with a slight alteration.

I must admit when I was told he was a boy, I was a little miffed as

I have only had girls, but I have been told that boys are much more

cuddlier, so I will be looking forward to lots of those.

Luckily Kym wasn't too fussed about colours, so I had

free range with my colour choices.

This is my favorite block choo choo!!

I used lots of different blues, greens and yellows from my scrap pile, and I

am really happy with the way the colours have worked. I did quilt a little butterfly on the dogs

nose, but I think it got lost in the quilting.

 

 I did quilt some blocks quite heavily in the background

and some not, I know this can cause problems some times

but I'm crossing my fingers.

 This is the block I changed, it did have a space monster

on it, but what little boy doesn't like rockets!!

 It took 14 hours of machine quilting and Stitching in

the Ditch...................... I know I'm a little slow!!!

  

I used the blanket stitch on my machine for all the applique (as I don't have

the patience for hand stitching), luckily this makes the process

a lot quicker. otherwise I know it would never get done.

  

 What little boy doesn't like flying kites?

I finished off with a whimsical feathered border, I just had

to add feathers as I love quilting them.

Finally, every little man's accessory, matching Robot Sheets and Pillowcases

I really enjoyed making this little man his quilt and have many ideas

for more, just need to find the time!!

Happy Quilting!