Daisies in the Woods

I finally finished Amélie's quilt. I have decided to call it Daisies in the Woods, as the fabric range is Aneela Hoey's A Walk in the Woods, and because of the daisy quilting pattern I used.



The daisy quilting pattern was my own design. I found heaps of inspiration via Pinterest and I sketched and drew and played around until I worked out something I could draw without lifting the pencil. My original sketches were worked into a grid to get good repetition, but I ended up deciding to go a bit more random with differently sized daisies and leaves and tendrils filling the gaps.



I chose to quilt with pink thread, to match the backing. This might be my "thing". So far, all my quilting thread has been chosen to match the backing. The very first quilt I made, I was going to use black backing and switched to yellow when I realised how terrible the yellow quilting would look on the back. Since then I have always chosen the quilting to match the backing. I almost did it differently this time and had four or five spools wound with Gütermann 111, but then I changed my mind. I am glad I did, I love the pink quilting. I know you can do a different colour on top than the bottom (I do this all the time with normal sewing), but I feel with quilting, there is a greater risk than usual that the tension is a little unbalanced and I don't think that is a good look.



The quilt piecing was also my own design. I pinned heaps of pinwheel quilts on my pinterest board and eventually used Inkscape to work out my design. I used Thangles to make the half-square triangles and would definitely consider this again if I was making another quilt using half-square triangles from a jelly roll.



I have lots of jelly roll left over. Ideally, it would have had more red strips. There were only six strips of red out of the 40 strips that make up the jelly roll. Two of the red on red spots, two with the white dotty circles and two with pink matchstick stripes. I needed four strips to go around the quilt, so I ended up mixing the dots and the circles to make a pieced binding. I really like the dotty circles, they remind me of snowflakes and dandelions. There are little details in the fabric that I never really noticed until I was making this quilt. In the fabrics with the bows on them, there are little pairs of white dots that also remind me of snow.



I would like to make a matching pillowcase for this quilt and I do still need to do a label, but the quilt is otherwise finished. All the fabric used in this quilt was in my stash, so nothing was added. I actually purchased the fabric last year from Want It, Need It, Quilt. I also grabbed a layer cake, so I really should do something with that at some stage. I am hoping that the layer cake is a better cut for this fabric. I would avoid such a sparse print on a jelly roll next time around. Something to keep in mind.

SYST: I used about 12 fat quarters of fabric for this project.
Running totals, in = 103, out = 34, total = +69

Apples for Grandma

This is the fabulous doll quilt I received from Nic in the EB Doll Quilt Swap. Nic obviously knows what I like and this will be going up in Amélie's room.



Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favourite nursery book characters, and Amélie already has a few Red Riding Hood themed items in her room.



Amélie is also a fan of apples, both to eat and to look at. This mini quilt has a delicious looking basket of apples and also matching apples on the tree.



I love the bow under her chin, and that sweet little round face.



I love the beautiful little bird on her apron, and her stripey tights!



Aren't I lucky?!

You can see the quilt I sent here.

And some of the other quilts, here, here, here, here, here, here and here

On My Way to Grandma's House - part two

I'm not the greatest of hand-embroiderers, but I think I managed to pull this off. I would love it if anybody had some tips, especially with what you are actually supposed to do with all those ends at the back? If you look closely at my photo, you can see them from the front, although it is nowhere near as bad when it is hanging on the wall.



I have a great tip for you, though. I had some trouble, initially, with my transfer pencil. It just was not working. Do you want to know what the problem was? Don't use steam. The pencil comes out with water, so when I was steaming it, the design wasn't going onto my fabric. Or perhaps it was, and I was just steaming it right back out again. There you go. That is helpful information to have :) I wish I knew that before I started. So use a dry iron.



I used Aneela Hoey's embroidery pattern, which you can buy through links on her blog, or from the Fat Quarter Shop as a digital download. Aneela also has a great tutorial about how to fill using back stitch.



I used this tutorial to finish the back of the finished piece. I didn't take any photos, but lets just say that it doesn't quite look as good as the one in the tutorial. I think the important thing is that it looks good from the front, right?

On My Way to Grandma's House

I was lucky enough to be a pattern tester for Jodie Carleton of Ric-Rac. She thinks I was doing her a favour, haha! Anyway, it was great fun, and I think Little Red may well be Jodie's best pattern ever. I have always had a soft spot for Little Red Riding Hood, as can be seen here, here and here, so I was practically jumping out of my skin when she chose me to test this pattern.



Jodie's pattern even teaches you how to make the cute little basket of goodies. My basket isn't lined like it is in the pattern (part of the testing process) but it does show that if you find the lining a little too tricky, you can skip that bit and it will still be gorgeous. The fruit hides all the raw edges inside the basket, anyway. I think I might go back and re-do the basket, with the lining though, as I do think the lining looks lovely.





The boots are AWESOME! I must admit, threading the laces back and forth was a little fiddly, but oh, so worth it!



The dress is also pretty fancy. It's fully lined, and those little toad-stools along the bottom are pretty cute. I am proud to say that I have mastered the French knot whilst embellishing those cute little toadstools. I also love her hair and her cape. Ok, so I love ALL of her, and she has received lots of hugs and sloppy kisses already, in this house, as the kids all love her too.



Jodie has only just released her pattern, and it is already in stock at Under the Mulberry Tree.

*** Update: You can now also by Little Red as a downloadable PDF from Craftsy