Sam's Quilt

Happy first birthday Sam! The birthday boy has received his birthday quilt which means I can share the finished article with you all. It's a good job he's into colour as this quilt has turned out a bit on the bright side! Primary colours, what was I thinking?! Oh who am I trying to kid - I love garish. Fortunately, it's a hit with a one year old - his Mum says that he enjoys pointing at the patterns. How cute is that?

I decided to go for the star block design by Cluck Cluck Sew. I've made this design once before for my Stars and Scraps Quilt, but I thought the stars would work well with the sputnik fabric (continuing the spacey theme, see what I did there). If you want to know more about the fabrics used for the quilt top, see my last post. It's the back of the quilt that I'm uber-excited about though - it's quite possibly the cutest quilt back ever.



I know, just how good is that? I could swoon over that fabric all day. It's Riley Blake Designs DC2836, Peak Hour by Kellie Wulfsohn for Don't Look Now. I bought it at The Viking Loom in York if you're in the area and desperate to get your hands on some! I had planned to go for something quite plain as the backing but as soon as I saw this I knew it would be perfect. I really like how it features a small amount of each of the colours from the quilt top, so ties in perfectly.

The binding was actually some leftover from my Emma's Christmas Stocking. It was just the perfect shade of green and has little stars all over. The quilting was simply stitched in the ditch and I also quilted some diagonals to add a bit more interest.

I'm so happy with this quilt. If you're visiting over from Crazy Mom Quilts, finish it up Friday please comment below, I'd love to hear what you think.

Stars and Scraps Quilt Going To Japan!

I have finished my Stars and Scraps Quilt! It is now winging it's way to Japan, I hope my friend Matsuo san likes it. Actually, in other exciting news, do you remember me saying that I would love to meet her again (after 8 years)? Well, I have only persuaded the lovely Tim to go with me next year! Yippee! We have timed our holiday to coincide with cherry blossom season. Too exciting.

Anyhow, back to the quilt, I love the overall effect. The star block is very simple but effective. Here it is looking lovely in Mum and Dad's garden. My legs on this photo make me chuckle.

Yes it is me holding the quilt!

Here it is momentarily in my home. It was quite tempting to keep the quilt I can tell you!

 

Just before I go, here's a quick look at the lovely spotty backing fabric and pink floral binding...

 

 

Love it! I can't wait to crack on with the next one now.

Stars And Scraps Quilt Top

I have finished making all the blocks for the Stars and Scraps Quilt. I was forced to keep it at this size as I ran out of the flowery fabric which I was using in each star block and couldn't get hold of any more. It is a large lap blanket size, so good for snuggling on the sofa. Here is the quilt top laid out in my design space (the lounge floor!), planning the final layout before I sewed it together.

Here it is all sewn together and ready for the lovely spotty backing fabric I bought.

 

 

I'm afraid I did make a slight error when sewing these blocks together. I'd forgotten to reduce the stitch length after doing the quilting on my Stripey Quilt. This meant that the blocks were splitting quite badly at the seams. Not good. You can see this most clearly in the white block on the top right. I ended up re-sewing some of the seams to secure them properly. Oh well, it's all a learning curve!

 

 

Actually, do you remember me talking about my friend in Japan, Matsuo San? Well I have decided that this quilt will be a gift for her. I hope she likes it!

Stars and Scraps quilt

I am feeling so inspired with the quilting. I just love my Stripey Quilt and I really want more around the house. Luckily, I've got loads of fabric left over as I'd seriously over estimated how much I'd need. Anyway Cluck Cluck Sew (I LOVE her blog - so gorgeous) has come to my rescue again with her beautiful Star Blocks tutorial. I've already made a good start and the blocks come together really quickly. The ironing is a bit of a pain though!

I've set myself a design rule to tie it all together. Each star block will have one random bright portion, one of the flowery fabric (Buddy Bears by Fabri-Quilt) and a white. The bright colours and the flowery fabric are just what I have in my leftovers. Yay!