Design wall Monday

I'm in Vanuatu this week for work - but I took these photos on my phone literally while I was walking out the door! I'd packed the camera, and it was at the bottom of my case...

Anyway, when I was at quilters a couple of weeks ago there was a black and white picture in a magazine that caught my eye. So I took a photo of it on my phone (I thought ripping out the picture from someone else's magazine wouldn't go down too well...). It's pretty straightforward, puss in the corner blocks with half-square triangles.

I decided to do it in the pink/purple/green combination that caught my eye when I was sewing random scraps a few weeks ago. So I've done most of the puss in the corner blocks and I will then do the half square triangles and see how it looks! The colour placement is entirely random.

Border done for baby quilt

This one is now off the design wall (floor), quilted and bound and safely handed over to the mother-to-be! Who is 35 weeks but looks very well and healthy. She doesn't know whether it's a boy or girl and refuses to listen to her workmate who insists she has 100% success rate with gender prediction. Hmmmm....

Thank you for your comments on my previous post when I was auditioning borders. I went with the orange in the end - but only on a small inner border and in the binding. It was too heavy all together and too dark, but with the lighter print I think it looks better! All the better for a baby to dribble on, that is.

Design floor Monday

And what exciting bit of something is on my floor today!!! Pink and green and pink again strips ... anyone else got the same thing? I'm doing Bonnie's mystery quilt. I've never done a mystery quilt before so I'm hoping my enthusiasm and focus will be enough to carry me through.



I think these strip sets can best be described as "pinkish" and "greenish". Bonnie did say scrappy...

One from the archives

I have finally gotten round to trawling back through the photos on the computer and picking out the ones of my quilts. All our photos - mostly of the kids, they're so cute when they're babies ... not any more - are just plonked in the date folders. So I had a happy trip down memory lane and found a lot of quilts I had forgotten about making! I gave most of them away, but I think some of them are still lurking downstairs.

Today's feature from the archives is ... this planets quilt which I gave to a little boy for his third birthday. You can still get away with quilts at that age - any older and they're cross for not getting an actual toy. But at three they're still only focussed on the cakes and chips.

This quilt was made with some of my very earliest hand dyed fabric - I think I put it with a black print because I was worried about the dye running. I rinsed obsessively back then though! Most of the current ones would be more problematic. I know the kiddy has used the quilt, so I'm assuming it's been washed - and no shrieks of horror about a ruined load of washing, so it was probably fine.

New pretty fabric

Seven lovely yards arrived from Aunt Bea's today. I have an image of Aunt Bea - wise, grey-haired, slicing off fabric and popping it in an envelope just for me. And the fabric always comes with a Hershey bar!!! My children, good Aussie kids that they are, have no idea what a Hershey bar is. They prod it suspiciously ... then figure it out and wham! all gone.

Even more babies

And to round off the baby trifecta here is a very simple little quilt I finished on the weekend and gave to a woman at work today - she's having a boy she told me today! How exciting, boys are lovely. I didn't know when I made it though, so gender-neutral as usual.

It's from a packet of charm squares I found in the cupboard and a few ring-ins. I'm not sure why, it was a very small packet of charm squares with only twelve in them. I can't remember using any of them, but I must have ... or, more likely, I bought it because it was really cheap, and that's why. Regardless, it was the perfect size and colours for my quilt! So karma wins again.

And Hancocks have free shipping again, bless them, and the Australian dollar is at parity with the USD!!!! At the risk of sounding obsessed by money and / or offensively frugal, I'm getting the fabric to my door for less than $AUD 5 per yard, compared to $25 / metre minimum in the shops!!! Wow, is all I can say, wow.

Design wall ... floor

I've really been enjoying looking at all the contributions to design wall Monday over on Judy's blog so I thought I would join in for once! I don't actually have a design wall though, I tend to lay blocks out on the floor to look at. I like it because I can see them reversed in the mirrored fronts of the cupboards, and it's like looking at them from a distance. On the downside, I tend to wheel over them in my sewing chair. Very bad for a block, being caught up in the casters of a wheeled deskchair.

So, this rainy Monday, we have some basic blocks on the design wall (floor) for yet another baby quilt! The ladies of my acquaintance are popping them out at the moment, so I'm making cot quilts galore. And no-one seems to want to tell me what gender they are (or they don't know themselves) so it's all either green or yellow, or blue with flowers, or something bright and multi-coloured.

I'm auditioning fabrics for the border at the moment. I don't actually like either of the ones in the photo - too dark and heavy I think - so I will pull out some more lighter fabrics and see if any of them work.