Sewing: the Cycle Lane Quilt

Hello! I've been looking forward to showing you the Cycle Lane Quilt I made in November, as a commission for a new baby. His parents are keen cyclists and climbers, hence the bikes and ropes, and you may also notice there are four magpies for a boy.

 

The quilt is cot-sized, modern in style and colour, and quilted in wonky lines. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. My lovely neighbour (who commissioned it) particularly wanted the magpies included, so after too many hours spent trawling UK online fabric shops, I ended up sourcing it from spoonflower in the US. The rest of the fabrics are a mixture of lines, including a couple from Julia Rothman's Ride, Michael Miller Ship Ahoy ropes, and my favourite Violet Craft from Michael Miller Waterfront 'flight'. The birds are just lovely, and the charcoal background... sigh. I bought those four key fabrics from Celtic Fusion Fabrics; they always have such a lovely selection.

Look at that, I managed to take a close-up picture of one of the few spots where my corners don't perfectly match. That's hurried photography for you!

A little shot of the back too. Just look at that blurred focus. It's clear why I usually get my husband to take my quilt photos! (By the way, I never used to be a fan of orange, but the slightly burnt tone of that pumpkin shade? It's totally won me over.)

Baby quilts are my favourite to make. All the joy of the fabrics and the quilting, and none of the stress and effort of getting two square metres of fabric rolled under the arm of my sewing machine! I'm starting my business this year and baby quilts are definitely going to be a key product.

Sewing: half-square triangle ice cream quilt

I sewed an ice-cream coloured quilt. It is 2m x 2m. That's 6.7ft x 6.7ft. That's big. That's a lot of complicated work. And that, readers, is me allowing myself a bit of pride.

Each half-square triangle includes a white and an ice-cream colour. I cut out 12.5in squares from each colour, sewed them together around the edges then across on the diagonals, then cut them into four squares. I used this tutorial on making quicker HST's.

I quilted it along the diagonals in alternating ice-cream thread colours. With pink being the predominant colour, I quilted pink, yellow, green; pink, blue, purple. That's a lot of changing threads and bobbins and re-threading needles. There were several occasions when I decided I must be mad. One colour quilting thread from now on! The above picture also shows my corners/points all (or mostly all) matching up. Bit of an effort but worth it.

See that? That's the binding for you. It's scrappy, so there are different bits of pink fabric along the 8m perimeter.You can see one type of binding change for another in the picture below.

And there's the back: just white sheeting to show off the different colours of the quilting

I made this quilt as a commission for my auntie. I'm really pleased with it (can you tell?!) but I started it at Easter and sporadically sewed it right through to Christmas. With such a large quilt, I constantly needed to lay it on the floor to re-smooth, roll, or re-position it. That's not something that can be done with two small boys around who like walking on quilts! I'm glad it's done now. I have one last king-size quilt to make (my brother's), and I think I'm going to make it using a quilt-as-you-go method in order to avoid all the lay-on-the-floor logistical problems.

Sewing: sea quilt

For a long time now, I've promised I'd show the quilt I made my parents. I made it last year, but only now did we get round to photographing it.

I call it the sea quilt. It's just about a king-size: 200cm by 220cm, or, with a bit of rounding up/down, 80" by 85". It's made in a wonky brick wall design (I'm sure there must be a proper name for it!), and I quilted it in freehand waves in pale blue thread. It's pale blue on the back, too. Let me tell you, it isn't easy manipulating a king-size quilt in the seesaw motion you need to get wave after wave. Though I love it, I'm not sure I'd do that again! 

I used a mixture of fabrics, some from my local textile mill shop, that sells remains, end-of-lines and seconds. Fabric addicts among you will recognise some of Lotta Jansdotter's Bella collection (Scandi Flower and Pebble Lines), some Pure Scandi (Dandelions), Shore Line (Kelp) and Kasuri Blossoms. I bought all these from Fabric Rehab, a misnamed store if ever I heard one - I am quite the opposite of rehabilitated since shopping there!

It is a fairly simple quilt to an expert's eye, but not at all to mine. It lies on my parents bed now, parents who have given me more love, care and help than you'd think could be possible. I like that it now warms and covers them, a little thank you whispering goodnight at the end of every day. 

The Little One's boy drive & dig quilt

I've finally got around to showing you... I made the Little One a quilt. It covers his single size bed. It has lots of yellow (favourite colour), cars, diggers, cranes, and other driving and digging paraphernalia! Yes, I have a builder-obsessed pre-schooler.

 Those are my hands, in case you wondered. Yes, they are very little.

And there's the mustard back. Please don't look too closely or you'll see a lot of wonky lines and a few little puckers where they shouldn't be! But it was my first proper single quilt, so I'm being kind to myself about it. I made it with the quilt-as-you-go method. I'd recommend it, but only if you have a cutting mat, quilter's ruler and rotary cutter. I have these now, I didn't then, and look at all that wonky!

 

PS I have the quilting bug really badly.

 

PPS It's December already. Did you notice? I didn't. I am so behind in my present sewing. So I'm off to my sewing corner now.