One UFO finally finished :)

At last, I have finished this playmat / baby quilt after great advice from Pauline about adding RicRac and the fact that it is little River's 1st birthday in a couple of weeks time (nothing like a looming deadline to get the motivation going!)

Here is the front (finished at about 44" x 70"):

and a close up:

the back:

and the all-important label. I was intrigued to read all the different ways we prepare our labels on Quilters World Facebook page this week. I don't know how to embroider (I didn't know how to sew at all until 2010!) so I choose a light / plain rectangle from a piece of leftover fabric from the front, stabilise it with freezer paper, write on with permanent pen, zig zag stitch to back of quilt and then for added security, FMQ it. This is how River's turned out:

It's in the post, I hope she likes it :)

[Apologies to previous readers of this original post as I have just had to retype it from memory (Fri 28 Sep). Somehow, I deleted the post when I went in to edit it to add that I had linked this to Crazy Mom's Quilts Finish it up Friday ... also, it's messed up the link :( that'll teach me to mess about ... I should just stick to quilting!!!]

A perfect day for quilting :)

The weather was better this morning (i.e. no gales or torrential rain) but it was still cold so a perfect day to be sewing in the loft. I decided to create the Playmat for baby River Faith but wasn't sure on a pattern. I scoured the usual places (books, magazines, blogs) but was still undecided. I think I was struggling because of all the different colours, animals and shapes in the fabric:

So, if you take a close look at the drawing, I decided to make blocks with the 3 darker pinker fabrics shaped in the letter 'R' and use the rest to build around the 'R'. I was a bit worried about how the leg of the letter would turn out as it looked a lot 'thinner' in my drawing than the rest of the letter but decided to go with it anyway.

Fabric all cut and soooooo much quicker when I changed the blade on my rotary cutter!

I thought it would be easier to sew the squares into blocks of four (rather than single rows), so the first 3 blocks looked like this:

And so on:





Until all 60 squares (15 blocks) were sewn together:

I'm not sure now it's finished: the 'R' isn't as effective as I thought it would be. I'm going to add a border, maybe that will help. It looks like this in black and white:

You can make it out a bit better which I think means I have chosen the right shades of colour but ... oh, I'm not sure - I'll leave it for today. And I thought I was being really clever with this design, hmmm ... if you have any ideas on how I could make it stand out more (without unpicking and starting again!!), please please let me know:)

Busy ... but no sewing :(

We have had the most lovely weekend in Chester visiting family over the Easter Holidays and, sadly, it's nearly time to go home. Whilst I always love spending time with family, I have missed my quilting, especially as I have quite a list of things I want to make:

1) Cushion for Lucy at work (she stepped up when I was off sick recently so I want to thank her with a little gift)

2) Irish-themed quilt for friend in USA

3) Finish 'USA #4'

4) Start 'USA #5'

5) Cushion for brother-in-law's niece

6) Playmat for River Faith (niece's boyfriend's niece)

7) Peg Bag x 2

8) My sister's 'V' shaped cushion

9) Tote Bag(s)

Just a few things to keep me going, then!!

And as I can't possibly post without a photo, here is a little more fabric I bought for the Playmat on a lovely day out with dear Aunty G and hubby to Ruthin, North Wales on Saturday (no website but the shop is called 'Threads'):

That's about 6 different fabrics now I've bought for this Playmat - time to stop shopping and start sewing!! I'm really not sure yet what pattern to go with as some of the fabrics will require fussy cutting ... hmm, will have to get thinking - any ideas??

Shame I have to work for a living - so many quilt projects, so little time ... BIG SIGH!!

But not too ill to shop :)
Well, online anyhow. Still not well - day 6 - Doctor says I have a virus (nice!) and it will last 7-10 days so I'm just waiting it out.

STILL not sewing ... I must be ill! But I have made a start on putting together some fabrics for a baby girl's playmat. Love my eBay sellers, they get stuff out to you almost immediately and this is what arrived today:

I hope I feel well enough tomorrow to play with all of my lovely fabric :)

And some more of 2011 ...
Another church raffle, another cushion:

And I made one for me:

And then a lapquilt for me (at last!):

And added some IKEA furniture and new stash baskets to my quilting room:

Fabric wrapped around comic backboards for stability

We visited the USA in September (a separate post to follow on that) and, of course, I bought some more fabric whilst in Charleston, SC and Annapolis, MD. But when we got back, I went on a bit of a creating frenzy. Firstly, I finished a Playmat for my dear friend's baby:

Another lapquilt for my (adult) niece:

And a crib quilt for her boyfriend's brother's baby:

A throw and two cushions for my little big sister:

And a quilt for my youngest nephew. He was so cute when I gave his sister her quilt: he asked me if I would make him one. Of course, I said, what colour? After only a few seconds, he replied, all earnestly, "Black and with skulls!":

And I finally finished a quilt from 2010 (Kent workshop - 1/2 Log Cabin)which I gave to my friend, as they were 'her colours':

All in all October was a very busy month!!