I just can't say no to her!!

But then who really wants to say no to the question, 'Can you please make me a pink baby quilt?' Not me, that's for sure!!

Dear niece (of Grandma's 80th birthday quilt request) asked if I could make her another quilt - this time for partner's new baby niece who was born on April 16th. Of course I can :)

From my library of books (I have a few!), I picked out this one:

And because I love stars, this pattern (shown in the book as designed by Allison Jane Smith of Plaids and Prints) called out to me:

I started cutting out some 4 3/4" squares from my pink scraps and grey spots on white from my stash on Saturday morning and finished sewing the binding on last night!  To be fair, dear niece didn't specify such a tight deadline but I know they're hoping to visit the baby this week and I am about to start a very tricky project so it suited me to crack on with it. Aren't baby quilts just the sweetest to make?

I deviated slightly off the pattern (as I do!) and made 2 stars out of dusky pinks and 2 out of hot pinks:

I picked one of the dusky pinks to make the simple border - this is Robert Kaufman's delightful 'Pimatex Basics' - and one of the hot pinks - Michael Miller's Mini Mikes Tiny Gingham - for the binding. I 'stipple quilted' it in just over an hour:

I did have a slight hiccup on the way ... as I FMQd over the label, my needle point snapped off. I couldn't see where it had gone and although I searched the quilt and was confident it wasn't in there, I couldn't rest until I found it. After undoing the machine, removing the bobbin holder and ignoring all the fluffy yuckiness (please don't judge me, ladies!), I found it ... phew!!!

The backing is 'Baby Labels' by Makower UK and I think it goes really well:

And the front:

And the all-important label:

Love it - all 35" x 35" of it. Posted it today and I know Saffron's Mummy will take lots of photos so I hope to show you some later in the week.

It's my birthday tomorrow and I have some 'sewing' presents to unwrap (more photos!) and I think it's about time I did another giveaway, don't you? Please pop back to see me tomorrow :)

Linking up for the first time to Plum and June's Monday Link Up - what fun!

and thanks to the lovely Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for her kind comment - I've also just linked up with Michelle's Romantic Tangle - Let's Make Baby Quilts 

I got distracted and he was busy!!

Can I please count a finished top and back as a 'finish' for Amanda Jean's Finish it up Friday? When you see the size of it, I was never going to get this baby basted, quilted and bound in one day! Also, DH - my able basting assistant - was busy with his own Bank Holiday weekend project ... he's decorating our bedroom. Here he is hard at work:

I'll have to grab him first thing in the morning! 

Remember I was going to back my jelly roll quilt with this? 

Sadly, the seller contacted me to say she didn't have the 2 metres I needed after all :( so I quickly found another seller who had 2 metres of the purple which arrived yesterday. However, and this is my own optimistic fault for thinking that 2 metres would be enough, when I added my borders to the top of the quilt:

I was about 16" short in the width ... oh dearie me! Now, as luck would have it - 'see DH: that's why I have a large(ish) stash' - I just happened to have enough of the lilac spots left over that I'd used when I got caught short with the front! It was meant to be - don't you think? So with a little bit more cutting and sewing, I now have a finished back too:

As well as DH decorating, I also got distracted by the quilt I started to make yesterday for dear niece's, partner's Grandma's 80th birthday in May. I only made the one star yesterday and made another 5 today! Just 3 to go :)

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday and keeping my head down in case the 'Not really a finish Police' come investigating :D

Starting Grandma's 80th quilt ...

Dear niece (who loves all my work!) has asked me to make a quilt for her partner's Grandma who's celebrating her 80th birthday party with family in May ... so I have a few weeks then!

'Greens and creams' was the only stipulation. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, we 'Facetimed' last week so that Hannah could choose a fabric from my stash as a starter.

During the week, I visited my LQS and here are my purchases:

More off-white than cream but it'll work (fingers crossed!) The green is a Robert Kaufman and the florals (which I love!) are from Tanya Whelan's 'Delilah' range. Not sure who's the white is (it's mine now!) but it's got cute little flowers embossed on it.  Yesterday, I trawled through hundreds of google images for '4-fabric blocks' and I've decided to go with stars and here is the first one:

I've made them a bit bigger than usual - the individual units are 5 1/2" before sewing - so a 3 x 3 layout should give me a 60" x 60" finish. I'm also going to mix the colours up a bit so in the next block, I will swap the green and white over ... I know, I'm such a daredevil, aren't I???