I cried ... and I cried ... and then I cried some more!!

It's been quite a tough week at work so after dinner last night, I was going to do some quilting on my butterfly quilt but instead we decided to watch a film. A comedy would have been a good choice or even a thrilling action movie ... but we watched Les Misérables and the tears came! Boy, did they :'(

I cried when Fantine's hair was shorn. Then, again when she died. Pulled myself together (just!) until Jean Valjean sung 'Bring him Home' and sobbed my heart out when he died at the end ... what an amazing film! Bless him, DH was a bit worried about me ... said he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen me cry at a film like that! 

If you've never seen it, there's lots of clips on You Tube to whet your appetite - I particularly love Colm Wilkinson's version of Bring him Home and, of course, the brilliant Susan Boyle brought the epic song I Dreamed a Dream to the masses when she auditioned with it on Britain's Got Talent in 2009.

So, from crying like to a baby, to my one finish this week which was this little baby quilt for Laura at work:

I posted about it earlier in the week and have since been asked to make another one for a friend and, as this really was such a dream to make, how could I refuse? And a bonus for me - this one's for a baby girl so I get to use my pinks! Here's my choices of fabric (so far!) and some fleeced fabric for the backing ... I just might get cracking on this over the weekend: 

Or I might finish quilting my charity quilt - I have done all the straight line quilting but think it needs something more - perhaps some FMQing in the butterflies? There's not a lot of space to move around in so my usual stippling is not going to work. Have been over to see what free motion quilting designs the fabby Leah Day has to share and I think I'm going to try making her pebbles. She really has the best site - everything's clearly signposted, categorised by ability, and there are videos for each design ... yes, pebbles - how difficult can it be?!

And no more sad films for me this weekend! 

Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict: 

Baby Quilt quick finish ... meet Ted!

I started making this little baby boy pram / crib quilt for Laura (a friend at work) on Saturday afternoon and finished it (late) on Sunday evening - I'm well chuffed!! Isn't he a cutie:

All the fabric was from my stash, except for the baby fabric fat quarter. I do like Makower Spraytime fabrics, I think they're my favourite 'blender' and this orange was just perfect for the quilt and binding. I think my tortoise-slow hand stitching the back of the binding probably was the longest part of the quilt making but I LOVE the whole process of making and attaching the binding, do you?

The backing fabric is fleeced and was thick enough, I thought, so I didn't add any extra wadding / batting and it FMQ'd like a dream  - with one bobbin and in less than an hour ... I know!!! (Doing a little happy dance!)

His cute little eyes and nose were made using a cotton reel as a template and appliqued with a small zig-zag stitch:

The pattern is from this book by Pam and Nicky Lintott of The Quilt Room - I have used this book before and find their patterns really easy to follow:

I can't remember where I read this tip (might have been Carla or Julie?) but instead of just discarding the cut off triangle bits, I sewed another 1/4" seam at the same time so no wastage and 26 little HSTs for another project ... yay!

Although it was meant to be made using a jelly roll, I upped the sizing a little bit as I only wanted to make one teddy bear, not 4 as the pattern called for. But I might just make it with 4 in the future if I wanted a larger quilt.

I am so looking forward to giving this to Laura and baby Matthew - she doesn't know I've made it so it will be a lovely surprise. Linking up with Quilt Story - Fabric Tuesday :)