Lost Valley of the Dinosaurs

I can finally reveal the dinosaur quilt in all its glory.

It is for my nephew's top bunk bed so it is really long and skinny. It measures 39" by 72".

I tried to quilt big dinosaur feet on it, which if you stare closely you may be able to see in the close up shot. I was a bit disappointed with the overall effect. I think I should have done it in a contrasting colour to stand out on the back.

However I was much more pleased with the pocket up top. I used "The Bag Making Bible" by Lisa Lam which I received in December for my birthday from my sister (hint hint). Okay - I did ask for it but it is even better than I thought it would be. It has all different sections for each part of a bag. So I took this from the pockets chapter. It is designed to be a more 3D pouch so that you can fit bulkier things in. A good first attempt I think.

It is of course for a torch - because what do 4 year old boys really rather have - a hand made quilted in love or a piece of plastic that lights up!?

If you want to see more of Lisa's ideas check out her amazing blog here.

One final picture of the quilt as it has gone home to England already ( I apologise for the quality of the pictures, I waited all week to take them but it is so dark and wet and windy that in the end I had to just take them indoors.)

Sewing machine love

Since I have absolutely no finishes or even progress to show you I thought I would share this really cool photo.

I was in Manchester, England recently and spied this shop full of old machines. It's just a trendy clothes shop, not anything related to sewing per se.

Yes I am the only one in the street who is vaguely impressed with this display of sewing power and taking photos of it!

A Christmas WIP

I'm glad to have started one of my Christmas presents. This is a quilt for my nephew's "big boy" bed. He is mad for dinosaurs. Here it is all cut out and ready to piece.

The layout is going to be 3 panels across by 8 panels down of alternate colours. The large dinosaurs panel was meant to be fussy cut but I realised I don't have enough material for that. Too late to order more from the States. It means that some of the squares are a bit random in the placement of the dinos as can be seen below with 4 random heads.

But once it's complete I think it will give the overall impression of material. I hope anyway!

The material is of course the gorgeous Oh Boy Dino Print by David Walker for Free Spirit.

I may post a tutorial for this quilt if I get round to it - or get a lot of requests - or any requests really as I am hardly pulling a crowd... yet! ?We'll see how the Christmas shopping goes first.

First quilt sold

I haven't written in ages because I needed to use the time to actually sew. I worked hard all last week to get my friend's quilt finished (started here) and here it is in all its colourful glory.

The design is based on one that was blogged about at Film in the Fridge. My next quilt for my nephew (for Christmas - yikes - I haven't even started yet!) also comes from an idea from Ashley's site. That girl is an inspiration.

 All boxed up and ready to go.

 I tried a loopy quilting on this one as it was so big that I was not confident to do a free motion stipple design. It is by no means perfect but it gives the quilt a random look and is probably a lot neater than my stippling would have been.

I am so proud because this is the first quilt where money has actually exchanged hands. And my friend was really pleased that she now has her new quilt for winter.

A sneaky peak

I love these colours now that I have put them all together. This is in the process of being quilted. It is a special request from a friend in work. You can see a bit of her green carpet that the rest of the quilt has been planned around.

I laid out the material first before cutting.

Some of the more well known fabrics are Isabella by Lila Tuller is the fabulous big green flower, and also a little mini flower one.

Terrain Dahlia in Moss by Kate Spain is the pink flower one - I love her colour combos. There's also some Pop Parade in pink in there too.

I can't wait to finish this quilt and post it for all to see.

Blogger's Quilt Festival - Spring Street

Here's my quilt and its story for the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.


It is the first quilt I made and has now got me hooked. It's made using the simple disappearing nine patch design which turns out looking really impressive. I cut if mostly from the Spring Street Collection by Carolyn Gavin and adding in a few solids of my own. 


I chose this design after much trawling on the internet for inspiration. I really wanted to see what other people had done with this fabric. But I couldn't find a single quilt made with it. Therefore I had to create my own design. I couldn't bear to cut into the pretty picture so I fussy cut the house and framed it like a picture.

I kept the quilting nice and simple, quilting in the ditch but in a diagonal design. I am delighted with how it all turned out. 

The quilt was for my niece who was born just last month. I made it before she was born so used neutral colours for a boy or a girl. I hope she has many years of enjoyment snuggled up under it.

Click below to see the rest of the great entries.

My first post

First time blogging. This is not about my life, my opinions or my hopes and dreams. I am not intending to achieve world peace. It's just a sewing blog. When I started quilting earlier this year my biggest help was pictures of what others had made. So now I will post what I have made. Hopefully these photos will inspire you in your crafty endeavours. I thought I would start my showing you a photo of some really cute fabric bought from my local shop - who doesn't like looking at all that lovely material?! And best yet - they were all half price. I don't know what I will make yet or what else to add to this bundle but am open to suggestions.

Work in progress

I took some pictures of my latest WIP. This baby quilt may be going to a friend - depends whether she has a boy or girl!

This was my first attempt to stipple a whole quilt. It is still a bit jaggedy but overall looks ok. Now that's done i've come to a bit of an impasse with which colour to bind this with. As always, open to suggestions.

One last thing apt to the title of this post. My whole blog design is a WIP. Hopefully over the next few weeks I will get to grips with how to use blogger and produce something much more pleasant to view.

Cushions

I wanted to show you two cushions that I completed earlier in the year. They were my first patchwork projects so the quilting is simple in the ditch. For anyone starting out cushions are the perfect projects as they can usually be stitched in a day. The hen appliqué came from a patchwork book. The houses cushion design came about by fussy cutting the material.

Little penguin mini quilt

Finished my first attempt at a mini quilt. Hopefully this will be the first of a series of cute animal pictures.