Apples for Grandma

This is the fabulous doll quilt I received from Nic in the EB Doll Quilt Swap. Nic obviously knows what I like and this will be going up in Amélie's room.



Little Red Riding Hood is one of my favourite nursery book characters, and Amélie already has a few Red Riding Hood themed items in her room.



Amélie is also a fan of apples, both to eat and to look at. This mini quilt has a delicious looking basket of apples and also matching apples on the tree.



I love the bow under her chin, and that sweet little round face.



I love the beautiful little bird on her apron, and her stripey tights!



Aren't I lucky?!

You can see the quilt I sent here.

And some of the other quilts, here, here, here, here, here, here and here

Poppy Breeze

My swap partner, Kylie, received her quilt on Thursday, so I can now reveal what I sent. This is some of what Kylie had to say about what she would like to receive:

I like just about anything. Brights or rich tones - especially reds. Not a fan of cutesy stuff, loving abstract designs at the moment. Not a big fan of lots of embellishments. Finished quilt will be hung.

I designed the entire quilt by myself. I decided to do poppies, because poppies are red, but then ended up doing them in these colours because the fabric was sitting there, calling to me... The grass has bees on it, which I think might me a little bit cute, I hope Kylie doesn't mind.



I pieced the sky using various pieces of blue fabric, radiating from the bottom left corner. I used some fabric from my stash and some I went shopping specifically for. The original idea was to give it a bit of a sunset type look, but I ended up sticking with just blue fabrics to keep it simple. The sky includes fabric with planes, raindrops, umbrellas and spots.



I really enjoyed quilting feathers into the sky, I'd never done feathers before this project and although it is more of a traditional style of quilting, I think it works in this more modern style of quilt. I think it looks a little like clouds.

The poppies were attached using raw edge appliqúe before placing the backing fabric on and I later quilted around them. I like how this gives them a puffy look.



I added the stems after all the quilting was done, which was really tricky and I had to use pliers to pull the thread through all the dense quilt stitches as it was so tight. I could have stitched them before I did the quilting, but I was a little worried about quilting catching on my thread, preferred not to quilt around the stems and didn't really want to quilt over them either. It might have been a little easier to have them show on the back as well, but I wanted to keep the back all white. I stitched the stems on an angle to give the impression of the poppies bobbing in the breeze.

EBDQS Sneak Peak

I've almost finished my doll quilt for the swap. I've learned a new skill, the feather. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I hope my partner likes the finished quilt.

18. Compromise

I worked out a way I can satisfy my need to use some of the scrummy fabric that I showed you yesterday (earmarked for my placemats) and still go with the original plan I had for my doll quilt swap. The solution was simple - buy some more fabric!

My plan involves some "sky" and I really like the rain in one of the fabrics. You can't see it in the photo, but the fabric beneath it with the garden-y type stuff also has umbrellas, so I think I can get those to work together. I really hope my swap partner likes it. I also hope I can get my vision to work in real life....

17. Dilemma

I really need to work on my EBQ Doll Quilt Swap, but this stack of fabric that I have set aside for placemats is calling my name. My swap partner has not mentioned a penchant for cerise, lime, nor newsprint...

What to do, what to do?

EBDQS - Quilt received!

This is the quilt I received from Rose in the Doll Quilt Swap. I love the colours Rose has used, especially the rose and turquoise. The coloured dots on the background fabric pick up the other colours in the quilt. The pieced stars are fantastic - I would like to try something like this myself one day. She has also used a lovely, textured fabric for the backing, which gives the quilt a more luxurious finish.



Thank you Rose, the quilt is beautiful! You have a very grateful quilt recipient here!

Snakes & Ladders

Now that my swap partner has received it, I can reveal my completed quilt for the doll quilt swap.



Inspired by the backgammon board in the Meet Me at Mike's book, I decided to make a Snakes and Ladders board game.



My swap partner, Rebecca, has a little boy, Jack, who is close in age to my Liam, so I thought it would be appropriate. I didn't actually know he was a fan of Snakes & Ladders, so that was a lucky bonus.



Liam, Noah and I had a test run before we popped the quilt in the mail, and we were happy with the way it worked. I hope that Rebecca and Jack have lots of fun with it because we had a hard time letting it go.



I might just have to make another one for us.

Sneaky Peek of my Doll Quilt Swap

Here's a quick snap of my Doll Quilt for the 5th Annual EB Quilters Doll Quilt Swap. Can you guess what it is? I hope my partner likes it.

Doll Quilt Swap

I signed up to participate in the 5th Annual EB Doll Quilt Swap. We are each assigned a partner who we make a quilt for which needs to be posted by the 30th of November. The image above is to help my partner make a quilt that suits my tastes.

We also had to answer a questionnaire

1. What colours do you like?
I like bright colours - especially against a white background.

2. What colours DON'T you like?
Anything murky or dull.

3. What style of quilt do you like best? (Abstract, arty, traditional, modern etc.)
I'm pretty open to all of these, although probably more modern and arty, than traditional. Would prefer to stay away from anything too country, with chickens or cows etc. I am liking fairy tale and nursery rhyme themes at the moment.

4. What techniques and trimmings do you like?
I love appliqué. I admire Helen's flying geese. I am open to many things.

5. Is there anything you DON'T want on your quilt?
Chickens, cows... home-sweet-home type sentiments

6. Skill Level
I'm relatively new to quilting, but I've been sewing for a long time. Intermediate but my quilting might be a bit wonky...

7. Which other EB-ers you've already made a quilt for, or received one from
I made one for Anna last year, and received one from Mands

8. Who will doll Quilt be for - child, wall hanging etc
I would like a wall hanging for Amelie's room. Hopefully she will be in her own room by the time this swap is over. Perhaps something that she can use for her dollies later on?

I participated in the swap last year, and this is what I made for Anna:



And this is what I received from Mands:



I haven't really decided what I am going to do this year... a decision that I need to make (and get started on) during Blogtoberfest.

Check out the Blogtoberfestivities - over here, and don't forget to enter my giveaway!

EB DQS4 - What I sent

This is the doll-quilt that I sent Anna for the EBDQS#4. I have named it Matilda's garden, as it to be used as a wall-hanging for her daughter's bedroom. I have used some of my Laura Gunn fabric (Vases from the Lantern Bloom collection) for the tree. The leaves are from the same fabric as the binding, which I found at Spotlight.

The free motion quilting is based on a spiral technique that I learned at a workshop with Kellie Wulfsohn. I was busy spiraling away between the branches with the intention to keep going, when I saw that I had given the tree a bit of a ghost effect. I kind of liked the way it looked and stopped where I was. I took it out to mum's and dad's and they liked the way that it looked too. I also got another opinion from AJ, who agreed that it was a good place to stop. Sometimes creativity is knowing when to stop!



The pink bird at the centre of the tree represents Matilda. I have used a seed bead for her eye. The branches form a heart shape around her.



The butterfly represents Anna (my swap partner, and Matilda's mum). I have also used seed beads here to embellish the antennae.



The dragonfly represents Matilda's father. I used some Pellon Rainbowspun for the wings. The Rainbowspun was in the Vilene showbag that I purchased at the Stitches and Craft Show back in May.



This bird represents Tom, Matilda's older brother.



This bird represents Matilda's baby brother, Nate.



I am pretty happy with the binding. Even though I had some sort of mobius thing going on when I went to join the ends, I managed to work it out in the end. Around the edges of the quilt I have done some straight quilting, using my walking foot. I wasn't sure what to do here, so I asked AJ for some advice. I think it's a winner.




The label. I am much happier with my blanket stitch on this one than on the one I did for the boys' eye spy quilt. I used a slightly different (probably non-conventional) method that seems to work better for me.



I placed some corners at the top of the quilt to allow it to be hung from a rod on the wall. AJ shows how to do this on her blog.

I almost forgot to mention, I'm not sure if you can tell by the photos, but I did some Trapunto on the quilt. There is extra padding behind all of my appliqué. I used a technique that I was able to sort of work out from the instructions for Kellie Wulfsohn's monster quilt in the Australian Homespun magazine. If I was designing a quilt again, and I wanted to do trapunto, I would probably avoid some of the tiny gaps I had to get around as trimming away the extra batting was rather tricky - I was so scared I was going to chop a great big hole in my quilt whilst I was doing this!

Thank You!

Thankyou to Mands who made me this quilt in the doll quilt swap. There is some lovely fabric on there, including a little green Sunburst by Saffron Craig. Mands has used some variegated thread to appliqué some of the pieces on and the result is quite effective. The Label on the back has been very carefully embroidered too.



Today is opening day, so there will hopefully be lots of quilts to see.

EBQ DQS4 Sneak Peak #3

Need some green thread...

EBQ DQS4 Sneak Peak #2

Here's another sneak peak of what I am working on for the doll quilt swap.

My Creative Space - EBQ DQS4 Sneak Peak (Sketches)

I'm currently participating in the EB Quilters Doll Quilt Swap #4. The doll quilt needs to be finished and in the post by the end of this month. So far, all I have is some fabric, and these sketches.....

Go check out some more Creative Spaces!

Pincushion Pass - What I Sent

This is the pincushion that I sent to Anna of Noodlehead, as part of the Pincushion Pass that I joined on Flickr. You can see what Anna sent me here.

I used this tutorial, although rather than adding to the tutorial, I simplified it as I wanted to make a feature of the beautiful fabric. The fabric is called Bonsai Forest, and was hand-printed in Melbourne by the lovely girls at Ink & Spindle who I was lucky to meet earlier this year.

I hand painted the stand using some of our (haha - mostly his) model paints. I had to mix a couple of colours together to get the right shade. The finished pincushion stands almost 40cm tall.

The pincushion is currently finding it's way to Anna, hopefully it should arrive in the next couple of days. I hope she likes it.

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me!

Look at the lovely dish of pincushions that I received in the Pincushion Pass. My Swap partner, Anna of Noodlehead was my partner and I think I was really lucky to be paired with her.

I like that I will be able to drag the individual pincushions around to where-ever I am using them, but now I have a lovely place to put them back in when I am finished with them.

This one has some lovely piecing. I love the way that Anna has fussy cut the flower. The same fabric has been used on the bottom of the pincushion too.

 

I really like the pair of buttons placed in the centre of this pincushion - especially the clear, pink one. I am also particularly impressed with the shape.

This one is really nice too.Again, the two buttons are lovely, and really compliment the fabric used. The pink ribbon is also lovely. I'm guessing that the side bit was really tricky.

Thank you Anna, for being a really great swap partner, I hope you enjoy the pincushion I have sent to you.

Potholder Pass - My Loot!

This is the lovely loot that I received in the Potholder Pass. My partner was Amber from Oklahoma. Amber included a hacky sack that she knitted herself. She also included some other goodies for my boys to play with.

Pot Holder Pass - Items Completed & Posted

My Pot Holders for the Pot Holder Pass were posted this morning. My swap partner said that she likes all colours, and requested something colourful, cute and fun. I hope this meets the criteria.

We had to send two pot holders, and each pot holder has two sides - hence the two photos.

The motifs came from a table cloth that used to belong to my mum. I appliqued them onto some linen, sandwiched a couple of layers of Insulbrite in between and did straight quilting with my walking foot. The binding was some I had already made up when working on a different project.