Quilt Finished

Yay! I finished sewing the binding onto my quilt today. It is officially finished.
I managed to take it out for  quick photo shoot before it went too dark and rainy, so here they are.
There's the usual washing line photo that we all resort to from time to time.

One draped over the shed door. I'm quite pleased with this one. I like the geometric patterns of the quilt against the brick and wood.

And one across a wooden bench. Some leaves photo bombed the shot, so I'll always know what time of year I finished this quilt!

Back indoors, it's all rolled up ready and waiting for someone to snuggle up under it tonight.

Here's a peek at the backing and binding.
I love the bright navy polka dot against the solid red binding. I was going to use the remaining pieces of jelly roll and make a scrappy binding. I'm so glad I went for the solid red. I think it frames the quilt well.

I echo quilted around the shapes and along the sashings. Not perfectly, more of a whimsical effect. In other words, I'm not patient enough to go slowly and accurately, but I'm happy with it.

Vital Statistics:
Finished quilt size: 55"x 73"
Fabric for quilt top: Reunion Jelly Roll by Sweetwater for Moda
Backing:  Bright navy polka dot, source unknown
Binding: Solid red


Linking up with  Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts
                    and TGIFF at Quilt Matters

Garden Trellis Quilt

 

It's been such a productive weekend!

And I mean in more ways than one. I've enjoyed the sunshine of the weekend to the full, and spend a lot of time gardening. Everywhere looks spick and span and I'm busy harvesting tomatoes, cucumbers,beans and courgettes (zucchini? in the US), but I've also aced my quilting target.

I thought I was going to be showing you this as a work in progress, but I've finished it!

 

 

I wanted to design an easy to make quilt for beginners that wasn't too busy, was modern and would complement any decor. I was a little concerned as I got part way through that it was going to be too "white", but I'm truly pleased with the final result. I could easily see this with a light grey or taupe background though, or even made entirely of solids with the darker fabric as the background and perhaps white for the chain, I used some remaining strips for the binding....

 

.....and I'm so pleased that I did! I didn't want to introduce another print, or prioritise one colour over another.

 

 

I quilted it with diagonal lines which I marked on with a ruler and Hera marker

This is such an easy tool to use, and it's so nice that there are no lines to wash out at the end of the quilting. I do find that if I've handled the quilt a lot (I rotate through 90 degrees at the end of every row of quilting) the lines are getting a little faint towards the end of the task, but it is no problem to lay the quilt flat again and re-mark them.

This quilt will make a great play mat when the youngest members of the family come to visit.

The pattern is available in my Etsy store. Instructions are given for 5 sizes from Baby to King.

Let's hope the rest of the week is as productive, and enjoyable!

 

Easy Four Patch Baby quilt

Hi! today, I'm going to share with you the baby quilt that I made and then sat in the sun and quilted last week (the one and only week of summer that we've had here in the UK this year! My fabric choice is quite an unusual one. It's a far cry from the latest fabrics appearing on the shelves of the local quilt stores, but the fabrics appealed to me for several reasons:
I liked their simplicity, which seemed in keeping with a gift for a newborn.
They are organic cottons, and I'm a huge fan of organic anything, but cotton in particular - a massive amount of chemical goes into the production of standard cotton fabric.
Last, but not least - I had the fabric in my stash already!

The pattern is a very easy one - ideal for a beginner, and I've put together a tutorial, which you can download as a PDF.Just go to the tabs on my home page, select Quilt Patterns and you will find it.

The finished quilt measures approximately 36"x44" (92x112cm), but it would be very simple to make it larger if you needed. It uses Jelly Roll strips or yardage or scrap pieces, whichever you prefer.
I love adding a little hand stitching to quilts - and by that I do mean a little - I don't think I would ever hand quilt a whole quilt, but I do enjoy adding some naive style quilting in places. In this instance, I machine quilted around the four patch blocks and hand quilted the solid white blocks.

I used a Perle cotton No 8 which stands out nicely against the solid white. I chose my backing fabric  so that the hand stitching wouldn't stand out too much against it. I find it impossible to get the stitches even on both the front and the back of the quilt, so I concentrate on what they look like on the front and don't worry about what they look like on the back.

I bound the quilt with simple brown spotty fabric (this one isn't organic unfortunately).

I think it provides a nice contrast to the blues, and I happen to love blue-brown combo, so it was an easy choice.

The pdf pattern gives you all the fabric requirements and instructions, along with lots of photos to guide you if you are a new quilter.

It also gives detailed instructions on how to do the hand quilting.

I hope you find it useful.

Till next week......... Julie

Easy Newbie Quilt Pattern for Jelly Roll Strips

Modern quilting is for busy people! Gone is the image of quietly sitting by the fireside hand sewing tiny pieces of fabric for months on end before you can see and use the finished article. Today's quilters are busy mum's having a little "me" time, piecing the quilt top by machine in the odd moments whilst their toddler naps, or people who sew for half an hour in the evening after a busy day at the office. Men quilt as well as women, and children produce their fair share of quilts too. But the gift of a quilt is as precious as ever it was, perhaps even more so!

In our world of mass produced and  designer label where you can see the same item in a chain store in London as you can in New York  a gift of a handmade quilt, which basically is unique, however simple the design, will certainly be  treasured. It will still be a household favourite long after the cute little newborn size baby clothing has been safely stored in the loft - maybe for baby number two? or sent to the charity/thrift store.

With pre-cut fabric packs and simple patterns a baby quilt can be made in a weekend or a few evenings. It's not complicated, but it is addictive! The pre-cut fabric packs save a lot of time consuming cutting, stressing over which fabrics go together and possibly making costly mistakes in the purchasing. You get all the relaxing sewing therapy without the decision hassle!

But sometimes it's hard to find just one quick, easy pattern rather than a bookfull.

With this in mind, I have started to design easy, modern, beginner patterns that use pre-cuts, or small ranges of fabrics. Not everyone wants to start an all consuming hobby, they just want a quick pattern to make one quilt.

If you are a relative newcomer to quilting or you just want an easy pattern, then you may want to check out this one that I have for sale on Etsy.

The pattern gives fabric requirements and instructions for 6 sizes of quilt:
Baby – 36"x 45", Crib – 44" x 60", Toddler/Lap – 60" x 76", Twin – 68" x 84", Queen – 92" x 92"
and King – 92" x 108"

This is the toddler size!!

 It just uses a Jelly Roll (or two if you're making the larger sizes) and some white yardage.

The instructions are carefully and simply explained for beginner quilters and there are loads of photos to help you. If you take the plunge and make one of these quilts, be sure to share a photo on Facebook

Happy Quilting!