Some fun little finishes

It may not seem like it, as my blogging is a little bit slow at the moment, but I'm actually getting quite a bit of sewing done lately. We're full swing in the summer holidays and the whole family is at home all day every day. Finding time in between the constant demands for food (seriously, how often do children need to eat, because it feels like my older 2 are hungry every hour!) and baby care can be a bit challenging at times, but short bursts of sewing are perfect when you're working on small projects.

(Don't forget that my giveaway for a $25 gift certificate for Fat Quarter Shop closes tomorrow, so if you haven't entered already, make sure to do it here)

My friend asked me a while ago if I would make a few things for her, and of course I was happy to oblige.
 

First up, she wanted some placemats for her kitchen table. She had seen the ones I made for my brother, but wanted a more regular shape than triangles. I settled on rectangular mats measuring approx 12" x 10", and made 2 contrasting patterns, 3 of each. I loved her colour palette of pink against a neutral and really enjoyed making these. The neutral is Kona Champagne, which I've had in my stash forever, and is such a lovely warm colour. These are a very easy make, and would be a perfect project for those new little mini charm packs so I'll post a quick tute later in the week with the measurements.

 I straight line quilted these using Aurifil 50wt thread, they are quilted approx 1/4" apart in dense lines which I hope will help them to stand up to frequent washing. I really love the stitch definition I got with it.

I found the perfect pink binding for them, with tiny stars, and they are backed with a Tanya Whelan Grand Revival print which I can't remember the name of. I machine bound these (again, to help them withstand frequent washing) after reading a few different tutorials for the technique, I like how they turned out on the front  but could probably make the back a little neater with more practice.

My friend also wanted some bunting for her little nephew. I forgot how fun it is to make bunting and how pretty it looks! Must make some for baby R's room too.

Lastly, after seeing my friend Fiona's piano cover over on her Facebook page, my friend asked me to make something similar for her daughter (my goddaughter) for her keyboard.

 

We decided a rainbow of colour would work nicely for this one, and once I had pulled out some prints, I put this together very quickly. I think this is one of my favourite things I've made this year - so simple, but I just love how it works.

 

I used a candy stripe pink for the backing and a black poplin to bind it. I quilted the white space similarly to how I did the placemats, leaving the coloured "keys" unquilted so they popped that bit more. This measures about 32.5" x 6"

I'm heading off to visit my friend next week, so I have lots of goodness to bring with me and I know she's dying to get her hands on it, which is great.

Triangular fun

Last week I started a new project. It started with this mustard and grey bundle:

Primarily from Lotta Jansdotter's Echo, with a copule of other prints thrown in too.

I want to make placemats as a housewarming gift for my brother. Its long overdue - I should have made them 6 months ago! My brother is not into quilty stuff, so I decided to try and go for a minimalist, modern kind of style that would fit into his apartment. The Scandanavian feel of the Echo and the restricted palette works perfectly for what I had in mind.

I also discovered that I had an equilateral triangle cutting ruler in my sewing basket which I had totally forgotten about until just before Christmas. So it was quick work to cut the 3" triangles. I also wanted to make the placemats in a triangular shape. For no other reason than I thought it would be a bit different. So I added some white solid triangles and went for a random arrangement.

These came together very quickly for me and I soon had 2 done. Each with different fabric arrangements.

I slightly stalled after the first two - more to do with busy family weekend than anything else. I'm halfway through no 3 which was bundled into my sewing box mid way through sewing yesterday afternoon when baby woke up.

But I'm hopeful of getting this and the 4th one done this evening and then I need to decide how to quilt them. I could do a diagonal cross hatch, echoing the seams. Or I could do some type of concentric triangualar pattern. If any of you wise peeps have suggestions I would love to hear them. The one thing I want to be sure of is not to mess up the quilting, because this is the 2nd set of placemats I have made for him and the last lot were ruined by un-rescueable quilting mistakes!

Don't forget my destash giveaway for these FQs is closing this evening so make sure to enter here.

Some more swapsies

My friend Geraldine and I decided back in August to do a little private swap, for a little fun. She made a doll quilt for my little lady, and I made some placemats for her kitchen table.

Geraldine went for a pink theme for my pink-mad little girl. When this arrived in the post, E was utterly thrilled. She never let it go all day and went to bed with it that evening. It gets used the whole time in her games and is never far from her. While she loves its colours and the fact that it has her name on it, I love the clean lines, bright colours and the beautiful stitching - the pebble quilting is fab and its just gorgeous as a mini quilt. It really appeals to my taste in design and colour! So thank you Geraldine, it really was and is a big hit!

In return, I made some placemats for Geraldine. I mused over what to go with design wise - I knew brights would be a hit, and I wanted 2 pieces that were complimentary but not the same. I found some linen/cotton mix in my stash and decided to piece it in alternate strips with some colourful prints, one warm colours and the other cool. I used paper to piece the linen in a similar manner to piecing a string block as I was afraid it would distort too much with all the pressing and it worked great.

In addition to light machine quilting in the linen, I did a row of hand quilting in matching perle cotton in it too and felt that it really lifted the whole thing.

I backed them in some complimentary prints and used Kona solids for the binding. I love the backs as well to be honest, I think they could be used this side up too!

These have gone off to their new home where I think they are very happy :-)