Giraffe & Moon Baby Quilt

Hello, hello!

Well this post is looong overdue.  To be honest, it's sat in my drafts box for so long that I actually forgot that it existed.  So I think it's time to release it unto the world.

Now, the reason as to why I've waited so long to share this post is because I've been waiting on some photos of the completed project.  However, any one of you out there who has had a baby under the age of a year will know that taking photos of a baby quilt and sending them to your friend is likely to be as far down on your priority list as this blog post ultimately became, and I really can't blame the parents (my friends) for that.  So, despite my hope of showing off this little quilt with its infant owner, I have some non-baby-featuring photos to share instead.

I keep thinking of this quilt as the cow that jumped over the moon but strangely, these are giraffes, not cows.  I'm willing to argue that it could still pass with the nursery rhyme title, though.

Giraffes & Moon Baby Quilt

Giraffes & Moon Baby Quilt

This adorable quilt was bought as a kit in the States and given to friends (as a kit) for their baby shower, with the promise that it would magically turn into a quilt by the time the baby was born.  It features soft cottons, flannels and super cosy chenille fabrics, although I discovered just how frustrating chenille can be to quilt on, as it has a tendency to snap the quilting thread.  The Heat n'Bond piecing for the characters helped everything come together quickly and easily, with just a wee bit of block piecing afterwards.

Moon & Meander Quilting

Giraffe & Hand Blanket Stitching

The blanket stitching is done by hand and the rest of the sewing and quilting were done by machine.  A combination of traditional straight and free motion meander quilting were used with a variegated blue cotton quilt thread.

The project came together very quickly with two people working on it together.  Needless to say, the parents were thrilled and baby Max loves his quilt.

WIP Wednesday

Welcome back!

Quick post today (such a busy week!)  It came to my attention that it's been some time since I last shared an update on my Nice People, Nice Things embroidery quilt.  I'm currently working on the final month's set of blocks but it's been slow going (but going).

How adorable is that little ladybird family?

Linking up to Freshly Pieced:

WIP Wednesday

Welcome back!

Well, I have officially returned to work this week and while it's always a bit sad to see the summer holidays come to a close, I will especially miss having all of this extra leisure time to sew and quilt.  There are, of course, evenings (work too late, come home far too tired) and weekends (AKA recovery & errand-running days) but it's just not the same.

So, a quick update on the statue of my Diamond Jubilee jelly roll race quilt.  Saturday morning I got up early and sewed like a banshee to get the binding on this quilt so I could take it to work on at guild.  A wee bit stressful?  Yes, yes indeed.

After guild (and a seriously much-needed nap), I spent the remainder of the afternoon out on the balcony, enjoying the good weather, listening to some Paperclipping Roundtable (nothing quite like mixing and matching your hobbies) and hand stitching that binding down.

While I do enjoy building quilt blocks and seeing a design come together, I think it's hand stitching the binding at the end that I actually love the most and look forward to during a quilt project.

And of course I had some help...

Linking up to Freshly Pieced:

Gone Sewing

Summer has finally come to southern Sweden!

It's been pretty ridiculous, to tell the truth - still wearing winter boots, socks, jackets and gloves when cycling right up to July.  It's not normally like that here but we keep having Arctic winds blast through - brrr!  According to the forecasts, it's just here for a week so I jumped at the opportunity to spend time at friends' cottage in the warm weather and of course do some sewing while we were at it.

We worked on a baby quilt for friends, who had their baby last November (so yes, we're a little behind the game).  It's an adorable mix of different textured fabrics, including cotton, flannel and chenille and some Heat n'Bond style applique.  We spent about a day and a half hand stitching the applique down and enjoyed some fruit smoothies and Pimms with strawberries in the process - yum!

Hand stitching done, I sat outside with the machine and joined all of the blocks together, then added the borders.  I'd not sewn with chenille previously and I admit, it was a bit tricky.  It had a tendency to slip around so extra pins were useful to keep it in place.  At other times, the walking foot seemed to have trouble feeding it along and it would need a little push to move forward, which I discovered could also cause the thread to break - annoying.  But I persevered and it came together easily enough, despite all that.

Then we sandwiched the layers using fabric glue - I don't think I'll ever go back to basting and pinning ever again!  I got to work doing all of the straight quilting and my friend Ingrid will later do all of the meander and echo quilting.  I stitched in the ditch between the blocks and borders, stitched a square around the chenille blocks and one inch diagonal stripes over the nine patch blocks.  Then in the borders we made a zig zag pattern.

Not too shabby for four days of work!  We should hopefully finally be able to pass along this quilt by later this month.  Stay tuned for photos from that event.