AJ's Antics

Not a WIP quilt but still a finish in this house! Only sneek peeks at this stage til it gets delivered.

Not only did I finish 1 'Spot' quilt top I finished 2! And 2 lots of binding and 2 lots of backing and I made 2 quilt sandwiches! Ok so the house is still a mess, nobody ate any real food today just snacks and Aden watched way too many eposides of the Octonauts (the same one on repeat...he loves Orcas ) but a had a very busy, tough week at work and I needed some time out doing something I enjoy. I'm sure I'll pay for it tomorrow when there will be twice as much work to catch up on.....I have very bad quilters guilt at the moment!  

A late night last night and the final out border added at 8:30 this morning = a finished top! I only intended it to be a play quilt but it fits perfectly on Aden's single bed. I guess with 3 older brother little Zebby is going to need a bit more room to play with them all at once!  Now to get to sandwiched and quilted before the end of the week!

I know I know I know!! I'm supposed to be finished WIP's this year not starting new quilts! But I did explain in my last post about how I thought the 'Roadworks' quilt was too grown-up for a baby and had to make something else. Well a long-ish trip to SL today, most it it spent chasing Aden and his trains, which he kept pushing under the shelves for me to retrieve, had me come away with some fabrics to go with the ' Spot ' panel I'd seen last week. Another customer in SL, who informs me she used to teach quilting classes, was very helpful at deciding that the fabrics I had picked worked really well together. She continued to pull out more fabrics but we kept going back to my originals. It is always nice to have a second opinion on your fabrics. The blue and yellow are from my stash at home. The striped micro-dot  (from my stash) to the right will be for the backing. This doesn't include the panel which I have now actually decided not to use! Her...

These came together really quickly. I'm gald I stuck with the 2nd light purple 'castles'. After looking at the photo's I'd taken on the blog I was worried that they didn't have enough 'pop' but I didn't want to unpick my lovely points so stayed with the more matchy 2 light purples....and they look great! Even if I do say so myself! (Blogger turned my photo...how do I turn it back??) I've decided to twist the pinwheels around to give the blocks more movement and add some green 'linen' looking quilting fabric for the sashings. Now to get it all together with a final border and then to think about quilting....I have 2 weeks left to finish it! Those massive piles of books in the background is the real work I'm supossed to be doing....quilting is much more fun wouldn't you agree?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book! When I saw is was available in fabric I just had to have some. I share my love of children's books with Megs. And I knew she would just love it too. Megan and I met in Grade 4 when she moved to my school. And we've been friends ever since. She is one of those people that you can talk to about anything. She is wonderfully genuine, honest, loving and a fabulous person to have standing behind you. Although we went to different high schools, had different groups of friends and haven't lived near each other for the last 10 years...when we get together it is like we saw each other just last week! Our visits are just too far apart but with 4 boys between us to look after sometimes life is just to busy. So when we do catch up it is a wonderful mix of reminiscing, babies (and a passion for baby names), books, husbands, families and current events. The conversation just flows (and is side tracked many times). It is always sad when she leaves. Today, Megan ...

Finished and ready to post! I used a pink check from the same line of fabrics for the backing and a stripe for the binding.

Two weeks in a row!! Yeah!! DH's cousin had a little girl last Monday...Imogen Meleisha was a tiny 5lbs 1oz and a few weeks early!! I'm not really sure if they are the 'homemade present' type of people, but as Imogen was the 4th great-grandbaby but the first girl and they knew whe was a girl before she was born I'm sure they have everything under the sun for her...execpt a quilt of course! Made the quilt tops Musk , Marshmellows , Butterfly Dreams and Strawberries and Cream back in January of 2008. Marshmellows went to Alannah and Strawberries and Cream went to Annaleisa So I dug out Musk for Imogen...I'm saving Butterfly Dreams for someone special...if it is a girl this time!! Anyway while Aden had a 30 min cat nap today I chose some backing and binding fabrics, ironed them, swept the floor enough to have a clear space in the playroom, made a quilt sandwich and re-threaded the machine with pink varigated cotton... and that is as far as I got... until this aft...

Just layed out on the floor...stupid blogger rotating my pics...

Despite knowing about this little one (awwwwwwww!!) for quite a while and knowing that it was going to be a boy I just didn't start a quilt for him. Bad Aunty I know!! So now that we are off to visit him soon I just can't show up without a quilt! This is the fabric I've choosen for a quick play quilt ...so brave or stupid colour/fabric choice?? PS It is actually too late and I have started cutting...but I'm still interested in your opinions!

Inspired by Jenn's tumbling quilt I looked up the pattern at the Moda Bake Shop and made one for a new little bubba. Made from 2 charm packs in the the Full Moon Forest fabric. With the purple rabbit for the border and binding and the aqua squirrels for the backing. The pictures are dodgy tonight in the dark room but the quilt is just cute! I love this line of fabric and there is only a little of it left in my stash! Ads...the quilt measures 37" x 42.5" I think it s good size for the pram or nappy bag if visiting friends to not put the baby on the floor Emma...yep echo quilted every second one. I do the thread ends mostly at the end. I just make sure I pull enough thread though to tie them with and try hard not to stitch over the start but just beside it...IYKWIM

Megan's third baby isn't due til mid April and I have lots of others things on the list that need finishing first but when some fabric scraps arrived from Milly after she had finished making her Hungry Caterpillar quilt I got all inspired to start mine. Megan and I share a passion for children's books so what better than a quilt using the Hungry Caterpillar Fabric Using my Idol for inspiration I decided to stop planning and designing and just go for it! I cut up the panel into the three pieces (as they weren't sequential, like in the book and I just could stand that *blush*) re-arranged them and lay down the 'food' scraps to fill in the gaps. Then I raided my stash and cut and sewed til they started looking well...wonky enough! I made three section and added a few sashing strips...and amazingly and totally unplaned it turned out square! But not really big enough so what I want so I added some white borders and corner blocks in the caterpillar fabric. Not at a...

Finished just in time...The baby is due in 4 days and we are going to visit tonight! I'm not totally fussed on this quilt, but the fabric is cute and I'm really gald I got the chance to FMQ an all-over stipple. There is definately room for improvement but I'm really happy with how it turned out. Next time I won't quilt as close together (using less thread, this has over 500 metres in it!!) and it won't make the quilt as stiff or as 'wrinkly' looking. I think it will work well for a baby cot or floor quilt though. The close quilting will make it more 'wash proof' from all the mess babies can make!