Well......

I'm on holiday but have not done any quilting! Oops. I was going to bring the batting and front and backing with me to baste it together while on holiday - but once I had that in my suitcase I had no room for any of my clothes so I had to reconsider. Its been a good holiday though - good to catch up with family and friends - and also to not have to work. I could easily be a 'lady of leisure' I think.

While I haven't actually been quilting I have been buying more fabric and various notions - and have plenty more on my wishlist. It doesn't take long to build up quite a stash.

I bought a sampler quilt book so  I think I will do that next - a block at a time.

Night Shift

Yuck, I'm on night shifts again this week. I don't seem to do much quilting when I'm on night shifts. I feel to tired and 'spaced-out' during the day to concentrate and end up with wonky seams etc.

I do get a bit of knitting done though - as long as its a more simple pattern where I don't have to concentrate to hard. I'm working on a skirt with lots of ruffles. The ruffles are taking me forever - you start with 120 stitches then knit into the front and back of each stitch, knit a few more rows and then knit in the front and back again - ending up knitting 480 stitches on the row. But it really looks adorable so I'm not complaining (too much!)

Well I'm off to try sleep some more!

Batting

I'll be buying the batting for my quilts this week. I'll have to do some research before I go to the craft shop as I have no idea what type I should get.

I had a look in the shop the other day and there were so many different types.... all with very different costs as well. I want to get a good type of batting as I want my quilts to last, but I can't afford the high end batting either.

I also need to cut and sew my backing to the right size and then I will be all ready to baste. I'm quite excited about basting as it means I will be able to quilt it after! I will probably do straight line quilting for the first quilt and then see if I'm up to something more adventurous for the second one.

My Quilt

I blogged earlier about wanting to be able to create a design for my first quilt that I make for myself. I thought I would share the fabric I am going to use.

Freebird charm squares and jelly rolls.

The backing and binding. The binding is (of course) flannel.

I still have no idea what my design will look like. Most likely I will end up following a pattern.

Mum's Quilt

Here is the second quilt front that I ever made! I can see that I have been able to make improvements in this one. You won't be able to see it in the photo but the corners of the squares meet up much better!

The pieced front is Fandango, the borders are both from a craft store.


The Front

 

A close up of the borders. At first I wasn't sure that the outer border would go with the quilt but I'm glad I chose it now because I love it

 The Backing and binding. Again the backing is flannel. I have some more flannel in my Fat Quarter Shop wishlist as I think it makes lovely, soft and scrummy quilt backings. What could be better on a cold day than being wrapped up in flannel?

This is for my mum, and she will be getting it at Christmas.

Ella's quilt

This is the first quilt front that I have ever finished! I'm quite proud of it.

It may just be a simple design but I spent a lot of time on it and learnt many things about quilting while making it..

The pieced front is from 'Bliss', the inner blue border is from a craft store and the outer border is Bliss again.

Here is an overview of most of the quilt. It's miserable outside so unfortunately this is the best that I could do photo wise :(

Here's a close up of the borders.

Here is the fabric for the back and the binding. The Back is 'Bliss' Flannel so will be lovely and soft to cuddle with.

It's for my little sister (she's 10) and she will be getting it at Christmas.

So what do you think?!?

More Photos..... My Fabric.

I thought I would share my current fabric stash. Last week I took advantage of the strong New Zealand dollar and have increased my stash a bit! Also, and this is a little embarrassing, I got my conversions mixed up and thought that a yard was a foot. As 3 feet are roughly a metre I ordered 3 yards for every metre of fabric that I wanted. And since a yard is not that much smaller than a metre I got much more fabric than I thought I was ordering! Oh well I'm sure I will put it to good use ;)

Here is a quilt kit that I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Various fat quarters that I have, they have come from a variety of stores.

Lots of quilt panels - mostly for baby quilts as I'm at that age when all my friends are announcing they are pregnant. I fell in love with the 'Children at Play' panel and got carried away and bought *cough* seven *cough of them!

I also got some 'Children at Play' fabric -it's gorgeous.

Some Freebird Jelly rolls and Charm Squares.

Some flannel and a binding to match.

Some 'Giddy' Charm Squares.

Currently on my fat quarter shop wishlist is lots of flannel for quilt backings. I also have email reminders set up for a LOT of their coming soon fabrics. At this rate I will need to get a second job to pay for my fabric addiction!