Happy Sunday everybody! How is your Anzac weekend going? Here in central Queensland the weather has been extremely good: blue sky, lots of sun and finally a nice temperature. Perfect for yesterday Anzac’s dawn service.
In the last few weeks I’ve been trying to fit a shirt. I’ve put aside the Granville and swapped it for B5678, which suits my body shape a bit better. It still needs loads of adjustments to fit me right and I’m on my third muslin right now, trying to understand what to change to make it better. It’s not an easy path and I feel quite overwhelmed and not up to the task, but I’ll get there eventually. I’m a bit demotivated and to get my sew-jo back I thought to make something fun and easy.
An Italian friend is about to have a baby boy and mum asked me to make something for him. I initially thought about knitting a little cot blanket, but then I’ve seen this lovely circus themed fabric panel and decided to make a quilt instead. I find those animals so cute that I couldn’t resist!
Needless to say, it has been a much easier project than the first quilt I’ve ever made. All I had to do here, was to chose a backing, sandwich a layer of batting in between the two pieces of fabric and quilt it. No need of joining any piece together, so it has been a very quick make too.
I’ve used my sewing machine for the longest and straightest lines and quilted the smallest details by hand instead. It has been my first go at hand quilting and I’ve quite enjoyed the process: it’s obviously quite slow, but once you get the hang of it, stitches flow faster and faster.
As you can see, there are a few ‘bubbles’ here and there. That’s all the fault of my sewing machine that decided to start changing stitch length by itself, creating very small stitches now and then. I couldn’t understand why – my sample came out perfect! – so I’ve decided to leave the stitching as is and call those bubbles a design element. Next week I’ll bring the sewing machine to the mechanic and see what happens.
For the binding, I’ve used some poplin I had in my stash which matches very well the dark blue of the panel and the red and white polka dots of the backing. I really like all these fabrics together, I think they create a very happy quilt. So, that’s what I’ve been up to lately – plus a gorgeous red Ondawa on my needles. What are you making instead?
Carly in Stitches 
Cute quilt! Yesterday’s weather perfect for Anzac Day services throughout NZ as well :) Today is a little overcast, with rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow, which we get to enjoy as a holiday, thanks to the Monday-isation of Anzac Day by our government this year (or was it late last year?). They also did it for Waitangi Day. Yay! :)
That’s not fair! No holiday here on Monday :(((
I know, my sister in Brisbane said the same thing! :) It’s one of the few (very few) good things our present government has done in the last few years ;)
Carly, what a great present, very effective and looks more complicated than you describe.
Thank you, Janice! Believe, it’s not complicated at all, trust the words of a non-quilter! ;)