Designing a Medallion Quilt

It has been a long while since I last made a medallion quilt.

I made  a Marcella Medallion by Alexia Abegg in 2014 for a fabulouc friend who turned 40. The quilt is being loved and used by my friend and family - including the dog!

When I finished the quilt I had plans to make another medallion quilt for another friend who also turned 40 in 2014. But I had run out of mojo and inspiration by then ,I couldn't find the right fabric and pattern. It felt like I was wading through design treacle!

Then I saw the Blueberry Fabric by Karen Lewis, and I was totally smitten!

I bought some grey Kona - Silver, Iron and Steel to be exact. I like the contrast in the brights of the pink/red and the grey. I then bought the plain Kona fabric to match the Blueberry Park and the Fog pattern from Blueberry Fabric. Now I have bundle of fabrics, both solid colour and patterned.

But what about a quilt design?

I wanted a central star again and I found the wonderful paper piece patterns by Wombat Quilts. If you have never visited Wombat Quilts you are in for a treat. Cath Hall as has gathered a fabulous collection of paper pieced patterns for anyone access. I love this one:

It is called Ellen's Snowball and there an instructions for 12" and 16" blocks. I have chosen the 16".

Next up was getting the quilt designed around the central block... for this the amazing app TouchDraw comes in very useful!

There is a mixture of simple sewing, paper piecing and some blocks I am still figuring out how to piece...

So the journey begins with a central star.... hopefully it will end with a finished quilt by October 2016 when my friend turns 42!

Bunny Cushion!

The birthday party day has arrived and the present was finished with an hour to spare!

The pattern by Elizabeth Hartman was really easy to follow but the cutting out was quite intense because there are pretty small pieces of fabric!

I made the bottom of the bunnies face a little bit bigger so he has a nice chubby face.

Once I had finished the piecing I decided to not quilt the bunnies face apart from the nose and some whiskers. I then concentrated on the background. Into to this I quilted carrots and swirls. A bunny needs carrots after all!

The picture of the finished cushion is not great - no light here today!

I hope that the birtdhay boy loves it as much as I loved making it!

Making gifts...

At the beginning of this year I decided that I would start hitting the massive scraps pile I have generated over 16 years of quilting and make gifts for my family, friends and the boys teachers using them..

A fabulous idea in January, but now the end of the school year is creeping up fast and I have a long list of deadlines, Scouting stuff and general stress...

Anyway, I made a start last week with the blue cushion cover, which I love!

Over the weekend I started experimenting with using the idea to make a pouch. It is no where near finished, but it is looking pretty good:

I mixed scraps with the lovely Quilters Linen I got from M is for Make last week.

As you know I love FMQ, but there is something soothing about just using a walking foot to go in straight lines!

I love that I can pull the smallest scrap from my bin and make it work somewhere in the rose part of the design!

There is a way to go, but they will make perfect presents for teaching assistants - no pressure!

Using up Scraps

Today is my beautiful best friends birthday!

I decided that this year I am making gifts for friends from my fabric scraps. First was my friend's green cushion and then yesterday I made a small table runner for my friends birthday today.

Starting with a colour I know she has in her dining room - I really hope my memory is right! I pulled the scraps from the pixelated heart quilt and started building a strip piece.

I decided I wanted the quilting to stand out and I tried a new quilt pattern - risky move!

I decide to counter the strip piecing and quilt large curing flowers that run into each other. Great fun! And they added a really nice texture to work. The back is light grey so showed up the texture of the quilting really well.

This is my first go at the design and I got some of the scale off, but I love the overall effect of the flowers running into each other.

The scale of the quilt is just right to put into the middle of the table and put a vase on!

This morning I found this amazing wrapping paper. Patchwork and flowers! Perfect for my gorgeous friend!

Making presents from scraps is working so far!

Linking up with Free Motion Friday.