Cuddly Koala cushion

One of Kristy @ Quiet Plays patterns that I have wanted to make for a while is the cute Koala from the Zoo series.

 The pattern was fairly easy to do but the eyes were certainly a challenge - such tiny pieces!!

Once the koala was pieced, I decided to make it into a cushion so added some borders to make it fit an 18" pillow form.

And did some cross hatch quilting before binding it in the pale blue.

The perfect spot for a photo of the finished cushion was in front of a eucalyptus tree.

And I even found a koala in one of the gum trees at the university near where I live.

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory. 

This was on my FAL Q3 list for this year so linking up with the 2016 FAL team.

Kirsten.

Christmas Lane quilt

With only 3 months until Christmas, now is the perfect time to be thinking about seasonal decor. This is my version of the "Christmas Lane" quilt by Elaine (@elaine.summercrafter on IG) that I pattern tested for her earlier this year and which can now be purchased here.

Being in Australia, it is summer at Christmas time so quilts are not often used, but we do have "Christmas in July" so a themed quilt is perfect for our winter.

I chose one of my favourite fabric ranges to use - Blitzen by Basic Grey as I loved the minty greens with the contrasting deep red and soft browns.

The quilt features a holly and berries border along with some cute picket fences inbetween the houses.

The pattern was easy to follow and fairly straightforward to sew as it is mainly chain pieced.

And I had fun selecting prints for the various "decorations" in the houses along the lane. 

The decorations in the houses include baubles, trees, wreaths, gifts and peppermint candies, with a strips of lights across each one.

I used the Serpentine stitch again to quilt along the horizontal seams about every 2 inches so it is still lovely and soft. 

The backing was pieced using one of the leftover tree blocks and the Britten Nummer fabric from Ikea. 

And my little quilt inspector even went for a stroll along the Christmas Lane...:)

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory.

Kirsten.

Scrappy Christmas Star

One of the projects I am working on is some Dwell houses using Christmas fabrics.

After making the roof pieces, there are some HST leftover and I thought that I would try to use them in another project.

After browsing through Pinterest, I came across the Scrap Jar Stars tutorial by Amber @ A Little Bit Biased and decided to make a block using her great tutorial.

I found a few more little Christmas print scraps to use for the patchwork piece in the centre of the star.

And it didn't take very long to sew it all together - I might still add borders to make it into a pillow.

Linking up with Scraptastic Tuesday hosted by Leanne @ She Can Quilt and Nicky @ Mrs Sew and Sew.
Kirsten.

Canyon Patchwork Swoon

As soon as I saw the gorgeous colours in Kate Spains new Canyon fabric, I knew that it would be just perfect to use in a quilt for my daughter.

I bought a jelly roll from my LQS and decided to make a "Patchwork Swoon" quilt as the original Swoon pattern is one of my all time favourite designs.

As usual, Camilles patterns go together quite easily - a combination of strip piecing and clever pressing means that most of the seams nest together neatly.

The hardest part for me was trying to get a good "random" mix of colours and patterns in each of the 16 patch blocks.

(source)

I had a slight disaster towards the end - I like to use steam for my final press and when I refilled the water it came out all brown and messy on one of the white sections in the middle of the quilt (of course!!!).

But through my tears of frustration, I was able to quickly unpick and resew another piece of white to remake the HST and stitch it all back together again.

And the next day I went out and bought a new iron...

I sent the quilt to be quilted by Karen at my LQS Rainbow Patchwork and she used a pattern called "Gingersnap"  which was a fun mix of circles and swirly loops. 

The final borders are slightly wider on my quilt so it finished at 75" rather than the 72" in the original pattern so it will be just a little bigger for a Queen sized bed.

The backing is a Carolyn Friedlander widescreen in grey which matched the Canyon Serape Aloe binding nicely.

Happy 21st to my gorgeous girl!!

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory.

This project was on my FAL Q3 list for this year so linking up with the 2016 FAL team.

Kirsten.

"Skipping Stones" Ocean and Earth quilts

A few years ago I saw the fabulous Water and Woods "Plus" quilts made by Carla @ Coraquilts for her teenage sons using Curious Nature fabric by Parson Gray (aka David Butler). 

She inspired me to use the two colourways of the same fabrics to make my twin sons a quilt each for their 18th birthdays.

These fabrics were released quite a while ago now, and Parson Gray has even had a few more amazing fabric ranges out since.

The first quilt was actually started almost a year ago (50 weeks according to IG) at a quilt class using the "Skipping Stones" pattern by Cindi McCracken.

I used the blue toned fabrics from Curious Nature by Parson Gray to make the "Ocean" quilt.

The pattern calls for a few solids so I also used a denim blue, light grey and slate coloured solid for the border.

Karen from Rainbow Patchwork here on the Northern Rivers, NSW did the long-arm quilting on both of the quilts using a similar pantograph to the one she used for my Chicopee Feathers quilt a few years ago.

After seeing how well the first quilt came together, I started another version with the earthier green tones from Curious Nature.

This version uses a solid in "Iron" along with the same light grey from the "Ocean" quilt.

This quilt has a lighter grey backing which again shows off the quilting perfectly.

I added an extra set of blocks so used 48 rather than 36 jelly roll strips and the quilts ended up at about 65 x 85" which is a good size to lay across a bed.

Wishing both of my boys a very happy 18th birthday!!

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday @ Quiltstory. 

Kirsten.