Quilt Love: Winter Picnic

Many of my quilts are given to friends and family and are for special occasions, but some, they are my keepers. Perhaps i've made them with myself or my family in mind, or maybe i simply fell in love with them and their pretty fabrics while i was making them. They are special to me and they are used in our home and loved for many purposes.

Sometimes we just snuggle under them while watching movies or they keep our guests warm when they come to stay. Others are used on our camping trips, in the van as we hit the road or on picnics. The Hurricane snuggles under one on his bed but he also reckons they make the best cubbies. My husband and i usually snuggle under my favourite.

I've decided to share with you on the blog how my family love our quilts and how quilts are part of our day to day lives. It's my hope you'll enjoy seeing these photos as much as we enjoy creating the quilt love memories.

It's a work in progress and i'll keep adding to it as i collect our memories, but first of all i can share some memories from our recent camping trip to South Durras, a gorgeous part of the NSW South Coast.

We often use our Summer Picnic Quilt when we're out camping or on day trips to the National Parks and Reserves near us. I still love the colours and the bamboo batting and basic straight-line machine quilting are holding up well to the regular washing and outdoor use. I'm so glad we kept it!

Jen

Heather Bailey Charm Along with Ms Midge

My Mum, Norma and I have been having fun participating in Ms Midge's Heather Bailey Charm Swap and Charm Along. I really love the fresh colours and floral tendencies that Heather Bailey combines into her fabric ranges, so i couldn't resist this charm swap. Over the last couple of months Mum has worked hard and has completed a great quilt top. She says this about it.

'This is my first charm swap and I was encouraged to participate by my daughter, Jen. I found it challenging to be given fabrics I hadn't chosen and to use colours I normally avoid, but I soon realised that all the colours and patterns had been designed by Heather Bailey, so from one designer, all different fabric colours would melt together into a harmonious whole'.

'Of course, loving gardens, my choice of pattern was to imitate rows of flowers, all unique, but growing beautifully together. I hope, in a small way, I have achieved that. By the time the double bed quilt is finished with the edging on, I will have used every scrap of my 224 charm squares'.

'Thank you Ms Midge for making this possible'.

Norma

As for me, well, I haven't made quite as much progress as Mum, but my quilt top is shaping up nicely and today i managed to play around with the layout a bit while The Hurricane was sleeping.

My Heather Bailey charm quilt is all about half square triangles (HST's) and orange peel petals and was inspired by Amy Gibson's (of Stitchery Dickory Dock) Tuileries quilt which was put together as part of the True Colors blog tour back in January, 2014. She used the True Colors and Lottie Da ranges of Heathers' fabric (read more about it and see some pics here).

 I've decided to sew on my orange peel, petals by hand, so i'm still a long way off getting the quilt top all into one piece.

I'm not sure how to go about quilting something like this, so would love to hear your suggestions if you're happy to share them.

Thanks to Ms Midge for hosting another great charm swap and charm along.

Jen

Linking up with:
- Ms Midge for the Heather Bailey Charm Along and
- Lorna for Lets Bee Social 

Play Time - A Travelling Cot Quilt

This cot quilt began in the Australian Capital of Canberra as single, log cabin style block in fresh whites, oranges and turquoise.

Then off it travelled to my Mum, Norma in the Blue Mountains (New South Wales) where she added another block with some pink highlights. Mum and I had agreed to make a travelling quilt; something we could play with. The quilt top travelled back and forth between us like this for several months, growing bigger and more involved and it was always exciting to receive the parcel in the mail and see what Mum had added.

It has been a true collaboration and i reckon it's turned out so well. 

Given the varying styles of blocks and different sizes, i found it difficult deciding how to quilt it. I wanted it to be special, so decided to try and quilt each section with something to suit it. In some places, like around the triangles, i've stuck with quilting in the ditch.

My favourite section to quilt was the wonderful Kathy Doughty (Material Obsession) Sunburst Star (p116. of Making Quilts...the promise of joy) and given its size, has ended up being a real feature of the quilt. I also like how the petals have tuned out inside the improv drunkards path.

The wool/polyester batting gives the quilt a really great loft and makes the quilting stand out well.

We recently spent a winter weekend down the coast and i enjoyed taking some photo's of this quilt before washing it ready to send off to it's new owner. It was test driven by The Hurricane and given full approval for warmth and drying capacity!

This quilt has been posted and travelled all the way to Rainbow Beach in Queensland, where it is now keeping its new owner Olivia (3months), warm on these winter nights. Sleep sweet Olivia. We hope you will have fun playing with your quilt, feeling all the textures, looking at the fresh colours and snuggling underneath it.

Quilty Specs:
Size:               Approx. 34" x 50"
Quilt top:       Various 100% cotton, made by Jen and Norma
Batting:          Wool/polyester
Backing:        Various 100% cotton
Quilted by:     Jen using a pale blue 50wt Aurifil thread.

Thanks for stopping by,
Jen

Linking up with;
- Lorna for Lets Bee Social and
- Amanda Jean for Finish it Up Friday