Quilting this little quilt

Made this little one completely out of my leftovers from another baby quilt.  It will be a donation quilt for the neonatal unit in one of our hospitals...not sure which one to send it to yet.  Hoping to get another couple done before I send it off,  It's good to be able to finish something quickly.

Managed to get some practice with my ruler foot on my domestic machine.  Quite different action compared to my long arm machine I had to let go.  Enjoying learning though, and the Janome 9450QCP is such a lovely machine to quilt with.

We had to have the approval of the quilt controller, of course.  Travis takes this position very seriously.

I do love they different textures and patterns you get on the back of quilts with the different types of designs.

Very satisfying to add to the finished list.


















Thank for popping in.  I have kept this post short as still recovering from catching dear husband's bugs.  A chest infection takes a bit of working through for me, but getting there now.  Plodding through quilting one of the other baby quilts I finished last post.

Take care everyone.  Hugs and blessings to you all.

Clare

Let the Sunflowers shine...

Way back in September 2011, I visited my online quilting friend in small town Kansas - Parsons to be exact.  It was a very special time for me and I so enjoyed meeting Barbara and her daughter Jackie.  Because of Parsons geographical position, it was easy to visit four states within a couple of hours - it sits near the crossroads of Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas and Kansas.  Such fun!
While I was there, Barbara asked me to give a talk to her local guild, then it became a few of the little outlying guilds until we ended up with 70 plus people.  It was a lovely evening of showing off our fabulous New Zealand with an awesome DVD of Central Hawkes Bay and other lovely stuff.  At the end of the evening, the President was thanking me and out came this positively massive bag of fabric!!  Unbeknownst to me, the entry fee was a fat quarter of fabric.  Oh my, I got all sorts of amazing fabric gifted to me and some pieces were way more generous.  Most of it had to be posted home as we couldn't fit it all in my bag!!

The reason I have told you this big long story is that I had  around 17 different sunflower fabrics in this amazing collection that I had not really touched in the last 8 years.  However, my (step) daughter was going to turn 50 last month, and I had asked her a year or three before if she would like a quilt.  As Shala is a very good sewist and has made a few quilts herself, I hadn't got around to asking.  The answer was an emphatic Yes!  Then it turned out that she loves sunflowers!  Oh yes again!!  Out came my stash and Shala chose basically all the fabric that had sunflowers on it.  Well Shala's 50th birthday was looming up and I decided about July that I would have a go at getting it ready as her birthday gift for when she came down on 29th September to celebrate with us.

Here you go with a couple of photos and I am smiling so much you wouldn't believe it.

This is one of the two large blocks in the quilt.  It's a beautiful piece  of fabric and the sunflowers just glow.
All the fabrics have come out of my stash, so this quilt managed to make a little bit a reduction, Yay,

 

 I was determined not to put any fabric back in  my stash, so used all the large pieces left to make up the back.  It actually came out really well,

Here is Shala with her quilt.  It was very windy so the quilt would not co operate with laying flat.  Never mind.  I actually managed to quilt it myself as well,  My awesome Tuesday girls pin basted it for me and I did an all over meander on it using a lovely So Fine mustard gold that blended beautifully with all the colours of the quilt.  Looked good as it didn't need anything fancy as the sunflowers were the stars, and then my fabulous Tuesday girls helped again with stitch down the back of the binding,

I can't tell you how amazing getting this quilt finished on time made me feel, as I do have a bit of a struggle with my health issues.  But God was so good to me and gave me the strength and tenacity to keep on and achieve something so filled with love for this very precious member of our family.

Now onto the next quilt...

Thank you for sharing my joy of this quilt and I'll look forward to showing you my next achievements.  I hope you are all having a great time with your quilting and your families.

Many hug and blessings to you all,

Clare

linking with Oh! Scrap here

Almost there...

I have been making a huge effort to get all the blocks finished with Bradley's string quilt...there are only 4 more to go. Just as well as my bin is getting very empty, especially with the longer strips for the middle.
It is just too hot to be outside at the moment, so apart from watering (every 2nd day, hand held hose only) I stay inside.  Means I can stitch for more hours than usual. Tomorrow I have to quilt a small top for my friend, so wont get them finished until Thursday.

Tyson was checking things out though.  You can see how dry our grass is.  No need to mow, except for the edges of the garden where we water.
The snapdragons (antirrhinums ) have really come on and are flowering beautifully.  They were tiny little self-seeded plants from my sister in laws.  All different colours too.






Thanks for popping in again.  See you again soon.

Hugs and blessings
Clare

Linking to Cynthia Brunz @  Oh Scrap   Take a look, you will love her quilts.

Pretty in Pink Baby Quilt

Finally arrived back to say hi.  Have not been doing a lot of stuff, but did manage to make two baby quilts to give away.  Loved doing something small and pretty.  Used up scraps with both of them, although confess to having bought a couple of pink fat quarters for one, plus a pink binding fabric.  My stash does not contain a lot in the way of pink.  Anyway, forgot to take photos of the first one, so here are the photos of the second one.

Love the little pops of yellow.  The backing fabric I found in my stash too, so that was an extra bonus.  Gives two sides to this quilt.  Loved the wavy stitch on my new Janome 9400.  It looks great the way it stands out on the white squares and adds a little texture.

Now it's back to grandson's quilt as you go blocks.  I am now up to 17 done, 23 to go.  Jessica's is finished but not quilted...will give you pics when finished completely.

Short post as just get too tired these days.
Have a great week and will catch you again some time.  Thanks for coming back to see me.

Hugs and blessings

Clare

Linking to Cynthia Brunz @ Oh Scrap.  Link is on the side of this post.  Take a look, you will love her quilts.

Still alive and stitching...

Oh dear, sorry everyone but it's been a bit of a rough time lately and finding the energy to write a blog was just not there.  We lost our eldest grandson to suicide and can only encourage you to talk to your grandies and let them know how much you love them every time you see them - as I'm sure you do.  Thank you for your patience.

I have managed to do a little stitching with my granddaughter's quilt having one side of the frame to go on and then the final border.  Definitely progress, but quite slow.  It has been a very fiddly finishing off process which I just hate with a quilt.  It is going to be simple, simple, simple from now on!!

Have been very spoilt - this is what I have been playing with today!!!

Not sure if the video is going to work.

Look at this gorgeous machine - a Janome MC9400 QCP no less.  Just happened to have a customer purchase my almost new 8900QCP Special Edition and that has enabled me to upgrade.  Wowee, how posh is that then.  I was so annoyed when I upgraded just a few months ago and then Janome brought this lovely new baby out.  When you are selling to a lot of quilters, it's important to have the top machine, now I am set.  Well, those are all my excuses and I'm sticking to them, hehe.

So while I was trying to decide what to practice on because it was Tuesday Chat day and no room to play with borders, I decided it was time to make a move on my box of 2 inch squares.  Had seen Cynthia Bunz's blog here and it inspired  me to get cracking.  Some of these fabrics are probably almost 20 years old so time to use them up.

They are coming along nicely.  Still far too many squares in the box, so might have to do some more yet.  Thought I might put a bright border around next.




Off to hospital on Monday 12th September to have the pesky gall bladder removed.  Hopefully all will go well with the recovery as I have these breathing issues.  Any prayers offered up will be most gratefully received.

Cats are still ruling the house and we are at their beck and call.

Bye for now and talk again soon.

Blessings
Clare