feathering our nest

I've finally, finally, made the cushions I planned at last year's Stitches and Craft show. They are all backed in a beautiful Organic denim from Tessuti. It wasn't the plan to be so extravagent, but I'd bought 5m of it almost a year ago for something "special". and I decided that the beautiful Australian printed linen was definitely "special" enough!

This is winter nest by Kristen Doran - I think I bought this from Kelani at the S&C show last year. Others by Kristen available here.

This I bought from Kelani fabrics, and it's birch by Lara Cameron, also available here. I've also go this in the charcoal on black colour way, which I'm stashing to make a quilt for our bedroom.

This is the quilt I've made to go with them on the couch - not matchy, just co-ordinating which is just the way I like it (unfinished binding hiding in this shot)

And here's the group - you can see the denim which backs them all. the other two cushions are rectangular. One features a strip of birch overlaid on plain linen (which backs the quilt), the other you can glimps I quilted to work in with the border on the quilt.

I'm really pleased with how they look, and how the work in with the couch-quilt (that is nearly finished too - unfinished binding hiding in the photo).

And in other exciting (for me) news - I'm delighted to have won a competition on Able Mae! 'ray!

My stacked coins quilt for our nephew

So I claim to be a sometimes crafter, but you'd never tell!

Here are some pics of my 2nd quilt project, washed and dryed and ready to post to our newborn nephew. Super crinkly - but I quite like that.

This shows it folded, ready to send. Admire the clever herringbone machine quilting pattern: it's puckering because I pulled the backing fabric too tight before basting. We live and learn. I alternated the direction of the stitching, so it does kind of look like it was on purpose (or "a dolphin" as we say at home).

This shows the backing - I loved the chocolate polkadots, and thought they worked nicely to balance all the green and duckegg blue.

And here you can see most of the front. I wanted a casual modern look, and I think the narrow quilted "stripes" achieve that well.

The patterned fabric came from Busy Thimbles - Cherish Nature charm pack. I fell for the egg and butterfly motif, and I'm really happy that the colours are classic with a modern twist.

The charm squares made it a really straight forward project, and removed the risk I felt in having to cut accurately.

Backing and plain fabric from my local patchwork shop. Batting is 100% cotton, so it's not too hot for a littley living in WA.

My SIL says she loves it, which is lovely and I was delighted to find that the duckegg blue was a colour she'd picked for the baby's nursery! Smiles all round.

Woops ahoy

So in other hilarities (posting blank updates included) I've just this minute discovered via http://vintagericrac.blogspot.com/2010/04/call-me-elastic-woman.html that Stitches and Craft is in Caulfield this year. Was it last year? I thought it was the showgrounds in Flemington, and so had happily volunteered to work 3 of the 4 days.

I thought it was an easy 7 minute drive from home. Not so. Au contraire: it's more like a 50 minute drive. Bother, said Pooh.

Getting back in the saddle