Monsters Revealed

So you may remember my monsters a few posts ago?

I’ve finished!

I thoroughly enjoyed the making of it but I must admit, I had some angst in the setting of my blocks.

I had a picture in my head, and it just looked awful.

I had planned to cut a whole swag of 3” squares and sash them around the blocks.  But when it came down to it, it looked just toooooo bright.

I’d tried a few sashings, and the further I went on with it the more wrong it became. 

I must admit it doesn’t look so bad online, but the real life version was wayyyyyy too bright.

So I unpicked it all and sulked for a while.

Then I went over to the next town (150 kilometres away) where I could buy fabrics and I brought one fat quarter of each bright fabric plain I could find.

And then I sashed each block with a different colour.

And hey presto, it actually worked!

I have fallen totally in love with this quilt, and though my brother has asked for it for his son, I may not part with it.

It’s one of the few I’ve actually finished!

I think I probably will give it to my delicious six month old nephew for Christmas this year though, so I will have it for a few months.

It’s a bit difficult to see here, because I’ve artfully cropped out the exact part of the quilt I wanted to show you, but can you see the binding?  I couldn’t find a colour that matched how I wanted it to, so I sewed 3” strips together and made a matchy matchy one.  And it was a buggar of a thing to do (*scuse my language) but I think it was totally worth it.

So there you go, my dears.  A lovely new quilt.  I am quietly thrilled to bits with it.

Hope your quilting days are going well.

Suzie

Customer show and tell

Strictly speaking, these are not my customers.  My lovely mother does a lot of custom quilting for other people and every now and again she quilts something so lovely I have to show it off here.  To be honest, most of the quilts she does are lovely, but we often forget to photograph them.

We didn’t forget to photograph this little beauty though.

I don’t know the designer’s name, nor the name of the pattern.  Sorry about that.

If I understand correctly, this is one of the first quilts this customer has made. I think she’s done a sterling job.

I am particularly impressed with her choice of colours.  I think she’s been very smart at picking almost solids for the body of the animals, with the accent coming from the details.  That way it doesn’t get too overpowering.  And from a girl who’s made her share of overpowering quilts, this is really important.  The less is more rule really applies to quilting, I’ve found.

There is definitely one of these sort of quilts in my future.

It’s so convenient that I have a whole bin of bright fabrics, just waiting for a use.

Could you not just eat this little old lion up?

Mr Giraffe is very sweet too. 

Who said rhinos were dangerous?

I love this little zebra to bits.  I love them all to bits.

Somehow in taking my photos I missed the elephant. 

I think my mother has done an excellent job in the quilting.  After I saw how lovely she had done this one, I let her do my monster quilt.  I was going to quilt that one myself but I realised I’d never in a thousand years do as good a job as she did, so it’s quilted, bound and labelled.  All I have to do is show it to you.

Tomorrow, perhaps.

Hope you loved this little quilt as much as me!

Suzie

Well….

That was a little bit longer of a break than I envisaged.

You know the drill – life gets in the way, I won’t bother explaining. It’s not very interesting.  But while I’ve not been blogging, I have been busy.  And whilst I’m being very productive, none of it seems particularly noteworthy or blogworthy.

But!  I. Have. Finished. Stuff!!!

Want to see?

It’s still a flimsy yet but as you all know by now, flimsies are good enough right now.

I’ve at least cut the binding – it’s a pretty old UFO and I think that I’d never match the fabrics up now.

I really did struggle with my choice of flower, but in the end I used the outer border as an influence.  I found a flower I really liked from the border, enlarged it and appliqued it on.

I look back at all my old quilts, the old UFO’s from so many years ago, and I really wonder what I was thinking.  I like this one, I do – but I have a limited amount of walls, and a limited amount of beds – so why did I make something totally out of my colour choice, in a size too small to be of any use?

Too much time on my hands back then, I think. 

So that’s show and tell for today.  I hope it won’t be another month before I post again, but then again I won’t make any rash promises.

I hope you’ve been happily quilting in my absence!

Suzie