French Chevrons

I've been working my way through the 'Pillow Pop' challenge on Threadbias and have now finished my February cushion/pillow - a day late - but done.

'Chevron' by Brooke Biette.

I used a mixture of French General fabrics.  I've liked these for a long time and have quite a stash of them, but now find myself drawn to brighter colours when fabric shopping.  However Kaari Meng's fabrics really blend well with our home.  I love her reds and tans... so timeless!

I was inspired to use this colour range when looking at the 'Pillow Pop' group pictures and am really pleased with it.  I actually like it more than the original in the pattern.

I used some red Essex linen on the back and because of the extra weight I didn't quilt the back.  The handwriting fabric is from 'Fa-la-la-la-la' by French General.

 It's quite different than my first 'Pillow Pop' cushion but I'm very happy with both!

Linking up with 'Finish it up Friday' at Crazy Mom Quilts.  :-)

Have a good weekend everybody!

Cushions for Two

I had started making both my mother and my father-in-law cushions (pillows) for Christmas.  For both I had found a block that I really liked - and from that decided to make them into cushions.

Despite good progress I did not get either of them completely finished in time for Christmas - but they are now...

I made the tractor cushion for my father-in-law because he has a vintage Farmall Cub from the 1950s tucked away.  It doesn't come out very much but I know he treasures it.  I saw this tractor block tutorial by Lori Holt of 'Bee in my Bonnet' - but it was made in green - so I had to play around with colour placement to get it to match the Farmall (as well as our Case/Internationals).  Lori gives great instructions... I must try another one some day!

The cushion measures approx 22" by 18".  I did get the whole outer finished in time for Christmas (it has a grey cotton duck backing with my favourite zip technique) and all I had to do today was make an inner.

As a cushion it was hard to photograph - it kept appearing to have flat tyre - it looks much better in real life!

The second cushion was made for my mum because she loves her chooks too.  The block is one I have adapted from other hen blocks I have seen on the web.  I used leftover fabric from this quilt I made for her last year using French General's 'Petite Odile' range.  I had managed to only get the top of this finished done for Christmas so my mum will be pleased to see it backed and filled - ready to lounge on her bed!

I quilted the front using a grey thread in an attempt to make it look like chicken wire - but am not that pleased with the effect that it created.  I quilted the back using more of the same French General fabric - so it is a very cuddly cushion.

I'm linking up with 'Finish it up Friday' on Crazy Mom Quilts.  See you there!

Almost blown away... and a quilt to share

At the top of my to-do list has been a quilt for my mother - and five days ago I finally finished it.  I went out on Monday and took photos, then on Tuesday we had the strongest winds I've ever known - I think they were the worst in forty years.  Canterbury, NZ, is known for strong north-west winds that come over the Southern Alps and gust across the plains.  Luckily no-one was hurt and most of the damage is to trees,  power lines and irrigators - and so we have had no electricity for three days.

Everything is now back to normal - and we were lucky we had a generator, a log-burner and gravity fed water in the meantime.  K even enjoyed running around with torches and getting to see almost as many candles as a birthday party.

So... here is the latest quilt I have finished.

It is made with a jelly-roll of 'Petite Odile' by French General.  I had seen a picture of a quilt made like this then tracked down this tutorial on how to do it.

I really free motion quilted it using this fantastic tutorial from Oh Fransson! and although I have certainly not made the most even shapes, they look quite good as a whole.  I did 'stitch-in-the-ditch' between each 6" square to add extra stability.  The size of my squares was on the big side for quilting like this - but it worked.

Once again I've had great fun taking photos in my garden -

 

 You can almost see in this picture (above) that I backed the quilt with some more of this FG fabric and used the same fabric for the binding.

So 'Happy Belated Birthday' Mum... I hope you enjoy your quilt... I'm looking forward to giving it to you in a month's time.

Here are two pictures of the damage the wind this week did to trees...

...this is a large cedar that fell in the garden - luckily I was wanting it down anyway - and it fell in exactly the right place, avoiding the rhododendrons around it.

... and this is a plantation near us - that was a whole block of trees, once.

I'm going to try linking this all up with 'finish it up Friday' on 'Crazy Mom Quilts'.  My first time trying this - we'll see if it works.  :-)