Another quilt top

I have been a busy little bee this week!  This in part has been helped by (i) the hibernation-inducing terrible weather, and (ii) a poorly baby boy who has just wanted to snooze most afternoons.

This quilt is going to be for a baby boy named Oliver and is my first attempt at an hourglass type quilt.  Challenging doesn't even begin to describe the process - the sewing was hard work and squaring the blocks nearly drove me slightly demented!  The corners aren't perfect but I am quite pleased with the result.  If I were doing it again I would probably choose one more print as the colour placement wasn't easy.  The project is shown here all ready for quilting.  I hope to get it done by the weekend to off-load it to it's new owner.

Quilt top

I finished the snowball quilt top last week and I am very pleased with it :-).  I wasn't entirely sure if there would be too much red in the finished article, but on balance I think I've managed to get away with it.  This is probably due to the fact that the corner triangles have a teeny print compared to the other red blocks.  

The quiltroom had a special offer on Moda Bella Solids last week so I've ordered some gray fabric for the back of the quilt.  So far I'm undecided about what exactly to do about the back - I'm not sure if I should keep it plain or go with a pieced version as a lot of scraps were generated in making the snowball blocks.  Time will tell!  I'm in no rush to put it all together yet as I've a couple of baby quilts I'd like to finish up this week. 

Happy Easter

My Big Girl and I made these decopatched eggs for Easter. The eggs are made of polystyrene, purchased at Hobbycraft, and decorated with tissue paper and PVA glue. Hours of, albeit sticky, fun for little girls!

Hope you are having a lovely Easter day - Christ is risen!

Baby Washcloths

I have never known so many pregnancies amongst people I know - my craft life can hardly keep up (my knitting certainly can't!). This was a quick little gift I made for my friend's baby boy - baby washcloths!

They are very simply made using a 10" square of terry towelling (bought in a local fabric shop) and a 10" square of a funky children's print (Ikea!). These were sewn, right sides together, around the edge leaving a small gap for turning. After turning the gap was stitched up, then the washcloth was topstitched around the edge with my walking foot.

I maaaaay post a tutorial of the above, complete with pictures - am undecided as yet as am sure there are hundreds of baby washcloth tutorials in the blogosphere already!

Anyways.... I made three washcloths and arranged them in a bundle, tied them with baby boy ribbon and made a handmade gift tag. A very quick, simple but effective gift which hopefully will be well used.

Four seasons in one day...?

Four seasons in one day - or rather in one month! Last week we had glorious spring like weather. It was warm and dry and sunny. I enjoyed running along the seafront and cafe crawling with sitting outside none the less!

Spring had sprung in the National Botanical Gardens

(The great glass house)

(Glorious blue sky and magnolia)

(carpet of hyacinths)

Flash forward to today and it is grey, and cold. I snapped this picture of the tree opposite my house this morning - dark, moody sky.