2nd Sophie Quilt

Finally got around to quilting my second Sophie Quilt, made in a rail fence design from Moda's Sophie jelly roll. I struggle to prevent the fabric ruching/ rucking up when machine quilting, even when I release the presser foot pressure, lengthen the stitch AND use a walking foot! However! I have found a solution! I'd never tried free motion machining with a darning foot and no feed dog. Wow! Quilting finally works for me! I was familiar with this method for machine embroidery, darning etc, but thought I would have the same problems with the walking foot when used for quilting, so never tried it. I'm so glad I did; I feel so much more confident about quilting now- I usually dread that part of quilt-making!! I used a simple vermicelli/ wandering/ swirly pattern. Getting your hands and feet coordinated takes some practise, but I'm really happy with the result.








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Patchwork Cushion Covers

Finally completed three hand-pieced, patchwork cushion covers, coming to Etsy soon!



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Africa Purchases

Seems like ages ago I went shopping in Swakopmund in Namibia and found some beautiful telephone wire bowls to send home to my mum. Interestingly, they are constructed starting at the top of the bowl.

I also found her this lovely cushion cover, hand embroidered by African women through a charity run to support them.

We stopped off along a dusty, Namibian road and looked at the bog standard tourist souvenirs, such as carved figurines. Beneath the junk, I spotted this handmade quilt top. The lady was reluctant to part with it, but I managed to persuade her. I'm not sure if I should leave it as it is or make it into a quilt.

Aunt Em's Quilt Patterns

I spotted this design on Moda's website, United Notions. It's an Aunt Em pattern found here. I love the retro feel of the clam shells pattern and the circle design is quite unique-looking. I'm guesing the clam shells are appliqued or pieced, but haven't purchased the PDF pattern yet. Very tempted to try to work it out myself. The fabric is Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda.

Also love the beach ball pattern using the same fabric:

Anthropologie/ APC Quilts

My favourite shop, Anthropologie, and one of my favourite designer brands, APC, have teamed up to create these gorgeous quilts made from scrap fabrics. I really love the flying geese designs below. Find them here.

Finished Dresden Plate Quilt

I have finally finished my Dresden plate quilt hand-pieced in repro feedsack fabrics. I only did a small amount of machine-quilting: a shadow stitch around each plate. I bound it in blocks of the feedsack fabrics.

Parson Gray

Parson Gray is a new line of fabrics from David Butler, husband of Amy. Find his new range of geometric, earthy, masculine fabrics here.

Finished Sugar Pop Quilt

Finished Sophie Quilt #1

Finally completed my first Sophie Quilt. I attempted ditch-stitching to quilt it, but this never seems to go well for me... I ended up stitching simple diagonal lines across it instead, which has worked well with the simple rail fence design. I used a natural batting as I much prefer this for quilting. I am going to list this for sale on Etsy.

Gee's Bend Quilts

I heard about these amazing quilts a while ago, but stumbled upon a recent post on Deb Rowden's quilt blog. I searched for some images and found these. So original, modern and colourful and all made using recycled fabrics. Gee's Bend is a small, African-American town in Alabama- for a more comprehensive history see this website.

Quilt progress

This is such an easy quilt to make from a jelly roll: just sew the long strips together, chop into squares then arrange into a rail fence design.






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