A Bit of Lou Lou Thi

*Picture heavy post coming!*

I am still here - it's been a mamouth month with my 39th birthday (eek! Too close to 40 now!!) and our 3rd Sarah's Cards Ltd retreat at the beginning of the month followed by monthly kit packing, grab boxes and then a nasty cold to contend with. But I have still managed a little sewing

I bought a half yard set of Anna Maria Horner's Lou Lou Thi range from Fabricworm a little earlier this year and have been pondering what to do with it. In the end, I made 3 quilts! It's surprising just how far 5 yards (10 x half yards of print) will stretch when teamed with solids - in fact, I still have enough scraps for a few pots or pencil cases if patchworked together. We'll see. I am trying to build my scraps a little to make a string quilt eventually.

So, for the first, I purchased some Kona Ash from Mandy and set to making another HST Quilt. I had slightly miscalculated, so had to order more for the back, but really like how it came out.

I used the same fabric to make a scrappy binding for this one and quilted on the grey Kona, around 1/4 inch away from the coloured fabric. It makes the colours pop more somehow

The next one I made using Bleach White Kona (almost ivory white - it suited these prints - I think white may just have been a little too stark)

I had intended to make a zig zag quilt using these HST's when I first started but really wanted to see how it would look in this pattern (which is my absolute fave right now!).

I do want to make a zig zag quilt at some point but when you've gone to all the effort of 130 HST's (to include the zig zag on the back) I somehow feel that zig zag is the "easy looking" option. I may try Crazy Mom's Quilts zig zag without the HST's - we'll see!

Finally, I made another stacked coin quilt

I just love this and love love love the colours of these fabrics together. I always lean towards blues, aquas, greens, browns & greys so it was great fun using these brighter prints.

The top grey sashing quilt is finished - the other two have backs but need to be basted & bound - a job for the coming week. All three quilts are destined as presents - I wonder if the recipients can guess which is for them??!

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it Up Friday, week 5 (yes I know that technically it is Saturday here but, hey! It's still Friday somewhere in the world!)

xxx

Alzheimers Quilt

Our Third Sarah's Cards Ltd Retreat is fast approaching (4th - 6th November) and as we did in March, we are holding another raffle for one of my quilts. I have used Moda's "Blush" range. It had to be - this was originally designed for the scrapbooking market by Basic Grey and then licensed to Moda. What better range to use for a scrapbooking retreat? In March at the retreat and a generous donation from my better half, we managed to raise £500 for MacMillan Cancer Care. Can we beat that for Alzheimers this time around? I do hope so!

The back

The sashing and back are all Kona Bleached White. The quilt has been stippled & bound using those Michael Miller Pindot in Cocoa again

Oh, and if this quilt looks familiar - I have already made it quite a few times, including this one for our neighbour's daughter - just a different colour sashing this time around

Thank you to Lianne for holding the quilt up and crouching behind it after bemoaning that it didn't cover her *love you babe*

Unfurnished Quilt is finished!



Measures approx. 45" x  60"


I finished quilting this baby on Friday night, stitched the binding last night and then spent a very happy 3 hrs hand stitching it on whilst watching The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I didn't manage to finish in that time, so spent another couple of hours playing catch up watching Holby City whilst the kids were upstairs having "quiet time" (they decided about 2 weeks ago that they no longer need a lunchtime nap)

I am really pleased with the pieced back - I managed to use some of the fabrics I didn't get onto the front too, which is good

A close up of the binding strip to show where I've added a small piece of the orange flower fabric. I had intended to add this to the bottom right of the quilt with the flowers the right way up, but it was only when I'd machined the binding on (before hand stitching it to the back) that I realised that the quilt was upside down so it is now actually on the top right hand side of the quilt (and upside down). I toyed with the idea of unpicking and restitching, but in actual fact, I rather quite like it there now. I do like to add a bit of contrasting fabric to the binding for interest

This quilt is going to be a raffle prize for our forthcoming retreat in March. We will be raffling this to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. Let's hope it raises plenty!