Pink Anyone?

Little girls need warm and cuddly pink things and so my mate asked me to create a quilt for her friends new arrival. Having just 2 evenings to get it done I opted for a basic square within a square pattern - which actually turned out really well, cute as!

I had picked up a sweet little strawberry patterned cotton a few months back and this was my chance to go really cute and girly and use it with some block pink and green. I picked up some really lush thick pink fleece for the backing and used cotton wadding as the filler.

In the end I did very little actual "quilting" stitch on the finished quilt as the pick fleece proved difficult to work with. It was VERY soft and the thread just kept disappearing down into it! Very hard to avoid pinches in the fabric etc. But I got there in the end!

Instead I put my "trademark" love heart on the quilt back but centered it in one of the patchwork blocks so that the heart shape actually created a quilted pattern on the the front of the block.

In the end I was happy my mate was happy and baby was happy so it all worked out. This was my fastest quilt project yet taking just under 6 hours and I loved every minute of it! Raise your glasses to PINK everyone! He He!

hhd

Sample Quiltastic!

My first patchwork class and my first quilt EVER MADE! (Note to self, put up projects in chronological order!)

This was a first introduction to patchwork and obviously, I was hooked. Some of the designs of the patches are a bit old fashioned but it was good to get to know the traditional designed and the techniques needed for them.

The Sun Bonnet Sue actually came out really cute in the end and is lovely for a baby or young girls quilt. I just rather the more mod design I think. This was also my first ever try at appliqué and I fear it was a bit of Sun Bonnet Sue massacre!! Never mind, she survived, ever if she has a few less finger on one hand than she had when I started! Ooops!

I actually cut the backing too small and had to do my (now signature) rescue job. As my teacher said to me "there's no such thing as a mistake, just a new design opportunity" which was true in this case as I really quite like the back now!

Enjoy,

hhd

Baby Girl Patchwork Blanket

Another little niece arrived and with it another opportunity for a homemade gift! I love giving and getting homemade gifts!

So, for little baby girl Sophia I made my second ever patchwork baby blanket. This time I made it PINK and GIRLY with a cosy and fun cow patterned fleece backing. I have started to put a bit of a "signature" padded love heart on the back of all my projects, we will see if it turns into something I adopt as a trademark of sorts...

This blanket has since been washed a million times and is still in one piece so thats a good sign. They use it more often as a play mat rather than on her bed so its good to know it can multi-task and stand up to Sophia's pulling and tugging!

Patchwork baby quilt

A very good friend of mine had a beautiful baby girl, 2 years ago now, hard to believe. I had just started learning how to patchwork and so decided that my first quilt project would be for her little girl, Kerry.

You will see from the photo that it looks like it would be more suited to a little boy but I was working with fabric I had in stock and I have the feeling little Kerry will be a bit of a Tom-boy anyway so went with it!

Strictly speaking I think its a blanket rather than a "quilt" as I did not put any layer of wadding in it. I backed it in a baby blue fleece/flannel that's super soft and cosy. I turned in the edge of the fleece and used it as the binding, which worked well and gives it a cosy edge against her little face.

She has long since outgrown it and I have just finished a cot bed size quilt for her, which I also LOVE and will post patterns and images for it later. Stay tuned!

Some more cushions...

My brother and sister-in-law are both architects and so I thought I would make them a cushion in keeping with their jobs! I was going for a night time row of houses scene and it was a pain in the ass to be honest! The scraps I was using were all different sizes and had to be worked together, and reworked and reworked until the finished block was the right size and shape for my 16" cushion filler I was using. Got there in the end & I think its really cute - if I do say so myself! Ha!

Some Cushions...

OK, so I sew and I love patchwork. So I made a few cushions for some of my family and friends last Christmas. Here they are.

I made these for a friend as a house warming gift as she was going to paint her living room in a pale gold colour, then she changed her mind about the paint and is now stuck with these cushions!! Ah well, never mind!

I think the design is called pinwheel. I think its really pretty. The half square triangles were tricky because the purple patterned fabric is slippery silk and the gold fabric is quite heavy cotton. But it came together in the end.

Hello scary world of blogging. Its me, Hungry Horse.

How does one start this?

Well, as I sit here and wait for divine journalistic inspiration I have realised that posting my first blog feels a lot like walking into your first teen disco. You know that feeling that you have when you really hope your skirt is not accidentally tucked into your knickers?

Well, I have the blogging virgins equivalent of "skirt in knickers" fear. May I just ask any potentials readers out there, if it turns out my skirt is actually stuck in my knickers, please don't make too much fun of me!

hhd