Happy Birthday! Surprise - Secret Squirrel is Finished!



Dresden Plate Quilt- Quilting

Ok it's time I confessed and let the cat out of the bag, or rather, the squirrel! Confused? Well, do you remember the Secret Squirrel Quilt?  I actually finished it way back in October, had it quilted in November, popped the binding on a couple of weeks ago and posted it last week! 

It has made its way to a very nice lady. She is very important to our family, she is caring, giving, generous, always there for us and we love her very much. Happy Birthday Faye! 

Now I did take a few photos before I posted it but the only place I had high enough was under the old verandah and the sun was playing peekaboo with the clouds. So between that, the wind and my photography skills....  and yes it is straight and square, its just the wonky old curtain rod I hung it on that has issues.




Dresden Plate Finished Quilt Front

You'll have to excuse the circles, those centres have names of people in our family embroidered on them. Even though those hourglass blocks drove me crazy I'm really glad I kept them in and the pieced binding worked really well, its just enough colour to bring the centre out.



Dresden Plate Finished Quilt Back

I quite like the back, very minimalist with just a pop of colour. and yes, another of those annoying circles :)



Dresden Plate with Embroidered Centre

The other centres(the annoying circle ones) are embroidered circularish(is that even a word?!) like this one above.




Quilting Close Up -  Quilted By Desley Maisano

In this photo you can see some of the lovely quilting feather work done by Desley Maisano at Addicted to Quilts. You can see more of her work here.

Dresden Quilt Label

When I sewed the label on, I tried to fit it nicely inside the quilted outline from the front so as not to spoil the back.

Quilt Stats:   Finished size 75" x 87"
                     Quilt Number 5
                     Pattern - Based on the Moda Bake Shop - Plates for Your Table
                     Fabric - Colours - Plates and Binding - Simple Abundance by Bonnie and Camille
                                   for Moda
                                   Cream Spot - Mill House Inn by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda
                                   Backing - a wideback that didn't have details on the selvedge - sorry
                     Pieced - By Me!
                     Quilted by Desley Maisano at Addicted to Quilts

            
I am so happy to finally be able to share this finish, I've been feeling guilty misleading you by posting work I did ages ago.  I'm also happy to be able to give this to Faye. A fabulous quilter herself who whilst she makes many quilts for others and quilts a lot of tops through her business, has never( I don't think?) had one given to her. So even though I couldn't give it to her personally on her Birthday I'm very relieved that Australia Post didn't lose it and it got there on time!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SECRET SQUIRREL!

Happy Birthday My little Superhero - UP UP and AWAY!

What does a going-to-be-Three year old need for his birthday? A Superhero Cape of course! I based the idea on this superhero cape tutorial I found ages ago. As you know from this ballerina bag I find it hard to follow someone else's design, so I used some newspaper to make my own cape pattern.  In between about 150 games of hide and seek I managed to do a little sneaky measuring without too many questions.

Superhero Cape Pattern

Big brother had helped pick out a colour (a VERY bright green that the camera does not do justice to) so after cutting it out, I then designed some simple superhero-ish applique.  Naptimes this week have been filled with some secret sewing and I finished it off the other night.

Superhero reversible cape

Superhero reversible cape

Of course every superhero needs a mask to hide his identity so with some help again from big brother, I made a template and used two different colours of Eva craft foam, to match both sides of the cape.

I used a fairly close satin stitch to go around the edges. One colour stretched a lot and the whole thing needed a retrim which was pretty awkward, especially around the eyes. I still didn't like the way it looked so I ended up using a sharpie to colour the outside edge and around the eye holes. Voila! Now you will never know who he really is. . . .

Then for Big brother who was an excellent secret keeper I made one too.

A Ballerina Bag.... and the Naughty Corner

Now last year for Christmas I planned and started to make my Goddaughter a Ballerina Bag or a Tutu Bag. Then I got told she was getting a Tutu for Christmas from someone else, so instead I made her a little doll quilt and pillow which, thankfully, she loved.(I'll post some pictures soon!)

So in my New Year enthusiasm, I thought that I'd finish the bag early and give it to her for her birthday in July.

But, the tulle annoyed me so much, that I put the project in the Naughty Corner and it has been languishing there for months.  Does anyone else have a Naughty Corner? My projects go there when they've annoyed me by not doing what they've been told, when I'm waiting for that "Aha" moment or when I need to make a purchase before I can finish it.

Last week I took it out, gave it a stern talking to, introduced it to my new machine(Ella) and everyone was happy. The bag was happy I was finishing it, my machine was happy to be played with and I was happy it was finally working out how it was meant to.

The pink sparkly fabric is Make Believe Star in Pink(I'm sorry I don't know the designer), the lining a basic pink pinstripe. The Bling(sequin trim and buttons) I got from my local spotlight.

The pattern was published in Patchwork & Stitching Vol 8 No 12, however Jodie from Ric-Rac has it as a free pattern, which is where I found it. So Thank you!  Now I have to say, I find it very difficult to follow a pattern, I always think "what if I?"... so I redesigned the pattern to make it more 4-year old friendly, added a second layer of tulle and shortened the handles.

So after all the delay, including an extra trip for more buttons, 'cause I broke the first ones-long story, its finally on the way to her. So Happy Birthday beautiful girl, I hope you love it and take it to dance class with you.