The Far Far Away story...

I cannot begin to tell you what a joy it was working with these fabrics...linen is so much more resilient than cotton and sturdy too which means that both piecing and quilting were much easier and the final quilt is looking gorgeous...

This is the front made from a Moda Bakeshop pattern called "Boxed in" by KarrieLyne from Freckled Whimsy (http://www.modabakeshop.com/2010/10/boxed-in-quilt.html). The quilt is very easy to make and i think it is a great combination for these fabrics:

and a couple of my favourite blocks with the Sleeping Beauty:

 
and the back with a 9 patch from leftover fabrics (upside down unfortunately!!!):

I quilted it using a dark orange/yellow thread and 2 different stitches from my machine. One is wavy and it went over the key seams and the other a star, was made around the small blocks to emphase those bits of fabric.
The fabrics are absolutely gorgeous and the Pussy & the Owl are the cutest ever!!! Not a baby quilt but a little girl one for sure!!! so I will count this as my baby's quilt number 2!!!! that has already made me feel much much better!!!

                                                                            Amelie x

My baby's first quilt!

I am so in love with this little quilt! I just hope it will get loads of use and preferential treatment!

and two of my most favourite blocks:

The little mermaid stitching is a bit wonky but then again this is a wonky star block!!!

Thanks again to Kerry for the beautiful QAL and the fantastic instructions.

Off to work on the next baby quilt!!! there are some very talented quilters out there who are also prolific and despite being pregnant they churn out loads and loads of quilts for their babies...I must be the only one whose brain has been mushed by the hormones and can barely keep my eyes open or work out a pattern!!!!
Despite that, here is a little preview of my baby's next quilt!!!!!! (surely I am feeling like a 'not good enough' parent already, can I?!!!!)

ain't that soooo cute??????

                                                                         Amelie x

" The Bird, the Sea, Tilda & her Sister": a modern block!

My first Bee block!:

God knows I struggled to make this as perfect as possible and to give Muriël a moment of joy when she sees these photos...

The neurotic process: I started by drafting 6 different versions of what my bee would look like...then a fellow bee came up with my most favourite block too and got there first...fair enough...then I complicated matters so much so that I got into a state of panic until my lovely friend Jane shared her wisdom with me and made me feel better about the world again! Finally the brilliant Kerry looked at my last 2 versions and shared her wisdom with me too helping to draw my decision making processes to a final close (finally!!!!!)

So nuances there are plenty as Muriël requested and this is not just my first attempt at a Bee block but also my first work with blue fabrics...of which I should admit to owing 1-2 FQs only!!!

I hope you will like it Muriël . It will be flying home to you tomorrow! (or should I say, swim to you tomorrow???)

Amelie x

The Charm of the Packs

It is incredible what a charm pack can do!!! and it is even better when one can break the mould of the solid white...
This is certainly different for me and I am in love with the greys at the moment...

Another little quilt top done with "Its a Hoot" by Momo:

The pinks lend themselves very well to the dark grey fabric...

And here is a little glimpse of the new quilt I started last night...it is (of course another Kaffe Fassett quilt!!!) and despite the 15 minutes it took to work out how to cut the 60 degree diamonds I finally got there!

I was originally planning to keep the solid green fabric on its own as the in-between diamond but I have a bit of leftover fabric and I think it looks quite good mixed in with the solid?

It is probably madness to be starting new quilts at 33+ weeks of pregnancy but then again...in the name of honesty, one has to accept that the mind is very weak when it comes to gorgeous fabrics and loads of ideas!!!!!

                                                                         Amelie x

Mother love...

Finally am getting there....I am finishing off more of my quilts...
On Monday my mum helped me press 3 large quilts and get their backs measured and cut. I put some additional touches to them and now they are ready for quilting...

It's good to have mother love around:

This one is my Lecien cross quilt. It looks adorable and I have added another photo of it at the end even though it is too large to hold open and photograph (arghhh!!! usual photography challenges!)

More Lecien fabric for the back but the main quilt (which was meant to be my pregnancy quilt and I doubt it will be on my bed before the baby is born!!!!) is made of loads of scap squares including shot cottons:

And finally, OBVIOUSLY a Kaffe Fassett to conclude with!!! I absolutely love this quilt. It will look fab when quilted and I have finally decided that this will be a present for my daddy who has not seen any of my quilts yet...

 

This is a snapshot of the Lecien cross quilt. It is very very sweet and despite being a bit of a pain in terms of making sure the squares were all in the right place, it was all extremely well worth it!

Thank you mummy even though you will never read my blog

Amelie x

Soft, cuddly and beautiful

and am not just talking about Mr Whirlygiggles here!!! (joke!!!!!)

Another finished quilt and the shot cotton makes it so soft and cuddly I cannot wait to wash it and snooze under it!.
This was another kit/fabric pack from Tikki....The lovely Tiina is sooooo creative I had to treat myself to another one of these packs in a different colourway when I went to the shop last week!

Anyway, here we are:

and this is the back:

I quilted this myself (only the once thank god!!!) with a variegated orange thread and an embroidery star stitch from my machine....it looks lovely.

                                                                  Amelie x

The Chicken or the Egg

I have not had a moment or opportunity to blog...for the last 2 days I have felt as if I live in a disaster zone...everything seemed to go wrong all at once. I still have not worked out though whether it was all of the disasters listed below that put me in a bad mood, or the bad mood that brought on all the disasters????

1. I managed to lose my ability to log onto my Flickr completely - still unresolved
2. Computer was taken over by Trojans (sounds scary doesn't it?!) - finally resolved by buying some software on line that marched in and mashed the Trojans!!!!
3. Quilted my baby's first quilt (verykerryberry's quilt along) and then had to spend all evening skinning the very puckered quilt...a few tears were shed over that piece of wasted effort....- resolved today when it was starched, glued and pinned before quilting!!!! I know it all sounds like overkill but I could not take any more chances...
4. all of the above plus some nasty pregnancy hormones and loads of weird pregnancy induced nightmares - yuck - that go like this: " I am sorry you think I stole your white van and am driving it around a small car park smashing it into stationery vehicles...it was not me...honest...I just got in it just now to drive it to a place of safety...please don't kill me!!!!!"

Having said that I have done quilte a bit since my last blog but for tonight I will leave you with one of my favourite quilts of all time (the final large quilt that was patiently awaiting quilting in the depths of the wardrobe for the last few months... it is a Heather Bailey and all her fabrics bring me LOADS of smiles and happiness!

The back! I adore this fabric despite the fact that many people find it too strong...

and a little glimpse of the latest project...yep, another little person's quilt....love the dark grey fabric which I bought in France last year and 'saved it for best' - finally used!!!!

Amelie x