Forever summer - baby quilt

Making this quilt was a bit like making a magic potion, adding carefully all the ingredients to make a bit of summer:
Orange - for warmth...
Yellow - for brightness...
Pink - for cuteness...
Blue - for balance...
Flowers...
And a bit of green - just to set it off...

This quilt is a square measuring approx 27 inches/70 cm. It's a 'baby' size, suitable for cot, pram, for swaddling or to use as a playmat.
Made with a 100% cotton and the best polyester batting so it can be machine washed and tumble dried again and again.

Quilted "in the ditch" - the lines of stitching are barely visible on the top but they form nice and simple pattern on the bottom.

To add coziness the bottom layer is made with cream brushed cotton (flannelette) which is softer and warmer to the touch then standard cotton fabric.

The edges are bind with a double layer of cotton for strength and carefully finished by hand.

The price is £35 plus P&P. If interested please PM me on FB www.facebook.com/stitchingarainbow or email me at stitchingarainbow@gmail.com.

Spinning a rainbow - baby quilt

I was thinking about keeping this one for myself as a wall-hanging... But I cannot be that selfish :)

This quilt is a baby quilt suitable for cot, pram, swaddling and to use as a play-mat. It's square, side measures approx. 27 inches/70 cm. Made with a 100% cotton with the best polyester batting, it can be machine washed and tumble-dried again and again.

Bright and bold rainbow pinwheels are spinning together with a wavy lines of quilting.

The bottom layer is made of a cream brushed cotton so it is warm and gentle for the baby's skin.

The edge is bind with the double layer of cotton for strength and carefully hand finished.

The price is £50 plus P&P. If interested, please PM me on FB www.facebook.com/stitchingarainbow or e-mail me at stitchingarainbow@gmail.com.

Contact me

Well, if you like what you see on my blog and you are thinking of ordering a quilt yourself you can contact me via e-mail:

stitchingarainbow@gmail.com

or send me a message on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/stitchingarainbow

When you tell me what you want: size, colours, motifs, special fabrics, pictures - you can be as specific or as general you like, I will come up with 3 designs (with prices) for you to choose from. And then you decide if you want to order.
It will take 3-6 weeks depending on size and fabric availability to complete the order.

It's red with cats and dogs

This post is about making a quilt for a 10 year old boy who really knows what he likes and what he wants. First, it has to be red. Second, it has to be funny. Third, it has to be warm.
It took me months to gather all the fabrics. I decided to go red, black and white. The cats fabric was first, it got approved as funny enough. Then it was the one with scottie dogs: black, red and white and we live in Scotland... approved.

And then it got tougher. I did not realize that all this lovely black and white and red fabrics have floral motives, or hearts, or floral motifs. And they appeared to be black and white but in fact were black and  off-white, grrr...
I searched high and low, all the time checking with my boy if he likes what I've found:
Football? Sure.
Dots? Well, ok.
Zebra? Yeah.
Blah blah blah? Great!
Stripes? Ok.
Numbers? Smiley faces? Yeah!
And finally I had all the fabrics I needed. I decided to use rather small 2 inch squares with 4 inch squares in the middle to make this quilt busy, funny and energetic.

There was a lot of hand quilting which I think turned out really nice

 and as usual hand sewing the binding for nice and strong finish.

On the back after consulting with my boy I've used brushed cotton and it really made the quilt warmer and cosier. If you look closely you could see the quilting pattern, well, if in doubt use red and you can go wrong with my boy.

And here it is, used and loved every day since it was finished... no, wait. The quilt was actually used before it was finished, my boy would ask in the evening if there is a needle in it and if it wasn't he'd sleep underneath it, raw edges and all.

All in all - approved.

Rainbow quilt

Well, sooner or later I had to make a rainbow quilt. Any excuse would do. But since I have a daughter who likes pink, and yellow, and green, but her favourite colour is blue... and who knows what will she say tomorrow; the rainbow theme was an obvious choice.

And when I saw a Dresden plate applique block I was sold.

Making this quilt was pure fun. From choosing the fabrics in all the rainbow colours (and pink)

then cutting all the petals

then more cutting, arranging, sewing, ironing, fusing, quilting - all the time with these gorgeous fabrics in front of me. It just made me happy :)

That is the Dresden plate applique close up. I am really happy how all the colours look together. I had two different fabrics for every rainbow stripe, just instead of indigo I used pink, and then I needed two more petals, so I got these red flowers (they are a bit redder then the picture shows) on the pink background and that combines two ends of my rainbows just right.

And here it is on my daughter's bed:

And here is the back:

The fabric I used for the back is a part of a single duvet cover which I bought few years ago when I discovered quilting, and I knew from the beginning that I am gonna make a rainbow quilt one day.

And here it is in it's full glory brightening my garden:

It is a bit like having summer rolled up and ready to use on a gloomy day :)

Theme: Teletubbies

Designing a quilt for a little older boy who just discovered his first childhood heroes -  teletubbies - is pure fun. Some colours are given: red for Po, green for Dipsy, yellow for Lala, purple for Tinky-Winky and I thought blue for background and accents. I could find only one fabric with teletubbies but it was good enough.
I fussy-cut out teletubies and for each one added coresponding plain fabric and with plain blue I've put together this log cabin blocks. I had a huge help from my wee boy, he watched my every move, sorting, counting and making sure I didn't loose or mismatched any of the 109 pieces.

Teletubbies for the border, teletubbies on the back and blue binding. When I finished piecing the top and made my "sandwich" ready to be machine-quilted I discovered there are some issues when trying to work on quilt that features your child favourite characters:

He started using it too early.
So I had a great motivation to finish as quickly as possible.

Ready to play?

Almost...

Just a few adjustments..

O yeah, the fun begins!

And then some rest...

For the baby boy

Well, this idea is simple. For a one year old boy you want something bright and colourful. Not too big - the cot size I call it - so it is easy to handle for wee hands. No particular theme because everything is  interesting for him.

And then I found the fabric with simple pictures, just right to show him and say: this is a train, this is a banana, this is an elephant... I added plains: red, yellow, green and blue and combine everything in a random mosaic of squares.

The border is yellow with multicoloured balls and the binding has all the letters of the alphabet, just in case he wants to start his education early.

And when I finished and gave it to him - he was just getting ready to sleep - he started to "read" it. Exactly how I imagined, he was pointing on every picture urging me to tell him what is it. So we read... and then he fall asleep.

And since then every night he sleeps underneath his quilt and every day his quilt is there for him to play.

Idea

I always have to many ideas. I find inspiration everywhere. Books, films, people, occasions, seasons, internet - everywhere. I had to ban myself from places like fabric shops, yarn shops, raverly, but it didn't help much.I am usually reasonable with buying but my head is exploding, it is just overloaded with ideas. 

When I added quilting to my favourite crafts it got worse. Well, at first it solve one problem, I found the way to use many fabrics for one project, combine colours and patterns. But then I found shops with quilting cotton, online quilting shops and I was lost. There was simply no way that I could find money and time to buy and use all these beautiful fabrics.

And then I had the best idea ever: I could start making quilts for order. Surely there are people that would like to have a unique quilt, made to reflect their favourite things, colours, themes, memories and they can't make it themselves and I am more than happy to help. 

And the best would be to make these for kids. I had such a fun making quilts for my children and making them just right for them, to the point of making these quilts washable and tumble-dry-able so they can use them exactly how they want.
So, I finally had an idea that helped me with having too many ideas :)