A tale of 3 quilts……

As usual I seem to have overcommited myself on the Christmas sewing front. Every year I say I’m going to take it easy this year and every year I have a huge pile of ‘stuff’ piled up next to my sewing machine.

I have managed to complete a lot already. All swap commitments completed and sent away, 25’ish bags made and distributed amongst work colleagues, school friends and teachers. Now I am left with finishing off quilts.

I have three quilts that I must finish off 1 for a 7 year old girl, 1 for a 5 year old boy and 1 for a 16 year old boy. For the first two I combined fabric ranges with some of my stashed away fabrics but for the third I went the whole hog and bought all the fabrics from the same range…..some bought more than a year ago and topped up with new colours and designs this year.

Quilt 1 – Sherbet Pips

You may recall that in the summer I made my daughter a Sherbet Pips quilt. This quilt has a very similar look and feel and is made from all the fabric I had left over from the first quilt.

I know that this range seems to be either loved or hated by people but I firmly sit in the love corner. The mixture of red and grey is just perfect when you want to make something that is girly but will last beyond the pink phase!!

I mixed in lots of dots and circles in grey and red aswell as some plainer fabrics. The quilt is quilted very simply with red straight lines following the rows and the binding is white with red dots. I have completed the quilting and added the binding just need to sew the binding down. Should have this one finished off in no time.

Quilt 2 – Super Heroes

For this quilt I really wanted something that was boyish but wasn’t the usual cars and trains. I went for some fabrics from Michael Miller (Super Heroes, Super Fun, City Lights and Bunting Scallops). I started with a bundle from Fabric Worm but ended up by needing to buy some extra fabrics from Frumble fabrics….when I also added some alien fabric.

I combined the fabric with a range of blue, green and yellow fabrics. Again they were primarily dots and circles but I also added some multicoloured stripes and squares. I really love how all the fabrics have worked together.

For the quilting I have again gone for blue straight lined following the rows but also a few top to bottom lines following the block edges. I haven’t made the binding yet but I think I will go for a scrappy binding using up some of the left over scraps. Right now the quilt is all quilted and just waiting for binding so should get the binding on today and be ready for Christmas.

Quilt 3 – Funky Monkeys

This quilt is for my son. The Prince of Rock has had a toy monkey (Ernie) since he was 7. The monkey still sits on his bed and gets taken away on trips, gets dressed up etc. When I saw the funky sock monkey range last year I just had to have some so bought lots of it and stashed it away. This year I saw some of the funky sock monkey santas and fell in love with them too so bought some fat quarters of it and stashed it away. My daughter has been desperate for us to turn the fabric into a quilt but it is difficult to secretly make a quilt for someone who lives in the house.

I have finally managed to work on it by cutting the fabrics while he was at college and then piecing it together on Sunday whilst he was in Manchester at the football. The block pattern that I went for was an alternating pattern of one large block and then 4 smaller squares. I love these fabrics so much….the fat santas are hilarious as are the mug shots of different santas. I just know he is going to love it.

This quilt is the one I am now panicking about. I have the quilt top made but I still need to baste, quilt and bind it but I don’t have access to my sewing machine after today….aghhhh!!!! I may have to banish my son from the downstairs of the house so I can get it done.

I also have to bake my Christmas cake, make mincemeat, wrap presents, write cards….oh dear today is going to be a very busy day……..