Saturday 5 October 2013

Hearts desire

 Great news
I took my quilt "Sea Urchins" in to my local quilt shop this week as it will be on display in the shop during the Contemporary textiles exhibition from 14th to 19th November and a photo was taken of the quilt and then tweeted by the shop.  Not long after, I am told that the editor of a British patchwork magazine has phoned up and enquired whether I would be willing to do a feature in the magazine. I have no idea how this is done, but will no doubt find out, this is so exciting!

Hearts Desire

I have been making a quilt for a baby girl, she is due in December and mum wanted a wholecloth quilt in pure white, with the stitching done in maybe white or pink.  Mum liked a design with a heart, but also liked the idea of having the baby's name quilted onto the quilt, so I adapted the pattern to fit the size of cotbed and added an extra design in near the bottom so that the baby's name can be quilted and framed by feathers and flowers.

Design all marked out


Stitching main design

Starting with backgound fill


Having done a few small practise pieces, I decided to do the quilting in white Gliss thread with Pink Gliss outlining the flowers and feathers.  The background quilting is done with Superior Kimono Silk thread in Rice White which looks really nice on the Kona Solid white cotton fabric.  I used a size 14 needle for the Gliss threads and a size 12 needle with the Kimono silk threads.
Having tried a few types of wadding, I decided on Quilters Dream Puff, as it gave the most "puff" in the feathers and flowers and is lovely and soft apart from in the most densely quilted areas.  It also is pure white, so the quilt will remain pure white, rather than look "antique" white.


Detail of border 
















Detail of heart



Space for baby's name


For now I have left the baby's name blank, Mum is happy to tell me what it is going to be, if I promise not to tell anyone else, but I would rather add it later.  Perhaps it might be better to put just the initials in rather than the full name?
All that is left to finish the quilt  is the binding and then quilt in the baby's name and fill in around the name.  I will post a picture of the whole quilt once it is all finished.  Because this baby is a long awaited for baby, I have called the quilt "Hearts desire"
I just love how this has turned out.

Update on Dutch treat
Hooray, I have done 15 blocks in September, here they are:

September blocks - now only 149  to go


 and I also made this gorgeous fluffy Smiley cushion cover for the youngest daughter, or rather I just finished it off for her.  She has done the smiley face a while ago and didn't know what to do with it, so we talked through the options and she decided that she would like it on a cushion.  I think it has turned out rather fun and cheerful.




Remember to post a comment if you would like to win a quilt from me :-)

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