Lab it up

on Christmas day, I promised my sister's husband a quilt. I finished the flimsy a couple of weeks, or maybe a month, ago and finally got it out and basted, quilted and bound last weekend.

He just phoned to let me know it had arrived and couldn't remember that I had told him I'd make one for him. It is a lap quilt, measuring 69 x 52 inches and depicts their dog, Fred and the kangaroos he used to want to chase.

I'm a bit embarrassed that the colour scheme is not very soothing, but the thought is still there. As usual, I quilted the label information into the border, rather than attaching a label. You need a mirror to read it from the back.

Linking up to TGIFF at http://sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/2014/03/tgiff-charley-harper-meets-superior.html

What I did on Australia Day

This Australia Day long weekend, I drew and paper pieced my third kangaroo.  These are the only three kangaroos that I can ever imagine paper piecing.  These are for a quilt for my sister's husband.  I still have to make a black labrador (Fred) applique for the quilt, as Fred wants to chase kangaroos when he goes for a walk in Canberra's suburbs, but can't catch them.

Kangaroo one

I found a fantastic program on the web, where you can import a picture and split it up for either normal piecing or paper piecing, using straight lines.  You can also number the pieces, just for paper piecing.  It is called Quilt Assistant and is available here:  http://www.cosman.nl/software_en.html

I copied a picture from the web to create Kangaroo one.

Kangaroo two

Kangaroo two resulted from me cutting up kangaroo one, shifting body parts around and then drawing in the gaps.  I used quilt assistant to do up the piecing lines.  This one didn't have enough contrast, so I had to outline the kangaroo with brown zig zag stitches

Today's kangaroo

 Kangaroo three was based on the pattern from this site  http://adventurousquilter.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/my-kangaroo-pattern-free-in-craftsy.html, but again, I put a drawing in Quilt assistant and made a similar patter with fewer pieces.

All together

While they are all different styles, I like them together.