Not the only tone it down - Bloggers' quilt festival

I'm sure I'm not the only one to enter an APQ tone it down quilt in the scrappy quilt category of Amy's creative side - bloggers' quilt festival


I finished this top ages ago, and it is such a pretty quilt.  Having been busy with crocheting tea cosies for the last six months, I finally got around to quilting this top and I'm pretty happy with the result.  Sadly, its now too hot to use it, so I'll have to wait for some cooler nights.

so pretty!

Detail of the quilting and the back

One block - I love that chook fabric

Bloggers' quilt festival - my original peacock

This is the quilt I didn't submit in time for the last bloggers' festival but am submitting for this one.  http://amyscreativeside.com/bloggers-quilt-festival/

I made this quilt for my niece, who wanted a teal coloured quilt.

First, I drew a small scale drawing 

 Then glued together long strips of grease proof paper, to draw the entire quilt at full scale.

I made the body, then sewed the tail together.

Each eye is made from four different fabrics, with two of them needle turned applique and the smallest and largest machine appliqued.  Fifty three eyes later........

The back was made, basting done and it was quilting on my sewing machine.  I quilted the fern design from Angela Walter's book on the tail sections of the peacock.  The label information was part of the quilting, then it was bound, washed, dried and sent off to my niece.

Here is the back of the quilt.  I made it in japanese fabrics and wanted to make the back useable, in case she wanted a change.  Hopefully I succeeded.

Coral Reef tea cosy is done

I've finally finished it.  Two people want it.  I'm planning on making a series of landscape cosies and this is the first one.

This is a picture heavy post, a bit similar to this cosy, which is very heavy for a cosy.

jellyfish

stuff

Sea urchin & sea snake

more sea snake & stuff

ray

hermit crab and starfish

octopus

from the top

I'm finally in the middle of quilting the tone it down quilt.  Maybe a couple more weeks to go.

Boring cosy

The next charity cosy is done. I don't like it much. It's boring. These are meant to be carnations. Pink is not my favourite colour. I could embellish this more, but given that it will sell for about $12, I won't bother.

Now to make a new base for the sunflower (stolen for the daffodil cosy). Ho hum.

 

 

Maybe more hyperbolic crochet (think coral) for the next one, although that is similar to the carnations. Something over the top anyway.

Too much fruit!

I've finished off another cosy. This one is number four for my mother in law's church stall? Two more are in progress.

No such thing as too much fruit?  This is my original design fruit basket tea cosy.

.

Cosies galore

Crochet is a taking up all my time, so very little has been happening on the quilting front. I only have two ufo tops left to finish, my tone it down top and the really boring low volume top. I might add borders to it so I can use it as the backing for the tone it down top.

Talking to my sister one night, I decided to make her an owl cosy as a bit of a joke. I found a copy of an old pattern on Grand Purlba's site, bought a crochet hook and yarn and jumped right in.

Stupidly, I can't find a good photo of the final product!

In May, I saw a knit/crochet along for a pineapple tea cosy and had to join in! I didn't like my effort of the crochet stitch, so did a bit of research and found another stitch which I thought would work a treat. Obviously, that meant I couldn't follow the kal pattern.

Anyhow, I ended up making two pineapple cosies, one for my sister and one for me.

 

Charity cosies were next. I mostly made them up as I went.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then one for my brother, with cattle dog puppies on it.

 

Then I reused the cosy base from the sunflower charity on, added more length to it and made a daffodil one for my mother.

 

Now, I have to make a new base for the sunflower, finish the base for a fruit basket cosy and a base for a carnation cosy. Who knows what I'll do after that!

 

Pretty quiet on the quilting front

DH has been getting antsy about the amount of time I spend quilting, so for winter, I've moved to crochet.

I did finish the drunkard's path lap quilts for some friends just before we went on holidays two weeks ago.  The backs are actually white flannelette, so I don't know why they look blue.

Here they are.

The front - 2nd drunkard's path

The back

detail

Front - 1st drunkard's path

the back

detail

 I played around with the layouts forever.  Each quilt uses the reverse block of the other.  I drafted my own template from cardboard and used it to cut the curves.  As the quarter circle takes up most of each block, I had to find layouts that didn't require all four bulky seams to come together.

These are lap quilts and I gave them to the recipients before I went on holidays.  Due to the rush, I forgot to label them!  Whoops.

I have been busy making tea cosies for family and charity and will show these in my next post.  I tried to teach myself to knit, and failed fantastically, so all the cosies I have made are crocheted.