Bloggers' quilt festival 2014 - too late to enter :-(

Thanks Amy for holding the bloggers' quilt festival.  This year I was entering a quilt in the original design quilts.  Sadly, I missed the deadline by a couple of hours.  Here is what would have been my entry.

I made this quilt for my niece.

First, I drew the design on paper, to decide how to make the tail.

Then transferred it to a huge piece of paper I made from cheap kitchen paper glued together, to create pattern pieces

The tail was sewn together, the body machine appliqued to the tail.  Then cam the fun of creating the eyes.

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.

Label quilting.

The back

Crochet, no quilting

I've decided to crochet for a while, as the weather has turned cold in the sub tropics. Joined a pineapple tea cosy knit/crochet along, although I only crochet.

The layout of my second DP lap quilt is decided. Just the setting triangles to cut.

 

 

I also finished the owl tea cosy for my sister. It hasn't turned out quite as expected, but it can be the prototype (size wise) for the pineapple tea cosy, which is also for my sister. I'll make a big raspberry for my teapot, as it is short and stout.

 

I just realised I don't have a finished picture of the owl! Maybe the next post.

The pineapple tea cosy has involved a lot of unraveling. I didn't like my effort with the puff stitch, so created my own pattern. The original pattern is the top bit and the stitch I have decided on is the bottom section. I had more than half finished the second side before I realised it was too wide, so had to unravel the whole thing and start again. Grrr to self.

I hope to have it finished in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed that I won't have to unravel again, although I might redo the first side to make it straight. I am brain dead.