Saturday 17 January 2015

Find the Narwhals

Today I have a finished quilt to show off, although I started it close to two years ago, and finished it midway through last year. (At this rate I'm never going to get through my stash!)

My inspiration came from a triangle quilt I stumbled across somewhere on teh intarwebs (top left). I absolutely loved the colours: black, white, peach, pink, and watermelon. I was captivated (read: borderline obsessed); it certainly hit my dopamine receptors. I started seeing some similar triangle quilts, in mint and coral, which I also love.

In short course I started working on my own monochromatic(ish) triangle quilt, using solids in pink, peach, black, and white. I went with equilateral triangles instead of isosceles, leaving me future scope to work another variation on this theme. ;)
narwhal_front_portrait
Instead of using all solids, I substituted the light pink with "Find The Narwhal in Bloom" from Sarah Jane's collection "Out to Sea". It had all the right colours in it that I wanted for my triangle quilt, and cute little whales and narwhals!
sarah_jane_out_to_sea_find_the_narwhal_in_bloom
It turns out I struggle to work with mostly solids, so I added a few geometrics in black and white during the many hours of fiddling with my layout.
found_the_narwhal
narwhal_front_from_right
I pieced the back with "Mermaid Play in Blossom" (also from "Out to Sea") bordered by solids and whatever I had in my stash.
narwhal back
narwhal back detail
I used solid black for the binding, but added scrappy strips of hot pink, and black and white polka dots.
narwhal folded
narwhal pink binding
Upcoming posts:
  • I already have another lap quilt finished just after New Years. Based on historical trends I suppose it will be a few months until I get around to photographing and blogging it... :P
  • There's a baby quilt currently in progress for another pending human, estimated time to complete about 10 weeks from now.

Monday 12 January 2015

Challenge Accepted

Last month, in the lead up to Christmas, my team decided we should do a Secret Santa. Historically and anecdotally, office Secret Santa gift exchanges can be pretty lame, but we decided if it was just within our team of six, and everyone had enthusiastically opted in, then we could all walk away with something not shit.

I suggested that everyone write their name on a sticky note, with two or more general suggestions of things they might like that could be bought within the $20 spend limit. For example, I wrote "craft beer" and "vanilla".

secret_santa_post_it
Wouldn't you guess it, I drew my team leader! And not only that, it soon became clear that he was using the Secret Santa scheme as a personal shopper for his three year old daughter! If you can't read the hand writing the note says:
  • Frozen
  • Plush goat... maybe patchwork
  • Toys => make bubbles
  • Modern architecture
So he wanted a gift for his daughter, hey? Challenge. Accepted.
frozen_full_front
I found some Frozen themed quilting fabric at my local quilting store to make this unique little cushion just for Alana.
frozen_elsa_close_up
I did some fussy cuts to get the four feature panels of the characters from Frozen. The rest of the fabric came from scraps and my stash, as did the batting. Maybe that's a bit of a cheat, but it did ensure I kept to the $20 budget!
frozen_front_flat
frozen_centre_close_up
For the back of the cushion I just used the rest of my 30cm yardage, and some aqua gingham scrap leftover from Olivia's quilt. I fastened the cover with colourful snaps from my collection, as has been my habit ever since my improvisation for Georgia's retro floppy disk cushions.
frozen_full_back
The final personal touch was to machine embroider Alana's name onto the back of her cushion, with little snowflakes. This cushion is no mass produced Frozen merchandise, and it's definitely not for daddy!
frozen_back_alana

Sorry Dyl, looks like you're buying your own architecture books. :D

Happy new year!