Bloggers` Quilt Festival

Yes, it`s that time of year when Amy generously opens the doors to her virtual quilt festival. If you are a first time visitor here or an old time follower - welcome!

Last October, I entered this quilt. 

This time, I`m entering the 1001 Sleepless Nights baby quilt I made for baby George.

George was born last December. He`s my cousin Dan`s second child.  I first met Dan`s partner Jacqui when they visited Marrakech, our home, in October 2010.  Jacqui was taking part in a trek across the Sahara for Help for Heroes.  While it was my cousin`s first visit here, she is a long time visitor to Marrakech and absolutely loves it.

 
When I knew they were expecting George, I decided to make him a quilt and wanted it to reflect our connection with his parents and their visit here. Together with a little blue Terrain fabric, 1001 Peeps was the perfect line with its depiction of oriental life and the palette of blues and greens are boyish, bright and attractive. I had wanted to make a plus quilt for a long time and this was the perfect opportunity.


To give a pop of colour, I bound it in a zingy orange...

  and did a little hand stitching in orange perle.

I backed it in a simple green candy stripe...and lightly quilted it so that it was nice and smooshy for George.

...and it was well received.  Perfect for an afternoon lie down.

Now I`m off to the festival to have a look at the amazing quilts, which have been submitted. If you haven`t already, go see the amazing talent out there. Thanks Amy for hosting this fabulous bi-annual event!

Baby George Discovered that...

...while his Moses basket was snug and comfy and great for a mid afternoon kip...

...his new 1001 Nights quilt was great for lying back and admiring the view...

or for performing those oh so important stomach crunches...

...having a snuggle with mummy...

...and `thinking with his eyes shut` while catching up with a first cousin once removed...

but George also discovered that living in the fast lane could be totally and utterly exhausting!

1001 (Sleepless) Nights quilt delivered.

A January Finish!

It`s been a week since I last posted! With still not feeling 100% and a visit last week to the Midlands to see family and friends, I am still hopelessly behind with emails and blog reading.  I promise to do better although I think I said that last week.

I do have a finish.  The first of the year.  I calculated that last year, I made 5 quilts - yes, five!  I finished Zaki`s quilt, made a quilt for Elicia, the Across the Seas quilt for Mr. LRP and me, the Marrakech Rose quilt and the Red City quilt.  In my book that`s quite good considering that I didn`t have a machine for 6 months of the year and didn`t touch quilting for 2 months because it was too hot.

I haven`t resolved to make a certain amount of quilts this year but one a month would be nice.

I brought Baby George`s quilt top with me and basted it on Christmas Eve.  Last weekend I machine quilted it by echo quilting the crosses, keeping it light so that it was soft and snuggly for Baby George to roll on.

You may recall that when I made the top (using 1001 Peeps and a touch of Terrain) I felt it was a bit flat - a bit matchy matchy.  The hazard perhaps of using a line of fabric.  Many of you left suggestions and a couple included handstitching the crosses in a contrasting colour.  I did try this but didn`t like how it came out on the back of the quilt. Having heard much of the delights of perle cotton, I picked up some in a vibrant orange and outlined the scrappy border only going through the top layer of fabric.  It has survived a wash.  I`m hoping it will survive George and his wriggling and rolling.

I bound the quilt in a burnt orange binding, which ties in with the perle cotton.  While many of you made the brilliant suggestion of using a binding which would pick up on the chartreuse colour of the onion domes in one of the prints I liked the orange because this is a baby quilt and seemed less grown up.

I backed it in a simple green candy stripe fabric.

Now it`s ready to be handed over to Baby George later this week. It measures 41" x 41".

What are you up to on this Sunday?  For us it will be a quiet day in front of the log fire, perhaps a walk or a wallow with Zaki at the local pool, roast chicken and then curling up in front of Sherlock!