Throwback Thursday Baby quilts

I have been making quilts for my great nieces and nephews since the first one was born. Actually I lie. The first one I made was for my first great niece Olivia born in 2005. I had a great nephew Caleb born 2002 for whom I hadn't made a quilt for at that point but I rectified that soon after. My latest great nephew, born just a few weeks ago was my mother's 19th great grand child. (with 8 children and 24 grandchildren that number is only going to grow!) They each have a quilt from their great Aunty Pip. Side note.

Fixit Guy is a woodturner and when my nieces and nephews get married he makes them a turned wood lamp. I think I got the raw end of the deal. He's told them they only get one lamp... if the marriage fails, take it with them. But whilst so far there has only been one marriage for each niece or nephew... they have each (apart from one) had more than one child so I am busier. I told them... no marriage no lamp, and we have to be invited (I'm a tough auntie) One nephew had a very small wedding and we didn't get to go but Fixit Guy is a softie and he made them a lamp anyway. Just realised that we don't have a photo of his lamps... he's not the photographer. I am. The recipients of the lamps have always been very appreciative of them and treasure them, and guard them jealously... one of my sisters (I have 5) offered to look after her son's lamp as he was moving house but he insisted he take it with him.

I must ask the family to take photos of their lamps and send them to us. We don't buy shades for them usually. We give them money to buy their own. A few reasons for this. 1. we don't know their taste or decor 2. There is not much choice of shades where we live and they will have much greater choice in Sydney where most of them live or visit regularly 3. They are hard to transport safely. We live 2 000 km from most of them so much easier to hand over the money and let them do the work. (Fixit Guy doesn't really agree. he would much rather hand over the finished product complete but for the reasons above I always fight him on this and usually win)

I digress. Baby quilts. So... I have made at least 19 baby quilts for my lovely great nieces and nephews. I have made some for other babies too... special ones who qualify. I have a cousin I am very close to (I made him the Tie Quilt for his 70th birthday see Family Reunion ) I am also very fond of his 3 daughters who were like my little sisters. When his 6 grandchildren were born I made each of them a quilt. I have also made quilts for 2 of my girlfriends grand children, my daughter's friend's baby and for two babies born to our church family this last year. That makes 30. Wow. Hadn't realised it was so many!

I don't have photos of them all I realise - bit of a slip up there but will include photos of some of them

My first baby quilt for the gorgeous Olivia who is 9 already. I was on an internet group and taking part in lots of 9 patch swaps. I was making and receiving lots of nine patches but not using them very much. Making baby quilts changed that

Above is Caleb's quilt top and below is the quilt back. Both featured Snowball blocks interspersed with nine patch blocks from the monthly ninepatch swap I was in (different colour or theme for each month)

I had made some hand dyes and gamely used them in a quilt for my cousin's first grandchild born in 2004. It was another very simple design

Laura's quilt featuring nine patches made from hand dyes and plain squares, also hand dyed fabric

Having made a number of very simple baby quilts I got a bit gamer and for Sienna's quilt in 2006 I used a pattern from a magazine called Tic Tac Toe.

Sienna's Tic Tac Toe Quilt

I got even gamer for the next baby, Ella who was born at the end of 2006, my brother's first granddaughter. I even bought a pattern for her quilt! I can't remember what it was called though. I liked that it featured the teddy bear as when all my nieces and nephews were born I gave them a jointed bear in brown or gold

Ella's quilt

Charlie, the daughter of my niece was born in 2008, not long before my father died. I can't remember if I made her quilt shortly after she was born or if it was a year late. I went back to full time work a month after dad died and I had very little time for quilting for the rest of that year Carlie's quilt was another slightly more complex design using eye spy fabrics again

Charlie's quilt

At one point I got very busy quilt making with quite a few great nieces and nephews coming in quick succession. I know at one point I had 7 quilts to make in a 12 month period and I resorted to very simple designs. 6" finished eyespy squares in a 5 x 5 grid with borders. I did get a bit creative after a few of them and made them alphabetical quilts. Some of my choices for what things started with got creative. 

Riley's quilt .. alphabetical

Sarah's quilt - not alphabetical

The one exception to this rather boring 5X5 6" squares was the quilt I made for Cooper, the grandson of my Australian friend born in the USA to his Aussie mum and American Dad. Cooper couldn't have a boring eyespy quilt. He had to get his Aussie on

Cooper's quilt featuring Australian animals

A special little baby girl was born into our church family in January and I was delighted to have a special quilt I could give her. It wasn't a baby quilt as such being one that I had made in an online mystery quilt (I can't identify it as it is an ongoing one. I don't want to spoil it for people. I did almost put a link to it and then realised... hmmm not a good idea!!)

My last quilt made for my great nephew Liam, born in March was a departure again from what I have been doing. It wasn't a baby quilt at all. He is the 3rd child for my nephew and his wife. They love the quilts I have made their older children and use them on their beds. They are a bid small for this use, being cot sized so I offered to make this one bigger. I used the Disappearing Pinwheel pattern from the Missouri quilt company  I only got around to posting it to them this week and they received it today and sent me a delighted text. I am glad they like it as I have to say it is one of my favourite quilts that I've made.

I have made quite a bit of progress over the years that I have been making quilts. Hope you have enjoyed this retrospective.

Linking up with Throwback Thursday on Quiltin Jenny's site

Stash Report

Stash Report

I finished "Into the Rainforest" which was begun in 2007 at a workshop our Patchwork Group ran. It involved painting the background and some of the fabric that we used for water and tree trunks. Then we cut out and machine appliqued (raw edge) various leaves and plants onto the picture. I pulled up about there and for 6 years it was in my ufo pile. I finally dragged it out and decided that I was never going to applique more to it and to call it done and finish it off. I sewed on borders and then started to hand quilt it. It languished for a while longer but going away to Sydney was the impetus I needed and I got lots of hand stitching done whilst sitting with my mum in her room or at her craft group and also whilst travelling. I have a lovely picture of me and mum stitching together but the program keeps turning it sideways so gave up trying to post it. Came home and did the binding and a meeting the week I got back meant I was able to finish the hand stitching on the binding and the hanging sleeve. Now it is hanging proudly inside my front door. I would have been better with more leaves added to it but ultimately done is better than not done and I really like it anyway.

Into the Rainforest begun July 2007 at a Gloria Loughman workshop. Completed Feb2014

Last Sunday was the baptism of a good friends little girl who is a month old. I wanted to get her quilt done to give to them then. But I also wanted to give another friend a quilt for their baby who is 10 months old. I knew they would be at the baptism so the race was on to get both these quilts done in time. And I made it! Yay me. Both quilts were presented to their recipients on Sunday and both sets of parents were very pleased with the gift - which is lovely. It is so rewarding to give a quilt when it is appreciated.

Miss G on her quilt Jungle Jive. Photo sent to me by her lovely mum

She was fascinated by the pictures. Apparently the Hippo has been a favourite

Miss L's quilt Pretty Stars from a Kimberley Einmo pattern

So stash report

Into the Rainforest 1.19m fabric used
Jungle Jive 3.16 m used
Pretty Stars 5.6m used.
Total 9.95m

No purchases since last report

So that makes it net usage for the year of 18.25 m



Fitness
Very excited to report that I have run 5 kms three times this month. I ran it first whilst in Sydney, running on an oval near my sister's place. I took about 42mins 30 secs. Then I ran 5 km when I got home on the road but was a bit slower - about 43 mins. Then last Monday I ran again and I broke 40 mins. I was very excited and very exhausted too. I have been trying to run 3 times a week but the other two days I am trying to do interval running using the C25K program but running as hard as I can for the run parts and then jogging or walking the rest parts. I walk on the days I don't run... unless its raining or I'm feeling lazy. Today I ran 6 kms. I didn't run fast just kept on going. I am very excited and think that one day I might even make 10 kms. I have a Rainbow Run coming up at the end of March. That's 5kms. Then in May I plan to take part in the Mothers' Day Classic which will be a 7km run

Weight wise its coming down slowly. I've lost over 9 kgs since the middle of the year but have at least 10 to go according to the charts. I am no longer obese but merely overweight! This morning after my big run I was under 91kgs which was very exciting.

Sorry to have been so irregular in my postings. I am hoping to get more reliable. I am also going to have to sort out my photo hassles. And improve my photography. Sigh.

Stash Report

Stash report
This is my first stash report. Ever since Pam on Hip to Be a Square started talking about her stash report I thought it would be really cool to track my stash usage. I decided to wait till the beginning of the new year to start tracking and I have to confess I cheated a little bit... I did that so that any stash I got for Christmas wouldn't be counted. I also deliberately well semi deliberately saved up two big finishes till the new year so that I could count them. To be honest I didn't really have time to finish them in all the rush up to Christmas and having a houseful of family for a couple of weeks. Once Christmas was over then I happily settled in and got those two quilts finished off.. and wow it was the New Year and I got to count them.

So for January I got to count as finishes
1. My cousin Syd's tie quilt... Family Ties: The Ties that Bind. It was 204cm square (being Australian our purchases are always in metres/centimetres so even though quilt patterns are all in inches its going to have to be converted to cms so as to be able to track the purchases against the usage) a total of 9.52 m of fabric
2. My sister Beth's quilt Forest Pinwheels 184 cm Square total of 7.79m
3 Great nephew Lucas's baby quilt Jungle Fever  123cm sq total of 3.60m

January monthly total 20.91 m fabric used and zero purchases.

February isn't looking quite so healthy. Shopping in Sydney and Brisbane whilst on holidays saw me add a total of 9.61m fabric and my daughter Fangirl's things she sent back by sea for the UK arrived and she was able to give me my Christmas gift from her... 3 m of fabric. Really cute picture fabric... some Kombi van fabric, some vintage toys and vintage seaside. I'll take some photos and add them soon... phone flat and camera in the room with DH who is asleep.

Net usage to date 11.30m

I've been working on several quilts but no finishes yet.
1. Disappearing Pinwheels the top is finished, binding made but still to make the backing and then pin and quilt.
2 Into the Rainforest picture quilt has the binding machined on but still have to handstitch it down. Meeting tomorrow night will see that done
3. Grace's Jungle quilt top is finished and the back made but have to make the Frankenbatting (Pam's from HTBAS word for batting that is made by patching pieces together)
4 Kimberley Einmo's mystery quilt from Craftsy class has been pinned awaiting quilting for a while. Really need to get stuck into that. So with a concerted effort I should bounce my numbers quite substantially.

This blog post is really boring... no photos. Sorry about that. Will try to pretty it up when I am not so tired.