The more quilts I make, the more I enjoy it, it’s like garment sewing’s less stressful friend. Don’t get me wrong, I think sewing clothes will always be mainly what I do, because there are only so many quilts you need in your life. These aren’t for me though, so that’s ok, in fact they’re heading across the Atlantic (well, probably towards the nearest airport right now) as I type.
I wanted to make some classic and long-lived gifts for the children of an old friend – we keep in touch sporadically, and I never knew she was expecting her first until her was like a year old. Now he has a siste, I thought it was time to get my crazy sewing aunty on. Just an excuse to make some cute quilts, really, so I guess everyone’s a winner.
I’m in love with the sawtooth bars pattern – I definitely want one of these myself so this was a great opportinuty to try it out on a smallish scale. It’s a lot of work. Lots. Making the little sawteeth is quite monotonous, but not too bad if you use the 2-at-a-time method where you sew them together as a square. This is the ONLY way I would ever do half-square triangle, I have zero patience with cutting triangles and sewing them together. Ditto any patterns that instruct you to do that, just why?
Like that, if you were wondering. It’s the only way!
So yeah, LOTS of half-square triangles, but it’s such a striking pattern and I’m completely in love with it.
The other quilt, for a little girl, is the good old ‘gingham’ quilt. I loved the floral so much I bought it in black and white (not with this in mind), and I’m pretty stoked that I did, I think it works great! The yellow is some liberty craft cotton I had left over – I don’t love it that much on its own but I think it works really well here.
Both the backs include leftover blocks from the calico and wax print flying geese quilt I made their parents for a wedding gift. I was hoping to use them up, and it be a cute details at the same time, but after I finished these quilts I found another stack of them in a drawer. Oh well…
I loved making these little quilts, and even still had the energy left to personalise them! I lalways try to do this if I’m making a quilt for a child, I just think it’s super-cute and makes it a bit more special that it’s just for them.
cotton city studio 