flower pot quilt

We are having perfect weather with a slight drizzle every morning this week and a nice cooling breeze. I can almost feel hints of autumn outside. It probably had an indirect effect on me in choosing colors for the flower pot quilt, this beautiful Nani Iro gauze fabric in warm tones definitely sprites up the mood.

I combined it with another double gauze fabric with the sweetest bear print called nap time. In this print is a baby bear taking naps or blissfully playing with his mom and various forest friends, a bunny, bunch of chicks and even a baby porcupine and their favorite toys are mostly twigs and leaves and flowers that are plenty to be found where they live.

Sometime back I got this delicate French ribbon with smiley porcupines from a local shop. I added this ribbon on the side border. It shows how this porcupine family often sneak their way into the garden in the hazy dusk light, looking for treats. They must be super thrilled to have all these plants and fruits for themselves, when pesky humans are soundly asleep!

I have always been in love with Nani Iro dots, especially in this print, they are very cheerful and bright. I couldn't help spreading their joy a little more in the form of big yellow pompoms in the corners. Instead of usual way of quilting and binding a quilt, I was thinking of a different way to finish it. First I layered the quilt top and batting together. Basted them with pins and quilted in the ditch both horizontally and vertically to keep the patchwork squares from shifting later.

Then I trimmed the batting to the exact size of the quilt top and laid these yellow pompoms in the four corners facing towards inside and their threads hanging towards the outside. It is the opposite of what we see in the finished quilt. I basted them in this position by hand stitching and taped the pompoms to the quilt top out of the way, to make sure I don't accidentally sew on them in the next step.

Then I laid the backing on top right sides together with the quilt top. Secured the sides with pins along the edges and sewed carefully with a quarter inch seam. When I was coming closer to a corner, I had to press on the pompom a little with my fingers, for the foot to stitch smoothly and not have a bumpy ride. I hope my explanation makes any sense ;-)

I left a 5" gap on one side to flip the quilt right side out. I pressed the edges neatly and then closed the gap with a slip stitch. I liked how the quilt looked without any top stitching on the edges, so I decided to tie the quilt in the back to keep it secure and avoid any shifting of the backing fabric in the wash. I used Londonderry linen thread for tying.

On the back is this soft organic cotton fabric with a checkered pattern. This happy quilt is in my Etsy shop. 

'Mustaherukka Bears' fabric is by Kokka from Fabricworm shop if you are interested. I got a half yard bundle of four prints from this collection. I also used Quilters Dream low loft cotton batting for the first time in this quilt and liked it a lot. By the way, this quilt measures 33" x 38 1/2".

Thank you for stopping by! Have a pleasant evening! ( ^ u ^ )

curious objects

I am still thinking about the layout and fabrics for the flower pot blocks. In the meantime I managed to finish this little 'I spy ' quilt I have been fussing over for a while.

For small children, their world is a fascinating one full of curiosities at every step. Either it is looking for shapes in the clouds or wanting to touch a crawling bug on the leaf, their wide eyed inspection of random things is really amusing to watch.

Keeping this in mind, I placed some curious objects in the quilt like a cat sitting on a fence, a ball rolling downhill, snowflake falling from the sky, an apple looking very tempting on the table.. I even included some grownup things like a key, an alaram clock, glowing candles.. that are usually out of children's reach but would very well turn into toys in their inquisitive hands!

To make the atmosphere more lively, I added these swirling pinwheels in the background. I love the colors in this flower print, just a hint of purple with lime green and faded blue.

This fabric with interesting pictures is by Ecrulat and the flower fabric is called Poppies but I am not sure of the maker. Both are silky and light weight cotton lawn Japanese fabrics. And the solid sage green is organic cotton that I also used for the flower pot blocks. All of these fabrics are so incredibly soft that it was like a dream to work with them.

For the binding I combined Ecrulat fabric with a Robert Kauffman lawn in solid white. We can see a peek of the prints unexpectedly on the binding with the movement of the quilt. On the back is Lecien 'basic dots'. I wanted all of these precious fabrics to shine on their own, so I opted to quilt it with stitch in the ditch diagonally. This quilt measures around 36" x 36".

I hope this cuddly quilt will find its way to a new home and some small sticky fingers will have fun playing with these objects.

Enjoy your day! ( ' u ' )

flower pots

Today started out promising with a smiling sun.

This squirrel seem to think so too digging for treasures in a flower pot. But I fear it will be a hard sight for the gardener.

Planting in lightly chipped cups and vintage mugs is also nice. They make the window very pretty! I learned that from my grandmother.  But I didn't know that pups can grow out of cups too and attract honey bees! 

It is really my lucky day.. I see a letter coming in the post :)

This chicken is so cute with her greedy eye! Dandelion seeds must be tasty to take this much risk!
I kind of have the same look when I go for fabric shopping minus the cuteness factor ;)

Soon, sun went behind the clouds and raindrops fell making my clover plants and this frog & turtle pair quite happy!

I guess it is never a dull moment for these pots with all sorts of busy activities and accidents happening around them.

I have a soft spot for flower pots and thought they will make a good subject for my next quilt. I think it is going to be a small baby quilt. I am still choosing fabrics to go with these blocks. I used machine applique for the pots & critters and added rest of the details by hand using embroidery thread. These blocks are tiny at 3 1/2".

The fabric I used for the background is organic cotton in sage, that I got at SuperBuzzy last year. I like the natural flecks it has and is also incredibly soft. The flower pot fabric is a Japanese linen but I don't know the name of this print. If I make anymore progress I will post about it soon ( ' u ' )

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great week!!