Monster Hide and Seek

It’s always fun to make baby quilts and right now I’m making the most fun baby quilt ever.

It all started when I took a class at Quilt Con Together. Jo Avery was teaching her Journey to the Centre of the Earth block. I’ve always been bad at improv and this seemed to be a compromise as you design the block and then FPP (foundation paper piece) parts of the block. It was fun but also very hard and I had to watch the class twice to get a hang of the technique. Once mastered, though, it was incredibly liberating. I made one 12.5″ block and turned it into a cushion.

As I was doing the triangles/spikes I thought they look a bit like monster teeth. That was it, my imagination ran wild and this is what it came up with:

Isn’t that a fun quilt? I tried very hard to not make the monsters scary and I really hope I succeeded. The first monster I did was the green one, then the orange, yellow and purple one. I have to admit that my favourite changes all the time but I think it must be the yellow one. He looks a little worried and quite shy, I think.

As I was deciding what colour to do the last monster (I had planned on making a blue one but realised it would blend too much with the background), I laid the blocks on the floor and Holly became the fourth monster, even showing teeth. She was actually meowing at me, telling me she was hungry and to get a move on and feed her.

In the end it was my daughter who said that the last monster should be purple and I think it was a great choice.

I’m waiting on some basting spray as I want to try spray basting for the first time. I always like trying things out on small pieces and a baby quilt is perfect in that respect. For once I actually know how to quilt this, I usually struggle with it and often quilt in the ditch or echo quilt, but this time I’m going to have a sort of grid in the centre and leaves in the border. The monsters will get a bit of quilting in the ditch to emphasise hair, horns, teeth, nose and eyes but might also get some texture.

Martha Again

I’ve started to sew Martha the Giraffe and I’m really upset. Despite having coloured in the templates and knowing exactly how I wanted her to look I managed to use the wrong fabric for her mane. I really wanted Martha to have a purple mane but instead her mane is orange. What a dimwit.

Martha's Head

She still looks cute but I just feel really disappointed with myself. I’m going to continue as I don’t think I have the patience to unpick her ear and the mane. I’ve added a different orange print for her inside legs and am hoping that that will help me love her again.

Or I might just unpick…..

Martha the Giraffe

The lovely Juliet (of Tartankiwi fame) asked who would like to test some of her latest patterns and although I have way too much to do at the moment I said ‘yes’ to testing the giraffe. So far I’ve only pulled the fabric for it and am pleased to report that it all came from stash except for the blue and white polka dot which I’m going to use for the background. I simply haven’t got any big cuts of fabric as I usually go for fat quarters so that I can have a bit more variety in my stash. I think I will have to start buying yards or at least half yards in future.

Fabric pull for giraffe

Even though I haven’t started sewing yet I can already picture the giraffe in my mind and have decided to call her Martha. Where Martha is going to end up I have no idea (I’m sure Little Miss Bossy-Boots will try to stake a claim) but I’m sure she’ll look pretty wherever that is.

Stomp, Stomp, Chomp

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to test another foundation paper piecing pattern designed by Juliet from Tartankiwi. This time it was a polka dot brontosaurus.

Brontosaurus

I used purple again as this is Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ favourite colour at the moment. There were a couple of nail-biting moments when I first realised that I didn’t have enough of the lighter purple colour I used for the legs and then thought I was going to run out of lilac polka dots before finishing the brontosauruses ample bottom. The first predicament was solved by piecing together two smaller pieces thus adding another seam in the foot. To be honest, I don’t think anyone would notice if I hadn’t mentioned it so I don’t mind at all. I’m just grateful I didn’t have to start again. In the end I had just enough polka dot fabric as I found another small piece hiding under a few bits of blue which I could use for part of the tail. Note to self: Make sure you have more fabric than you think you need!

Now I need to turn it into a cushion cover and add it to the mountain of cushions that are already making our life on the sofa far too comfortable. Not today, though, as Little Miss Bossy-Boots had a rough night with two night terrors and my eyes are drooping as I write these words.

I will let you know as soon as Juliet has added the pattern to her Craftsy shop.

Edited to add: You can find the pattern here.