3 Special Quilts for 3 Special Girls

A family that I've known my whole life recently lost someone very special.  Sonja was loved by so many, not least by her three beautiful daughters and her husband.  I'm not great with words, I never know what to say at times of such sadness......so I usually don't.  I am brilliant at saying very little and shying away from situations when I probably should say something thoughtful and profound.  Sonja's three girls, Kelsie, Alisha and Sofia are pretty amazing and I wanted to do something to let them know that I'm thinking of them.  I might not say the right things (probably the very opposite in fact) but my heart is with them during this terribly rough time. 

So, I had started the Economy Block Along a few months ago and realised that the fabric I had chosen to feature really reminded me of Alisha.  It has a couple of different Riley Blake fabrics that show a little girl picking apples, feeding the chickens, going camping and all sorts of other activities.  Alisha, in all the years I've known her, has been up to something interesting - whether it's fishing for mackerel with her aunty G, baking with her nana or crocheting but she's always seems to be doing something!  So I was about half way through this quilt when I realised that this was her quilt and it gave me more pleasure to finish it with her in mind!

 

I loved the colours in this one.  I got to use any and every type of fabric and overall eclectic effect is just fun!   I decided to hand quilt it so it took a while but it gives it a nice crinkly effect I think! 

                                              

I had a few extra blocks left over so I added them in to the backing and then I used offcuts from all the blocks to make a scrappy binding.  I think I love scrappy-effect quilts most of all, they're so girlie and fun!

 Next, I moved on to little Sofia's quilt.  I am an unashamed lover of paper-piecing so I found some patterns online that featured lots of different Fairy Tales and I thought they would be perfect.  Sofia is just 4 and a little fire-cracker - full of personality and has a lovely cheeky glint in her eye.  I thought she might find it fun to tell the stories in her quilt.

Each block features a different fairy story - The Ugly Duckling, Snow White, The Three Pigs, Puss In Boots and more........ the only one that didn't really stand out to me was the Three Pigs so I asked Sofias lovely Aunty Gina to make me some piggy buttons to help that block and now I love that block!!!  Gina has always been a whizz with Fimo, since forever (!), and she really helped me out with this despite the fact that she was heading to America and is still very much dealing with losing her lovely sister, Sonja, herself.  I really love that she had a little part in Sofias quilt - even though she didn't even know what the buttons were for!

                               

The last block in the quilt has a bookshelf full of books and I added some embroidered words to personalise it for Sofia.

Tada!  (Can you name each fairytale?)

And finally........... Kelsies Quilt. 
Kelsie is that bit older than her sisters and I didn't want to make anything too childish for her but I wanted it to be a bit of a memory quilt for her too.  I decided to make a family tree, a little reminder that she's surrounded by so many of her family when she's missing her mum.  

I didn't have a pattern or anything for this so just drew out the tree freehand appliquéd it and the leaves and then embroidered all the family names putting her own little family at the top centre and then all Sonja's family to the right - including grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins and the same for her dad Clives family to the left.  One little leaf is awaiting a name of the newest cousin, who is a little boy, due in October!

I asked for a little help regarding Kelsies colours and was told greens and pinks....... thankfully, her lovely granny and my lovely friend, Heather, said we got it right, phew!  I quite like the colours myself.  I had planned to machine quilt this one but in the end I decided to hand quilt and keep all three the same in that respect.

Finally, I wanted to put one patch on each quilt that was the same and to show that it was kind of in memory of their mum, Sonja.  The fabulous girls in WeSewCrazy Galway helped me out here.  I told them that I would like to put a patch on each quilt that would have the cancer awareness ribbon for the type of cancer that Sonja battled with and also a little something to do with Irish Dancing because every childhood party that I can recall,  Sonja was "the" Irish Dancer of our little community.  Every party I went to as a child, you could be sure that Sonja would have us clapping along.  And each of the girls learned too and eventually we were cheering them while they danced so I thought it would be nice to add that little momento!
 
Imagine how perfect it was when Fiona, from WeSewCrazy Galway (who happens to be a twin mum like me, so we had loads to gas bag about when I collected the patches) came back with a little image of an Irish Dancing girl with RED hair and a YELLOW Irish Dancing dress........ just like Sonja had years ago. 
The girls at WeSewCrazyGalway were sooooooo good and donated the patches for my quilt and I want them to know I really appreciated it so much! 

So I delivered the quilts last week.  It's been just over 3 months since the girls mum passed away and these quilts were meant as just a little reminder that they're surrounded by family and friends who love them very much.

xx Naomi

Sonja (Gardiner) Kubath with her big brother Alan, many years ago..... in that adorable yellow dress!

Finishing up!

You remember I mentioned I had a finger in a lot of pies and was trying to stop starting new projects before I had a few "finishes", well I've been working on that over the past few days.  I may have digressed a little by making a cover for my sewing machine.....  but that was a necessary as my machine now sits in the window and I don't want it to turn yellow on me!! 

So this is what I've been doing........

First up, I finally found a piece of embroidery that I started ages ago.  I'm terrible for putting things in very "safe" places and then not finding them for months on end!!  So here are my two little boys........ I had done one similar a while back but when I saw this pic with two little boys, I had to do it too.  My little men, Sam and Levi, each picked themselves out of the finished piece so I think that'll show you why I wanted to do it!
 

Next up I've been doing some more on my #economyblockalong - these blocks are very easy but quite labour intensive.  There is so much ironing and trimming throughout each block for something that is very simple looking at the end of it.  However, they are so very cute and I'm delighted with how they're turning out.....they're just turning out rather slowly!

 

Oh before I forget, this is my little machine cover.  I used a charm pack that I bought during the #greatukfabricdestash from Fairyface Designs so it went together very fast.  It could possible have been an inch longer but it covers all the necessaries so I'm happy enough with that!

 And lastly, I finished up my Summer in the park Quilt.  I did the binding over a week ago but left the last 3 inches (ever the procrastinator, why would I not just do those three inches and be done with it???) until this morning!  So finally , it is done!  I hope you like it!

Front and back

Hand quilted with perle cotton

I do love a bit of funky binding!

So that's what I've been up to the past couple of weeks.  I can start (guilt-free) to plan a few more projects now!!


                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Accumulating UFO's

I'm finding it very hard to concentrate these days.  I have started so many projects and not finished one this past month!!  I have been hand-quilting my "summer in the park" quilt this week and that has taken two full days but it's done now and I just have to do the binding, hooray!!

I also cut lots of fq's up last week to make a little boy blanket.  I've been admiring my cut rectangles all week but have been putting off actually piecing it until I get the hand-quilting done.........I'm really trying not to be a quilter with 15,000 UFO's!  However, I couldn't resist and put it together on wednesday afternoon, it's a very simple design, lots of bright spring colours, perfectly suited to the little one I'm making it for.

My poor little Economy Block-Along quilt came to a standstill 2 weeks ago when I couldn't find the fabric I wanted to complete it.  I had been using fussy cuts from Riley Blakes "The Simple Life" and I LOVED IT but you can only use so many of the same pictures repeated.  I had used each one about 5 or 6 times and any little girl would absolutely adore them.  You can just imagine how their imagination would run wild looking at all the little scenes.  Falling asleep while making up stories to go with them...........   OR maybe it was just me, maybe I was bored with the repetition and the fabric is far too cute to get bored of!  So, I went on the hunt and found a similar but different Riley Blake pattern called "Little Red Riding Hood".  It was on a white background too and had a few different scenes!  I also came across another gorgeous print by Riley Blake called "Country Girl"............ah for goodness sake, they were getting cuter and cuter..........but this one, I couldn't find in Ireland or the UK!  It seems that it's brand new and only in the US so far.  I bit the bullet and bought half a yard of both fabrics and guess what, they arrived in just 5 days!  I opened up this Happy Mail yesterday.

Aren't they gorgeous!!!

  

The pictures on both fabrics are perfect for fussy cutting into my blocks!  Watch this space for more progress! 


So, I'm browsing the net this morning - for fear something mega happened overnight and I might have missed it when I notice someone has pinned something I previously pinned and forgotten.  Oh man, I want to make that too!  How did I forget about such a cute project!  Then, I spy a stained glass project that a fellow quilter is making - it's just stunning and I remember how I loved doing the stained glass block in my sample quilt and suddenly I want to add one of those to my list too! So today, I'm giving myself a good talking to, telling myself to cop on, knuckle down and finish the current quilts and start making an orderly To Do List instead of starting everything at once!  Let's see if that happens.........!

My two little helpers watching the "thorn" (needle) going up and down!