Monday 17 February 2014

a tale of two quilts

Last September I started to plan a quilt each for my girls. I asked them separately to choose one fabric from my stash and I would plan a quilt around their choice. Remarkably they each chose the same fabric in different colourways, this Kaffe Fasset design Tile Flower. 



I decided on a simple square design and I used colours to complement their fabric choice. I wanted to include lots of fabric I had printed and slowly built up enough in a range of colours to make two single bed sized quilts. 

I gave the girls three blank squares each and some fabric pens and let them draw or write whatever they wanted to capture their 6 and 8 year old selves in these quilts. 
Missy Big did a self portrait, a drawing of her sister, her favourite teddy and doll and a heart.
Little Missy put all her favourites in one square, bunnies, a rainbow, butterflies and all our ages, in another a heart and the other one is a crazy ramble of jumbled words and numbers, which sums up her active mind and jump before looking attitude perfectly.
These squares make my heart ship a beat when I look at them.


I'm hand quilting these, so it's slow but happy progress. I'm using perle thread in a bunch of cheery colours and wiggling lines across the quilt.


I am loving making these, but I can hardly wait to see them being snuggled under, used to make dens and dragged across the floor like I didn't spend a gazillion hours making them.



Throughout the process of making these I made a new friend in the school playground. She was so inspired by all my quilt talk she made her first quilt for her Mum, a double sized quilt, in about a month and took it to her in South Africa over Christmas. 
We had lots of frantic "how do I do..." chats at pick up time and somehow she got this finished in time, I'm so impressed! There are two embroidered hand shapes and a drawing by each of her children in this. Needless to say her parents were thrilled.  



Stunning isn't it! I love her almost 3 year olds contribution. She most definitely has the quilting bug now and is planning her next quilt(s). 


Linking in with My Creative Space, so glad to see this back again, I missed it so!

12 comments:

  1. Wonderful quilt(s) Colette - the girls will treasure these :)

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  2. They are looking amazing, I love the idea of the girls designing their own squares for it. Have recently been thinking of making a quilt each for the boys. But it hasn't got past the thinking stage yet, and as I keep being reminded there is a pile of fabric to be made in to curtains in the corner of the workroom...

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  3. Wonderful they will be! I love their own little squares and I love your wriggly hand-stitched lines snaking their way across the quilt... Your new friend's quilt is great, and must have been a great gift that will remind her parents of them when far away!
    x

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  4. what a lovely idea to have the girls add their own drawings - brilliant!

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  5. lovely quilts, the detail of the girls adding there own drawings and your own printed fabrics make these unique heirloom quilts.

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  6. Having your girls design some square is a lovely idea. Love the hand quilting too. These will really be something to treasure for years. They will have so much love and personality in them!

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  7. Wow, your quilts are so wonderful and special. Getting your daighters to draw on fabric squares is such a lovely idea. I can see how your friend was inspired to make a quilt too. And now you have a new quilting buddy!

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  8. These are so beautiful. Not just in your choice of fabrics and your eye for colour, but in the way you've included and thought about your daughters throughout the whole process, letting them contribute to the pattern. These are something to treasure forever. x

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  9. These are so striking - in such gorgeous fabrics. I love how people personalise their quilts to make them special. I only ever made one, but I embroidered each family member's name and date of birth on different squares, just to make it 'ours'. Yours is beautiful. xCathy

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    1. What a lovely idea to add names and birthdays, these special touches make all the difference to treasured quilts! Thanks for your kind words, C x

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  10. so so gorgeous,I love that their drawings are part of the quilts.

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    1. Thank you, I'm so glad I thought of this, they are my favourite bit of the quilt! C x

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