One Little Monkey

My brother had a baby girl this month! I decided to make a different version of the original 9-monkey quilt... a cute little quilt with only one monkey. I made one like it a few years back which was mostly tied but thought I could improve upon it. Instead of really basic quilting and tying, I free-motion quilted a flower into the centre of each square and quilted the words "one little monkey jumping on the bed" around the border. I really love the border but next time I think I will quilt bananas into the squares!

As you can see the border changed for the better with my husband's valued opinion! The rusty red border really was too dark...

I also tried something I never thought of doing on a pillow-cased (no binding) quilt before. I sprayed 505 on the batting and stuck the backing to it. I still pinned it but it was much easier to quilt and I didn't get any puckers at all! I also thought I would have my stained office carpet in my new craftroom, but laying the batting on it and sandwiching the quilt was a breeze. I just stuck my cutting mat under the edge where I pinned.

Here is the finished quilt top on a sunny day hanging from my clothesline on my back porch...

And here are some details of the finished "One Little Monkey" quilt...

For the backing, I used brown flannel with a stripe made of little squares of all the fabrics used for the flower blocks on the front of the quilt! I really liked the added interest :o) Pieced backs are becoming much more popular in the revived modern quilting movement (if that's what it's called)!

Here is the original version with the nine monkeys that was published in "Quilts, BABY!"...

And this was the first single monkey quilt that was mostly tied.

I will be making another one this weekend when I go to my first full-weekend quilting retreat! It is the first annual Quilter's Connection Magazine weekend retreat. I am quite excited about sewing for a full weekend without interruptions! I think I have packed way too many projects and supplies but I usually work on whatever tickles my fancy at that moment. I really need to catch up on my long list of baby gifts though ;o)

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)

Evening Tea Party & a Cozy

I made this french press cozy a while back. It is much simpler than my other designs... floral linen with red plaid binding and ties, and buttons embellishing the centres of quilted flowers! Lately I can seem to resist adding some sort of hand embroidery to each piece so I added little cross-stitches on the ties in the same dusty grey-green as in the linen. I really like how it turned out :o)

I hosted what will no doubt be the last evening tea party in my garden for the year. The weather is getting colder and wetter but I'm not complaining because my craftroom is bright even on a gloomy day. I am so lucky to have two of my high school friends as neighbours since moving to New Westminster. We try to get together every Wednesday evening for tea and sometimes a walk as well. Our visit was lovely! Solar lanterns hung from the wisteria vine, and tea lights in lanterns and jars added sparkle to the evening. The pie was baked with freshly picked blackberries! Yummmm...

For pure eye candy, I will throw in a picture of the cake I made for my husband's birthday in August...

Enjoy your afternoon tea & quilted crafts :o)