I've really enjoyed stitching this project - the pattern is We Are Family by the Australian designer Susan Smith. Both the pattern and the fabrics for the quilt top were supplied by Pincushion Pantiles (I'd bought the pattern a couple of years ago and made one for my first grandson, Rory). Anyway, once the blocks were stitched together and the borders added, I was able to prepare the quilt top ready for quilting. I've used bamboo wadding from Oh Sew Sweet for this quilt, as it drapes beautifully ans it lovely for hand quilting. The backing fabric is the same double gauze from Pound Fabrics that I used for borders. Once this was layered and basted, I was able to start quilting - I'm using a DMC perle thread in Ecru for the blocks. This big-stitch hand quilting is quite simple to stitch, and I've used quilters tape to mark the position of the straight lines. This is a low-tacky tape, a quarter of an inch wide, which can be repositioned and used again...
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...the appliqued circles have been outlined using a quilter's silver pencil and a Karen Kay Buckley circular template. The borders were quilted very simply too, using a grey DMC perle thread. The raw edges were neatened with a double fold binding - this is machine stitched to the front of the quilt, and the folded edge is turned over to the back of the quilt, then hand stitched using ladder stitch...
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...the big-stitch hand quilting gives a lovely soft ribbed texture to the quilt, and the bamboo weadding that I've used drapes beautifully. I'm sure Alfie will love being snuggled up in this quilt when he's a bit older...
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...and here's the completed quilt. Now I just need to add the finishing touches, which is to hand sew the personalised labels that I've made onto the back of the quilt, and finally take some photographs of the scrappy cushion that I've been making to match the quilt, which will go in Alfie's nursery.
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