I'm this big!

For Penny's first birthday I wanted to make something she could use for years, and found a rather lovely height chart panel: alphabet, girly colours and pretty pictures.

Hopefully she'll be tall enough for this soon :)

Quilting for Penny

My mother-in-law is a quilter, and when I said I wanted to make something special for my almost-arrived niece, she suggested we make a baby quilt as a summer project.  I had never made a quilt before, and my sewing experience was rather limited, so I jumped at the chance to work with Jenny and make something beautiful in the process.

My brother and sister-in-law tend to choose rustic, shabby-chic colours and patterns, so we decided on a teddy bear theme in browns and creams.  I sketched the original teddy bear block pattern and it evolved from there step-by-step.

The bears are appliquéd using fusible paper and machined blanket stitch, all using different combinations of fabrics for a rag-tag, patchwork feel.

We used the appliqué stitch to quilt the blocks so the bear outline is repeated on the reverse of the quilt.

The border was made using scraps and then quilted over with hearts 

Jenny was very patient and an excellent tutor, and my brother and sister-in-law loved the quilt - hurrah!