Row by Row Quilt - Rows 2 and 5

I finally continue working on this quilt.  4 of the 9 rows is done, so I am nearly halfway. 

These 3d blocks is done by cutting a hexagon which is then folded to create this stunning flower.

I also finished the row of roses which I machine appliqued .

Baby Stuff

The past week I have been busy embroidering towels etc. for a friend of mine's 6th grandchild, Jadia, who is expected mid September.  Sadia and I started working together a few months before she found out she was expecting Ursula.  Now it's 24 years later and Ursula is expecting her first baby!  She combined grandfather Jan and Sadia's names for Jadia's very own special name.  A beautiful gesture towards her parents.

Scanning through my collection of designs, I finally settled on these beautiful designs from Hatched in Africa .

After struggling to decide on a font for the towels, I decided that sometimes plain is best.

And finally two washcloths.

The beautiful Mom to be and proud grandmother:



Row by Row Quilt - Row 3

Our Guild changed the Quarterly Challenges to just one challenge for this year - a quilt designed by various of the Quilting Groups.  9 groups each contributed a block to make up this quilt using various traditional methods.  Being an avid machine embroiderer, I decided to make my applique blocks using machine embroidery designs.

For the row of hearts, I used Mollymine's Crazy heart designs.  You can find them here.

I hope to create a vintage look with this quilt.

I am way behind though.  Will have to put in more hours with this project if I want to be finished in time!

Prize winning quit

When I started working on this quit, winning prizes was the last thing on my mind.  After 8 months of not quilting at all after our house burned, this was the first project I started working on.  I wanted to use taffeta and when I found a beautiful coordinating satin, there was no stopping.

Little did I knew that this quilt would go on to win first prize in it's class at the Bloem Show as well as 2 special prizes - one for best quilted article and one for best traditional quilt!

At the prize giving function I received these two trophy's:

from the beautiful Miss Bloem Show 2016 Marylyn van Vuuren.

And this is the winning quilt:

The Judge comments:

Baby shower

Yesterday was my best friend of the last 35 years (Rika van der Merwe) daughter's Janie Kritzinger baby shower.  She is expecting her second child but first little girl named Néa.  Big brother Ruben will be 3 when his little sister is born in about 6 weeks time.

The nursery is decorated in pink and white with bunny's.  So, I used the bunny theme as well.

I bought the Bunny Doorstop Design from Inspiration Mutz a few years ago and decided to make one for Néa's room.  Everybody at the baby shower loved it and was quite astonished that it was done with an embroidery machine!

I also included 2 bibs and a pair of Free Standing Lace shoes all done on the embroidery machine as well.

I embroidered a pair of burp cloths for her Mom using the same fabrics I used in the bunny.

Below is the proud grandmother, Rika with Ruben

and the Mom to be Janie, with Ruben and husband Jurie.

When I met my husband, he was a lodger at Rika and husband Koos's home.  We owe these people so much.  When our oldest was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, they were there for us.  When our house burned in 2014, they immediately offered us a place to stay.  And so the list can go on.  Dear friends for life!

Ageless embroidery designs

After embroidering Lexy's burpcloth, I was asked to embroider a blanket as well.

It is usually rather difficult to choose a design from the hundreds of thousands I do have, but as I recently bought this set from Ageless-embroidery I was looking for an excuse to use it.  At $1 for each set, it was a real steal.



It's a boy set

It's a girl set
 



And this is what the stitch out on Lexy's blanket looked like:

 

 Another happy customer!

Charity Quilt

A few of my quilting friends decided to make a quilt for charity and asked me to design the centre block.  I offered to make the block instead and this is what I came up with.

The main fabric used contained beautiful wonky hearts which I enlarged 200 and 400% and appliqued.  Then I embroidered some dragonflies and spider webs in between - continuing the theme of the main fabric.