Cloud 9 | finchley street

On mother’s day in early May, I had a little more time than usual in the sewing room. It was my request for the day – so much better than breakfast in bed!

I took the chance to make a quilt top for a friend of mine who is a new mother. Her daughter arrived 4 weeks early, and so I didn’t quite have the gift ready for little miss’ arrival. Nevertheless, it is complete now, and I thought I would share with you some photos.

I didn’t use a pattern for this quilt, but I gave a description of how to make it in this post.

I decided to back the quilt in flannelette, because it is winter here and nothing is more snuggly. That way, the quilt has a cool side and a warm side, so that it can be used year-round.

I had picked up the fabric for the front at a quilter’s fair earlier in the year, and it is by Cloud 9. The backing is a Moda fabric which, despite being from a fairy-tale styled range, coordinates well with the pinks and creams on the quilt top. I used all of the scraps from the fabrics I used on the top to make a scrappy binding, and so there was less than one fat quarter’s worth of waste for the whole quilt. That made me especially happy!

My Mum, who so often helps me with the hand-sewing part of binding, did it again on this quilt. Thanks Mum 🙂 It means I was able to post the finished product to the recipient yesterday. Now I have the anticipation of waiting for the recipient’s reaction… one of the parts of giving quilts I enjoy most.

Have a great day, all.

I didn’t have a lot of requests for mother’s day. My little girl is too small to make me breakfast in bed (in fact, a whole night of sleep would be a big enough win in my book… and I didn’t get that!) and so my one wish was for some sewing time. My mother’s day wish came true!

Here’s the product. All done in a matter of about 3 hours, this quilt top:

It was made without a pattern, but was really very easy. Here’s how it is done:

From 10 fat quarters, I cut 20 squares with 10″ sides. Then I grouped the squares into 5 groups of 4 each, and I tried to mix up the patterns so that there was an even distribution of the more plain colours (yellow, pink and navy) among the patterned fabrics.

Then I took all of the 10″ squares and cut them down the diagonal to create triangles. I sewed two contrasting triangles together, pressed them and then cut them in half along the other diagonal.

Then, I paired two of the resulting units together and sewed them along the long hypotenuse to make a square again, but now a square with 4 colours in each!

Then it was just a matter of laying the blocks out into 5 rows of 4, and joining it all together.

I sliced up the remainder of 8 of the fat quarters into 2.5″ strips, joined them together and have a scrappy binding ready for the final step of finishing this quilt.

It also means I have very little waste… just the scraps of two fat quarters. That makes me really happy!

This will be a gift for a friend of mine who has just had a little baby girl. I hope that she will love it. It might seem odd to have spent mother’s day sewing for someone else, but the pleasure for me is in the making, and honouring a new mother is so much fun. Plus, as I sewed I had a nice big pot of tea and listened to daggy musicals while my darling husband and daughter did the groceries. Win-win.

While you can’t see it in the picture, the backing I have laid it out with is a brushed cotton (flannelette) pink fabric with clouds all over it… a Kate and Birdie fabric for Moda. The fabrics on the quilt top are ones I picked up from the last quilt show I attended, and they are from Cloud 9 (though I can’t tell you much more about them than that!). They’ve got a nice Scandinavian flavour that is an unusual colour combination for me. It’s always nice to make something that’s a bit different.

The flanny backing should make it extra snuggly, while the top can be a cooler side for summer and for tummy time.

I can’t wait to get home and baste!

Have a great day,