Playgrounds Baby Quilt

A baby in the family is always an excuse for a quick and easy quilts and this is from the book of the same title, Quick & Easy Quilts by Lynne Goldsworthy.  In the book, it's called Cowboy lap quilt but I've called it  Playgrounds and it's been given to a baby girl, the first grandchild of my late father's partner.

It's large pieces are perfect for showcasing a picture print and come together quickly so it was quick to layout, plan a little colour placement and piece together.  I used my flippity method to sew the drunkard's path blocks together to get the absolutely square at the beginning and end of blocks.  The templates are full size in the book and I traced them onto freezer paper and ironed them onto the fabrics.

I'm not a fancy quilter so I quilted echo lines to define the four quadrants and spiral quilted each circle.  I drew some petals on freezer paper for the centre and drew round them in chalk before straight stitching along the lines.  All the resources are listed at the end of this post. 

It was quilted on a very hot couple of days so instead of gloves I used this Clover Non Slip Finger stick which you rub on to your finger tips.  The ingredients aren't specified but it feels like silicon and helps you maintain a light grip on the fabric.  It doesn't stain the fabric and is handy when your hands are hot.

Usual baby quilt size at 38" square.  Labelled and delivered to a much wanted baby.

Resources

1. Quick & Easy Quilts by Lynne Goldsworthy, Cowboy Lap quilt pattern.
2. Sewing Drunkard Path blocks video
3. Starting off spiral quilting template
4. Fabrics are from my stash and most are out of print: a mix of Hello Petal prints by Aneela Hoey for Moda, some Cotton + Steel, Riley Blake Blue dots and a mint print. Sarah Fielke and Moda Ambleside gird.  Binding Denyse Schmidt, Flea Market Fancy.

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Quick and Easy Quilts Blog Tour: Modern Feedsack Stars & a Giveaway!

I've been waiting for what feels like ages to see Lynne Goldsworthy's new book Quick & Easy Quilts and now it is finally here I have really enjoyed seeing how she's grown as a quilt designer.   Lynne is a prolific quilt maker and Quick& Easy Quilts is deceptively clever book: each project is packed full of tips and tricks to speed up your piecing, increase your accuracy and produce a quilt that looks harder to achieve that it actually was!

I loved the cover quilt, 'Modern Stars', and I knew it was a perfect fit for my stash of feedback fabrics which have been waiting for a simple effective block to make the most of their gorgeous colours and prints.  I starched the fabrics with a gentle non aerosol starch before cutting as feedbacks are very soft and easily distort and stretch out of shape. 

I made a fabric throw (quilt top and batting fabric with no batting or quilting, top stitched edge) rather than a quilt as I use a lot of these as pretty covers for boxes of musical instruments and toys in my day job- I run group music classes for babies, toddlers and preschoolers.  This means I will get to enjoy looking at beautiful fabrics during my day job as well as when I'm at home!  I made a nine-block version of the quilt- each block is 14" finished- and I adapted the border sizes to fit. 

I precut all the fabrics out using nine prints, one main background (Linea Texture by Makower) and a little extra Makower Linen Texture as I ran slightly short.  All the half-square triangles are made using a full size template from the book which produces eight accurate HSTs in minutes, I'm not kidding, it was seriously fast with minimal trimming.   This technique is also a great introduction to foundation paper piecing at it's simplest. 

My top tip for removing paper when foundation paper piecing is to tear the template part way along the seam line and then remove from the seam.  This reduces the strain on the stitches especially at the start and end so they won't come loose.  I've used this tip a lot for my Farmer's Wife blocks.

It's a great book for someone who's pieced squares together and sewn a beginner quilt and wants to progress and pick up skills and tips. It's also a handy resource for more experienced quilters who might need to whip up a baby quilt or pillow at short notice, that's what I'm planning for my copy!

You can see many of the projects inside the book on Kyle Books website and enjoy perusing Jan Baldwin's excellent photography.  I especially like that each quilt/project is shown in a styled shot and also in a flat overhead full-sized photo so you can study the layout and details close up.  The other stops on the blog tour also include some beautiful new versions of projects from the book.

I have a copy to giveaway and entries are open internationally, as long as I can find your email to contact you, you are eligible to win!  To enter, comment below and tell me about an vintage or older fabric that you have in your stash- good, bad or somewhere in between. Add an extra entries for each share on social media- write a comment adding where you shared- Facebook, Twitter etc. Winner will be contacted and announced Sunday 24th April. *Comments are now closed*.

{Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book in return for taking part in this blog hop.  It was my decision to make something from it.  All opinions and content are my own}