Apple Farm Blog Hop

Hi! Welcome to my blog and my turn on the Apple Farm Blog Hop for Elea Lutz’s latest collection for Riley Blake Designs.

Ok let’s be honest Elea is yet to create a collection that I don’t absolutely adore so no real surprise how much I love this collection. But seriously who wouldn’t! With its pretty
pops of colour, pretty ginghams, sweet apples and adorable critters it has been so much fun to create with (especially as our Australian winter has been filled with many gloomy grey days).

 

 

The arrival of Apple Farm coincided with the arrival of my first great niece. And so I set to create a few special gifts for her. For me one of the greatest quilting honours I can have is for a designer to ask me to work with their designs. I wanted to make a truly special quilt that honoured the traditional side of quilting whilst celebrated the vibrant colours of Apple Farm. So after seeing so many gorgeous Lucy Boston blocks posted on Instagram I decided to give them a go. Sewing these blocks was quite a challenge because as well as fussy cutting the pieces, fabric placement can have a huge impact on the look of the block. (The nice part about these blocks is they only use one shape – elongated hexies – and as it only takes 24 papers to make a block  you don’t have to make a huge financial investment to give them a go.)

 

After two weeks of solid hand stitching (and many moments thinking I would never finish)completed my great niece’s baby quilt. I hand stitched everything except the sashing between the blocks and after hanging it on the line to dry I couldn’t believe the effect the winter sun had shining through my hand pieced blocks.

 

 

I also made my great niece a cute bear pillow to match her quilt. I used the pattern from Amy 
Sinibaldi’s book Sweetly Stitched Handmades. My hope is that my niece and her baby daughter use this teddy pillow to snuggle with, lay on, read books next to and it becomes all squishy and well loved like the ones I made my girls

 

 

 

It feels so special to share my quilting with my family and to create pieces that are designed to be loved by children and their parents. I am sure that is what Elea had in mind when she designed this collection and the fact that I have this fabric because I was asked by Elea to create with it makes these handmade gifts that much sweeter.

I hope I have inspired you to try a technique, create with this collection and continue enjoying the blog hop. Make sure you check out Lauren’s creations at Transient Art and tomorrow have a look at Jessica from Euphoria Jessica and Kristyne from Pretty by Hand blog posts.