Dilly bag for England

I love love love 'Judy's Dilly Bag' designed by Judy Newman of A Very Fine House.

I bought the pattern from Amitie in Melbourne last year.  While I love the hexie version, and definitely plan to make one in due course, I need a bag to keep the handsewing I will take with me on our upcoming trip to England (4 weeks and counting) and don't have time to time handstitch the hexies.

But I have been hoarding some Denyse Schmidt 'Flea Market Fancy' for at least two years, and figured out I could make the body of the bag from strips.

For Mothers Day I got to have a whole day sewing with the fabulous ladies from Perth Modern Quilting Guild.... and this is what I made.....

Obligatory to have photos from several sides since there are no fabric repeats....

The pouch is lined with some beautiful simple Kaffe Fassett spots, and two pockets for various important pieces of sewing kit.

At this point I plan to take two handstitching projects with me, a simple sampler I bought some years back from Ruby in the Dust, and hexies for paper piecing, a project for a very dear friend and family member (hmmm...who could that be?).  Fabric for the hexies in the photo below, artfully posed on our map of England!

I'm so pleased with the end result, right down to the repurposed ribbon used to hold the ties.

WIP - Left of Centre for E

I am making slow but steady progress on a quilt for my lovely niece E, who sadly and very unexpectedly lost her father last year.

I started this quilt in February.  Here it is still up on my design wall.  Fabrics were carefully collated around a t-shirt and bush singlet of her fathers both seen below, (top left, top centre and bottom centre).

We were delighted to find the fabulous large flower in the photos above and below, while shopping.  This fabric really set the colour palette.

Then a couple of other fabrics pulled out the colours in the t-shirt and flowers, including blue and green which she wanted.  These colours, and some of the designs remind me of trees, water, and the New Zealand native bush that she and her parents love.

I finished sewing the quilt top together in April.  I am using mid blue minky on the back, with batting, as she lives in a cold city while she is attending Uni, so the warmth and weight will be useful.  It should also make the quilt like a big warm hug.

Also on the back is her baby cuddle rug - the red fabric seen above. 

The quilting is progressing slowly but steadily.  Next step is to find a way to get it safely back to New Zealand.  It has so many precious fabrics in it I don't want to trust it to the postal service!

Waiting to start... a Kiwi Flag for R

My lovely young man R has not had a quilt made for him since he was four!  He is now 11 and kiddies vintage transport just doesn't cut it anymore!

So after some discussion he has decided he wants a New Zealand flag, (he's a very loyal Kiwi living in Australia).  I have recently seen an Australian flag quilt designed by Sarah Fielke in Quilters Companion 'Great Australian Quilts', so other than re-arranging the stars this pattern will do nicely!  (There is very little difference between the New Zealand and Australian flags, just two stars in fact, the Aussie flag has six stars. and the Kiwi flag has four..I'm starting to sound like Sheldon from 'The Big Bang'...enough of this!)

I have been collecting up dark navy fabrics for a short while, and 'oh dear..it did require me to purchase some more', but I think I have enough now.

The quilt has to include one square, (the final one) of precious fabric kept from R's favorite preschool shorts.  He wore then until they were far too small for him and would not allow me to throw them away, so there was some in his transport quilt and enough remaining for one background square in this new quilt - it's the fabric above and below with the red, orange, green and pale blue stars.

I can't wait to start cutting this one out (and R can't wait either), BUT I must finish quilting one for my niece E first!

Linking up to Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day