Evies Quilt - The Journey of 'Garden Gazing'

What a wonderful feeling of satisfaction when something precious and special that you've been pouring your heart into is so warmly accepted and enjoyed.

The quilt made it for my god daughter, Evie's first birthday and has now travelled to its new home in the US. I was sad to part with it as I'd only had a day to enjoy it when it was completely finished but so happy to see the joy that it brought - such squeals of delight.

I couldn't find the initial sketch that I did for the pattern but my aim was to try doing some pin wheels and puffy squares. It pretty much looked as I had imagined so I was very pleased.

Outside border of puffy squares and pinwheels

Laying out some of the pieced squares and cut pieces
- the yellow blob of fabric is for the tiger

I probably did these first parts a year ago I think and then it went into a long period of hibernation...but then with the news of them coming to Australia, I got my arse into gear - no more procrastinating.

I used a teddy bear pattern from a craft magazine as reference and changed it to a tiger. It took me a couple of goes before I was finally happy that it looked like a tiger and not a mouse or a dog.

Embroidery with wool to give the tiger stripes some texture

Tiger cut out ready for some interfacing webbing stuff
although in hindsight i realised that i should have done the embroidery
after I had appliqued it onto the quilt because you can see bits of the wool
under the light coloured fabric

Experimenting with the tiger placement -
originally it was going to be looking at a bee
and a flower but then changed to the swallow -
Evie's chinese name means Little Swallow
And she is born in the Year of the Tiger for
the Chinese Horoscope

Sketch of Swallow with Envelope from a pic reference

Original swallow that i made in pink feather material
but then I LOST it and totally chucked a hissy fit (poor Alex) and had a little cry
but just as well because I think it looks better in the light yellow

Finished applique with hand embroidery
'Evelyn' printed via iron transfer paper
Thanks to Lauren for printing for me cos my
computer couldn't reverse the text!
Another hissy fit averted - although I realised that next time
I can print out the text, scan it back into the computer
and then reverse it because the program now recognises it as
an image rather than text.

Finished centrepiece with machine applique on the Tiger
Originally I was going to name the quilt 'Evelyn's Animal Adventures'
But then I changed my mind to 'Garden Gazing' as its more of a spring afternoon
in the garden looking at flowers and birds and garden creatures.

Polyester wadding affixed with spray adhesive
to make the puffy squares more puffy

Hard at work on the machine quilting - in my pyjamas!

Pieced back - Iron transfer photos and left over fabrics inherited from
a quilt that my mother in law made for her grand daughter,
with some fabrics from my own cache
Putting it next to each other to see what would complement
& how I wanted the photos to be arranged

Pieced back with Evelyn's name in English and Chinese

Finishing touches - the binding makes all the
difference as it frames the quilt

When Evie and family touched down in Australia, it meant that I had a deadline I had to meet - her first birthday party. I got the piecing done in time but needed few more days to do the quilting and binding. Always forget how long binding can take! Finished at 3am!

Evelyn's 'Garden Gazing'

Some close ups of the squares and fabrics

Evie loves the colours and even her older brother loved it even though he's already got he's own quilt. She's very smart and recognised herself in the photos and was pointing to them and her mum asked her to kiss mummy and she kissed the photo of her mum! Such a cute darling.

Her cousins enjoyed it too - when I asked them to look for all the animals and objects.

I can't wait to have my own bundle of joy to make a quilt for - but considering that Evie's quilt took more than a year to make, then maybe I should start now....hehehe