Quilts, blankets and work in progress

The first blanket I made was a puff patchwork one. It was after the birth of Maia and I was feeling all creative so I started making some puff patchwork pieces with fabric I bought from Spotlight. The store was an hour from where we lived but it was in an amazing town, Rotorua, so it was a great excuse to visit. First port of call was always breakfast, usually at the Fat Dog for french toast with bacon, banana and maple syrup, followed by Spotlight and then maybe another attraction if Maia allowed! I had made lots of the puff pieces but didn't know quite how to put it together so it was lovely that when my Mum and Dad were visiting from UK that Mum and I finished it off together. It was made primarily for Maia but it's now in communal use through the living area.

The blanket at the time became Maia's blanket for reading under, snuggling on and it came on any trips we made as her reimder of home. One day after she was sick all over it I realised that we needed another for when this one was in the wash! I had been lucky enough to inherit a bag of fabric remnants from my mum, which contained loads of fabric from each of our houses which we lived in whilst we were growing up. My mum was very fond of Laura Ashley and so the pieces lent themselves perfectly for a quilt. I had done patchwork as a child but not on the mahcine so having read a gew books from the library I thought I'd start with a simple square pattern. This one has also become a handy addition to our household and when we travelled back to NZ last year I had it in the handluggage so the girls had something nice to play on in transit and I had something to snuggle Cassia up in whilst feeding on the plane. It was good for the soul to have something so pretty on such a long journey.

This last one is a work in progress! I started it before we left NZ (2 years ago) and it was going to be my mum's 70th birthday present. Then we returned to UK and I was actually at her 70th so it didn't seem quite so important to get it finished and so it remains today. I'm having a lot of trouble with the finishing - every time I try to get the backing piece on it all goes out of shape and really hard to machine quilt. I actually just used cotton fabric sold for dressmaking so I don't know if that's something to do with it but I must try to get it finished and in use.

The heart motif at the centre of the quilt: