Dolly want a quilter?

After a lovely family holiday down the coast at Port Macquarie, my two sons headed further south to Sydney with their grandparents for 5 days. So that left just me, my husband and my 4 year old daughter to ourselves for the first time ever. It also left significantly more time for sewing as I estimate the drop in housework to have been more than 75%.


So I thought my daughter should benefit - well her dollies at least. She has numerous stuffed toys but three dolls (2 are babies). The other is a gorgeous Waldorf-style doll handmade my lovely friend Emma from 'Jem of Mine Dolls'.  I bought it in 2010 when I happened to grab a custom spot that someone cancelled. I kept it hidden in it's postal box until her birthday in early January.

Her name is 'Florrie' (my daughter's alternative birth name was Florence - after both my grandmothers but my husband got to choose this time and so she was named Frances).


'Florrie' came in a sweet Japanese cross-over top but my daughter swiftly changed her into the amazingly small mermaid outfit! You can find Emma's store here  and her blog here. Also she has a great Facebook page here.

So Sian, Lilly-Belle and Florrie all needed their own quilt for naptime. Last year I ordered a book online called The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman from Oh Fransson!. 

In keeping with the '2012 Challenge to Myself', I want to start following some Quilt Patterns. So I chose 'Small Plates' which is basically a square within a square. 

Her quilt is made with the gorgeous fabric from Denyse Schmidt's County Fair. However my selection was 30s fabrics from a generous Crafty Lady scrap bag and my upcycled fabrics stash.

METHOD
Cut two 9 x 21/2" strips from a solid jelly roll or your own fabrics.
Cut two 5" x 2 1/2" strips.

Sew the solid strips around a central charm square.

Do the same with the print strips but sew the 9" strips vertically rather then horizontally.

And voila!

Quilt 1

Quilt 2

I had lots of narrow 5" + pieces and so made some vertical strips

Quilt 3

I never like to waste fabric and so the verticals continued

I left it a few days, and then I used fusible webbing to add some 2" centres to each block and appliqued them on with the blanket stitch on my Janome 2101.

The 2" squares were also the result of not wanting to waste smaller scraps

So now they look like this...

Hopefully I will get a chance to baste, quilt and bind once the boys go back to school, and Frances starts Pre-Kindy, the first week of February.