A Completed Quilt, Lots of Photos and Two Sweet Cats

Hello, and welcome to a weekend update with Bonjour Quilts! Plenty to read and lots of photos to scroll through, so find a comfy spot, a refreshing drink and read on…

A Finished Quilt

Another Work In Progress (WIP) bites the dust! After almost a year I finally finished this very particular quilt that was made to cover a daybed that lives in our spare room/kids play room. Given our kids are all teens/young adults, play room means video game room. At least now they have a bright and happy bed to lounge on as they play.

This quilt started back in late July, last year. I paused for a bit when I realised I needed more fabric. And then my bear paw quilt distracted me for quite a while. The quilt top sat, finished, for 2 months while I mustered up the motivation to baste it. I really don’t like basting!

The colour of this quilt is really loud, but it’s very cheery. The majority of the fabrics are Ruby Star Society (RSS) fabrics from different lines, as well as some oldies from my stash. The colour that best describes them all is citron; a cool yellow. A yellow that leans more toward green than orange on the colour wheel.

The contrasting blue is another Ruby Star Society fabric, Speckled in Teal. RSS’s teal colour is a favourite and makes a great background fabric (seen in this quilt here, and this one).

I kept the quilting on this one nice and simple. Partly to just “get it finished” and partly so it wouldn’t distract from the bold, geometric design. I used the block seams as a guide and sewed straight lines on both sides. My thread choice was a matt light grey, which blends nicely with the two very different fabric colours.

My backing was a stripy duvet cover I had previously bought on sale. It really doesn’t match the top at all. But this quilt will only be used essentially as a single-sided mattress cover so the back will never be seen. It was really nice to use the duvet cover as it meant no piecing a backing.

Choosing a binding colour for this quilt was easy as well. There were plenty of citron FQ remnants left over from the quilt so I sewed up a scrappy citron binding. I machine sewed the binding down with a light grey thread. And I did pretty well at stitching in the ditch to sew the final side down with a straight stitch, catching the binding on the back.

I like how the citron binding lets the teal contrast of the main design take centre stage. The binding won’t be seen much because all the edges of this quilt will be tucked around the daybed mattress.

I’d planned to have a photo of the quilt on the daybed, but we are in a state of furniture flux at the moment. One of the kids is getting a new bed so we are shuffling things around as another kid gets the old bed, etc. Long story short, the spare room is a mess, so no photos. But once it’s all sorted I will get back to you. (I have coordinated cushions, too, so I’m excited to see it all finally together.)

Around the Interwebs…

It’s time to rethink patchwork – a mainstream article with some lovely quilt photos.

Have you ever wanted to be a quilt show judge? If so, you can take a two-day course and start your journey!

The Australian Craft and Quilt Fair is coming to Sydney (this weekend – hurry!), Melbourne (Sept) and Brisbane (Oct). Buy your tickets here.

Some beautiful, incredibly intricate sculptures made from metal in various forms.

I really like these colourful and bright mosaic pieces, and this unique method of painting portraits.

Reader Quilts…

I always love to see quilts you’ve made from Bonjour Quilts patterns so please keep sending them in! Either email (Kirsty at BonjourQuilts dotcom), or tag me on Facebook or Instagram.

Here’s a fiery red Diamonds in the Deep quilt, sewn by Ann and quilted by Annette, to kick us off.

More Diamonds in the Deep, this time blue and quilted with curves by Miranda.

I love @fortifiedbeaver‘s rainbow Scrappy Lattice quilt – it brings so much colour to the room.

Here’s an amazing take on the same Scrappy Lattice pattern – Sarah’s very clever fabric placement results in a completely different looking quilt.

And finally, Olga sewed up a delightfully colourful version of the Scrappy Posie mini quilt. You can find the free tutorial for this mini quilt right here.

Chez Bonjour

The mid-year school holidays have arrived. I have 2 high schoolers and 2 uni students home for the 2 weeks, which is wonderful. It will be busy and loud and the grocery requirements will be extensive, but it’s going to be great.

It’s been a wintery couple of weeks here in our corner of Australia. We live in a sub-tropical climate so you can be sure there’s been plenty of grumbling from the locals. Funny how those who have the mildest winters complain the loudest! Anyway, here are some wintery sights that I’ve enjoyed recently.

Cats’ Corner…

I’ve got far too many cat photos for you. They were just too cute and I couldn’t resist. The cold weather has meant lots of snuggling up with us and each other to stay warm. One of the perks of winter!

Tigger hogging the cat bed:

Lulu plotting:

Together again:

What on earth??

Have a great weekend, folks!

Hope you can get out and enjoy the sunshine (whether summer or winter) and nature this weekend. If staying inside is on the cards then don’t forget to spoil yourself with some sewing time. A little creativity can really brighten the day.

I’ll talk to you all again soon! Until next time,

Kirsty x

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