Icecream Sheep

This was one of those projects that just grabbed me and had to be made and I'm extremely pleased with how it has come out. As the fabrics we dyed at our workshop were mainly recycled scraps (the lady who took the workshop is very into converting charity shop finds into something new and exciting) and as such very odd shapes and sizes, I decided to cut them all into 5" squares, just keeping some of a larger pink piece for the inners border. The outer border and binding are fabrics that I dyed at home a long time ago in my only other foray into fabric dying. The quilting design is a continuous line pattern which I traced onto Golden Threads quilting paper and then quilted on my Bernina 630 with the BSR. I'm pleased to say that my control of free motion quilting has improved hugely and I'm very satisfied with the finished look, not too many wobbles at all. I did have to space the rows out a little too far apart, so I'm planning to fill in between them with some squiggles and stars when I next have the machine out. I did a smaller version of the pattern around the outer border.

The thread I used was a pink and purple variegated Valdani 50wt in Sparkling Stream for the top and Robison Anton Super Stitch in Sterling in the bobbin. The wadding is Quilters Dream Puff. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the backing fabric is a light lilac with a white overprint, Fabric Freedom "Something Simple" which I'm pretty sure I bought at The Sewing Centre in Scarborough when we were up in Yorkshire on holiday last December. I'm pleased to say that all the fabrics, thread and wadding came from my stash or leftovers from other projects.

Click on the photos to see a larger version.