Strawberry Biscuit Blog Hop

Welcome to day 1 of the 'Strawberry Biscuit' blog hop! Over the next two weeks 20 very talented bloggers will be sharing their projects made with this gorgeous new fabric collection by Elea Lutz for Penny Rose Fabrics - and I get to be one of the lucky bloggers to kick off this journey today!

Elea is known for her sweet repro designs and she didn't disappoint with this collection. These fabrics are just too cute for words - sweetest retro puppies, bunnies, birds, strawberry doilies, and pretty florals in bold colours. My fingers were itching as I was taking the obligatory fabric photo - I couldn't wait to start cutting, and I knew exactly what I had to make first: hexies.

I made a whole bunch of 1" hexies, without really knowing exactly where I was going with this (every now and again I get a kick out of starting to sew without a clear plan. Yes, I do like to live dangerously). When I had a whole bunch of hexies I piled them on the table and quite liked the way they looked all bunched together, and then found a cute red dot lace edged bias tape, of which I had just enough left for a cushion binding. Decision made!

It turned out pretty cute, don't you think? I hand quilted it with DMC perle cotton to accentuate the vintagey feel of the repro prints.

I also wanted to make a small quilt, and kept thinking 'economy block' (that's the block below) - such a retro block and really perfect for this line. All the fussy cut centre cuteness - oh my goodness. Bring it on.

I had originally intended to turn my economy blocks into a cot quilt, but half way through sewing Alice came into my sewing room to keep me company (as she frequently does), and started stroking the animals and flowers in the centres of my finished blocks. Light bulb moment - a quilted playmat / picnic mat would be a pretty cool addition to our growing quilt collection! So that's what I ended up making.

If my kids were younger, I would have sewn in a layer of crinkle material between the batting and the quilt top, which I think would be a great addition to a playmat such as this. Babies go nuts for that stuff!

I kept the quilting simple and light. Just straight line diagonal quilting in the ditch, with a little hand-quilting around the centre motif of each block. I didn't want to quilt it too heavily as I want it to get that "puffy-vintagey-much used-much loved" look over time.

As a final touch, I added a little applique washi tape detail on each corner of the quilt.

If you would like to make this playmat, I have written a tutorial / pattern which is now available on the Penny Rose Fabrics blog - you can access it here.

Alice's nap time was drawing near as we were taking these photos - she was quite tired from a morning of cycling all over our small wine town. However she refused to go to bed, as she wanted to "sleep on the pinkic mat today". Sadly this quilt and cushion will be on their way to quilt market tomorrow and I couldn't risk any damage or stains, so I had to disturb her to transfer to bed. Arrggh - evil mum - bless her, she looked so peaceful!

'Strawberry Biscuit' is now available at fabric stores, worldwide. If you would like to see what the other participating bloggers will be making with these fabrics, here's the schedule with links to their blogs and Instagram feeds. Enjoy!

18 April - Karen of Creamcraft Goods (@creamcraftgoods)

18 April - Sedef of Down Grapevine Lane (@downgrapevinelane)

19 April - Angel & Amy of TaDa! Creations (@tadacreations)

19 April - Lindsey of Fort Worth Fabric Studio (@lindseymweight)

20 April - Sarah of Pretty Fabrics & Trims (@sarahedgarprettyfabrics)

20 April - Megan of Quilt Story (@quiltstorymeg)

21 April - Minki of Minki's Work Table (@zeriano)

21 April - Heidi of Fabric Mutt (@fabricmutt)

22 April - Kristyne of Pretty By Hand (@prettybyhand)

22 April - Gina of Party of Eight: Our Story (@partyofeightourstory)

25 April - Taunja of Carried Away Quilting (@taunjalynn)

25 April - Amanda of Jedi Craft Girl (@jedicraftgirl)

26 April - Jemima of Tied With A Ribbon (@tiedwitharibbon)

26 April - Stacy of Stacy Olson Design (@stacyolsondesign)

27 April - Ange of A Little Patchwork (@alittlepatchwork)

27 April - Glenis of Gee's Projects (@glenisebbettsews)

28 April - Megan of Sew Style Love (@dollyhenryau)

28 April - Stacy of Farm Road Quilts (@farmroadquilts)

28 April - Kimberly of Fat Quarter Shop (@fatquartershop)

29 April - Christa of Cotton Berry Quilts (@cottonberryquilts)

29 April - Elea of Elea Lutz Design (@elealutz)