Wall hangings for new babies

There seems to be rash of new babies in my sister's family: three in three months, so quite a challenge for the quilters in the family.  As there seem to be a lot of us, I decided that wall hangings was a better idea than cot quilts.  Leave those to the grannies!

The first baby was born at the beginning of April and received his present today so now I can reveal it.  I am afraid this photo is not up to my usual standards but we will pass over that.

The subject matter is Baa baa black sheep.  I now try very hard to make everything from fabric I already have in my stash.  This includes two New Zealand fabrics to reflect the baby's NZ heritage.  The strip at the bottom is of pukekos.  These are often found among sheep in New Zealand and I well remember many years ago paying a winter visit to a friend who lived on a farm.  There were the pukekos among the sheep along with pieces of pumpkin that had been put out as feed.

The border is also NZ fabric: a batik of traditional Maori designs.

Here are the sheep in close-up.  They are bonded applique.  The templates were ones I had for another great-nephew's quilt eight years ago and were originally designed by Claire Higgott of The Bramble Patch  Never throw anything away, lots of quilters say.

The quilt is all machine made.  It has made me realise how we all develop skills over many years.  Free cutting made the hills and field and it was machine quilted.  Unfortunately the bags of wool do not have a tie around them but I had no ribbon or cord in the right colour!

In addition to wall hangings I am hoping to give each baby a stuffed dog from the ones I made earlier in the year.

These are a really good way of using up scraps and would make good items for 'sales of work'.