Savanna Safari Quilt

In my former life I was a Travel Consultant & business owner and I used to specialise in travel to Africa.  I have many fond memories of my many adventures throughout South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya and Malawi.  One of my absolute favourite safari lodges was Savanna Lodge - an exclusive 5 star lodge situated in the internationally famous Sabi Sand Reserve within the greater Kruger National Park conservancy in South Africa.  I stayed here back in 2008 whilst on vacation and loved every minute of my visit!  I decided to name this quilt in honour of this wonderful lodge, and hereby bring you "Savanna Safari". 

Click on photo to view my photos of Savanna Private Game Reserve on Flickr.

I decided to take this quilt with me when I met up with Anne recently in Kyneton and we snuck in a quick photo shoot despite the cold and drizzly day.

Outside Kyneton Museum

Outside Kyneton Museum

I just loved the organic rawness of this gate

This lovely stone wall was just outside the entrance to Kyneton on the corner of the C793 & Burton Avenue.  View of the front of the quilt.

This lovely stone wall was just outside the entrance to Kyneton on the corner of the C793 & Burton Avenue.  View of the back of the quilt.

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Quilt Specs

Name of Quilt - Savanna Safari

Pattern Design - made up of mixed patterns by TartanKiwi & Quilt Art Designs.  Refer below for further details.  Quilt layout design by me. 

Fabrics Used - This quilt has been entirely made using Cotton & Steel fabrics. I have used mostly the "August" range by Sarah Watts together with some Cotton & Steel Solids and Basics.

Technique - all blocks are foundation paper pieced

Quilting - I had this quilt professionally quilted by Linda at Ladybug Quilting in Bendigo.  The edge to edge pattern she has used is called "Slick" by Lorien Quilting, and she has quilted it using a beige Rasant Thread #1222.

Quilt Size - 64" x 84"

Photo courtesy of @LadyBugQuilting

Photo courtesy of @LadyBugQuilting

Photo courtesy of @LadyBugQuilting

Tartan Kiwi's Patterns

• The Leopard is based on Juliet's pattern "Big Cat" measuring 12" x 24".  I originally pattern tested this for her back in February 2015 however I remade it later in the year using Cotton & Steel.  My original remake is now on the back of the quilt because I ended up resizing the pattern by 150% and rotating the cat so that it faced to the right instead of the left.
• Mr Lion - I was one of Juliet's original pattern testers when she designed "Lion" - this is a large block at 24" I originally made this block back in February 2015 and he was the inspiration for the rest of the quilt.
• The Zebra is a pattern called "More Zebra Mania" and measures 20".  I pattern tested this for Juliet back in July 2015.  At the time I had an idea to make a large quilt but had no overall design in mind hence the green background.

In addition to these test blocks, I purchased the following patterns from Juliet:

"Giraffe" measuring 24" x 30", "Elephant" measuring 24" and "Hippo" measuring 12" x 30"

Quilt Art Design's Patterns

Once I had made the above blocks I felt that I needed to add more animals to the quilt top.  I have never written my own pattern before so I went googling and stumbled upon Janeen's designs.  Originally Janeen had each of her animals available for individual sale on Craftsy, however she has since combined them into two multi packs called "Animal Safari Patterns E Book 1" and "Animal Safari Patterns E Book 2".  The individual blocks are each approximately 12".  

The blocks that I have used are:

• Rhino 2 - in E Book 1
• Buffalo 1 - in E Book 1
• Lion Cub - in E Book 1
• Warthog 1 - in E Book 2

Laid out on the floor at Mum's house

Laid out on the floor at Mum's house

Savanna Safari

The Circle Game Quilt - in the wild in Echuca

During March last year I attended a class in Ballarat with Jen Kingwell learning various techniques required to make her quilt pattern "The Circle Game".  I finally finished the quilt earlier this year and took it with me on my recent visit to Echuca.  Here are the photos taken on Wednesday 13 April.

Once Australia’s largest inland port during the late 1800’s, the Port of Echuca is an Authentic working river port. Located just over 2.5 hours north of Melbourne, Port of Echuca is located on the banks of the Murray River, in the historic Port Precinct of Echuca.

Barge "Alison" Monument

The PS Emmylou is a Murray River paddle steamer. It is driven by a restored 1906 steam engine.  The PS Emmylou starred as the fictional paddle steamer PS Providence in the Australian television mini-series "All the Rivers Run", made in Echuca in 1982-1983.

My Kitten Mini Quilt Swap parcel of awesomeness

Further to Tuesday's post about the Kitten Mini Quilt Swap - here is the parcel of awesomeness that I received from my swap partner who funnily enough was Jeanette! @jeannettelgraham  Yes, unknown to both of us at the time, Marni had matched us both up together.  

When the parcel arrived, I went outside to open it with Gemma:

Lots and lots of pretty brown paper packages tied up with string

There was a special parcel with Gemma's name on it.

"Thank You Auntie Jeanette"

Inside were some yummies just for her!!!

The complete parcel of awsomeness

Biscuits & coffee for me and Whiskas for Gemma

This beautiful softie is actually a scissor holder & pin cushion

Tea Towel

A lovely mini quilt

A beautiful embroidered wall hanging which is now hanging in my kitchen/lounge room

Kitten Mini Quilt Swap

Last year I participated in the Kitten Mini Quilt Swap which was hosted by Marni Franks @FrankiesFabrics.  At the time of completing the swap I was without access to my laptop and by the time I was able to sit down and blog about it, my darling Gemma had just passed away.  Hence I kept putting it off. Since Marni has just opened up registrations for this year's round, I thought I'd better type this up.

We were assigned our partners back in December 2014 and we had until 31 March 2015 (3 months) to create a mini quilt to send to our secret partner. The theme was Cats and Kittens.  Much to my delight, my assigned swap partner was a good friend of mine - fellow crazy cat lady Jeanette in Queensland @jeanettelgraham.  As Jeanette is a friend of mine, I included quite a bit more than normal in this swap parcel.

At the time of this swap Jeanette had 5 cats living with her.  Her favourite colours were purple, red and blue.  This is what I made and sent to her:  

The parcel we sent

Some extras - a note pad and some stickers

The card we sent was handmade by Willow Fox Design in Bendigo

Some more extras - a Cat Purse (design by LYPatterns), a key fob and some washi tape

Some more extras - a set of three Cat Lady Embroidery Hoops - pattern by Becky Helms

"Fish 'n' Chips" cat softie - pattern by Ric Rac

The mini quilt that I made - designed by me - made from "Here Kitty Kitty" fabric by Alyssa Thomas for Clothworks.

Gemma helped me to wrap all of the items

There were extra yummies specially packed for Evie, Bella, Lucy, Garfield & Mr Hyde  - Jeanette's pussy cats

Norma's Kaffetastic Kaffetivating Circle Game Quilt

What do you give a friend who is the best kind of friend?  A friend who is always there to prop you up whenever you are feeling down; one who will always bring a smile to your face and have you doubled over from laughing; one who is always there to share a cuppa (even if only via Instagram); one who is not only spiritually encouraging but is always up for a bit of secret squirrel mischief; a fellow lover of Kaffe Fassett fabrics and one who has been drooling over your latest quilt creation... hmmmm a smaller version of the quilt that you are making made in Kaffe Fassett fabrics of course!

My dear friend Norma may live on the other side of the world in Savannah, Georgia (USA); but despite the distance, it feels like she is always here with me thanks to social media.

The last few months since I lost my precious purr-baby Gemma, I have immersed myself into making my Circle Game Quilt (pattern by Jen Kingwell). I initially started to post photos of some of the blocks on the blog earlier in the year however the quilt started to head in a different direction style wise and my earlier blocks no longer fitted with the new scheme.  I had four "spare" blocks and despite telling Norma that I had thrown them out (as if!), I put them aside with her name pinned to them.  Initially I sewed the four blocks together but they didn't feel right, so after discussing options with a mutual friend I decided to make some extra blocks and enlarge it into a lap size quilt for Norma to snuggle under.  

Norma's favourite colour is aqua so I used an aqua wideback fabric for the backing and I hand quilted it using black and grey Perle 8 threads. Before I posted the quilt to Norma, I took it with me on a recent Probus day trip to the Melbourne Docklands - here are some of the photos: 

Our first stop on the tour was at the "Organ Pipes National Park" a national park located in the Central region of Victoria.  Sadly we didn't have time to explore but I did manage a few quick photos near the car park. 

Later that day as we stopped for lunch at "Pier 35 Bar & Grill" in Port Melbourne, as the group sat and chatted I grabbed the quilt and my camera and took a few more photos along the waterfront:

 

Here are some close ups of the front and the back of the quilt which I took when I got back to Bendigo (the lap quilt measured approximately 41"sq):

Front of Quilt

Back of quilt showing the hand quilting.

The quilt was posted in November with some other goodies and after an extended delay by the USPS in New York, it EVENTUALLY arrived at Norma's house a month later.

Just to clarify it was actually a Lap Quilt & not a mini.