Introducing Little Miss Tuffet

I'm over the moon to show you today my brand new quilt design, Little Miss Tuffet.This quilt has quite a back story which I'm dying to share with you. If you like to know the process of how a quilt comes into being, read along...or just skip through to more pretty pics!My love affair with 'bubble quilts' started nearly 30 years ago when I was a young teenager, and a friend had a gorgeous baby who I just loved playing with and carting around on my hip.She had made her a small pastel yellow bubble quilt, with Broderie Anglais lace edging and ribbons and bows. I had never seen anything like it and I never forgot about it, storing it away in my brain's 'Pinterest'.When I was expecting my second baby, and we bought a new bassinet, I set about decorating it furiously. It was decked out in white Broderie Anglais fabric, lace, and I designed my own bubble quilt to match it all.I would never have considered myself a quilter 20 years ago, but looking back pre-social media days, I realise now how many quilts I designed and made from scratch. Mostly because I couldn't find or afford what I wanted. But there are not many photos. This is the only pic I could find.You can vaguely see the bubble quilt lying on the top of the bassinet. It was purely decorative, as it was far too hot for a baby to use here in Australia.

That's my beautiful furry headed little chap lying in there amongst all the frills! He's a strapping lad of 20 now, and thankfully can't remember all this lace...

I've never forgotten the texture and definition of that quilt...it's stayed with me, and ruminated along with all my ideas. One of them was mulling over whether instead of making an all over bubble quilt, it would be possible to just use bubbles for part of the design? I drafted a couple of ideas, and then along came Pretty by Hand's first fabric collection.Suddenly everything just clicked! Tiny, muted florals, it was all just so perfect! I had to incorporate some of my favourite features...Irish chains, half square triangles and pinwheels, and of course a rainbow palette.

I also stumbled upon the best backing fabric from Cristy at Utopian Threads...and it was on sale too! I can't say enough about Cristy's service...I had this fabric in my house only a few hours later, even though she was up to the eyeballs in orders! And it's always hard to buy from a computer screen, but this was like one of the prints from First Romance, just enlarged, and it complimented my design incredibly!

And here she is...my Little Miss Tuffet.The name didn't actually come to me until I was tying the bubbles down, and then you could see that glowing light bulb above my head lol!! It finishes at 55" square (140 cm).We took photos out in the field next to my mother-in-laws place, which is resplendent in colour at this time of year. This is the countryside in the Adelaide hills in spring...you have to enjoy it while it lasts, because it doesn't stay green for very long!Big kudos to my excellent quilt holder, the very same lad who was in that bassinet above.

This field has its fair share of graceful, but whopping gum trees, and we made good use of them. Even the ones that came down in the last bush fire nearly three years ago.

This backing is just way to gorgeous to stay on the back of the quilt!

I'm very happy with this design, and overjoyed that my idea of mixing bubbles with an otherwise flat quilt has turned out so well. The texture is really unique, and gives an otherwise simple design some really fun features.The pattern is well underway, and I hope to have it available very shortly.