Snugglepot & Cuddlepie

The Old Home's in the old place.
The same old stars are on the Wall.
–May Gibbs

At the end of June 2012, our sweet Catherine gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. We're just getting around to posting it now. The quilt is just too cute not to.

And so, of course, we had to make her a quilt. We knew that she loves the Snugglepot and Cuddlepie series of books by May Gibbs and when we were talking about ideas for the quilt, that theme came up. Since the books are Australian, and we all live in the US we Googled the characters and put together a fun quilt for her sweet new arrival.

This is what Cat had to say about the quilt: Well not long after my second child, Connall was born I received a lovely surprise in the mail. It was a beautiful Snugglepot and Cuddlepie themed quilt!! Snugglepot and Cuddlepie are a children's classic that I grew up with here in Australia, so I was quite surprised and thrilled to see that my USA mates had decided to use this as a theme for a quilt for my little Connall. I'm sure he will treasure for years to come.

Sea Horse by Angie

Koala by Beth
My koala block was a paper piecing pattern found in a quilt pattern book by Australian Margaret Rolfe. The book featured Australian animals. I used the leafy green material to mimic eucalyptus leaves that I had purchased for the rose bushes in front of Edward and Bella’s Cottage on the Breaking Dawn Quilt and the pine trunk printed material from the Cottage’s front door was perfect for the trunk of the tree. I’m a literalist when interpreting fabrics. LOL The gray material had been ordered as a possibility for the cottage’s stone façade, but I didn't use it, so it found a perfect use in this project! The koala’s mouth and nose are both appliquéd by hand, the eyes are hand satin stitched and the claws are hand backstitched to complete him.

Baby in Leaves by Joyce

Mushrooms by Iris
When I searched for Snugglepot and Cuddlepie images online I came across this photo. I love mushroom shapes and I've always loved the Anne Geddes style photos of babies so I knew this is what I wanted to do, only a simplified version. Lucky for me Vanessa Wilson at Crafty Gemini had just designed and posted this cute pattern for the Garden Blog Hop hosted by Jennifer at Sewhooked in April. It was perfect! I just pieced it with one less 'shroom then appliquéd the two babies. I was especially happy that I had that background fabric that reminds me of the eucalyptus leaves. I drew the details on the babies with a fabric pen. Don't you just love the little baby booty? ;)

Kookaburra by Colleen

Hedgehog by Kate

Gumnut Babies by Elizabeth
When we make a quilt we all throw ideas out and then we sign up for the block or blocks we want to do. I love to do needle-turn appliqué, so I thought it would be fun to do the little Gumnut Babies, Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. I have never seen the books, so I used an image I found on-line for my pattern. Everything is needle-turn with a bit of embroidery for the details. I did a satin stitch for the pupils and the white reflection on the eyes and for the mouths. I used backstitch for the noses, eyelashes and around the chins for definition.

I love the beautiful quilting job Angie did. I'll let her work speak for itself.

Frog by Nicole
First off he's so cute with the lily pads (quilting that Angie did)!

Second, I wanted to do a frog because I like frogs. I figured he'd be in the water so I stuck with using blue for the background and green for the froggy. Then I found the perfect eyes, well buttons. But they look awesome!

Owl by Jerri Lynn

Obelia By Beth
My Clam Shell Obelia square is one of the hardest things I've ever tried to design. I chose the Obelia character because I knew I wanted to do something water related because I’m a swimmer. After trying to paper piece an open clam shell, I abandoned the idea when it became too busy a background to embroider the vibrant little character on.

The green patterned material lent itself to a seaweed-looking background, so I appliquéd the brown outline of the shell. Running behind to meet the deadline, I hand stitched the character on the only light background I had, some muslin, by stitching through a printed paper onto the fabric and later removing the paper. Not an advisable method, but without fancy backlit machines, a material transferring printer, or other higher-technology helpers, it got the job done! I was even able to use metallic threads for the bubbles Obelia sits on. Lastly, I appliquéd the embroidered muslin into the open clam shell.

Flower by Angie

Kangaroo by Joyce

Lizard by Wanda