A Happy Rainbow Quilt and card for a sad reason!

Those of you who know Karratha, will know that it is a very transient town.  People come here to work for a couple of years, usually on mining projects and then move on.  My very good friend Martine, from Just a little Craft, is moving on this week and I am VERY sad about it.  I thought I had hardened my heart to leaving friends after living this nomadic life for 10 years.  BUT apparently not!  I must be melting with age!  Lucky for me she is moving back to The Netherlands, so at least when we eventually get back to the UK we will not be that far away.  For that I am glad. 

Anyway it was her leaving party on Saturday and I wanted to give her a special present.  But as I was in denial about her leaving I put off making the special present.  The idea had formed in my head a while before.  I knew her favourite colour is blue and so I spent ages looking for some lovely blue fabrics.  I was planning to make her a little quilt that would be used as a wall hanging or runner.  When I left here last time my friend Lorraine made me a gorgeous wall hanging with thongs on (that's flip flops not g-strings folks! ;-)) and it proudly hangs on my wall in my craft room and I love it!  Well I couldn't find any blue fabrics I liked so I came up with another idea!  Staying with the wall hanging idea I decided to go for colours that would remind her of me and her time here, it is a present from me after all!

Hence the rainbow idea came about.  I knew she loved my Rainbow Pillow so I wanted to create something along those lines.  I incorporated lots of the fabric that I use on my t-shirts, some she gave me and some special fabrics relating to travel, Australia, Britain.  I wanted it to evoke memories.  My original plan was to put all the coloured pieces next to one another, but when I laid it out on the table it was just way too busy so I decided to break it up with the black fabric I was using on the back.  I LOVED the result.

 

And whilst this is about our time in Australia, I also wanted to have something on the to acknowledge that I am British, hence the London bus on the back!  The butterfly was on an Australia Day Baby Onesie Martine bought me to make something with as it was on sale! The same for the 'Australia' on the front (Above).  Well I thought they would be perfect appliqued onto this project!  Love the Aussie flag in the butterfly pattern!

The square on the right is a printed out message from me to Martine.  Thankfully the bright sun has glared out the message!

Some closer up shots.

It was a learning process, I did have to unpick some of the quilting due to bunching, but I got there.  This is my first proper quilting project afterall, well bigger than a mug rug (!) and a cushion!

Anyhow I think she liked it!

I'm in the green spotty dress

I made a card to match along with the rainbow theme.

I'm entering it for the following card challenges:

• Embellish Magazine - Rainbow
• Clean & Simple Sketch
• Crafty Creations - Let it Shine - Bling
• The Shabby Tearoom - My Favourite Things - that would have to be the Rainbow colours!

And I am linking up to some linky parties:

CraftoManiac