Amelia's 1st birthday Quilt with Minkee Backing and Binding.

I wanted to give sweet baby Amelia a "Katie Quilt" for her birthday.  I used everything from my stash.  I started with this large piece of minkee fleece that I had leftover from another project.  It's super soft and BIG so I didnt' have to piece fabric together for the backing.   I have used Minkee for  backing before, but I always used batting ALSO, but this time I left out the batting.  For a large, bed-size quilt I think batting is fine, but I wanted something that she could lug around herself, so it needed to be LIGHT too.   

Double Sided Minkee is thick enough that it doesn't require batting.  Also, it gives a very nice effect when free-motion quilted.  However there is a slight downside when you omit the batting.  When there is no batting, there is nothing for the fleece to stick to.  The batting acts as a stabilizer so that your fleece doesn't shift around.  To remedy that problem I just used lots of safety pins in the basting process.  

For the quilt TOP I pieced together feminine prints of pink and grey.  Honestly, I'm not real sure what I was going for here - just scrappy I guess!!  Who knows, it was late when I came up with this design ;c)  I think a quilt looks best when you incorporate elements from the back on the front, and vice versa.  So for the front, I appliqued circles of minkee and also used the minkee as the binding.

** I have a tutorial on how to do self-binding with fleece HERE**

 And for the backing I took one of the pink floral prints and used it to applique her name.

In this last picture you can get a good look at the quilting design I used.   I always want to try these fun large-scale quilting motifs, but am always too scared.   I love the look of all-over free-hand feathers, but every time I attempt them I regret it.   I think maybe it's because I think every tiny bit of space needs to be quilted - and everything needs to be touching.   

So for my last couple projects I have been trying to use more negative space.   I think just as rainbow colors only look good with a good amount of WHITE.   . . . "fancy" quilting only look good when there is some negative space?  Maybe?   I'm working on it anyway! 

Lavender, Pale Yellow, and Grey

My friend Trenta, a lady and fellow mom who graduated with my sister, requested this quilt for a baby shower gift.  The baby's name - Emma.  

The piecing for this quilt is rather simple, but we most certainly "fancied" it up!  She had very specific colors in mind for this quilt.  And these colors must be very popular, because there were so many combinations of these colors together at the fabric shop, it was not difficult at all for me to blend them.  They even had a chevron with all the colors in it!  

Lavender, Pale yellow, Grey, and White for the pieced background.  For the appliqued name and binding, we used a teal.  I secured the "Emma" with a straight stitch using raw-edge fusible applique.  Then for the background I wanted a very feminine, flow-y motif.  I really love this floral paisley design and it worked well for this quilt I believe.  I did a few small pebbles around the applique which made it stand out a bit more.  

The icing on the cake is the backing, which is that chevron with the perfect blend of all the colors!

I've never had so many random people stop me at the fabric store to "ooh" and "ahh" over my pile of fabrics ;c)

Quilt Re-Do. . . What I learned.

This is my quilt I called "12 Tribes" - a BOM pattern designed by Erin Russek.  I used a technique that Kelli from Dont Look Now blog described in this applique quilt.  Her work is always so absolutely breathtakingly beautiful and so I had to learn how to do it.   

  It is a free-motion, raw edge fusible applique.  It is still to this DAY my favorite method to do applique.  However, I do things very differently these days.   I don't know how Kelli does it . . I don't know if she doesn't wash her quilts or what. . but after I washed this quilt 20 times, the applique pieces started coming apart at the edges.  

the way she did it made it looks so "neat and tidy" .    she would stitch a straight-line right at the edge of each applique piece.  and she did her stitching with a free-motion/quilting/darning foot, which makes it VERY easy and fast!   

Can you see in these photos?  here is a section where the pieces are coming apart.  Now, I HAVE washed this quilt ALOT. .  and maybe it's because I used a very lightweight fusible product.  I know that Steam-A-Seam is usually a little bit stronger.  

 After I discovered the issues with this quilt, I changed my raw-edge applique WAYS.   There are many different options, and I use different ones depending on the particular project.  Some good methods are:
Using a buttonhole stitch, zigzag stitch, or satin stitch with a regular sewing machine foot.  ( a clear foot works best.)
But what I usually do is use the #5 setting on my Janome and use my darning foot. The #5 is a narrow zig-zag. So basically you need to catch at LEAST an 1/8" of the fabric with your thread.  And the great thing about using the darning foot is that you don't have to keep turning your machine constantly.  Which is great for big quilts like this ;c)

So, moral of the story, if you don't want to have to redo your whole quilt, than make sure you secure your applique pieces at FIRST.   and I wouldn't even CARE really, if I were still just using it and washing it.  BUT, I decided to hang this quilt up and "retire" it from use. . so I wanted to make sure to fix all the problems first.  ;c)

Rocking Horse Baby Quilt

Finished Rocking Horse Quilt for my friends the Ritchie's new baby girl.

Started off by googling a photo of a rocking horse "clip art" style.   This one was the most prominent one and looked the most user friendly.   I tweaked it a bit, adding hearts, and seperating the pieces by fabrics.   I laid out the fabrics and labeled them A, b, C, D, etc., and wrote the label on the rocking horse clip art. 

Here I am tracing the Rocking Horse. . and making the EXACT SAME MISTAKE I continually make and have made a gazillion times:  I did not print the image in reverse!   Remember if you are doing fusible applique to print your image in reverse.  However, since I wasn't doing text or anything direction -specific, I left it as-is.  The rocking horse will just be in the opposite direction in the finished quilt! 

After fusing all the applique pieces, I used the leftovers to make a beautiful piano-key border!  I went ahead and sewed the border on.  I like my quilt top to be completely finished before starting the raw-edge fusible applique process.  

Next I just fused my pieces, and stitched them down.  I mostly used a buttonhole stitch for this project, but I also used a straight stitch with a darning foot in some of the tighter areas.  

I free-motion embroidered the baby's name in the bottom area. I used Wonderfil's Spaghetti thread for this.  (It's the thickets thread I have found that still works in my machine!)

When I took this picture, it had been 2 weeks straight of cold and snow, so I coudln't wait any longer, I had to go ahead and take the photo.  

Here I am quilting a wide whimisical feather stitch with variegated polyester longarm thread by Aurifil.  Then I used a white cone polyster thread by connecting threads for the white area.  

The photo on the left is the one Karen picked out and wanted me to try to recreate - the one on the right is my finished creation.   I had a FQ bundle of Aunt Jane 1930s reproduction fabrics that I wanted to use up and this project was perfect!

This thread would be perfect for this quilt:  Aurifil Mako Cotton Quilting Thread 50 wt. #3840 Variegated French Lilac 1420 yd.

I had a cone of  Aurifil longarm thread (that I LOVE) but cotton is great too - especially on a regular domestic sewing machine.