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.  

Quilt made from baby clothes from the 1980s

Just finished a quilt made from my friend's baby clothes.  

These baby clothes were given to a quilter who was going to make a quilt out of them, but she got sick or got busy or something, and never was able to finish it.   This previous quilter had cut up all the clothing into (rough) rectangles that measured 2.25" x 2.5"  Some of these rectangles had been sewn into 9-patches.  Everything was cut with a template and regular hand scissors (=c0

 I thought it was odd that they were cut this size.   Typically 9-patches are cut into squares, not rectangles.   Also, if the squares were 2.5", as you probably can imagine, the possibilities for the blocks would have been MUCH greater.   The blocks and therefore the QUILT could have been much bigger and there would have been many more block options, etc., 

BUT, I love a challenge, and so what I did was cut most of them down to 2" and treated them as strips to use with the EZ angle ruler.  This way I could do flying geese and HSTs for blocks.   I also cut a few of them into 2" squares and made NEW (even) 9-patches:c)   

 Here you can see the previous quilter's 9 patch block on the left, ,and my flying geese block on the right.

And here are an assortment of the 9-patch blocks on the top, and an assortment of my NEW blocks on the bottom.  All of my new blocks measured 4.5" UNfinished.   The HSTs of those sawtooth stars measured 1" FINISHED ! LOL ;c)   Yes, very teeny tiny!

The finished quilt top:   All of the fabric for the blocks (including the white) was made out of baby clothing.  The striped rose print for the sashing and binding was picked out by the quilt's recipient.  My friend, Beth, was nicknamed "Rose" when she was a little girl, so the rose has special significant to Jackie, her mom (for whom I made this quilt)

I found the inner border floral fabric and outer border pink fabric at Phylis's Quilt shop in Hurricane  (Thank you for your help picking out fabrics Phyllis!!).   The floral-y fabric had such a beautiful, vintage 80s-feel to it I think.   AND, it included all the colors from Beth's baby clothes.  It also helped make that transition from the stark white of the baby clothes used in the blocks. . to the creamy beige used in the striped rose print.   I never thought I could make white and beige work together, but I really think it works in this quilt!

After all the piecing was complete - it was time for Katies' fun playtime. LOL

For each of the blocks, I quilted a circle/feather type of deal.  I made a circle template with cardstock and marked just the outer circle, and did the feathers and inner circle by hand.  (which is why they're not perfect and I WILL mark them NEXT time!)

 For the inner borders, I quilted a feather with an echo, but as you can see in the next photo, I was not satisfied with just a normal feather.

 I thought the feathers were too fat, so I added a vein in each one to fill it out a bit.  This was the first time trying this technique and I really like the way it looks!

 For the sashing and outer borders I tried another new quilting motif. . a free-hand leaf pattern.   It definitely would have looked better if I would have marked it first.. . I started to mark it, and then got really confused on the math, and gave up ;c)

 For the pink and rose striped areas, I used Mettler cotton pink thread.  For the white/block areas and the feathers, I used #Aurifil poly variegated quilting thread.   When Jackie saw the quilt in person, she said she really liked the variegated colors.   Since they are a fine pastel, with a bit of shimmer, I thought it was perfect for this quilt too!

 And right now I'm working on a photo memory quilt - with the colors sage, brown and white.  I picked out these fabrics for the quilt and will have a blog post on it soon! ;c)

Aurifil Thread Giveaway

1. AGreen5012, 2. AMaroon4030, 3. ASkyV4663, 4. APinkV4660, 5. AEvergreen2892, 6. ANavy2785, 7. Adkblue2784, 8. Abblue2780, 9. Admaroon2465, 10. Abrown2468, 11. Amaroon2460, 12. Adplum1240

Head over to Lily's Quilts and join in the fun! They show you how to play along for your chance to win a custom-set of Aurifil. I choose the colors that I use most often. These colors make me want to sing! I named this set : You make-a-my dreams come true.

This set would be amazing for the quilter who uses alot of civil war reproduction fabrics. Of course the two variegated pastels are a bit different, BUT, I love them too and I am weird. ;c)

Would you buy this set of thread?

FMQ! I'm doing it!!!!!!!

I'm actually doing it!! I was beginning to think it was impossible!
Ya know all those blogs that say you need this and you need that? I'm one that things nahhh.. certainly I can give it a go without all those fancy (expensive) tools! I have a Janome DC2010. It's got a nice fat/flat bottom which is super nice.. but I was missing one MAJOR component: A darning foot. So I visit my local sewing machine retailer (Mr Sewing Machine in Dunbar, WV) and indeed they have the just the tool I need. As soon as I put that sucker on it was smooth sailing (relatively speaking of course.) You would not imagine the difference!!! So since the foot worked I thought about trying the gloves but it's late and I improvised with rubber cleaning gloves (the kind I use for dyeing.) They work like a dream!! I can only imagine what the actual gloves designed for FMQ are like! So here's a photo of my very 1st attempt with the free motion quilting foot on a sample piece.


The Christmas row-by-row block is quilted with Aurifil in the bobbin and Connecting thread on the top. The bottom sample is quilted with Connecting threads in both.
Oh and another thing - When I first tried this with the new foot, I dropped the feed dogs on my machine and all my thread jammed up under the feed dogs and my machine made a horrible noise, the lights blinked, it shook like crazy and then shut off. I thought I had broke it. I had to take the bobbin cover and plate off to get all the thread out from underneath. *blush* I haven't cleaned underneath there.. since I got the machine last Christmas. I know, you don't have to say it I probably cleaned 1/4 cup of lint from underneath there. I'm surprised it was still sewing. I guess I have a pretty amazing sewing machine!!!!! = DDDD So after cleaning out under there I tried again and it did it again, so I tried it with the feed dogs left UP. I have to FMQ with the feed dogs UP. No possible way I can do it down
I'm pretty happy with this for a 1st attempt, I think it looks DANG good. That was the BEST $20 I have ever spent (for the FMQ foot for my Janome.) And I'm a durned satisfied customer of Janome. I mean how much was that machine? $300-$400??? All of the stitch options and I can even FMQ - I think the ONLY thing I could want more is MAYBE a larger throat plate. But for the money this machine is OUT STANDING!!! I honestly thought I needed a long-arm to do this. OR a Bernina Stitch-regulater.
I want to thank Leah from Day Style Designs for offering her time to show all of us beginners how to quilt beautifully. Looking at her patterns can keep anyone motivated enough to keep truckin' on!
Any questions feel free to ask and I'll post more pics after my FMQ adventures tomorrow.

*******Update - March7, 2011*****
I am still free-motion quilting beautifully on the same sewing machine, but I did discover one additional thing in regards to the feed dogs. I noticed when I started quilting whole/large tops that my thread would often break when I would try to quilt to the left or upwards.
Now, when I am quilting a large quilt, and I need to go in all directions and don't want to mess with the constant threading and re-threading of my needle, I tape a piece of cardstock over the feeddogs and this helps.