New baby quilt finished

I'd like to share with you a project I've been working on or the past few days.

This quilt is a 3-generations baby quilt. I trapuntod the 3 lady's names in the inner grey sashing and the year the youngest baby was born (2012.)

The Fabric I used for this quilt is all by "Ritzy" except for the inner grey border which is "Etchings" and the backing fabric which is "Lily & Will."

Thread is light grey Aurifil, Light Pink Mettler, and Dark Grey Connecting Threads.

I messed up on a block. . WHOOPS!

Finished TOP!

Then, using a water-soluble marker I write what I want to Trapunto on the top side of the quilt.

I used several layers of high-loft battting and pin it to the back. Then with a free-motion foot I quilt around the lines I drew. You can use water-soluble thread or thread to match the quilt top or invisible thread. Then *very carefully* you cut aroundd the edges of the batting. This takes quite a long time ;c) You have to be very careful NOT to cut into the quilt top.

Then starting from the outside edges and working inward, you densely quilt up to the edges of your text or shape you want to stick out.

I used a kind of figure-8 design. . because I've decided I'm no good at microstippling. WHO CARES of lines are crossed! ;c) you just want to realllllly get that area quilted as much as possible. . you can just squiggle all over the place if you want.

Here's the 4 areas with trapunto finished:

Center of the quilt all quilted:

Here's a closeup of the center - I did my version of McTavishing in the white areas of the Ohio Star blocks and then outline quilted in the pink areas (star areas.)

Shot of the back:

I love the look of the sun shining through a quilt - you can see all the seam allowances and it looks really cool to me.

I did a sort of squiggle in the inner grey border and a half feather in the outer border. I only had time to do a half feather. . I know this would have looked much better with a full feather.

Fall Quilt - "Awesome" Fabric FQ Bundle

Last year for Christmas "Santa" got me the WHOLE line of "Awesome" fabrics by Sandy Gervais for Moda as a Fat Quarter Bundle. What I first did with those is I cut 1/4 of the short edge off of the FQ and then cut again to where I had 4 "charm" squares out of each FQ of the bundle.

With these squares I'm making a hexagon charm quilt. So this is what I have so far:

This is my hand/travel project I've been doing for awhile - It's coming along slowly. I think the English Paper piecing templates are about 3" wide.

So anyway the remaining bit of fabrics I was waiting for the Fall season to break out and do something with them. I came up with a plan do to Broken Dishes Blocks for the center - and have a big fat border with some fun appliques, using ONLY these fabrics.

I started out by picking out 18 fabrics from the bundle and cutting those into 16" squares.

Then I took each square and cut that up into 4- 8" smaller squares.

My pretty stack of 8" squares ;c)

I then arranged them by color ~


Then I paired them all up-


With a thin-lined pencil, on the back of the lightest square of each pair, I drew my stitching line 1/4" on each side of each diagonal.


I just lined up the square on my mat, and placed the ruler 1/4" away like this:


After all the lines were drawn, I pinned them Right Sides Together. I just used two pins on each side like so:


I then stitched on each line. Some people do this by just drawing ONE line on the diagonal, but I find I am more accurate if I draw the two stitching lines.


Now I press on both sides.



Then I cut on each diagonal, and also across each way.


I found a more efficient way to cut - by laying out your 4 sewn pairs on your mat like this. The red lines are where you would cut.

Then you have all of these cut in less strokes.

Then I took all my little HSTs and pressed them with starch.

There was 8 of each pair. and I laid them all out to make the broken dishes blocks.

While they were in order, I pinned them.

Took them to the machine and stitched ~

After the pairs were stitched, I then pressed those.

Pinned the pairs together and stitched. . .

Pressed with starch. . .

I pinned all the blocks up on the wall, if you use the same formula as me, you can get a center quilt that's a 7 blocks X 8 blocks layout.

I am almost finished with my Fat, Applique borders and should be able to update you soon with the result. The second half is even more exciting then the first. Also, I would like to add that this quilt WILL be done with the quilt -as-you-go method. . as usual ;c)

A Couple Finishes

This Quilt is from the book "3D Folded Blocks." Please forgive me for what I'm about to say... Okay, the premise of this book seemed interesting. I really like the look of pleats and folds in quilts and thought this would be a really neat idea. BUT, it's not much like quilting at all. Also, there are several errors in the book. Errors that I noticed right away and would seem like a glance from an editor would notice. ANYWHO, if you like the look of quilting, but don't really like all the piecing.. give this a try.... you might like it. Just make sure to read all the instructions for each block/quilt to the end... and maybe make your OWN chart.. because many times one part of the instructions will say you need 2 of one piece, when you really need 4 or vice versa. Oh, and I would definitely recommend getting a walking foot if you have one.. and some extra needles. I would use a leather or at least a denim needle .. and use some cheap ones because I kept breaking my good ones. On a good note.. you are able to use up a lot of stash with these blocks. IF you make a whole bunch of them... the blocks aren't very large. I think I would like it if the finished block size was a bit larger.. but then you might have to stitch in the middle of the blocks to hold them together.. thus leading to more broken needles. Remember guys, this is just ONE person's opinion. This is a very new and interesting technique and YOU might like it! This little sampler turned out cute didn't it?! =cD







2nd ~
My sister got me a pack of charm packs from "Me and My Sister" Designs. = D Me and my sister!!!
So, I sewed up this little quilt measuring 60 x 60 and was able to use up all the charms in the quilt. Isn't it adorable?! I pieced, quilted, and bound this in the last 3 days.

Close-up of the back (3 leftover charms)





Front -

Back -