Oliver's Heart Quilt.

This quilt was inspired by this mini quilt -  I'm not sure who the original artist was but a google search brought me to THIS WEBSITE.  

Melissa wanted these two sleepers to be the "focus" of the quilt.  But since the logos are right next to the zippers, we decided that the best thing to do would be to make each onesie into a "half" heart, and then put them together side-by-side to make up a whole heart.     I took out 3 rows of stitches to try to get more room for the heart shape.    

 It still didn't look quite right. . I think because it was the biggest heart and right in the middle.   So then we decided to make them into two separate hearts.  

After some wiggling around,   we came up with THIS design -  I also added some more color, reduced the size of most of the hearts, and used the booties from the sleepers to add depth and more color.    -  much better!  

The top was complete, but I felt it really needed "something". . . so I decided to try to do a Mock Trapunto technique.    I used a thick polyester batting, and densely quilted in the background area and in and around all the hearts and applique shapes.  

I used stippling in the large open areas and pebbling inside the smaller areas inside the heart and around the text.    
Starting from the outside edges first and going around the edges.    I stippled first, and then once I got to the inside of the hearts, I started pebbling.    This pushes all the batting down, and into the open areas.    Then I outlined around each heart, and they magically POOF UP, making it look like you took a long time stuffing each heart or adding extra batting.  

 I didn't have quite enough of the fabric and they were sold out, so I pieced the backing and made it into a double-sided quilt.   

 Here you can see how poofy the applique shapes are - and also the quilting on the back.

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)

My Quilt Guild Challenge Project

Each Year around Christmas, our Quilt guild does a challenge project. . similar to the Hoffman Challenge.  We are given two FQs of supposedly "ugly" or mismatched fabrics and we are supposed to make a quilt of them.  There are several categories and the winners receive gift certificates to our local quilt shop!  It's SO much fun and I look forward to it every year!   This year, as you know, I have a new baby girl.  I seem to always forget which Monday my guild meeting is held on.  This year, I look at my phone a couple days after the Christmas guild meeting. .and I realize I Have MISSED it!!  So dissapointing.  Oh well, I won't win anything, but I'll take my project to the next guild meeting and show it off ;c)  I'm just sad I will have missed all the other ones.  I love seeing what everyone can do with the same fabrics.

My Challenge project is titled "Home-Sweet-Home" and is inspired by a whimsical family tree.  The family tree aspect is especially meaningful to me this year with my new addition to our family.

This year the FQs matched PERFECTLY. . so it was hardly a challenge to match them haha.  The two fabrics I used for the quilt's borders, and also the large-print floral fabric I used for all of the leaves.  I embroidered "The Wiseman's" on the top, and used raw-edge fusible applique for all the pieces.  I quilted around the small areas with pebbles, and the larger areas with spirals.  There is a straight feather in the borders (which I don't like becuase I Used too light of a color of thread ugh) no way I would undo it though! LOL

Franki's Baby Quilt

I made this quilt for my friend Franki, who is having a baby next month:  "Mia." 

She wanted Pink and Green, so I dug through my pinnk and green scraps.  The piecing for the front and back I kept relatively simple, but I went crazy with the quilting.   my favorite part ;c)

Here is the front and back before sandwiching. 

 I divided the quilt up in diamonds and wanted a 1/2' puffy line between each quilting motif.  In the above photo I had just finished the trapunto for Mia's name, the pebbling in the 1st section, and half the feathers in the 2nd section.

Here I had just finished all the quilting.  

Before trimming and binding.  

Closeup of the quilting. 

 andddd. . front and back finished!

All of the quilting was done with NEW Aurifil polyester longarm thread.  The pastel variegated thread looked perfect against the pink and green fabrics.   . . used in the top AND bobbin.