A Princess Quilt

A young mother from our church recently commissioned me to make a princess quilt for her three-year-old's birthday.  I really had a good time doing something "girly!"

For the main section of the quilt, I used half square triangles to make the chevron pattern.  I used white Kona and some cute Waverly prints.  The outer border is also a Waverly print, as is the stripe for the binding.  (I LOVE striped bindings!)

The darling 3D applique came from Bows and Clothes on Etsy.  She has several other princess appliques.  I'll be getting more!










Here's a closeup of the princess.

And one of the back and binding....

Catching Up!

Mercy!  I just realized it's been nearly three months since I posted!  I kept meaning to catch up, but I guess life got in the way....

Anyhow, I've completed several quilts/quilted items in the past couple months, most of which were Christmas commissions.  I also did a few charity quilts and wall hangings AND some things for a crafts show. Plus I made several quilted Christmas gifts...

NOW I remember why I haven't posted:  TOO BUSY SEWING!

Here are SOME as finished products...  sorry, no in-process pics were taken.

I made 2 sets of these scrappy strip placemats for Christmas gifts.  (This is my daughter's dining room.)  I also made but never photographed a set of solid woodgrain-quilted placemats and a runner for Christmas gifts.  Both sets were reversible.  WHY didn't I take pics???

This is one of the commissioned memory quilts.  It was for Pat Spann,  a local restaurant/pub owner, using tshirts representing the 30-plus years he's been in business. This quilt measured 110" square; the largest I've ever done!  I had a blast doing this one; it brought back lots of memories!  I've whiled away quite a few hours there, beginning way back in high school, when my dad forbade me to go!  In fact, it was there that my hubby asked me out for the first time...

Here's another memory quilt commissioned by two daughters of a departed Harley rider, for their mom.  Each shirt was from a different state.  I can't wait for us to have time to really travel on my husband's Harley and collect shirts like these!

And another memory quilt...  This was for my husband's cousins, whose sister lost her battle to breast cancer a couple years ago.  They presented the quilt to their parents for Christmas.  This was a bit of a challenge, as it combined tshirts and woven blouses.









Here are a couple of the charity quilts.  They were small; about crib size.

         

Baby quilts...  The golf themed one was a commission; the modern one was for a dear girlfriend of our daughter.  The modern one has wood grain quilting I learned from Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt. http://theinboxjaunt.com/2014/11/18/woodgrain-a-free-motion-quilt-tutorial/.  She posts new tutorials daily.

I made OLAF just for fun; had been wanting to play around with strip piecing and quilting with wavy lines. I learned wavy lines from Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations.
http://sewsweetness.com/2011/09/back-to-school-free-motion-and-other.html.   I also quilted in some snowflakes.

This next two items were for ME!

I did the pillow cover out of suede cloth; my first attempt at quilting feathers in a circular pattern.   I learned (and am still learning) this technique from Ivory Spring.
https://ivoryspring.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/thread-talk-from-my-sewing-machine-37/.

I learned the Icicle Lights quilting design on this embroidered and quilted wall hanging from Leah Day at The Free Motion Quilting Project.  http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-264-icicle-lights.html  I've learned MANY techniques through Leah's blog!   She has a new tutorial nearly every day!

Before Christmas. my sister sent me a picture (below on the left) of a Star of David quilt,.along with a request that I make one for her. http://quiltingafterdark.blogspot.ca/2013/03/star-of-david-finished.html.  When Christie came to visit a few weeks ago, just after Christmas, we made the quilt on the right while our hubbies watched college football.  We hadn't been able to find a pattern, so we used her photo and a 60 degree triangle template to work one out.  Christie counted all those triangles and figured out how many of each color to cut and then laid them out in order for me to sew.  I sewed and she ironed.  We make a pretty good team!  I quilted most of the stippling, but she tried her hand one a small section.  You can't see it, but we quilted a scripture from Zephanaiah 3:17 into the white border...  She did the first 3-4 words and then went home to Alabama, leaving me to finish!  I quilted a simple swirl wave into the blue border. It turned out very nicely, we think!  Thanks to Angelina Kendra for the inspiration!  http://quiltingafterdark.blogspot.ca/

WHEW!  Now that I'm caught up with blogging, I can go back to sewing.  I'm working on a girly quilt for my daughter in law; can't wait to share it!

A Special Baby Quilt

A dear friend is expecting her first grandchild any day now.  I wanted to make a quilt for the baby, but wanted to use up some of my scraps.  I found plenty in my chosen colors of gray pink and turquoise.  

Not being one to follow a pattern, I just jumped in and started making little nine patch blocks from 2 1/2 inch squares.  To bring some unity to the blocks, I used a white square in the center of each.  I pieced the blocks with more white Kona sashing, adding a wide strip on which I'd embroidered (by machine) the baby's name. 

 Here's the finished product.

I wish I'd taken some closeups, because the quilting is hard to see...  I quilted pebbles using white Aurifil everywhere you see white.  The rest was left unquilted.  The quilt is bound in a tiny gray chevron and backed with a pink print. 

I also forgot to take a picture of the back, and now the quilt is no longer with me!  I will confess, however, that I wasn't nearly as happy with the appearance of the back as I was with the front.  In my attempt to add lots of texture, I quilted around each pebble 3-4 times.  It looks a little messy on the back.

What did I learn with this quilt?  First, pebbling is VERY time- and thread-consuming!  Next,  I still have lots of work to do on accurate piecing.  (But thankfully, the heavy quilting hides a multitude of sins!)  I learned it might be a good idea to match bobbin thread to backing fabric when doing heavy quilting like pebbling.  Lastly, I learned that I LOVE PEBBLING!!!  Can't wait to do more!