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....

A Big Star Quilt

Last weekend, my dear high school friend JoAnn and I drove to Sew Blessed in Hahira, GA for a quilting class.  The two-hour drive was worth it; we each came away with a 25" star block.  An added bonus was getting to spend an entire day with JoAnn, talking sewing and quilting ALL DAY!




My block was done in shades of aqua, coral and red.  I LOVE it!  So much so, that I had a hard time donating it to be placed in a silent auction to benefit for Books for Sumter.   But a promise is a promise... and this baby quilt was the only one I could finish in time for last night's benefit!

Since the block was only 25" square, I added three borders to get it up to a baby quilt size, in this case 42" square.  I simply MUST start writing down names and makers of fabrics I purchase!  I have no idea where I got any of them, and no idea of the fabric lines from which they came.  None of them were purchased at the same time; they just happened to get stacked together in my stash cubes because of similar colors.  But man, am I pleased with how they look together!



The star itself was quilted in the ditch.  Then, I had the BEST TIME quilting the white Kona background with my walking foot!  I absolutely LOVE quilting with contrasting thread on solids!

It's really hard to see, but the three borders were quilted with the same aqua thread, with a meander/stipple, about an inch apart.  I used my midarm for that part.  Don't you just love the little bird print on the outer border???  I think it's just the right contrast to the floral print used in the middle border and binding.

The back is that same darling aqua and coral polka dot from the inner border.  I love that fabric so much that it was hard for me to cut into it!  But it's been in my stash for at least three years...  and I still have some left!

I sure hope this quilt brought in big bucks at the benefit, because I already miss it!


Lessons learned while making this quilt???  First, to trust my instincts when putting fabrics together for a quilt.  Even though I'm pretty sure each came from a different line, they really look great together (I think)!  Next, I tried out a machine binding tutorial from Pinterest... and it came out great!  I've been a bit of a purist when it comes to binding (must be hand stitched), but for a quilt that's going to get lots of use and washing, the machine binding makes sense.  Last lesson???  Don't make promises you may not want to keep!  I want this quilt baaack!
 

A Charm Square Quilt for Weston

Our great nephew, Weston, is five and is really into making things... so I thought this construction-themed charm pack would make a great little nap quilt for him.

To make the charm pack go further, I added rows of 5" black Kona between each row of charm squares. 

I quilted diagonal lines in red across each row to create a grid.

I LOVE pieced backs!  In this case, it was out of necessity; I had to "make do" with what was in my stash...  it was late at night and I wasn't going out!  The back is cobalt Kona and a candy stripe red and white.  The binding is black and white chevron; I really like how it turned out!