My Superman

Asher, my 3 year old attended his first day of preschool the other day.  I was very proud looking at him with his little backpack on with no fear and only full of excitement.  I was instantly reminded of all his "firsts" - first laugh,  first crawl, first steps, first words, first "I Love You"....

Despite his tantrums, picky eating, and sleepless nights, this little guy has been a true joy in my life.  He makes me smile even on the worse of days.  He brings spirit and life into our lives.  He is a wonderful big brother and I am overjoyed to be his mom.

I love you THIS MUCH - to infinity!

The Panel Quilt will now be his Preschool quilt.  I was told to write his name on the blanket.  You know me, I can't just ruin a perfectly fine quilt with a sharpie.  I broke out my needle and thread and did a quick embroidery of his name - Asher :).

xoxo Mommy

 to my Superman :)

 FYI: Big fan of Superman at first sight.

Quilt #2 Complete - For the Little One

This 2nd of 2 quilts is for my younger son Silas:


Sitting pretty on the bed.

I really like the way the second quilt came out - maybe more so than the first.  I really like how the simple straight line quilting did not distract from the playful quilt top.  I machine quilt straight lines about 2.5 inches apart in one direction and 3.5 inches in the other - creating squares throughout the whole quilt.


Another view of the top. Shows the squares created by the quilting much more in this photo. 

To go with the straight lines of the quilting, I chose a striped fabric for the binding. I love the look of striped binding on a quilt...followed closely by polka dots and solids :).

Here's a closeup of the binding:
 
Don't you love stripes :). I don't have a closeup of the back of the quilt, but it's pretty much what you could see in the photo here. It's an all green apple solid cotton fabric. It matches the binding and quilt top perfectly.

So what is happening with these quilts now?



For now they are hanging out in my kids' rooms, looking pretty.  It's just turned really hot here in the last couple of weeks, so these little babies will have to wait till colder weather to be used.  Can't wait to break these out when the weather turns again.





Quilt Info:
Panel Quilt for Silas
Front: 100% Cotton Single Panel
Batting: Warm & Natural 100% cotton
Backing: Solid single color - Green Apple
Completed Dimension: ~43"x 36"
Quilting Method: Straight-Line Machine Quilting - Cris Cross for Rectangles
Binding: Machine Sew to Front and Hand Sew to Back

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Joining in the fun here: 

Panel Baby Quilt #1 Complete!

Still need a little wash and tumble in the washer/dryer but this little guy is ready for it's new home - in the comfort of my older son, Asher:


Showing off a little bit of the back and little bit of the front.  He loves the little animations on this quilt.  I think he'll enjoy for many years.


I went with the Moda fabric - Blush Be Mine by BasicGrey/Blush - for the binding.  The overall look of the quilt is a little girly I think but Asher doesn't seem to mind.  I love how the colorful polka dots play with the whimsical swirls/balloons of the quilting.  I also like how it catches the colors of the quilt top tool.  Here's a closeup of the binding during the hand binding process:


I love hand binding.  It creates a very neat and complete look to the quilt.

A closeup of the whimsical 'balloon' free style quilting:

Used the quilting foot on my Juki.  This small quilt was super easy to work with unlike those bigger quilts.  


Here's my (VERY) poor attempts to get pictures of the full front and back of the quilt...I have really got to get a better lens for camera...arg....

The Front:


1 Panel design - Import Japan fabric.

The Back:

I went with one solid blue color for the back of the quilt - 1) I was in a time crunch. 2) I didn't think the quilt needed any more action since the front was jam packed with it already.  3) I miss the single color quilt back.





And there you have it - 1 of 2 completed and ready for use :).  I love the feeling of a finished quilt - don't you?

Stacked and ready for use - probably not till later in the year since we just started our blazing out summer out here :P.


Quilt Info:
Panel Quilt for Asher
Front: 100% Cotton Single Panel
Batting: Warm & Natural 100% cotton
Backing: Solid single color - blue
Completed Dimension: ~43"x 36"
Quilting Method: Free-Motion Machine Quilting ('Balloons')
Binding: Machine Sew to Front and Hand Sew to Back

I am very happy about the way this quilt turned out.  It was my first time using a single Panel for a quilt.  About as simple as you get I guess :P.  Happy quilting and on with Quilt #2.

Added to FINISHED PROJECTS :)

Boys Baby Quilt #2

Finished up my 2nd son's baby quilt today.  I just realized that I didn't even post for quilt #1 yet.  Well better late than never right? :)  It's also a good chance to talk about the different quilting styles I used for the 2 quilts.

For Quilt #1, for my older son Asher, I went with a free motion quilting foot attachment on my Juki.  Asher loves balloons so I tried to mimic some balloon shapes on the quilt.  Here's the results:


Don't mind the strip fabric on the lower right hand corner.  It was originally the binding fabric choice but I have since decided against it.  

For Quilt #2, for Silas, I decided to do something a little different than the other quilt: straight lines rectangles.  For the first time, I practiced with the Even Feed Foot on this machine.  I read that it really helps to keep the fabric of scrunching up on the quilt.  So I went with it.  LOVE IT!  For the first time ever on this machine, I didn't have to worry about pinching.  The Even Feed Foot kept the fabric from scrunching and well....kept the feed even.

So here's Quilt #2 - straight lines horizontally about 2.5" apart, then vertically about 3.5" apart.  The results are cool looking rectangles:



Quilting with the Even Feed Foot was great.  It was so great I even left it on their for a couple of other projects that I would normally use the walking foot for.

Next step on the project?  Binding of course.  Here's the 2 fabrics I've chosen:


The polka dots one goes with Quilt #1.  I stayed with the curly/circular patterns that was on the quilting.  For Quilt #2, I picked the stripes for the binding.  I'm hoping this will continue to create that straight line feel on the quilt.  So there you have it 2 quilts, similar fabrics, different quilting technique and different binding pattern.

Binding pieced, pressed and ready for action:


BTW-Austin TX is definitely NOT on the list of my favorite cities.  Hot, humid, and it was storming!  People say that late spring storm was not common, but I don't care I didn't like it.  Oh well at least the people and the food there is awesome :).

A Whole Lot of Baby Quilt Pinning

Today was an evening of quilt sandwich assembling and basting.  That pins out with the safety pins.  What's being pinned?  The 2 quilts I'm making for my boys.

So out with the safety pins and pins:

I didn't get all the safety pins in the picture before I pinned...arg.  But the blue container on the left is usually about half full with safety pins.

First Asher's quilt:


Then Silas':


I absolutely adore these 2 panels - they each feature objects that my sons love the most: robots, balloons, cars, books, bikes, and the outdoors.  What more can a kid ask for? :P

The 2 quilts are rolled up and ready for the quilting machine.

Hopefully I get to it next week.