Another Great Way to Recognize Great Quilters: Blogger's Quilt Festival

I'm kind of new to the quilter's world so I've never heard of the Blogger's Quilt Festival. 



Unfortunately I don't have time to make a new quilt in time for the Festival but I decided to join in the fun anyways by posting about the Baby Rose quilt I made a few months back.  I really enjoyed making this quilt even though it made a complete mess of my living room.

The quilt was for a close friend of mine named Rosalyn...aka Rose.  I had the honor of being her maid of honor in her wedding and got to share a big part in her life.  When she announced the pending arrival of her first baby, a baby girl I knew I had to make her something special.  Before then I have made a few quilts but wasn't that experienced yet.  I didn't want to make something to elaborate and risk missing up this special gift.

So, I went with a simple design but added the chenille fabric for sashing for that special flair.  The messy part was the cutting.  The chenille fabric was MESSY.  And it made everything messy until the quilt top was assembled and sandwiched.


The STACK when all the fabrics were cut.


To the finished Baby Rose quilt.




After finishing this quilt, it solidified for me how much I love to quilt.  It made me realize that of all the crafts and hobbies I have tried in the past, this is one that will always be a part of me.  BTW, Rose LOVED the quilt. 

So extra cheers to the Blogger's Quilt Festival for providing this great opportunity for quilters like me and others to share our work.

Quilter for Life :

Good Old Binding & Now I'm Family Clown???

Last step in the Modded Brown Quilt - binding.

Hopefully I could get the handbinding down by... hmmm...eventually???

And apparently I am now the family clown.  Well I don't wear the silly nose or put on the clown costume but I am getting quite familiar with the balloon arts...

This is the latest creation - Flowers with very long stems.  I sometimes also fold up the stems to make leaves.  The kids love watching me make it, loves to play with them, and they're relatively cheap.  Once it goes a little flat it gets tossed.

Here's also enjoying the latest additions to our living room:

Each flower machine takes 2 long balloons.  I pump up the stem first, make a little nub for flower center.  Then with the other balloon, fold it into 5 petals and connect it to the stem. 


Took a little trial and error to get the petals to be even ... and for the balloons to stop popping.  Did I mention I have this fear for balloons popping?  Well I got over that one by this point :P.





So what have I made so far in the world of balloon art?  Not that much - hearts, different flowers, Mickey Mouse ears, chains, palm tree (that one is a bust), and the ever popular sword.  Haha just something to keep the kids entertained.

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.

Quilting Complete!

I'm proud to say that the quilting for the Modded Brown is complete!

And the results?  Pretty nice is I do say so myself :).


Glimpse of the finished quilt:



After I complete the quilting I like to sew - with long stitches, along the quilt about 1/8 away from the raw edge.  This ensures that all the layers are down tight before I start sewing on the binding.  It's one less thing to worry about.


A quick trim with the scissors to remove all extra fabric from the edges and to make sure everything is straight:

Love the clean edge of the nearly trimmed quilt.  Gives it an automatic finished look.  It's so neat that sometimes my boys start using the quilt at this stage before I could put the binding on :P.

Now the quilt is ready for attaching the binding :).  Another Weekly Goal - COMPLETED!