Memory Quilt – Blocks 5-10

Here are some more shots of the blocks for the memory quilt:

I had to leave the spit up stain on the white fabric.  Such a great memory with the fuzzy bunny from her bib!

Look at the little bunny from one of her booties.  Isn’t it sooo cute!!  My son says both bunnies look like a bunny ice cream cone! 

 

Folk Art Fun Day 2

One of my favorite things about doing custom orders for people is that I often get to work on techniques that I don’t always get to play with in the course of a normal day (for me anyways!).  I was sent this lovely quilt that an entire family worked on as a gift for a new baby.  But they found that over the course of making the quilt that time has an unfortunate way of getting away from us.  So what was a baby quilt has now become a wall hanging for a not so little young lady! 

I am in love with the folk art quality to this quilt and its story.  It is a treasure in that each block has a story and was made by a different person.  Some have applique, some are pieced and all are unique.  I decided that I had to do all of the blocks free motion and free hand since that would better suit the feel of the quilt.  Here are some shots of the quilt and what I have done with it so far:

This is the center design that I quilted a fern leaf over.

 

And here is a detail of the quilting:

And some of the blocks:

 

Environmentally Friendly Blankets

     

I am pleased to be able to finally announce the first of the environmentally friendly Toddler Blankets!  These blankets still contain designer 100% cotton fabrics and chenille fleece, but the batting is a unique 100% fire retardant rayon made from plantation trees!  These trees are harvested and processed in a green facility where the fibers are broken down and made into super soft biodegradable batting.  And the really cool byproduct of the manufacturing process is the natural silica in the tree fibers makes this batting fire retardant without the use of chemicals!  So it is both environmentally friendly and safe for your baby!

So look for the upcoming quilts at my store to feature this new batting as I feel it is both better for your baby and better for our planet.

 

Free Baby Quilt Pattern!

Here it is, my newest quilt pattern, Crib Rails, based on the traditional quilt block, split rails.  It is my hope that you will enjoy making this pattern as it is fairly quick to do, and good for all skill levels.  This quilt is also available for sale on my website as the Safari Baby Quilt.

Download the Crib Rails Pattern as a Word .doc (279k) or as an Adobe .pdf (139k).

Before I make this quilt pattern available on my website Baby’s Breath Quilts, I would love to hear feedback from all of my friends in Blog-land.  The good, bad and the ugly are all appreciated.  Especially if you catch any mistakes!    Thanks!

As always, my quilt patterns are protected by copyright and are available for free to all home quilters for personal use only.  I ask that you please write to me for permission if you want to use it for any other reason, including re-sale.

 

Miss Scarlett’s Personalized Baby Quilt

Many people do not realize that I offer custom personalization on my quilts.  This is something I don’t do on any of my inventory of already made quilts (not very attractive on the back!), but I am happy to add it to any custom order.

One quilt I just completed is for a little girl, Scarlett, out in California.  Her Grandmother ordered a custom quilt based on a design for charity quilt I had made.  She picked out the fabrics, and I put it together for her once Scarlett was born.

It was a really fun process working with her Grandmother to find a perfect rose print fabric (the baby’s middle name is Rose).  But my one wish as a crafts-person is that I would like to know how the parents reacted to their new quilt.  I can experience some of the excitement the Grandmother had in creating the design for a handmade quilt, but it is a unique experience not to know the other half of the gift giving process.  Having only given quilts as gifts before I opened my business, this leaves me hanging without the closure I would normally get.  I am learning to work with this feeling, but it is especially wonderful when I hear back from my customers - and they let me know how much their quilt is loved!

 

Curve-tastic Quilting!

In May, I will be teaching another class at Maplewood Quilts using my own technique developed in the Turtle Tracks Quilt.  In preparing for this class, I made a sample for the shop to display and I am very pleased with how it came out.  Inside, I am jumping up and down since this quilt (eventually) will me all MINE.  How many of us who craft can honestly say you have sewn something for yourself and not given it away?

Tammie, the shop owner, wants to keep the quilt on display and take it to the different shows she will be vending at to drum up interest for the class and possibly another one this fall depending upon demand.  How cool is that?!

Here are some photos of the quilt and one in progress shot.  I did not get any really good shots as it needed to get out the door as soon as it was done.  In fact, the binding is merely basted on – not properly sewn at all!  I only had about 1 week to get it done.  I am amazed it even got as far as it did!

 

Bobbin Along

First, I must thank my Grandmother who has been so very patient in waiting for her Christmas present.  Yes, I said Christmas present.  So you now know exactly how patient she is.  This year I wanted to give everyone handmade quilted bags for the holidays, but I ran out of time.  Grandma (or Gigi as her 7 great greandkids call her) unfortunately drew the short straw.

Now that all of my commitments are done with, and the new bobbin casing I needed finally came in, I get to work on her gift.  First, I found this really cool fabric at one of the local quilt shops and thought that doing some bobbin work in a complimentary design would be really fun.  I have never tried bobbin work before and have always been really interested in it. 

I took some deco bond and cut it to the size of the body of the bag and fused it to the background - a really yummy dark blue with rain-like speckles on it.  Then I drew the design I wanted in pencil on the deco bond.  Last night I started the bobbin work on all of the green thingies and I say it looks awesome!  Using pearl cotton, I have outlined all of the leaves and grasses and will go back when I do the quilting and fill them in. 

I decided to do the bobbin work first, without the batting, so I would be able to better hide the thread ends.  Using a tapestry needle, I pulled the long tails of the pearl cotton through to the reverse and knotted them off.  Then I coated the ends with permanent fabric glue to make them stay.  The person who taught a guild workshop in this did her bobbin work on the finished piece and used Elmer’s glue on the ends.  I totally do not like this idea as I am a big believer in the power of the washing machine.  Why wash by hand when you have a machine to do all of the dirty work?  (The same rule applies to dishwashers).  Also, I hope my way will hide all of the mess of the loose ends to give the completed piece a better look.

 

African China Star Quilted Bag

I have been invited to teach a class at one of our local quilt shops, Maplewood Quilts in Northfield, VT!  On May 3rd, I will be teaching a paper pieced star class to make this quilted bag.  The pattern is the China star from Carol Doak’s Mariner’s Compass Stars book and the bag is from my own pattern.

All of the fabrics are in shades of gold and amber set against an Amish black Kona cotton.  My DH says it looks Mexican/Aztec but I think it has an African vibe to it.  Either way, this bag is really hot and I am so glad it is mine, mine, mine!  Of course, I have to display it at the shop until the class, but I can wait… maybe. 

 

Rainbow Sherbet is Ready!

Last night, I put the finishing touches on my newest baby quilt, Rainbow Sherbet.  It is now up on my site and ready to order!  This was such a fun quilt to make and I have enjoyed showing it off to my quilting friends.  They all enjoyed the bright, fun colors and agree it is a welcome change from the grey, winter yucks.

So check out my newest quilt and let me know what you think!  Here are some close up shots.

     

 

Purple Australia Bag

At a loss for what to make my friend Alison for Christmas, I was thumbing through Carol Doak’s - Mariner’s Compass Stars book when that proverbial light-bulb went off.  So I called Alison and asked her, “If you could travel to any country in the world, what would it be?”  She replied, “Australia.”  Perfect!  Problem solved.

Each of Carol’s paper pieced stars in this book are named after countries and, since Alison’s favorite color is purple, we get the Purple Australia Bag.  The focus fabric is a Michael Miller Fairy Frost and the accents are a fat eighth bundle I won in the volunteer raffle at my guild’s quilt show this fall.  Both sides of the bag are the same with solid black framing the bag and making up the handles.  I made piping out of the fairy frost fabric and edged the top of the bag.

Here’s a close up of the block.