Memory Quilt Top

The top for the memory quilt is now finished!!  I am so excited and just LOVE how it came together!  The details and little treasures in each block are simply precious.  All the stains, pockets, ruffles and bows are adorable.  Tonight will see it in my frame, getting quilted!

 

Memory Quilt – Blocks 11-20

The blocks are all finished for the memory quilt and I am sorry I did not post them earlier this week.  Life has been more hectic than usual – I thought it was supposed to quiet down now that the holidays are over! 

Tonight I hope to finish putting together the quilt top and will have photos (hopefully!) posted tomorrow.

 

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! 

 

Memory Quilt – Blocks 1-4

My recent project has been to create this really sweet memory quilt for a family out in Germany out of all of their daughter’s first year clothes.  The mother wants all of the baby’s things preserved in a quilt in a throw size done up in crazy quilt blocks. 

The finished quilt will be about 48″x60″ with 20 12″ blocks.  She didn’t want any sashings or borders – just her baby’s things over the entire quilt.

Here are the first four blocks.  You can see some of the sweet details like some ruffles from around shirts and lace from dresses and appliques from onesies worked into the blocks.  I love the whimsy and fun that is in this quilt and believe it will be treasured when completed.  Do you see the pocket in the center of the last block?  It is completely intact and is so fun!!

 

Turtle Quilt – Day 5

Today I worked some more on outlining the seaweed.  I finished the mottled one on the right and the green in the middle.  The orange fan shape in the center is partially complete.  In some of the shots, you can see where I had to stop partway through sewing.  This is because I have to layer the stitching.  If a piece is on top of another, I have to sew the bottom color first.  But if the piece goes from being on top to being on the bottom, I have to stop partway through and go back to it once the bottom piece is finished. 

Here are some shots of what I did tonight.

 

Turtle Quilt – Day 1-4

My latest project is a turtle quilt for a customer out in New Hampshire.  It is for a little guy’s bed and he just loves turtles.  When his mother and I were discussing the design of the quilt, she came across a pattern kit by Carol Morrissey called “Follow Me”.  Normally I do not care for kits as they can be a pain, have the wrong colors or the wrong sizes, but I have used Keepsake Quilting for years and had no (major) problems.

So far, my only complaint about this pattern is there are almost no instructions.  So if you are a novice applique-er, this pattern is not for you!  She recommends simply leaving the edges unfinished and just straight stitch around each piece (a method I HATE!  Durability?  Technique?  Cleanability?).  So I am instead finishing each piece with a satin stitch around the edges.

So after I figured out what each of the fabrics in the kit were for and traced the pattern onto Wonder Under (by the way – each turtle has about 100 pieces to it!!), I fused the traced patterns onto the batiks.  Then I cut out all of the seaweed catching up on some of the latest movies I haven’t seen yet like Journey to the Center of the Earth and Hancock.  And while I usually like Brendan Fraser, Hancock was really great!  Will Smith is one of my favorite actors. 

Here is a shot of the backing with all of the seaweed fused on it that I put together last night.

Then tonight I started to satin stitch around the seaweed.   I was shocked to discover that I did not have enough shades of thread to match the different seaweeds.  Especially purple!  There actually was a color I did not have in purple!  I was really surprised on that one.  Anyways, here is a pic of what I got done tonight.

Happy sewing!

 

Organic Baby Quilts

Here it is – my first organic baby quilt!  This great quilt has certified 100% organic cotton fabrics in an unbleached, natural cotton and a checked homespun.  The batting is an environmentally friendly batting made from fast growing plantation trees that are broken down in a green facility and spun into cellulose fibers.  The batting is biodegradable, hypo-allergenic, and fire retardant without the use of harsh chemicals!  The fire retardant properties are due to the natural way the plantation trees grow and contain silica in their pulp.  This silica in turn allows the batting to be naturally fire retardant!

When I was designing this quilt, I had a hard time trying to come up with a pattern that would suit a two toned quilt.  I was playing around in my EQ6 (electric quilt 6 software) and saw the pineapple blocks.  I had never done a pineapple block but have always wanted to.  When I laid it all out and added the two colors, I loved it!  I really like the depth that the two tones give the quilt – almost a 3D quality. 

The best way to do this quilt block was to print paper foundations for each of the pineapple blocks and piece it that way (highly recommend Carol Doak’s paper-piecing foundation paper and Add-a-Quarter rulers).  I was afraid that if I tried to strip piece this together, the blocks might start to twist and spin instead of lining up nicely.

So, once this was all settled, I got started cutting out the pieces and putting this quilt together.  I must say, if I had realized that one baby quilt has over 350 pieces, I may have re-thought the design!    You can see at the left a shot of the foundations in progress.  I believe I am putting on the corner pieces of the blocks in this shot.

Thirty hours later, this quilt is now finished!  I was so excited to get it done as I have been wanting to start an organics line of baby quilts and I think this gets the line off to a wonderful start!  Vermont Hand Crafters, a craft group I belong to, is filming a segment for Across the Fence, a show about local products on WCAX Channel 3.  They asked me for a sample of my work and were excited when I gave them this quilt to put on the air.  If you have access to Channel 3, please watch on 11/17 from 12:10 to 12:30 EST.

 

 

Folk Art Fun Day 4

Here it is – the last of the quilting for this project.  I am pleased with how it came out and now all that is left is to finish sewing the binding.  What was really neat is that the fabric for the binding is some teal fabric I had on a bolt in the sewing room and it perfectly matches the teal fabric in the sashings.  You would never know that they were made many years apart! 

Something I wanted to mention is why I chose the thread I did.  I wanted to use the white to help unify the whole design.  The white in the blocks really stood out to me when I looked at the quilt originally and I wanted to tone it down and blend the whole quilt together.  So I thought that using the white thread, and a fairly thick one at that, would do this nicely.  I love how it looks against the border fabrics, and I think it compliments the inner blocks, too.    Here is a detail shot so you can see  what I mean:

 

Folk Art Fun Day 3

Here are some more shots of the quilt I am working on and the blocks I did up yesterday.  I would have posted this last night, but got caught up in spending time with my family. 

The block on the left has oak leaves and acorns in the pattern…

The one on the left has more leaves…

A dragonfly design I made to go with the outer border…

The outer border dragonflies…

 

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: