Quilt 153: Zoo Babies (part 2)

 "Wait!" you say. "Am I seeing double?  You posted this last week!"

Well... yeah...

I made 2 of these.  They're identical.

Quilt 152: Zoo Babies (part 1)

Another panel quilt - and again I had a ball with this.  Panel quilts are great fun and come together in a flash.  I've got 2 of these... Here's the first one - a simple panel quilt, but it's sooo cute!

 

 

38" x 51" - bamboo batting - quilted on the longarm

I had an absolute ball putting this together.  The center is a printed panel to which I added the green, blue, and gold borders, with all the fabric coming from scraps from other quilts (I'm determined to get my huge stash of scraps used up - there's so much in my quilting room that the scraps are taking over!). The quilting pattern is a simple "stippling" design, one that suits a very wide variety of quilt tops.

 

And here's the backing fabric, chosen (again) from my stash of scraps.

 

This one, and most of the others I'm working on, is destined for Inspirational Quilts, my favorite quilt charity. 

Stay tuned - more to come!

Quilt 151: Baby Turtles

Get ready... here they come!  I've been busy.  Finished 3 quilts, a 4th ready for binding and three more in various stages.

Here's the first one - a simple panel quilt.  All I had to do here was slap on the green border on the edges.  The rest of this is the panel itself, which is fairly large.

44" x 51" - bamboo batting, quilted on the longarm

The green border is scrap fabric from quilt 11!  Yes.... I've got quite a stash of scraps that go all the way back to 2011!

The backing is a soft fleece - feels lovely and the colours
are perfect for the top

Stay tuned... there's more coming!

Quilting for a Friend

Well... obviously I haven't done much quilting work for some time now.  I'm gradually getting back there.

In the meantime, I do have something to show you.  My lovely friend Babs is an amazing quilter - and she recently finished a top for a quilt she's doing for her grandson.  She's been having her quilts professionally quilted - which I didn't know until recently.  But when she mentioned this, I said, hey!  I'll do it for you!  I feel honored that she trusted her quilt to me - and here's how it turned out:

60" x 80" beautiful applique quilt
(double click the photo to view a larger image)

She's an amazing artist, and everything she does is stunning, including this gorgeous applique quilt.  Her grandson loves motorcycles and just look at all the hand work she's put into this!  All of those panels with the white background are applique designs.  Little Tyler is going to be loving this quilt; you can bet on that!

Babs selectedthe Panto_Square Meander quilt design:

And, as you can see from the photo below, it just married up really well with her quilt top.

She selected white thread - and it turned out great.  The squares in the quilting reflect the squares in the quilt design and the white thread just disappears inside the white-background applique segments.  All good!

Quilt 143: Tractor Factor - DONE!

This one is a simple one, but terribly cute.  It's just a large printed panel with a border of solid gold homespun on the outside.

48" x 52" - quilted on the Q-Matic - bamboo batting

I opted to use chocolate coloured thread for the quilting so that I could do edge-to-edge quilting without having the thread interfere with the images of the tractors.  as you can see, it worked pretty well.

Here's the quilt pattern I selected - it came with the Q-Matic

The backing fabric is the same as the outer border, and here's what the stitching looks like on the back.

Easy, simple, but very effective!  This one is going to the charity Inspirational Quilts - and I think some little boy is going to just love it!

Quilt 134: Monkeys and Elephants (my ugly duckling) - DONE!

I was ready to try another strip quilt design, and decided to go with blocks made of 6 strips sewn together -pretty basic stuff.  Here's the jelly roll I chose to use for it (one I picked up on sale):

I was surprised that the manufacturer didn't give this collection a name.  "Rainbows" is the same name on all (or most) of their jelly rolls. 

No matter - I decided to call it "Monkeys and Elephants" because of the prints:

Like I said: pretty basic stuff.  I have to admit that after I'd pieced the top (and before putting the final border of green around it), I looked at and just thought "...this is the ugliest quilt!"  I got a little discouraged and pushed it aside, didn't finish it for a while.  Eventually I dug it out and decided to go ahead and finish it.  Once I got the border on it and quilted it... I changed my mind.  It's actually pretty cute!

50" x 50" - quilted on the Bernina Q-Matic - bamboo batting

Here's the stitch pattern I used for quilting (below).

"Animal Crackers" from Urban Elementz

I used solid green for the backing - and the animal design really pops!  The thread is a light cream, which fades into the prints on the top, so I'm really happy I used a solid for the back.

So there you are.  My ugly duckling quilt turned out to be a cute little swan!

Quilt 131: Pond Life - DONE!

This one is another quilt kit from Patchwork with Gail B.  The shop had the kit in a recent sale - the price was just too good to resist.  It's a very simple quilt, just strips of 6 different prints (3 orange, 3 purple).  I think I may have only spent about 4 hours or so putting it together.

44" x 58" - quilted on the Bernina Q-Matic

Here's the quilting pattern I used (it came with the Q-Matic):
 
The waves and bubbles go well with the goldfish theme of the prints:

The backing is done with the goldfish print that matches one of the prints on the top:

Here's a closeup of the back - and again you can see the waves and bubbles quilt stitching:

I'm really pleased with it - cute as a bug's ear!

Quilts 128, 129, 130: Houses - DONE!

Sometimes quilting with panels becomes almost like "instant quilts".  That certainly felt like the case with these three.  I found the "houses" panels online and ordered three of them.  The colourful prints are quite large, and after adding a 3" yellow border, 3" green border, and 3" blue border, I ended up with pretty good sized quilts. 

52" x 59" - quilted on the Bernina Q-Matic with the "Row of houses" stitch pattern

 Here's the stitch pattern I used (below). 

On the first quilt (below) I kept the stitch pattern at the dimensions it comes in.  After doing it once that way, I decided it was a little too dense, so on the 2nd and 3rd quilts I expanded the pattern to just over twice it's original size.

 Each of the quilts has a different backing.  The first one is light turquoise (with dark green binding):

 The second one is yellow (with light green binding):

 The third one is deep tea (with lime green binding)l:

I've been VERY productive in recent weeks.  Now having the Q-Matic for quilting, I can quilt one project while I'm piecing the next one.  I can't believe how fast I'm powering through my stash of fabric!  I may start posting more often, as posting once a week has left me with quite a backlog of quilts to show.

Quilts 125 and 126 - Baby Bunnies - DONE!

Strip quilts go together quickly and can be really charming. 

I found this jelly roll "Bunny Trail" from Ella Blue on sale -

 Here are the prints in the set:

And there's enough in one jelly roll to make two baby quilts.

My good friend Nancy (from the charity "Inspirational Quilts") confided that she needed a lot more quilts for children - and so I got busy and whipped out two quilts like the one in the photo below:

46" x 46" - quilted on the Bernina Q-Matic - cotton batting

Here's a closeup of the prints - little bunnies, as you can see at the bottom of the photo below.  And the stitching pattern... isn't it just adorable?!?!?!    I found this bunny design online.

On the quilt above, I put the bunnies onlly on the top and bottom borders.  But on the other quilt (below) I made the bunnies a lot bigger and did edge-to-edge throughout the quilt.

Both quilts have the same vibrant pink backing - and here again, you can see the bunnies in the stitching.

These quilts took just no time to put together, and I really enjoyed making them.  They've been turned over to Nancy and hopefully by now have each found a home.

Quilt 121: Minnie Mouse 2 (baby size) - DONE!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about an adult-size "Minnie Mouse" quilt I made for a friend.  I had a second panel, and a little bit of the coordinating print, enough to make a baby-size quilt - and here it is!

48" x 55" - Quilted on the Bernina Q-Matic ("Panto_Stars" pattern) - cotton batting

I used the same backing:

When hubby Stephen held this one up for the photo to be taken, he remarked that the print on the backing fabric looks exactly like mouse droppings.

Oh, heavens... he's right....

Quilt 119: Minnie Mouse 1 - DONE!

A friend requested a "Minnie Mouse" themed quilt.  I found a great panel online - which is in the center of this quilt:

54" x 62" - quilted on the longarm (Q-Matic pattern "Panto_Stars") - cotton batting

The panel is in the center.  I added a narrow black border, a wider border using a coordinating print, and a 3rd border (black) on the outside.  The binding is done in red.

Here's the stitch pattern I selected.

And here's a closeup of the backing, binding and you can see how the stitch pattern fits into the quilt.  I used red thread, which pretty much fades into the background.

 This one is a fairly big quilt - but I have another Minne Mouse panel and will be doing a baby-sized one."

Quilt 118: Baby Australian Animals - DONE!

There was a sale at Patchwork With Gail B - and they had an adorable quilt kit marked down.  I couldn't resist.  Here's the top, after piecing.  There's a center planel with baby Australian animals shown, and the borders are an adorable coordinating print.  In the corners, the original design calls for some of the coordinating print to be cut out and applique'd - but I felt that was too busy.  Instead I decided to insert a fancy-stitch design of my own.

 I had a length of bright green that I wanted to use for the backing.  It's not an exact match to the greens on the top, however.

 But binding the quilt with this pink swirly leftover fabric would create enough separation between the back and front- and the pink goes great with both!

 I mentioned wanting to do a fancy design in the corners with stitching (instead of applique).  I found this image online - a cluster of gum leaves.  I used the Art-n-Stitch software that came with the Q-Matic to trace the leaves and make a stitching pattern I could execute on the longarm.

And here's my test of the design using scraps.  It turned out great!

The animals in the center panel are really cute.  I didn't want to do end-to-end quilting on this quilt, but opted instead to outline the animals and add a little bit of interest to the backgrounds inside the frames.

 And here you see on the finished quilt how that turned out!

The finished quilt!  Doubleclick the image below for a larger picture.  In this photo you can see the gumleaves in the corners (especially lower left)

44" x 52" - quilted on the longarm (freemotion, ruler work, Q-Matic gum leaves) cotton batting

My friend Sarah just became a grandmother for the first time recently.  She saw this quilt and fell in love with it - so it's going to be her gift to her granddaughter.

Quilt 113: "Nana Mae II" EZ On-Point - DONE!

Another charm square quilt - and this one is an on-point design that is so easy it makes me laugh!

I started with 2 charm square packs.  This pack is from Henry Glass & Co. - a set they call "Nana Mae II".  It's all soft pastel prints, flowers and baby animals.

First, I sewed the squares into a rectangle, 6 squares down and 12 across.

Next I cut the rectangle as shown with the red lines below: - I end up with a large triangle (the center) and 2 smaller triangles from either side.

It's fairly easy to keep straight - you just cut through each square diagonnaly, from point to point.

 Then join the 2 smaller triangles as shown below, making a larger triangle

 And finally sew the 2 triangles together, resulting in an on-point top!

I added a solid lavender border and bound it with some pale yellow scraps I had from another project.

46" x 46"- quilted on the Bernina Q-matic longarm ("PRPANTO131" stitch design, end-to-end) - cotton batting

Here's a closeup of the flowery stitch pattern I selected.  I opted for a very light grey thread, which pretty much disappears into the quilt.

 And here's the backing:

I love the on-point design and will probably make a few more of these.  Fast, easy, and loads of fun!