New Baby Quilt

A family friend married a few years ago and moved to a beautiful seaside town on the southern coast of Ireland.  When I heard she was expecting her first baby, I wanted to make a very special quilt for her.  Luckily for me, she shared the sex of the baby so I could get started on a quilt for a little girl.

I found a lovely quilt on the Pinterest website but I could not find the pattern.  I just had to wing it on my own and the above quilt is what I came up with.  Firstly, I had to calculate the dimensions of the quilt so that the three bands made up of individual strips of fabric were all equal and the two plain bands were wide enough to accommodate the meandering flowers and vines.  I had to choose 11 different yet compatible quilt prints and sew the strips together.  Then I took the white strips, added stabilizer underneath, and embroidered different flower blossoms and butterflies.  I even used some metallic thread to add a bit more interest.  After that, I appliquéd on the vines and leaves.  Finally, I added free motion quilting to each of the striped bands.  This was the first time I have tried free motion quilting and I think it turned out very well.  I hope this isn't considering cheating but I actually chalked the quilting design directly onto the fabric and when away I went.  It really was nothing to be fearful of doing and I intend on trying free motion on my next quilt.

Next, I embroidered a small fabric gift bag which could also be used as a toy bag for the car or to carry baby items.  Anyway, my friend was so pleased to receive the guilt and said how lovely it was.  I think this was one of my best quilts to date and it certainly turned out well considering I had no pattern.

He's my Star!

I made this summer quilt for my grandson's birthday.  I thought the black and white fabrics were very modern and masculine looking.  He just loved it.  

When it came to quilting the body of the fabric, I decided that since he's my shining star, that a star motif was just perfect.  The photo below shows the stars.  

I absolutely loved making this quilt.   The instructions to make it were fabulous and the quilt went together very quickly.  The pattern came from the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  They have a ton of tutorials on their website that will inspire any sewer from novice to expert to make something different and fun.  I'm interested in making quilts that are both fun to make for me and are a little different.  Come back to my blog again and see some of the other quilts I made.  Bye for now.

My First Quilt

It's been a while since my last post but I've been busy with lots of projects.

When I semi-retired, I thought I would have a lot of time on my hands.  I'm sure that you have heard from other retirees there is never seems to be enough time to do all the things you want to get done in a day.  Where does the time go?

I had always wanted to learn how to quilt but not hand quilting.  If I tried to hand sew a quilt, I would never get finished, not in this lifetime anyway.  No...for me it was to sew a quilt using my brand new Husqvarna Ruby sewing and embroidery machine.  My last Husqvarna was with me for 29 years and it never let me down.  In fact, I gave it to a young lady in my family who was just starting to sew.  She loves it as much as I did.

I took a class on "Making Your First Quilt" and I was told that at the end of the 6 weeks, I would have our quilt finished.  Well, that's exactly what happened.  We learned how to select fabric, plan our cutting to get the most out of our fabric,  sewing our pieces together, the importance of pressing, making a "quilt sandwich", quilting a design of our choice through all three layers and finally steps to bind and finish off your quilt.  Sure enough, at the end of the 6 weeks, I had my lap quilt done.

The fabric I chose is French General by Moda and all the fabrics co-ordinated to make a lovely quilt.  The backing fabric also from the French General line really pulled everything together.  I couldn't have been more happy and pleased with myself for getting it finished.  Do you know that there are some sewers out there who have had quilt "on the go" for years!  If you love the fabric that you picked, I don't think anyone would have a problem in completing the quilt top.

I thoroughly enjoyed all the steps involved in making my first quilt and since then, I have made several move.  With each quilt I tried to learn something new and of course I made a few mistakes along the way.  I will showcase some of my other quilts on future posts.