Quilt For Baby

This darling little quilt is nearly done. I posted pictures of some of the blocks on March 19 and since then I set them as shown and recently completed the quilting.

The colored blocks are simple string pieced squares on a muslin foundation, made from strips cut from a purchased scrap grab bag. I bought them while I was staying in Virginia at the Cottonwood Quilt Shop. I really liked the colors and patterns and whimsical designs.

I like kid prints. I admit it. I like cute.

I quickly ran out of long strips so I had to get creative. I didn't really want to buy any more fabric beyond the scrap pack because at the time, I was staying at Dad's house temporarily. I didn't want more stuff to have to pack and bring home.

I like a creative challenge. First, I bought a small pack of solid fat quarters - I needed them for the other projects I was making with the scraps. Then I looked around the house for fabric. None.  I found the backing fabric also at Cottonwood (deep discount - on sale!!) and I used a few strips of it in the blocks. I used some of the muslin I had picked up from a Joann's remnant bin. Finally, there was some fabric ribbon and I sewed some strips of grosgrain ribbon in.

When I got home, I made a few more blocks to make enough for this top. If Mom and baby are really clever, they will find fabrics from Mom's bed quilt made 10 years earlier and Mom's brother's baby quilt, made 11 years earlier.

Quilting Pattern

Deciding the quilting pattern is always a challenge. Quilting is fun, but marking the quilt for quilting is not fun. What can I do that doesn't require marking?

This design is featured on several Denyse Schmidt quilts.

Honestly, this pattern is a little tricky. You think the loops need to be opposing, but they do not - they are offset from one another. Once you realize that, it gets easier and the nice crosshatch pattern between the loops emerges. I must have started this design and taken it out at least 5 times, and that's after I filled several pages practicing with pencil and paper.

 

That was fun. The last step remains - binding. Should be done in a few days.

Crafting at Home Now

Back at home, and due to the small size of my luggage, I had to ship the quilt blocks (and my scraps, and the fabric I bought!) back home. I have made little further progress on the strip piecing. By the end of my stay, I was so busy with household things trying to wrap up, I barely had any time to sew.

While in Charlottesville, I completed a total of 10 blocks (I think...I can't remember!!) I was hoping to make 16, so when the box arrives on Tuesday, I can get back to work. However, I was running low on scraps. That's a good thing!

I couldn't possible be idle, though!

Here's my block for Douglass in KC Scrappy Bee.

He asked for an improvisational piece. I intended to include some of my fabrics, but this block emerged and it didn't need anything else... well... at least... that's my story and I'm sticking with it. I didn't intend to make a square - it just turned out that way.

I also picked up a quilting project I needed to finish up. This is a very small quilt (for my dog's crate) made from scraps from Bev's Garden Quilt. I messed up a bit when piecing that quilt's dark brown frames, such that I made too many green pieces with brown lines. I had a lot of frame pieces left over. I collected the scraps and fashioned them into a of pattern that pleased my eye. Now I'm practicing quilting designs in negative space.

The center portion of the quilt is a woodgrain pattern. The surrounding rows have those loops you see in the middle. The perimeter has a straight line design that makes random size rectangles filled in with straight lines. As you can see I used variegated thread. I like the effect overall, but in the straight line pattern, when you have to over-sew to get to a new area, the color is often different. So over-sewing is not so subtle

That's what I'm crafting on right now! Off to the sewing room.

Charity Quilt

Charity Quilt
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00

I have had this charity quilt project from guild for about 3 years, just lying around in the sewing room. I finally had the inspiration to quilt it.   I found the inspiration from one of the quilting blogs I follow - I think it was Tallgrass Prairie Studio. The concentric squares pattern added a nice texture to the project.

I did not make the top - I took the project to do the quilting.

It's a crib sized or baby sized quilt. Should be suitable for a boy.

Quilting Close Up 1

Quilting Close Up 1
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00

Here is a closeup of the quilting. It was a lot of fun to do, and quite easy on the domestic sewing machine. It's free motion quilted.