Two Additional Christmas Finishes

I completed quilts for another niece and nephew just in time for Christmas.  Roxi and Aidan are siblings and I wanted to do their quilts at the same time.

Aidan is nearly 10, so I didn't want to use any cartoon-y fabric that he would outgrow.  It took months to accumulate multiple prints that would work.  I just did simple 6 1/2" strips of varying lengths (6.5, 13 and 26").

I used excel to plot my layout of the seven different fabrics.

I found a great Day of the Dead skulls print, as well as a flame print. I also bought several yards at an end-of-bolt sale of Black Cross Hatch from the Stella Blvd. Puppy Park collection. That fabric made up the majority of the back.

The right edge was off in some places after I pieced the top. I may have cut one of the long strips shorter than I meant to.  After I quilted it together, I measured 72" from the left in multiple spots and connected those marks so I could trim it even before binding.

Here's a closer look at the fabrics:

Here's the back:

I just stitched in the ditch for this one and used the Cross Hatch fabric for the binding.  

My nephew was shocked to find out this was handmade just for him.

Roxi's quilt was my third Yellow Brick Road. She likes pink, purple and blue, so I collected new fabrics as to not repeat from the other two I made last year.  I did re-use one purple print, as it was also used in Roxi's birthday crown and I wanted that connection.

This one went together more quickly now that I'm familiar with the pattern.

A closer look at some of the fabric:

I also did pretty well with the machine binding on this one. The purple batik looked great and I loved that Hello Kitty chevron!

Always something to be learned from a project, but mostly I get so much enjoyment from making something the kids in our family will cherish for years to come!

Linked to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Teyla's Quilt

My second twin-sized quilt is completed!  And on time! Woo-hoo!

It's another Yellow Brick Road, but done in greens & blues, for my niece Teyla's 8th birthday.  I found a lot of the fabric from Intown Quilters in Decatur GA.  Some also came from my local store, Gina's and a couple came from my stash.

The sun was pretty harsh for my finished images.  Maybe this in-progress shot shows some of the fabric in better detail.

The back is pieced from 3 different prints, I found the Hello Kitty fabric online and the other two came from Gina's. Teyla likes Hello Kitty, peace signs and purple, too.

Things went faster the second time around.  I'm still working on my machine binding skills, but I only had to slip stitch a couple of missed areas.

 

Something happened to my Bernina 750QE when I had finished quilting.  As I was cleaning a stuck thread from the thread catcher, it locked up.  It went to a weird screen that's not in the book and I only found one reference to it online, but couldn't get to the related post on a FB page.  After hard booting and unplugging attempts failed, I took Bernie into my local shop and stumped them, too, so Bernina USA wants to see it.  Gina's loaned me one of their classroom 550 machines and I was able to finish the binding over 2 weeknights and have it ready for Teyla's birthday!

The 550 (above) is a very nice, solid machine, but I'm really glad I splurged on the 750.  I like having the extra harp space.  I'm also so used to the thread cutter.

I'm taking a break from quilts for a bit and when my machine comes back, I want to do a couple small projects mentioned my Jan 10th blog.

What are you looking forward to working on this spring/summer?

Posted on Finish It Friday:

http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2014/04/rockets-and-robots-quilt.html?m=1 

Sophie's Birthday Quilt

My first twin-sized quilt is finished!  It's a birthday present for my niece Sophie, who's turned 5 last week.  She and her sister recently upgraded into bunk beds, so I wanted to make them quilts to celebrate.  I chose the Yellow Brick Road pattern and picked an assortment of pink, purple, B&W and a bit of red fabric.  There's some sophisticated fabric, like the chevrons and plaid mixed with fun prints like Hello Kitty and skulls.

For the back, I found this multi-colored hearts fabric (4 yards at end-of-bolt 40% off sale pricing!) and used the 6 leftover YBR blocks pieced with extra pieces of fabric from the quilt top to make the middle section.

I used a different approach in applying the quilt label.  No turning edges under and slipstitching.  I zig-zagged the label on the back after pinning, and before quilting, so it's really secured on there.

I used a pink & purple Mettler variegated thread for the quilting and used the BSR for free-motion swoopy circles and the occasional heart.  My free-motion still needs more practice, but with the Queen Supreme Slider and Fons & Porter quilting gloves, I had an easier time moving the quilt around.  It helps I put a folding banquet table in front of my sewing table and moved my cutting table to the left side so I had extra surface space to hold all of that fabric, too.

I used the pink polka dots for the binding and tried this machine binding method.  I had better success with this one than I did on the method I used on the 3 smaller quilts I made for Christmas.  I still need to  work on it, but I like having machine binding for kids' quilts.

The Clover Wonder Clips I received for Christmas were great for holding the binding in place.  Much better than having pins poke you as you're maneuvering the quilt through the sewing machine.

This is the front, where you stitch in the ditch to attach the binding to the back.

My stitching on the backside of the binding is uneven at times, I even somehow ran off the binding in a few spots and had to go back and re-sew those areas.

 Here's the backside mitered corner.  I slip-stitched the mitered flap so it wouldn't get accidentally pulled or caught on anything.

I wasn't sure about the thread selection going in, so I patched together scraps of all 18 fabrics and tested it out.  I also had a wonky strip I had cut for the binding and used it to test doing the new method first.  Better to try it out this way than have regrets and be picking out stitches on the real thing. 

The quilt was well-received and now it's time to start on her sister's birthday quilt.  That will be a combo of light blues and greens.

How are your spring projects coming along?

Linked up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Fresh Start Friday?

I've had bit of a break from sewing since I finished up the Christmas & birthday projects, some of that time off planned, some of that forced on me by a bout of the end-of-the-year crud.  Now that I'm on the mend, I need to get going again.

I'm not a big resolution/goals person, but here's what I'm hoping to accomplish this year:

• I've got 2 more days of machine mastery classes to get all trained on my new Bernina 750QE, which I've named after Blues great Bernie Federko.  I'm a bigger Cardinals fan, but I just couldn't call my machine Yadi.

• 3 twin quilts - 2 more nieces and a nephew to keep warm.  These are due in February, March & April for birthdays, rather than Christmas. 

• I've just picked out the fabric for the first one - a mix of pinks, black & white, red and a bit of purple.  I'm using the Yellow Brick Road pattern.  

• The second is for a 9-year-old boy so I was thinking of something with strips.  Unfortunately the quilt will be wider than WOF, so I'll have to piece horizontally or run them vertically.  Still thinking on that one and open to ideas.
• The third recipient is almost 8 and was into purple pretty heavily, but now she's moving more into light blues and greens.  I've got tons of green & blue batiks, so hopefully I've got a good start at picking fabrics on that one.

• I want to make some of the fabric baskets from Sunday Morning Quilts. First, I need to organize my scraps.  Wish I had some of those baskets completed already to put them in. :)

• Make a couple of charity quilts for little ones.
• Learn how to make a zippered pouch.  I've bookmarked some great-looking ones I've seen on other blogs.
• I read in someone's blog that they always cut a couple of 5" charms and  2.5" mini charms from most or all of their fabric as they go.  That's a great idea in order to build of stock for scrappy quilts, so I'm going to try to get into that habit, too.
• To not spend all of my free time at the sewing machine - I need to get my ass on the treadmill if I want to go somewhere abroad this year.  
• And I need to figure out where I want to go. 

What projects are you hoping to accomplish this year?

Posted on Finish It Friday on Crazy Mom Quilts