Baby Girl Quilt

I finally got another quilt made! Wahoo! This is a baby quilt for my niece whose baby is due in just a few days. I must get it in the mail today, even though it will probably be a while before she can use it with these very bright fabrics. Don't want to hurt the baby's eyes so early. However, my niece loves bright and colorful rooms - like turquoise walls or wavy fuschia lines in the nursery, so I think it will be okay. It did turn out a little busier than I expected. Oh well!
Here is an up close view showing more dwirling quilting. I really enjoying doing this and it can just be filled with swirls or just whatever you want.
Maybe the design is visible on the back also. It's a little calmer than the front! This pattern is Triple Treat Petite from the book "Happy Hour" by Atkinson Designs. I love the way she writes patterns that are SO EASY to follow and has so many different size quilts to choose from also. It was simple but great for highlighting fun fabrics that don't need to be cut up.

Quilts from the Past

I have been scrapbooking lately and while going through pictures on my computer, ran across these quilt photos. It is a blended quilt I made in 2004 for my nephew using Japanese fabrics as a focal point. If you are not familiar with blended quilts, they were made very popular by some books by Sharon Yenter and Marsha McCloskey several years ago and also many fabrics were designed specifically to use for them. Toiles are especially good but with this quilt I decided to try many types of fabrics so there are old, new, plaids, batiks, Japanese, etc. I was pleased with the way the quilt turned out.

It was quite fun auditioning fabrics on my design wall to see what would work best for the 'look' I was after. Rather improvisational in a way as I had no idea what the quilt would look like when finished yet I just kept playing until it looked right in my eyes. I had a plan as far as the layout and blocks and size, because I took that from one of the Blended books, but I had to fill in all the blanks with my fabrics.

I once put some blended quilts in a judged show and one comment I had from one judge was that some of the stars were 'lost' in my quilt. Well, that is part of the blended look. You do not have the distinct separate blocks as in a traditional quilt yet these are drawn from antique quilts. We wonder, did they just run out of fabric? Did they purposely like the look, what were they thinking?

I personally like quilts that draw my eyes in and make me try to figure out what is going on - sort of like a mystery I suppose. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the view. Makes me want to get back to my blended stash. I like to read Ann Champion's blog where she posts "quilts from the cupboard", so this is a similar thing, quilts from my past. Seems I have many more past than present right now. Happy Quilting!

Finished Comfort & Joy Block

Ta Da! I just finished my BOM of Comfort and Joy. Not so painful after all - LOL! I did decide to use the zigzag stitch instead of the blanket stitch. I had enjoyed using it recently with the Giraffes quilt.

Comfort & Joy BOM 3

I am finally getting back to my BOM. This is my March block and don't tell me, it's already May. Where does the time go? Oh well, I am doing my applique by machine so that will make it go a little bit faster. Last night I had to press the background fabric, cut the border strips first and then cut each block. Might as well do it all at once, right? I identified each block with a little office dot because they are all different sizes. That will help me stay organized.
Now, I had already traced my patterns a few weeks ago onto Wonder Under so they were ready to be ironed to the back of my fabrics and now are ready to cut out, bond and sew. For the smaller pieces I use the solid piece of Wonder Under but for the larger pieces (the house), I used the 'window' method so they will not be too stiff. Just leave about half an inch of WO around the inside edges and it gives you something sturdy to sew on and keeps the fabrics from unraveling also. I'm still debating on the blanket stitch or the zigzag like I did the baby quilt recently. Hope to get it sewn today!