The 4th is With Us!

My darling Great-Nieces and Nephews are the reason I started quilting 6 years ago. Melody Rose received the first quilt I ever made in 2012. Two years later, I was a little more advanced and designed a quilt named Unsinkable for Molly Kae. Then came Thomas Maverick with an appliquéd Batman themed quilt. And now, the 4th is with us; Tucker Marcus inspired this fun Star Wars quilt.

I’m an avid subscriber of Block magazine (published by Missouri Star Quilt Co.) and a huge fan of Jenny Doan’s quilting tutorials on YouTube. When I found out the 4th Great was on the way and a Star Wars theme was happening, I was getting nowhere fast with ideas. Then the Block Baby issue came in the mail and the geometric design of the quilt pictured on the cover made me think of the command center of a space ship. 

So off I went to Joann’s where I bought amazing Star Wars print fabric for the quilt top and back, solid lime green for the second border and binding, and adorable black with white dots that resemble stars in a night sky for the first and third borders.

I fussy cut the Star Wars fabric for the 13 blocks featuring space ships, lasers, explosions and the Star Wars name. Everything else was half square triangles. I always put the child’s name and birth year on their quilt, along with a custom quilt label, usually machine embroidered. For Tucker’s quilt, I found the Star Wars lettering online, printed out his name and birth date, transferred it to HeatnBond Lite, adhered it to solid black fabric, then cut out each letter and number and fused it to the green border, finally machine stitching each one down.

For the label on the back, I sketched out my idea, starting with the large number 4, laid out the design using computer software, printed it out, transferred it to the green fabric using a water soluble pen and the light box my oldest daughter bought me at Michael’s, hooped it with tear away stabilizer, then hand-embroidered it. I did back the finished label with fusible interfacing to make it long lasting.

The quilt has been washed with a Shout Color Catcher, sent and received, ready to snuggle into. Tucker, Aunt Janie cannot wait to meet you in person and kiss those sweet baby cheeks!

Bunny Tales Quilt Finish

Finally got the last stitches in this quilt for my granddaughter, washed and dried it to achieve crinkly softness, and gave it to Abby.

This quilt had a few firsts for me ... I had never used a panel but had to try it the second I saw this Bunny Tales panel from Missouri Star Quilt Co. My daughter has always loved bunnies so I knew the momma and baby bunny would be perfect for Abby's baby quilt. Used two darling accompanying prints for borders.

Another first was big-stitch embroidery to highlight the panel. It was fun to do and turned out even better than I had hoped. I also hand-embroidered Abby on the momma bunny's kerchief.

I inserted a machine-embroidered strip on the back with her given name "Abelina" and birthdate, a few decorative touches and "Made With Love by Nana Jane."

It was a lot of fun to make and the baby already loves it. After taking it out of the dryer and draping it over the back of a kitchen chair to cool, Abby scooted over in her walker to look at it and touch it. Sweet girl!

An Oregon Wedding

Our family just spent an amazing week in Portland, Oregon, celebrating the wedding of my baby sister and her wonderful new husband. They had a beautiful, spiritual handfasting ceremony in a sun-dappled forest glen with the Salmon River providing background music.

I made them a quilt that reminded me of their sweet backyard garden. The pattern is the Binding Tool Star Quilt from Missouri Star Quilt Co. I chose jelly rolls in Basic Colors Purple and Green from Jellyrollfabric.net for the blocks. The background and binding are a solid medium charcoal and the backing is a gray print, both from Joann's.

The label has a hand-embroidered monogram, some decorative stitching and a note written with a Pigma Micron 05 fabric pen. I used scraps to make a piano key border to match the quilt front.

While I've quilted all of the quilts I've made myself, this is the first one that I free motion quilted. I used an all over pattern of meandering loops and found that polyester thread works better than cotton for me in FMQ. I had very good luck with the gray polyester cone from Connecting Threads. And my Baby Lock Jazz was so great with all the throat space for this large quilt. Having good tools really does make a difference.

Their sweet dog was their ring bearer and I designed a ring bearer's pouch that we tied to his collar.


It worked perfectly and he really is the Best Dog!


Here's wishing the newlyweds many years of wedded bliss and joy cuddling under their quilt!

Big Stitch Bunny Tales, part 1

 

I'm working on a quilt for my new baby granddaughter. The only purchase I made on Black Friday was from Missouri Star Quilt Co. I was in full scale holiday madness with a retail job at the time and did some quick online shopping, choosing this sweet Bunny Tales panel along with some accompanying fabrics. My oldest daughter has always loved bunnies -- even had one for a pet -- so when I saw the momma and baby bunnies among the pretty peaches, pinks and oranges, I knew it would be perfect.

  

I wanted to personalize the quilt with both the baby's full name and nickname so hand-embroidered "abby" on the momma bunny's kerchief. I've added simple borders with the carrot and polka dot fabrics. 

 

For the back, I machine embroidered a large panel with her full name and birth date, a butterfly to mimic the butterfly backing fabric, and my Made With Love info. This piece was inset on the lower back.

 

Having been enamored with big-stitch quilting for some time, I felt this panel was the perfect chance to give it a try. I'm using DMC #5 perle cotton floss purchased at Michael's.

 

My Mom had a quilting stand and hoop that she no longer uses and she very kindly shipped it to me for this. It is completely awesome!

 

See the cute little jeweled butterfly on the momma bunny? That's a needle minder, a magnetic place to hold/rest your needle when you stop. Mom had included several of these with the quilting stand. So fun and functional!

 

I am having a great time doing the big-stitching! I've always been a fan of hand-embroidery and this is so fast and so pretty. I'm just picking elements in the panel to feature and outline that will hold the quilt layers together.

Once I've finished the oval design center, I'll machine quilt the rest of it and finish with carrot striped binding. I'll post again when it's done, but wanted to share how much fun the big-stitch quilting is ... I highly recommend giving it a try!

Quilt Finish :: Summer in the Park

 

Just wanted to share the quilt I made for my sweet sister-in-law for Christmas. The wonderful pattern is Summer in the Park by Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Unfortunately, it was an unusually dreary day in Phoenix when it was completed, washed and packed for shipping so the colors appear darker in the photos than they really are. The quilt border and backing fabric features turquoise peacock feathers with pink hearts.

 

One of my favorite elements on this quilt is the hand-embroidered label. My sister-in-law and husband lovingly call each other dumbass ~ every phone call, text, email, greeting card ~ it's Hello, Dumbass! Which makes me an honorary dumbass by marriage. Never in a million years would I have imagined that I would sit and painstakingly stitch the phrase dumbasses by marriage on anything ... but there it is.

 

Here's a better picture of the colors on the quilt front during the pin-basting stage ...

 

So many projects, never enough time.