Another kid quilt, for another friend of the family!
I call it “Mornin’ Kiddo!”
Very much inspired by this quilt by Red Pepper Quilts
I sort of feel this quilt tells a story…
Wake up in the morning, head to the kitchen for a cup of coffee…
Grab the newspaper (kids like coffee and reading about Vietnam, right?)…
Look out the window into the woods…
And see some wildlife! Hedgehogs are on the back…
Pieced back
Here is a sweet little baby quilt I made for a friend of the family. A Swoon block with Kona Ivory in the background with a spearminty and light pink border. Candy pink binding and rounded corners for an extra girly touch.
Fabrics from the Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley line.
Really proud of this filler quilting
I have to say, I think this is my best free-motion quilting yet. You can see the block details better from the back…
Climbing flower vine in the borders…
It’s been an amazing year for me, quilting wise. I definitely learned a couple of new tricks and improved my skills. I also pushed myself and created my first ever quilting pattern and hosted my first quilt-along. No regrets!
In 2013 I hope to finish my swoon blanket and a Granny Squares quilt – both which would be for ME to enjoy in MY home. I will be honored sending two of my quilts off to QuiltCon and to hopefully receive some nice feedback. I also am looking forward to doing a couple of commission quilts, and am looking forward to maybe cooking up some other special occasion presents as we watch how the year unfolds.
I would also like to try and get more into garment sewing. I would certainly love to have some custom-fit items in my closet : )
Happy New Year, everybody!
Do you love the look of needle-turn applique, but don’t have the skills or the patience to pull-off the technique? Then this style of applique is for YOU! No needle-turning, no raw-edges, no cutting of precise shapes; Yes gorgeous, and polished appliques in ANY SHAPE YOU CAN IMAGINE.
I’ve used this technique for a boat-load of projects, such as…
This red tree quilt and its leaves:
These clouds:
And this quilt top I’ve had in the works:
Read on for a full tutorial!
Filed under Techniques, Tutorial
Here’s a little round-up of the ornaments I’ve made this year that you can easily make, too! It’s not too late!
One of my new favorite things is to hand-screw little eyelet screws into toys to turn them into whimsical ornaments. This idea started with our desire to get a bunch of caveman ornaments to represent our youngest son on the tree. (Our oldest son was nicknamed “baby Acorn” in utero, and there are TONS of acorn ornaments to be found! At least there were until we bought them all in 2008. Youngest son didn’t get nicknamed until he was a toddler when he became the Caveman. Not so many of these ornaments on sale, so time to make our own!).
You can do this with most plastic or wooden ornaments without any power tools.
I use a stabby shank tool and first perform an icepick lobotomy on the toy.
Hand-screw until you can’t screw anymore, and then bring out the pliers.
These bros stick together. And congrats! You found the pickle.
More cavemen ornaments. These were awkwardly flesh colored, so hubs spray-painted them gold first.
Happy caveman eyes Baby Acorn.
On of my other favorite ways to make ornaments is to buy pre-cut wood shapes from a hobby store (like JoAnn’s or Michael’s) and to decoupage! A couple of years ago I did this with artsy papers. This year I did it with some pictures! I find the best way is to adhere the paper (print images on computer paper rather than photo paper) with a glue-stick onto the pre-painted wood surface. Than go over the paper with a Glue/Sealant (Martha Stewart makes a nice one).
Drill a hole into the shape, string a string, you’ve got yourself an ornament.
I took this process in a different direction with my 4-year-old. He painted the shapes and then glittered the hell out of them. Later I went over them with the sealant to lock in the glitter a bit.
An easy gift addition for grandparents and teachers!
At our house we have two six-foot tall fake Christmas trees jammed into corners. It’s a tight fit and I haven’t found tree-skirts in stores that I like that will also work with our size restrictions. It was finally time to kick it into gear and crank some out.
However, with all of the other holiday festivities and sewing projects going on, I didn’t have infinite time – so I took one big short cut: I bought pre-quilted fabric from JoAnn’s. GASP. SHAME. But it fits the look I was going for (Country Cottage Christmas) and with a coupon it was super cheap.
I cut a 40″ in diameter circle out of the pre-quilted fabric. I folded it into quarters for ease of getting the shape. Then I cut out a 4″ in diameter circle out of the center. Then a slit.
Around the circumference, I pleated some linen-like fabric. First I pinned the pleats into place and then I did a stay-stitch. Over that layer I pleated some transparent holiday glitter fabric. For this fabric, I folded over the raw-edge as I pinned the pleats into place.
I didn’t finish the quilted fabric’s circumference edge because I was covering it up with the other fabrics. However, if you felt like you were going to be washing your tree skirt a lot, how about zig-zag stitching that edge to keep everything tidy?
I used the selvedge-edge of the homespun cotton (looks like linen) so it has that cute fray.
I bound the raw-edges of the slit and the center circle with twill-tape binding and attached some ribbons to secure the skirt once it was around the tree-base.
Pretty! And hello University of Michigan Stadium Ornament.
For my other tree-skirt I simply stay-stitched some lace around the circumference, and then I sewed some brown leather-like Ric-rak over the edge of the lace.
For the exposed edges along the slit and the inner circle, I sewed on some green binding. I also attached some ribbons so I could tie the tree skirt together once it was around the tree-base.
Looks nice! Cat photo-bomb
YAY!
Thanks everyone who voted in the Fall for Solids contest (hosted by Pink Castle Fabrics). I am so pleased to post that I won in the viewers’ choice category for mini quilts!
Look at all of these fabric winnings I received?! A KONA color card from Robert Kaufman, and bundles of solid fabrics from Michael Miller, Bella, Free Spirit, Dear Stella, and Riley Blake! Thanks Pink Castle Fabrics !!
THANKS TEN TRILLION!
Filed under Challenges, Fabric, Quilting
Annie’s Tiles has a little baby brother now…
Essex tiles! A wall hanging for my very.own.wall.
about 38″ square made out of Essex Yarn Dyed Linen in Black and Flax.
Echo line quilting and in-the-ditch. Done by me on my machine, as always, for better or for worse.
Special faux corded binding with some marbled black for a framing effect.
This dude is entered into QuiltCon under the piecing category. Wish him luck!
I’ve been eyeing this tree from my sons’ “I Can Fly” book for a while! It’s an illustration by Mary Blair.
So I decided to make an applique quilt based on this image! I used my inside-out applique method (might have a Craftsy video class for this in the works – stay tuned) so it has the look of needle-turn. I could have cut out the extra layers under the appliques to have a flatter appearance to the quilt top – but I love the quasi-Trapunto effect!
Woodgrain quilting inspired by Angela Walters. (Great book!)
Cute leaves.
Happy curved free motion rainbow type quilting.
The colors for the illustration were so captivating. Red, True Yellow, White, and Bright Pink… should those work together so happily? At first I chickened out from using such a bright Pepto Pink, and I originally bought Kona Melon. But that didn’t work – even though I thought the more orangey pink would be visually pleasing it.was.not. So back to the store, and hello Kona Bubblegum! I love it. It’s bright and fabulous and enticing and confusing.
Look at this backing fabric – pretty perfect.
This little lady is entered into QuiltCon for the applique category. Wish her luck!
Filed under Fabric, Inspiration, Quilting
Woops! I sure let time slip by and forgot to mention that – oh, hey – the deadline for voting in the Fall for Solids contest (hosted by Pink Castle Fabrics) is TODAY.
So if you love this mini quilt I made…
You’ll need a Threadbias account – it’s free.
THANKS TEN TRILLION!
Filed under Challenges, Quilting
jenna brand 