A Minkee Giraffe Quilt!

Youngest grandson loves the lush Minkee fabric but he also likes a heavy covering. It has been discovered that people with autism find comfort and calm with a weight across their legs/bodies, so I made this newest quilt heavy [it weighs 3lbs, a lot for such a small quilt] by using very thick, plush minkee for the background and then adding a soft drapey batting called Dream Angel by Quilter's Dream. 

This batting has an added advantage- it is genetically engineered to be inherently flame retardant without chemicals or PBDE, and will not melt or flow. It never loses it's flame retardant qualities through a lifetime of laundering, and I use it in all baby/children's quilts.

This is the pattern I adapted from Custom Creations by Cindy Surina.

The plush blue minkee that remained was cut up and added to the backing adding even more weight.

I left the outer border unquilted but stabilized the inner border, another advantage of this batting is that it may be quilted 6" apart so I was able to keep the quilting minimal. The thread used is Superior Sew Fine on top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. These are superfine threads that sink into the fabric and become almost invisible. 

The minkee giraffe fabric has a smooth, velvet-like texture and the true color is brown and pale blue. The binding is wider than usual and single fold, the whole quilt sandwich is too thick for a narrower binding and zigzag stitch was the only way to sew it down securely.
I won't see little man again until this weekend so I am anxious to see how he likes it!

I Want One!

A blogger friend sent me this photo with a link to the blogger who showed it first, Jeanne at http://backyardneighbor.typepad.com/ . Check out her blog, Jeanne has several more pics of this amazing quilt and the story of how it came to be!

The Quiltmobile, aaaarrrrgggghhhh, I want one [the quilt I mean]!

 Do you suppose I can make one for this vehicle??

It's a lot bigger than the Quiltmobile but I am inspired - I could use up all those orphan blocks!

Batik BOM

These blocks were made last year when I participated in the Craftsy Block Of the Month.
I found a good red Indian batik for sashing, and haven't yet decided on a border. There are about half a dozen blocks left over plus a few really large Dresden Plates, too large for the quilt, not sure what to do with the orphans! I could make a table runner or place mats with the larger DP's I guess.

I have been playing with the arrangement of the blocks, balancing the dark/light and the predominance of blues. Likely I will continue to move them around until I tire of the game and sew the sashing on!

Block Of The Month

Today I got my four May blocks done for the 35th. Ave BOM.

Not ever feeling comfortable waiting till the last moment I am pleased to have these done early, now I just have to keep them all together and remember to take them with me to pick up the blocks for next month, LOL!

Six More Quilts Of Valor

These six warm and cozy Quilts Of Valor are off to Alycia, coordinator for QOV in CO. They are intended to comfort our heroes as they rehabilitate from wounds of war and to let them know that they are loved, honored and never forgotten.

A little Tut On The Wedding Quilt

I have had some enquiries about the construction of the grey and white wedding quilt. I did not have a pattern but it is a super simple design.
I used 10" squares of the two fabrics and sewed them right sides together all around the outer edge with a 1/4" seam as below.

 Then I cut the squares twice corner to corner like so.

Each produces 4 seven inch HST's.

Every other row is reversed.

Sewn together  to make the offset chevron

The king size quilt required 289 squares, 17x17 rows, measuring about 108" square. To see the wedding quilt scroll back a couple of posts.

Baby Boy Quilt

My neighbor's daughter in London is expecting a baby boy this summer so he needs a quilt! Blue has been requested with "diamond shapes", and it just so happens that I had a lot of blocks left from another quilt. With the addition of a couple of dozen more blocks it made up into a blue quilt with diamond shapes!

 I think it will do nicely, don't you? It was quite fortuitous that those orphan blocks were hanging around waiting to be made into a quilt! it's scrappy but monotone so it doesn't appear as scrappy.

The rest of the orphan blocks came in handy to enlarge the backing to fit.

The photo of the back is a bit washed out, I will take  a better one after the binding is done.

King Size Wedding Gift Quilt!

Linking with Finish Friday

 Yep, king size, about 108" square.

 Back of quilt below, I inserted left over blocks to spice up the back.

 Just needs labels and binding, whew it's a big one!

Quilted Postcards In The Mail

Heather over at "Send A Postcard A Week" had a giveaway a few weeks ago of a quilted postcard made by her Mother and my name was drawn.
I received this week not one but two lovely cards, she said that her Mom got going and couldn't stop!

Heather's Mother thought these would be perfect for my son's memorial Christmas tree I set up each year and they will be there, thank you Heather and your Mom.
Heather has a new card up this week that is really pretty too, take a look here.

Wordless Wednesday Quilt

Linking with Wordless Wednesday

 Back

Graduation Quilt Top

Linking with Wordless Wednesday

Friday's "Not Quite Finished!"

Linking with " Finish Friday".

Being somewhat OCD I like to have order and few "unfinished" or "in transition"projects.

Out in the longarm area there are a couple of boxes of quilts ready to mail one filled with six QOV's and the other a couple of quilts ready to be returned to the piecer. Unquilted tops are stored in a cabinet so the area looks reasonably tidy but my working studio is a different matter!
On the design wall is Yessenia's graduation quilt for her Master's degree next month, and on the cutting  and sewing tables Carina and Rob's wedding quilt also for next month!
Yessenia's quilt lacks only the bottom border as I await delivery of one more yard of the outer border fabric- BTW I was super lucky that thousandsofbolts.com had just one yard of the fabric left, that was an almost disaster!

 Nearby is the comet quilt [hanging over the embroidery machine cart] that needs quilting, and on the chair back the Modern Quilt awaiting its binding. This is a very small room so every inch has a purpose.
Now to explain a little about the development of Yessenia's quilt; this is the original pattern from a McCall's magazine, but the young lady wanted it in neutrals, grey, black, cream.

Having selected the nine fabrics I was very careful to label each piece with the size and replacement order as I went along and I was very glad that I did or piecing would have been a nightmare of confusion.

But I found I also needed to make up a guide, a key, to more easily identify the fabric substitutions since placement is what ensures this design's appeal.

Numbering the fabrics helped in identification but I did lot of checking and double checking, check twice, sew once, and it worked to forestall frogging and resewing!

When the middle of the quilt was pieced and pinned on the wall I found there was one fabric that offended me, can you spot it? And to my disappointment the quilt appears bland and uninteresting.

 This is the culprit, the odd fabric,

 it is just too far into the blue range, although it doesn't appear as offensive in the photo as in reality. Anyway, the quilt is kind of blah to me, something missing, it needs a bit of punch so let's think outside the box! Time to audition a few possibilities from the stash and after rejecting a couple this black print hit the bull's eye!
 It has just enough pattern and was the accent the design needed- and I was a happy quilter! It took perhaps an hour to remove the offending pieces, only four, and replace them with the black.
Today I will work on the wedding quilt and see how far I can get piecing the almost 400 blocks.

Happy Birthday Four Year Old!

The Boy

Two More "Nine Patches"

Well it occurred to me on further consideration, that Irish Chain quilts are actually 9 patches of a sort.
The color wash irish Chain below was made for a niece, the colors were planned and collecting the fabrics was about a two year process. I failed to take more than this one photo before it was mailed, but you get the idea.

 The one below was made to use up some leftover fabrics from another project I think, it's been a long time since I made these two.

 I am now wondering how many other 9 patches will show up from my past!