Daydreams Quilt aka “Spine”

I won a copy of “Sunday Morning Quilts” from Connecting Threads earlier this year.  This is my favorite quilting book ever!  I love all the quilts in the book, and especially the part where the authors give ideas to make the quilt your own—things you can do to make your quilt unique and one of a kind.

When I saw this quilt in the book, I knew I had to make it.  I tried to follow the spirit of using up scraps to make this quilt, so I used mostly 1/4 yard cuts that I had in my stash.  In fact, I ended up making so many stripes that I have enough left over to make another quilt. 

The fabric I used is called Woodland by Natalie Lymer.  The fairies and toadstools and gnome homes are just so adorable!  The finished quilt measures 61 x 73, not quite a twin, but I have to quilt this on my home machine, so that was really the biggest size I felt comfortable trying to quilt.

See, I am giving this quilt as part of a birthday gift today to a five year old neighbor.  This will mark the first time I’ve given away a quilt to anyone but a family member.  I’m not even sure my neighbors know I quilt!  I am a little nervous about giving it away because it’s not perfect.  My fmq could be a little better, and the binding is not super, but it’s probably the best I’ve ever done.  There’s not a lot of waviness and the stitching looks good.

The background is Kona aqua.  I used spray basting which I will always use in the future.  It made the basting so easy and fast and there was virtually no shifting when I quilted it.  Trying to use up my stash, I used several big pieces of leftover fabric from other projects to piece the back.  And I even used some leftover thread from other projects to do the quilting.  I wasn’t sure what color to use, so I used up two (yes 2!!!) spools of rainbow Sulky thread that would be perfect for a little girl.

The binding is a super awesome Quilter’s Candy polka dot from Connecting Threads.  The little girl who this quilt is going to loves the color green—even her bedroom is painted green.  Then a few days ago she informed me that her favorite color is now red.  Uh-oh!  There wasn’t much red in this quilt, so I knew the binding would have to be red and this polka dot fabric finished it off perfectly.  I really hope she likes it.  I haven’t washed it because I want it to look crisp and new when I give it to her.  I’ll include a couple Shout color catchers in the gift bag!

I am linking this up to Amanda Jean’s linky party celebrating everything scrappy.

First Quilt Finish 2012

I finally got around to taking photos of the first UFO quilt I have completed this year.  You may recognize it from the Charmed Prints Quilt Along from December.  I finished the quilt top and had it basted, but I just didn’t get around to quilting it until the hecticness of the holidays wore off. 

Esther really liked the heart fabric I used in one of the featured blocks on the front, so I used the remainder to make a strip of hearts across the back and put two extra blocks on it, too.

I framed another one of my Spoonflower labels for the back.

This is the first time I’ve done “organic straight line quilting” and I am extremely pleased with how it turned out.  I used a mid-loft polyester batting which I pretty much detest, but it was pretty easy to do the straight line quilting without getting many tucks or wrinkles.

 

After washing and drying it, Esther and Veronica had a birthday party for their stuffed animals on it.

On account of trying straight line quilting for the first time, I am linking up to Happy Quilting’s Trying New Things Thursday.

Before & After

I picked up some lillies at the last auction for $2 a pot:

But they didn't quite get planted in time before they were destroyed by Esther!  In her defense, the Jeep was in reverse and she didn't realize it until too late.

I did find time this weekend between the new Cars movie debut and Bea's dance recital to finish sewing the binding on my fall tumbler quilt.  It turned out nicer than I had hoped, and I really love it.  I can't wait to snuggle under it this fall!

I also crossed another goal off my 2011 quilty resolution list...a pieced back.  It was easier than I expected to put together and I'm quite pleased with the results, although I forgot about a piece of fabric I wanted to use and instead used the yellow print.  The yellow isn't my favorite fabric, but it looks okay.  I think the fabric I had picked out would have been better, but what's done is done!

And here is a close-up of the fabric labels I had printed at Spoonflower.  I framed it with the same fabric I used for binding.

And I also finally finished Bea's Bambi quilt.  It was waiting patiently for me to clip all the thread tails off the back from the free motion quilting leaves I quilted all over (I really quilted the heck out of this one!) and finish the binding.  It is ready to be used!!!  I think Bea is happy with it.  I bought all the fabrics at Over the Rainbow online.