Completed my mission....

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was under some pressure to get a baby quilt made for later this month.  The mom-to-be is doing the baby's room in purple, teal and gray with a theme of stars. So, I made these liberated stars to start with.  

Then with my variety of grays, I started string piecing with  my stars being in various positions within the block.  

I tried arranging the stars (one per block) in a pleasing arrangement. 

Three blocks and I was really liking it. 

This is how I worked around my stars by putting them where I thought they would look best and then doing the strings. 

Sixteen blocks complete.

Top is complete.  Surprising how out in the sunlight you can see how warm some of those grays are.  

Then I got side tracked by my grandson who wanted a baseball pillow.  It was his 7th birthday and I had promised this pillow some time ago, so I thought I had better get it done. 

Got it done on his birthday. 

Thank goodness  I had a stitch on my machine that looked like the stitching on a baseball; otherwise, I could see me having to do hand embroidery work for this pillow.  

Plus, he loves minky, so I had some scrap minky and had just enough to put a zipper in and cover the back of his pillow.  

Ok....back to the baby quilt. 

I got it on the long arm  and did a panto called Patriot, but since this theme was stars and this is going to be for  a little girl, I figured if I stitched this in purple, we can call it little girl ribbons and stars.  Here's a few close ups of the stitching.  

The top is finished.  

....and the silvery gray minky really shows off the quilting in this picture.  

The binding is a gradient gray and white diagonal.  I love stripes for bindings.  

So the quilt is done in plenty of time.  Yeah!!!

Onto some customer quilts now.  

8 minus 1 = 7

Got to work on my new work station today  while working on the long arm.  Love it!!!

The one thing that bothers me though is that I stacked the 8 quilt tops back on top of it that need to be quilted, so I put the first of those on the long arm today. 

I had left over focus fabric from a previous commissioned quilt, so I bought some sashing and border fabrics and put this together the other day. This is the first off the pile.  Quilted it in daisies. 

Top is done. 

Love how the daisies show up on the minky backing. 

The binding will be next before I get another top done on the long arm.  

I did load a quilt guild charity quilt on the  Millie and will get that one done next.  That one needs to be done before the next guild meeting anyways.  I may even put the binding on that one for them, too.  

Happy quilting everyone!

June 30th!! How can that be?

The month has just flown by.  

I have kept myself busy this month quilting though; and I can share what I have been working on, too. 

At retreat earlier this month, I worked on a commissioned quilt for a co-worker.  

I had complete freedom to make whatever I wanted  for a baby quilt as long as it was gender neutral.  I found that to be harder than having specific requests.  There were just way too many choices.  She has since found out that it is going to be a boy, so I did eliminate the pink panel that would have been in the Farmland quilt and replaced it with another blue. 

Anyways, I had this one cut out prior to retreat and got the top completely done.  

Then I decided that this one was probably a little larger than what she might want and the cost was starting to go up pretty quick with the fabrics that I chose, so during retreat I went shopping and bought more fabric for another quilt.  

I found these fabrics in a shop called Jackman's in St. Louis, MO.  The fabric line is called Babes in Farmland.  This was a smaller quilt AND a little more baby-ish. 

So since being home, I have put both of them on the long arm; and quilted them both with "daisies".

Babes in Farmland is bound and if you notice, I used a white minky on the back of this quilt.

Found a great diagonal stripe to bind the Chain Reaction quilt and the backing is the same as the focus fabric on the top.  

So in less than a month, I made two baby quilts to present to my co-worker and let her make the choice of which one she wants.  

Now the plan is to get back to my UFOs and start making a dent in that pile.  

I'll let you know which one of the quilts got picked tomorrow.  I am guessing the Farmland one.  I think the minky alone will sell that one.  

Ok....let's bring on July!!!

I must have things under control......

Never in a million years would I think I would have time to work on a quilt a few days before Christmas ...AND...it's not even FOR Christmas. 

 

Either I am forgetting to do something or I have things under control.

 

I just took this piece of fabric off the long arm.

 

 

I have had this in the closet for a very long time. 

 

It's a Windham Fabrics.

 

 

It would be interesting to find out just how old this fabric is. 

 

I watched a video on YouTube  called "loopy clams" and that is the pattern I used on this quilt.  It is a free motion E2E (edge to edge).  Really pretty easy to do. 

 

 

I backed it in white minky.  (Yes, I am getting very comfortable using minky).

 

 

It really shows up the quilting nicely....AND....feels so soft and cuddly. 

 

Now I have to hunt up some fabric to make the binding and this will be added to the pile of quilts that are finished. 

 

Hmmmm...I wonder if I have some yellow dot fabric.  Maybe I will just have to make a run to the quilt store.  Heaven forbid!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Just four days ago....

I loaded this quilt onto the long arm so that when I was ready to go, all I needed to do was quilt.

 

 

Today was the day.

 

 

I free motioned an echoed loop over the whole panel/borders.

 

 

I think the quilting brought an ordinary panel to life.

 

The best part was finding out how easy it was to work with minky. That's what I used for the back of this quilt...a soft, yellow minky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh!  What better to use for the back of a baby quilt.  It is so luscious. 

 

I have another minky backed baby panel planned, but can't put it on the long arm just yet.  I am waiting for my customer to drop off the backing to her king-sized t-shirt quilt.  I am hoping she brings over minky as it was really easy to work with.  Don't know why I waited so long to give it a try. (Well, actually, I do know.  The fuzz I thought would drive me crazy)

 

I have the bindings made for my Quilts of Valor quilt and this panel quilt (need to get them on) and even have the binding ready for the T-shirt quilt. ''

 

So, I guess I will leave the long arm free for the customer and get into my sewing room to get a couple bindings on. 

 

Happy quilting!!