Thursday, December 8, 2011

Breagha and her Lollipop Quilt

The lollipop quilt landed in Scotland a week or so ago and my daughter sent me this video of Breagha with her new quilt.  It's so cute, it has to be shared.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Breagha's Elmo Quilt

Finished Breagha's 8th and final quilt for the year.  I am so pleased that I managed to complete so many quilts for my precious grandaughter in that time frame.

This was my first "modern" quilt, my very first attempt at making a quilt without a pattern to base it on.  There were a few bumps along the way, things I might have done differently now that it is completed.....but I thoroughly enjoyed the "process".







The center block was made from a fat quarter, contributed by my daughter, Michelle in Scotland.  It is definitely the focal block of the entire quilt. 



Backed the quilt in a flannel alphabet fabric.  I found this at Fabricland, on sale, and was so excited that I was snapping a picture of it, in the store, and emailing it to my daughter, all while the fabric was being cut.  An Elmo quilt needs an alphabet backing.



Handquilted the entire quilt in a new stencil I found but did the borders in a straight feather pattern.  Bound the quilt in yellow.

Started this blog a year ago and although I am not a regular poster, it has been fun putting this together.  The blog is really a diary of quilts for my grandaughter, a thing done in real time, something that she can read when she is older.  My daughter and I both love and treasure quilts and it is my hope and dream that Breagha loves them just as much as she grows up. 

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

"ELMO" blocks completed

Between last night and most of today, I finished the three remaining blocks for Breagha's Elmo quilt.

Block #7



Block #8



I hestitated to use the blue in this block since the other blocks are mostly yellow and red but I simply wanted to pull Grover (he's the blue character) out. 

Block #9



After using the blue in block #8, I thought I might as well throw some pink in too.

So that makes 9 blocks completed and I even managed to use all the different Elmo fabrics that my daughter and I collected for this quilt.

Now that I have these blocks done (each block measure 14 1/2 inches so they are large blocks), I spread them out on my diningroom floor and played with them, arranging them, leaving them, coming back to them and finally decided on the following layout.







Now, to sew them altogether, decide on how to border it and although I have numerous ideas.....I have not settled on one that I want to finish this quilt off. 

Because I have never done a quilt like this before, I had to leave it out and look at numerous times before I came to the conclusion that I liked it.  The main critic is just under two years old and I suspect she will like it because of the characters and the bright colors.  It's lovely to quilt for a child.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Progress on the "Elmo Quilt"

Very productive day, managed to complete three more blocks for the Elmo Quilt.

Block # 4



Block #5



Block # 6

This will be the center block of the Elmo quilt and is, without question, my favorite so far.

Elmo Quilt - Work in Progress

My latest work in progress is an Elmo quilt for Breagha.  After collecting various Elmo fabrics from Ebay (Michelle even found fat quarters with Elmo on Ebay in Scotland and mailed them to me), I finally started on this project.

Searched many quilting blogs to get ideas on how to put this together and finally decided to try a quilt without a pattern.  I have always been such a "traditional" quilter, using patterns that were tried and true, so making this quilt is totally "out of the box" for me. 

Progress is very slow.....it's probably going to take me longer to sew this quilt together than any other quilt I have ever made but I have to admit, I am enjoying it more than I thought possible.  I am beginning to understand why some quilters have gone "modern" and make quilts without a pattern. 

Block #1




Block #2



Block #3



So far, my idea is to make 9 of these blocks with various Elmo fabrics and once they are done, then decide on how to join/border them. 

Off to my sewing room to work on blocks 4 and 5.  Will post again when blocks are completed.


Saturday, November 12, 2011

Latest Quilt

Well, there is quite a story behind this latest quilt.


You may recognize the fabric in this quilt that was used in Breagha's Surprise Quilt.
I had ordered 33 fat quarters of the "About Town" line from Connecting Threads because my daughter, Michelle, loved this fabric and wanted a quilt for herself.  She also chose the tossed nine patch pattern that I used in making Breagha's Lollipop quilt.

So.....like the good mother I am......I made up this quilt for my darling daughter.  Well,
as soon as I photographed the top and emailed it to her in Scotland, I KNEW she wasn't thrilled with it.  It was quite simply, not her style.  Bear in mind, my daughter chose the fabric and chose the pattern. 

The kicker here is that I loved it and it's been quite some time since I've made a quilt for myself so before I even put the first stitch of handquilting in it, I knew it would probably be making it's home with me.  I very wisely did not back it in flannel and used a cotton, lol.




Used a wonderful green for the binding....which compliments all the greens in this quilt.



A white cotton backing.



A test run on my bed!



A photo of the quilt sitting on the leather storage bench, where this quilt will be stashed until it needs pulling out for cold winter nights. 

I have since ordered another 66 fat quarters of this fabric and have agreed to make Michelle a quilt again, only this time, it will be another quilt identical to Breagha's surprise quilt because that is really the quilt that Michelle wanted in the first place, lol.

I fear that if Michelle does not get the log cabin quilt, Breagha might lose hers.  As it is, Michelle has "borrowed" Breagha's quilt and is using it on her own bed!!!!!!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Breagha's Lollipop Quilt

It all started with Moda's Lollipop charm packs by Sandy Gervais........I ended up buying 7 of these from Ebay.  I just love this designer and especially loved the Lollipop series.

Then came the decision of how to use the charm packs (and I only ended up using four of them to make this quilt).  I decided on Eleanor Burns "Tossed Nine Patch" pattern which uses five inch squares.




And this is the end result.  A perfect pattern to showcase all the fabrics in this line.  The quilt finished at 54 inches square, a perfect size for little fingers to drag across the floor or for a little person to snuggle under. 

I did not back this quilt in flannel.  I desperately needed a break from the "flannel" backings.  I backed this in a very soft, natural muslin fabric. 

Breagha's little stack of quilts is growing and although she is under the age of 2, it will be interesting to see which quilts will be her favorites as she gets older.  Grandma plans to ensure she has a good collection before that happens.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Breagha's Newest Quilt

This quilt was made for my little grandaughter to use when she goes to the park or for a picnic.  My daughter has been using a very old quilt for this purpose and I simply can't have my grandaughter sitting on something "old". 

The cat in this picture does not belong to us.  He lives next door but likes to come over every single day - even going so far as to sleeping over almost every night.  I guess you could say he does live here, lol.  He is a quilt lover himself and has to do a "test run" on every quilt that is made.

Back to the quilt......I used my Go Baby to cut the squares, which measure 2" when cut, 1 1/2 inches when sewn.  I initially thought the fabric reminded me of crayon colors but when my daughter, Michelle, saw it, she said it was pink and rainbow colors.....and I liked that alot better.  I handquilted flowers on the white centers and again, Michelle wanted a change, she thought using colored quilting threads for the flowers would make them "pop".  So I gathered up all the quilting threads I had and did the flowers in a variety of yellow, pink, red, burgundy, green and blue.  The squares were handquilted in pale pink, in the ditch. 

It really does make the center flowers stand out, colors were used randomly throughout .

Backed the quilt in flannel. (Yes, I know, for someone who doesn't like flannel, Breagha's quilts are almost all flannel!!!!) The binding was done in yellow as well.

It's a lovely yellow with bright green frogs. 



So, that's one more quilt done for Breagha.  Next stop is the post office to have it shipped over to Scotland.  It should arrive in time for a spring outing......

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Breagha's Scrap Quilt

This past Mother's Day my husband told me to go ahead and order one of these awesome little machines.


Of course, when I placed my order, they were already sold out so I had to wait two full weeks........oh, what a difficult time that was.

As soon as it was delivered, I pulled all my small pink scrap pieces and all the plain white I could find.  I had Breagha's quilt cut in no time flat - what an awesome little machine, especially for using all those scrap pieces that a person can never throw away but can't be bothered with. 

So, this was the end result:


This is truly a scrap quilt.  The batting was pieced together as well as the backing.  The only piece that didn't come from scraps is the pink binding. 

Breagha will be arriving from  Scotland in just three more days and her grandma has a few quilts waiting for her. 

Friday, June 3, 2011

Breagha's Surprise Quilt



I ordered two kits for the Sunshine Girl Quilt that I had planned on making for Breagha as soon as I finished her Sunbonnet Sue Quilt.

I had never used a "quilt kit" before so I was surprised to learn that the fabric had to be cut - I just assumed the pieces would be precut.  Took all the strips and cut them from 2 1/2" to 1 1/2", which took me more than a day to do.  Then I quickly did up a sample block to see how this would turn out. 



Here is the sample block.  Pattern indicated you could either sew the strips perfectly or make the block "wonky".  Well, I tried for perfect and ended up with wonky and as far as I was concerned, it was too wonky for my taste.  So here I sat with two kits, all the fabric cut to 1 1/2" strips and I wasn't about to carry on with the Sunshine Girl pattern.

So, I did the only thing I could think of with these strips.  Cut more strips of plain white fabric and this is the result


I did a log cabin quilt and I love, love, love it.  Total of 132 blocks - 11 x 12.  Each block contains 13 pieces for a grand total of 1,716 pieces of fabric sewn together.  Bordered it in white and use a red binding.  The red binding fabric matches the tiny red center of each and every block. 


Backed the quilt in a white flannel with tiny pink dots on it.  I can not believe how many flannel backings I have used making quilts for Breagha.    I handquilted the entire quilt, each and every piece and then the white border is surrounded with handquilted hearts, wrapping it up with love.

This quilt will be waiting for Breagha when she comes to visit her Grandma at the end of June.  I haven't told my daughter, Michelle, what I did with the kits other than I changed the pattern.  We refer to it as the "Surprise Quilt" and even though it is a Log Cabin, it will be, forever, known as Breagha's Surprise Quilt.



Closer View



Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Connecting Threads - Order #4




I simply can not get enough fabric from Connecting Threads.  This order arrived this morning and what is particularily interesting is the new line called "My Little Farm". This was ordered because there is a little girl (Breagha) who might really like the animals in these prints. 

Friday, April 29, 2011

Connecting Threads - Order #3




Canada Post just delivered my third order from Connecting Threads.  I can't say enough about this company.......the shipping costs are so low and the quality of fabric is wonderful.  This shipment contained 18 yards of new fabric - gotta love it!!!!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Breagha's Sunbonnet Sue Quilt

Put the last stitches in this quilt last night, laundered it this morning and have it packed up and ready to ship to Scotland. 









There is no flannel backing on this quilt - I used a natural cotton.  The binding caused me no end of grief - I always have such a difficult time choosing the color for the binding.  Before even starting this quilt, I had decided on a pink binding but when I finished it, I desperately wanted to bind it in orange.  Don't ask me why - I have no idea what goes on in my own mind.  However, I stuck to my original plan and bound it in pink.  This was one of those quilts that left me feeling so very sad when it was completed.  I had such fun making this for Breagha and involved her mother along the entire "quilting process".  The excitment is now to get it posted and off to Scotland.

There is alot of handquilting in this quilt - the only part I didn't touch was the actual Sunbonnet Sues. 

Spring is finally arriving and that will put an end to quilting for a few months.  I plan on sewing in the next few months but nothing compared to the activity that goes on during our long, cold winters.  I also plan on visiting Connecting Threads often in the months ahead so I have lots of fabric to add to my overflowing stash.