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.