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.

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!!!!!!

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.

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......

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. 

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

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.