When Things Come Together

Mailed Breagha's Berenstain Bears lap quilt over a week ago. Today, I was out shopping and quite by accident, came across some Berenstain Bears books. Purchased these three for Breagha.

But, of course, the one book that made me really happy was Mama's New Job, and guess what Mama does.....she quilts!  It would have been a perfect book if we could change Mama to Grandma, but I'll settle for a book about quilts. 

I will need a picture of Breagha, sitting in her chair, with her Berenstain Bears lap quilt and this book in her hands.  What a good day this has been.

Breagha's Lap Quilt

So far, I have done two doll quilts for Breagha and loved doing them as it gave me a chance to practise free motion quilting.  The other day, my daughter sent me a photo where Breagha was sitting on the couch, using a doll quilt for a lap quilt.  It was so sweet but seriously not big enough to give good coverage.

So....I spent a day or two thinking of a lap quilt for Breagha.  Just recently I bought a yard of Moda's Berenstain Bears.  I loved it but really didn't want to cut it into pieces as you would lose so much of the design.  Lightbulb went on and I decided to use it as a panel.  Then, I also had a wonderful gem bundle of greens that I bought on line from Marmalade Fabrics, all Kona fabric. 

And here it is.  It's 35 x 45 (approximate) and is about the right size for a lap quilt for a two year old. 

I'm not a huge fan of using panels for quilts but I have to admit, I just couldn't bring myself to cutting up this fabric and losing any of it. 

Then, on to my practise run of machine quilting.  It just went so smoothly and all the starts and stops were knotted and buried and the tension was bang on so no messes to contend with.  I started this early in the morning and couldn't stop until I put the last stitch in the binding late last night. 

And here is a view of the back. 

I hope my little grandaughter gets as much pleasure from this quilt as I did in making it for her.  An added bonus is that it is definitely too small for the Quilt Thief to use. 

A Quilt for Fraser

My grandaughter, Breagha, has a little friend named Fraser.  Fraser inherited Breagha's old picnic quilt.....a quilt that is about 20 years old and has been very well used.  I was mortified, yes, mortified that my daughter, Michelle, did not dispose of that old relic and actually found a home for it at Fraser's house! 

Upon hearing of the above transaction, I immediately started on a brand new quilt for Fraser.  Today, I finished my quest.

Used a free pattern by Karen that owns a quilt shop called Red Rooster Quilts in Dublin, OH.  She simply calls it a Charm Quilt Pattern and it was easy peasy to make.  Thanks Karen!

Started out with 3 of my favorite charm packs:

I treasure these charm packs so I don't use them lightly.  Of course 3 charm packs weren't quite enough so I added in various other "kid friendly" scraps I had and made the quilt 50 inches square, the right size for little people.

It definitely has a scrappy look and feel to it but a child can spend a great deal of time playing I SPY and finding all sorts of interesting things.  Bordered it in a mint green and used a dark green for the binding.

Backed the quilt in white, perhaps not the best color for a little boy but it just seemed to work best.

Now to fold it up, package it and ship it off to Scotland.

Breagha's Cartwheels Quilt

Finished quilt #11 for Breagha today.

About this quilt:  The pattern is a modern quilt design by one of my favorite bloggers (crazymomquilts), who also co-authored the book "Sunday Morning Quilts".  The pattern is offered free on her blog and is also featured at the Moda Bake Shop with the recipe for making this quilt.

As a traditional quilter for so many years, I had a little trouble switching gears and going modern.  I don't think my daughter likes modern quilts as much as she does the traditional quilts but it takes a little time to make the transition.  I will always love traditional but I am beginning to love modern - ALOT.

The fabric used in this quilt is from Connecting Threads.  The line is Just Desserts and features all those things that little ones love - ice cream, cupcakes, etc. etc.  The colors are so bright, another feature that appeals to a little one's eye.

The quilt was heavily hand quilted in the open spaces but there is no quilting in the colored fabrics.  It makes the cartwheels stand out even more as they puffed up.

Backed the quilt in a soft, very white muslin fabric.  The solid pink binding matches all the pinks in the quilt as it is from the same fabric line.

And here it is, folded and ready for it's journey to Scotland to a much beloved grandaughter.

More Log Cabin

I was so busy babbling about Breagha and Michelle's matching log cabin quilts that I forgot there was yet another matching quilt in the mix! Breagha's baby doll also got one.

And here is baby in her bed, with her quilt.

QUILT THIEF

Breagha's Picnic Quilt arrived in Scotland this morning.  This afternoon (which is evening in Scotland), I happened to facetime my daughter and discovered her sitting on the couch and curled up with Breagha's quilt.

She is definitely a quilt thief - I have caught her numerous times borrowing one of Breagha's quilts.

Her excuse - Breagha isn't old enough to lay claim to things that belong to her specifically!!!!!

As this blog is basically a record for my beloved grandaughter....it should be interesting to see how she reacts to this thievery when she is old enough to read, lol.

UPS Delivery

This quilt book arrived FINALLY today.  I bought my copy from Amazon.ca and had to wait for a re-order to come in.

The two talented authors of this book have blogs that I have followed for quite some time.  It was Amanda Jean Nyberg who introduced me to Connecting Threads, an on-line fabric store that I have shopped at many many times in the past couple of years.  Cheryl Arkison lives in Alberta, Canada - next province over from where I live.

Spent an hour or so just skimming the entire book and trust me - it does NOT disappoint.  It's everything I thought it would be and MORE.  It is worth every penny and then some and a book that I think belongs in every serious quilter's library.

If anyone reading this wants to follow two exceptional quilting blogs - try crazymomquilts and naptime quilter. Even if you don't quilt - they are fun to follow.