Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Little Quilt on the Prairie

Little Quilt on the Prairie

Here is a little quilt I am in love with! I felt like I was channelling Ma Ingalls when I made it, with the hand stitching, yellow calico-y print, and old fashioned 9 patches! I was a big fan of the books and the show growing up.  True confession, it was MA Ingalls I wanted to be from Little House on the Prairie! She was so elegant and beautiful and capable. And didn't go blind. I was decidedly not a Laura type, I was and still am, happy to sit inside and sew (or read)!

Little Quilt on the Prairie

Anyways, back to the quilt. I used a charm pack of Urban Chik's line Urban Cowgirl, plus yardage of the same line for the front. The back is more Urban Cowgirl squares and some yardage from Hometown by Sweetwater. I bound it with Painter's Canvas in brown. It reminded me of the side of a barn, so I felt it was a good match!

Little Quilt on the Prairie

The quilting was done in straight lines with my favorite Aurifil 50 wt in colour number 2000. I added some embellishing hand stitches to each square on the front using DMC perle cotton in colours 725 (yellow) and 712 (cream).

Little Quilt on the Prairie

Finished dimensions are 32.5" by 40.5"!

Little Quilt on the Prairie
 
PS.  This quilt was completely inspired by this quilt by Jolene at Blue Elephant Stitches.  I pretty much adore ALL her quilts!!

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Pretty in Pink Quilt (Oh So Original, I Know!)

Pretty in Pink Baby Quilt


I finished this sweet baby girl quilt today!  Could you get any more feminine and pretty than this?  I suppose I could have added ruffles....

Pretty in Pink Baby Quilt


My favourite feature is the decorative embroidery stitches I used for some of the quilting lines.  These were made with stitch number 301 on my Bernina.  I used a variegated thread in pale pink, yellow and cream from Sulky.  The rest of the quilting was done with my standby Aurifil 50 wt in ivory.

Pretty in Pink Baby Quilt

The fabrics are all from different 3 Sisters for Moda lines, Aviary, Shangri-La, Astor Manor and Paris Flea Market!  And the finished size is 34.5" by 39".

Pretty in Pink Baby Quilt
 

Friday, April 26, 2013

Folksy Blocksy Handsy Quiltsy

Folksy Flannels Colour Block Baby Quilt


I finished stitching up this little lovely today, whilst sitting out on the deck! First day of outside stitching this year! Yahoo! As I said in the previous post, I decided to try a little hand quilting. I'm always so inspired with what Anna Maria Horner does with those pretty perle cottons and a needle, so as this quilt is with her lovely, old world inspired, rich and Bohemian fabrics, this lended itself well to that kind of stitching in my opinion!

Folksy Flannels Colour Block Baby Quilt

I used some no. 8 perle cotton from DMC in colour 725, a golden yellow, and just went at it! It was so much fun! I am not a thimble wearer, so my middle finger is not agreeing with me at this point, but I think she just needs to toughen up!

Hand Quilting

But backing up (no pun intended)... I had been longing to try backing a quilt in voile! What a pain to stabilize that back and make it stay put so I could baste, it's sooo slippery! I ended up borrowing some heavy duty clamps from my husbands workshop and clamped that slip of a thing to my dining room table. In hindsight, maybe I just should have flipped the quilt and taped down the top, and added the batting and voile on top of that? Oh well, I'll try that next time.

Folksy Flannels Colour Block Baby Quilt

I even had some voile to use for the binding. That was lovely to sew on and those mitre points were so neat and sharp with that delicate material! And such a soft, flexible and trim binding too!

Folksy Flannels Colour Block Baby Quilt

  Anyways, I am very happy with mah little quilt, and wanted to share it with you! Thanks for looking!

Folksy Flannels Colour Block Baby Quilt
 
PS.  I wanted to add that I was inspired to make this quilt by Rachel at Stitched in Color and her Color Brick Quilt Tutorial here!