May
1

Hot Air Balloon Quilt

Posted Thursday, May 1st, 2014 in baby quilt, Quilting | Read More

I worked on a quilt for our newest grandson for about a month, a little a time. I had to think and rethink how to design a quilt with hot air balloons to go in the room that he shares with his big (2 year old) brother. I found some balloon designs online at EmbroideryDesigns and purchased them. I used thread colors to match the colors in fabric I was using in the border and to match colors in other decorations in the room.

I machine embroidered the blocks, assembled them into a quilt top and quilted it. After the quilting was finished, I thought there was too much empty space on it. I drew some small hot air balloons and hand appliqued them on the quilt. I also drew a larger balloon in three sections and appliqued it on the quilt. Before appliqueing them, I machine stitched outline stitches with black thread to co-ordinate with the embroidered blocks.

I finished the quilt and gave it him when we visited on Easter weekend.

The quilt will hang on the wall above his crib.



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Nov
10

5 Little Monkeys

Posted Sunday, November 10th, 2013 in baby quilt, Five Little Monkeys | Read More

I finally get to share a baby quilt that I have been working on this year. This quilt is for my daughter’s baby, due in a few weeks. I worked on it in spurts. I did the small embroidered blocks first, then worked on the blocks with multiple monkeys. Some of the larger blocks each took about three hours to stitch out on my Janome Memory Craft 10001. When I finished two of the large blocks, they were too large for the quilt and had to be redone. I used those blocks to make pillows. The borders were the part that intimidated me. I had never stitched any item that had to be re-hooped and stitched on one long piece of fabric. I did a trial on a piece of muslin to get a feel for how far apart to start stitching the words. It is not perfect but it is finished!

Jennifer helped me pick the fabrics used in the quilt but she did not see the finished quilt until the shower on November 9. She has decorated the nursery with this quilt as the inspiration for the theme.  I can’t wait to see it hanging on the wall!

And here it is….

and the pillows….

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