First Quilt for 2009 – Mother Goose

I have been dying to show off this quilt.  It is for my friend who is having a baby girl and we finally had a shower for her today, so I can finally show all of you.  It is seriously one of my favorites!  I love it so much.  I actually finished the top back in November of last year, but technically I finished quilting it and did the binding on January 2, so I’m counting it for this year. 

I used a machine that does embroidery (a machine that was donated to the quilting guild by my fabulous aunt) to do all of these nursery rhyme blocks.  I embroidered a different nursery rhyme on a 6x6 inch block and then blocked them with a three inch sashing.  All the fabric is from Joann’s.  It is the Heidi Grace line of A Bird’s Tale.

It was very difficult to photograph, so I took a shot of the top half and the bottom half.  The top has these blocks: Jack and Jill went up a hill, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Old lady who lived in a shoe, kid who pulled out a plum on this thumb (I don’t remember this nursery rhyme at all), Mother Goose ( I know this isn’t a rhyme but she had to be on the quilt somewhere), and three blind mice.

And the bottom has these blocks:  three little kittens, the cow jumped over the moon, Mary had a little lamb, Humpty Dumpty, little Miss Muffett, and Jack be nimble.

This is one of my favorite blocks.  Isn’t that the happiest cow you have ever seen?

I really struggled with the quilting on this one because of the fabric.  I tried to use a green thread but it matched so perfectly that I couldn’t see where I was going or where I had already been.  So I switched to a white thread.  That was still difficult but I managed okay.  The best part is that since it blends in so well with the fabric you can’t see any of the mistakes.  I did a border around each block of straight lines and the did a stippling throughout the rest.  I did a pink fabric (from the same line) for the binding.  Dustin says that is his favorite part.   I kinda like it too.  The backing is the diagonal print. 

I even made a tag for this one.  I hand embroidered this!  I think I am getting better.  This is after I washed the quilt so it is full of crinkle goodness.

I had some left over fabric from the backing, so I made her a matching bib and burp cloth.  Both are backed with a pink flannel.

I JUST LOVE IT!!   It is so cute, right?

Thanks!

Wow, thank you all so much for all your opinions on which quilt you like best. I finally decided to go with the orange and yellow zig zag quilt. It was a tough decision since they are all my favorites. But in the end it got a lot of votes and a lot of people have it as a favorite on flicker. It is for a contest that is going on at the Make Baby Stuff website. Go here to see all the entries and vote for your favorite. If you want to give a comment or rating on my quilt, it can be found here. I'd really appreciate it, but I won't blame you if you choose to comment on other quilts since there are so many good ones. I'm seriously thankful I am not a judge, that would be a hard job.

I am so excited to show you what I did with the cupcake that I embroidered. I just figured it would be a practice but it was too cute not to use. So... I made it into a label for the Dutch Pinwheel Quilt. I used an embroidery machine that was donated to the quilting guild (my mom, and two aunts) so I volunteered to be the first to use it. It works great and I love all the fun stuff you can do with it. So on craft night last week, my sister taught me how to sew on a label....by hand! Now I can do all my binding by hand and hopefully it will look a lot better. But isn't this tag the cutest thing ever!?
Over the weekend I got a whole load of baby bibs and burp cloths done. Mostly to stock up for all the ladies that are pregnant, but one in particular was for my neighbor who just had a baby. They named her Grace. Awe! So I used the aforementioned embroidery machine and stitched her name on the bib. I also did a tulip stitch on the green one that has, coincidentally, tulips on it. These are just a few of what I made. I ran out of light to take pictures. But I think I should have enough to keep me satisfied for a while.

More Free Motion

I've been practicing my free motion quilting! I purchased this panel at a local quilt shop and just sandwiched it together to make a practice quilt. It worked out okay, but I really need a lot more practice. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it now, most likely save it for when I finally have kids.

"Add it to the pile" is what Dustin is thinking, even though he has never said it. My stitches are getting more even and more consistent. I just need to practice more. I'm sure I'll think of a new project to practice it on.

This is what it says on the top, although, I have no idea what it means. Does anyone know what "Bazoople Friends" are? Even spell checker thinks it is a mistake and has no suggestions. I just got it because I thought the animals were cute. Seriously, look at that smiling giraffe!

I've also been making tons of baby bibs and burp cloths. I made these for my sister, Ashley, that had a baby boy like forever ago. I'm a slacker. That is why I am stock piling them, so next time I'm prepared. I hope these colors were boy enough. I've had a hard time finding cute boy fabric that works well on baby bibs. Don't worry, I won't give up. I'll keep searching.

Baby Bibs & Burp Cloths

I've been busy making more baby shower presents. I love the pattern from ChickPea Sewing Studio. It is super easy pattern to make. I found that a fat quarter can make one bib and one burp cloth and I will still have enough left over for my scrap fabric stash.

I used a cotton print for the front and white flannel on the back. I did a decorative stitch around the edging of the burp cloths and bibs. If my machine does these fancy stitches, I figure I might as well put them to good use. My machine also sews the button holes and sews the buttons on for me. Yes, you read that correctly, it sews on the buttons! LOVE that feature.

I didn't have a pattern for the burp cloths but I have seen quite a few on flicker (here, here, here and here)and figured it was easy enough that I could just wing it. So I did. I made these 18 long by 8 wide (rectangular in size). Since I don't have children or the need for burp cloths, I am hoping that these will work out okay. I started with the girly fabrics so I'm hoping this weekend to get some boy ones made. Although, I'm not quite sure about the orange flower one in the picture above. I guess I figure it should be for a girl since it is flowers, but it is orange, brown and green. Those are more boyish colors to me. What do you think? Could it go either way?