Tuesday, July 31, 2012

quilts and more quilts

There are so many little ones celebrating birthdays these days that I have been making lots and lots of quilts. I love it! First up, a little fella celebrated his 2nd birthday and I thought he might like this I-spy quilt. I was in a I-spy charm swap a few months back and finally had a chance to make use of these. This pattern is from Made by Rae's Storytime Quilt


I've never worked with charms before, but I discovered they are very baby friendly-- by that I mean that I was able to layout the squares and do the chain piecing with baby in the baby carrier. She enjoyed her nap/sewing with me so much that we got started on one for her too!


One other thing I tried on this quilt is that I used Rae's cheater binding method. Since I actually love hand binding my quilts, I actually felt a bit guilty about trying this out, but I do have to say it turned out really nicely, was fast, and the little fella getting the quilt won't know the difference. So yay for those little timesavers!

I also made this quilt following this Moda bakeshop recipe for a little cousin who was born just last week. I got started before he was born and then waited for the name confirmation.


I really wanted to try some FMQ, but with all the transportation vehicles on the quilt, I started thinking about all the traffic in his area so I ended up doing straight line quilting to depict the gridlock. I'm so silly.


To do the quilting, I used a water soluble pencil and marked my lines 2 inches apart. This took a while and I have one of those quilting guides that I can attach to the foot (or someplace) near my needle, but I have no idea how to use it. I think that would have been faster :). Anyone want to tell me how to use this little attachment thing-y?

And lastly here is a sneak peek of one of my projects for the do.Good.Stitches host swap! 


Linking up to Fabric Tuesday!

6 comments:

  1. what a beautiful quilt! i love the appliqued letters.

    as far as the little foot attachment thing - i think what your talking about is a little L shaped slightly curvy piece of metal that attaches a little above the foot. if that is it, you can slide it in or out (towards and away from the foot) to calibrate it to a certain size. the idea is that the curvy part that hangs down will hang into the previous crease from a previously sewn line (kind of like when you stitch in the ditch). in your case, you sort of pull gently on this piece until its two inches out (check with a ruler), then after youve sewn your initial straight line, let the metal bracket rest in the initial sewn line. if you keep that L shaped piece lined up and follow the previous (presumably straight) line, you will end up with a bunch of perfect parallel lines!

    of course now i've said all that your probably talking about some other foot... so sorry if this is rambling ;) . I think your quilt looks great, and love the swap preview.

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  2. I have a picture of the guide thing on a post right here
    http://monpetitlyons.blogspot.com/2011/10/im-still-here.html

    maybe that will help?
    Anyway, I LOVE both quilts! They have both been on my list to do at some point. I'm glad you reminded me about them. I have way too many i spy squares! thanks!

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  3. Love the quilts! Such a neat pattern for I spy squares!

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  4. I love how both of those quilts turned out! Awesome!

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    1. Thanks Dina! They are fun and being baby sized, they are pretty quick and satisfying makes :)

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  5. Both of the quilts are gorgeous!! I think the grid quilting is perfect :)

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