And THIS is the Reason I Make Baby Quilts!

Momma says little Sofia loves her quilt and is enjoying playing with it! She just laughs at it! And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is all the thanks I need! Some people say a picture is worth a thousand words -- it is also worth all the pin pricks, all the hand sewing, all the calculating and figuring -- all the work!

"Mom! Look! It's so pink!"

And one more shot, because two are just not enough!

And I am HAPPY!

Come Fly with Me! Let's Fly, Let's Fly Away. . .

"Flying In Formation" is on its way to the quilter! Obviously, I did finally decide on a name for the yet-to-be-named-quilt. While I was sewing the quilt top, I kept singing a song made famous by Frank Sinatra:

          Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away
          If you can use some exotic booze
          There's a bar in far Bombay
          Come on and fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away. . .

I had fun with the boarders and used a different fabric for each side that matched an airplane in the quilt. I little easier than piecing all of the wonky piano keys that have been on the last four or 5 quilts. Hopefully, this quilt and the too pink quilt will be back quickly and I can get them out to their respective owners!

Happy quilting!

Quilt Ready for Delivery No. 3

"Cars go Vroom" is the name of this quilt. Same format, different subject. Enjoy the photos!

Happy Quilting!

Quilt Ready for Delivery No. 2

Quilt No. 2 is called "Captain of the Team". I love the little shoes. I found the coloring page on-line, but they didn't look right. So, I got on line again and looked up the Converse logo and added the star on the shoe. Now it looks right!

Again, just like quilt No. 1 I've done lately, four blocks and a wonky piano key border. Kind of formulaic, but it works. Stay tuned for Quilt No. 3.

Happy Quilting!

Quilt Ready for Delivery No. 1

This is one of the "semi-mass-produced" quilts that I have been trying to complete for the now thirteen (yes, you heard correct: 13) babies that I need to create quilts for. Two of them are for a girlfriend of my daughter and she has done some of the work on them. The balance of the eleven are all co-workers that have had or are having babies. Must be something in the water.

This quilt is named "I <3 U" (or I heart you) and is for a co-worker's daughter  who turned 1 year old last month. OK, yes, absolutely, I am a little behind on the job, but they will be catching up here quickly as I finally got a fire lit under my quilting patootie. I had some issues getting started and finding inspiration; there has been a lot of knitting and then the remodeling efforts.

These are easy fast quilt tops for me to construct, even with "quilters block". Notice, however, that it is very similar to "Is There Enough Pink in This Quilt?" I do need to come up with something a little different or every little girl born to someone in my office will have pretty much the same quilt. I had the airplane idea, but I have to come up with something else new. Ugh, why can't I think?


Happy quilting!

The "Yet-to-be-Named" Quilt

I am slowly working my way through the blanket stitching on the airplanes of this quilt. This is the quilt that I mentioned the other day that will be for the baby brother of the recipient of "Bunny Bright". I have been through a long list of quilt names, but have not settled on any. How about "Flying in Formation", "Air Traffic Controlled", or "Come Fly With Me"? Do you have any suggestions?

 Some of these fabrics have been in my stash for years and have never been used. This one I remember purchasing with one featuring safety pins (which I cannot find) to make a sewing bag. But since the bag is long gone off of my to do list, I might as well use it on a baby quilt. I love fun and funky fabrics on baby quilts! (Note the carrot fabric airplane above!)

 This fabric is a left over from a baby quilt that I did for a great niece
several years ago. It made a fun and funky striped border then and now it is a fun and funky striped airplane.

This airplane is being flown by a turtle! He'll never break any speed records. Again, left-over fabric from a baby quilt of long ago.

I have not yet decided what I will do for the borders on this quilt. I do have plenty of fabric of some of the airplanes left, so I may do each side as a different fabric just to tweak up the level of fun on this quilt.

Happy quilting!

Newest Baby Quilt

I was able to get another baby quilt top completed this week. I have named it: "Is There Enough Pink in This Quilt?" It is along the same lines as my other semi-mass produced quilts. This is for a "co-worker" in our Florida offices who has been a great help to me in my work. She is also the person for whom I knitted the cutest baby dress last summer. Wonderfully, I found out that there is yet another baby due in my office late in this year. I gotta get another job! LOL!

I am also working on another boy quilt that is not of the mass produced group. This one is for the newborn brother of the recipient of "Bunny Bright" that I put together a couple of years ago before I even started this blog. "Bunny Bright" was probably my very favorite baby quilt of all time and was one of the first quilts that I did using online coloring pages as patterns. I even used a set of alphabet coloring pages as the template for the title.

The new baby boy's quilt will feature airplanes and even has some of the same fabrics that are in "Bunny Bright". I will post photos of it later in the weekend when I have gotten a bit more accomplished on it.

In the mean time, Happy Quilting!!

Quilting Weekend

After my guilt finally caught up with me, I was able to make some progress on the languishing baby quilts. I got binding attached to all four of them and can now carry them back and forward on the train and work on getting the hand sewing done.

I also started doing the machine blanket stitch on another quilt. I would like to get two more put together and shipped off for quilting by the end of May. Once those are done, that will only leave me with 3 more to do! (Unless of course co-workers keep making babies, LOL!)

I also took a short trip to my local quilt shop and went straight to the sale rack (it is hard to ignore all the pretty colors on the way) and came away with a nice selection. Stripes are one thing that is always on the sale rack and I love to use stripes to make bias binding for my quilts -- the brighter the better. The owner of the store commented the prices were so good that she was paying me to take some of the fabrics!

Here is a picture of the stack of fabrics I brought home. I used the red and orange wavy stripe already in one of the quilts already. You can see it above on the second quilt with the basketball on it. Along with that I got a green stripe, a pale peach stripe, and an orange and yellow wavy plaid to use as binding. I also got some fun fabrics featuring carrots, gears and flowers. All for under $30.00! I love saving money.

Happy Quilting!

Two Quilt Tops Completed

I finished two quilt tops and sent them off with my knitting sister to my other sister who has a long arm quilting machine. I love to design the quilt tops, but I am not so fond of the actual quilting. It is not really easy on a regular machine and since one of my sisters has her own long arm, I avail myself of her talents a lot. The picture above is the finished boy design shown in my last post.

The other two pictures are blocks from the girl designs in process. We made six total girl quilt tops in different combinations of hearts and butterflies. It was two more girl quilts than I needed to finish, but babies seem to come quick and I can always use extras!

Happy quilting!

Quilting in a Post Thanksgiving Carbohydrate Coma

 Teaming up with my knitting sister and my beautiful daughter, we decided to knock out as many baby quilts as possible for some newly arrived residents of this world (and a couple that have yet to make their appearances). We are trying to make the quilts bright and colorful, while keeping the complexity low. Hence all of them will have 4 big blocks and a pieced crazy piano key boarder. Using my favorite method of fusing and coloring page designs,we came up with a couple of "girl baby designs" and a couple of "boy baby designs".

My knitting sister came up with the crazy piano key boarder idea. I had suggested a piano key boarder (see the one I did on another quilt, here); however, she hates cutting fabric, so since wonky cutting is easier -- little measuring -- and faster -- again, little measuring, she suggested crazy piano keys. Knitting sister quickly started cutting out fabrics in color palettes, some for boy quilts and some for girl quilts.

Reds, browns and blues in one boy palette for for a sports themed quilt and pinks, oranges and yellows for a butterfly and hearts themed girl quilt. I have finished applying machine blanket stitching on one 4 X 4 block center of a heart themed quilt and have completed parts of two other baby quilts. But I have seven baby quilts to make in all.

With so much left to do, why am I still blogging?

Happy Quilting!

Heartfelt

I did remember to snap a couple of photos of the latest baby quilt before sending it off to my sister. I got it into the mail this morning. I am going to leave it up to her what to use as a quilting pattern. The border that I put on it is a type of "piano key" pattern -- rather uneven and scrappy looking. It is easy to do and increases the color in a quilt. If you stick to the fabrics that are already in the center motif, it helps tie everything together.

I still  haven't named the quilt. Does anyone have any good names for a heart themed baby quilt?

Busy Busy Busy

I have three quilts to make in short order. Of course, I am working in my favorite style -- fused applique. If you look at a number of quilts that I do for baby quilts; I use 3 X 3, 3 X 4 or 4 X 4 pattern of a specific motif. Something simple, like this modernized version of a heart within a heart, is fast and easy to put together -- especially when you use an uncut piece of fabric for the back ground.  Next step is to begin machine blanket stitching around each heart with a colored thread. I use Mettler 100% Cotton Silk Finish 50 weight tread to do the blanket stitch. I like the smooth appearance of the thread and they have a variety of colors.

 

Quick Quilt Update

It is pink all around!  Both babies are girls so I have to buy more pink fabric because I don't have enough. (Any excuse to buy more fabric is a good excuse!!!!!)