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!

Autumn Days

I have been trying to finish this quilt. I have been so involved in knitting, that I have been ignoring this quilt. But I have to get it done soon as the baby is already 4 months old and I haven't got her quilt done! Since I last posted about "A is for Autumn", I have gotten a little done. I have finished the three other motifs that I wanted to do on the quilt: pumpkins, a basket of apples and a squirrel gathering nuts. I have not put the top or bottom boarder on the quilt as it is less fabric to get the blanket stitching done in the center.



I use a sewing machine to apply the blanket stitching as I am not very fast when doing it by hand. Actually, I think that sewing a blanket stitch by machine is two slow and would prefer waving a magic wand. But since magic wands are expensive, I make due with a machine.

The thread that I use for the blanket stitch is mettler silk finish cotton thread. I must have about 30 different colors. It helps give some dimension to a bunch of red apples in a basket if you have more than one red.

But the blanket stitch is more than just a design element. It also helps keep the fusable edges of the quilt motifs from fraying and falling apart. I always tell the recipient of the quilt that if it falls apart, they should bring it back and I will fix it. Either people are really shy or the blanket stitch works because I have never gotten a quilt back from anyone to fix.

Happy quilting!