Cupcake Quilt

This piece is so special to me! It is my first commissioned quilt! I had the honor of designing this concept with my client, who is also a friend. I started by gathering some ideas of things that were significant or special to her (cupcakes), and color scheme that she loved, then presented her with some mock up drawings. She loved my design and I was so excited to get started!

I chose the six materials just because I really liked the way they all worked together. The only materials not shown are the satin red and pink I used to make the cherry and frosting. You can see from my drawing that I originally was going to add pink sprinkles but changed that idea because as I progressed I wanted something a little more fantasy based. So I added swirls of iridescent stars and I love how dreamy they make this cupcake.

This was a pretty simple design and although it may look easy to piece it's pretty hard to sew such perfectly straight lines across about 5 feet on each side and each panel or material. It was very stressful to work with the satin and again I had to enlist the help of my friend Jessie Hagen, who has been a long time quilter and all around amazingly brilliant crafter of all sorts! I would not recommend working with satin unless you are experienced and have the determination and patience to get it right. Another warning about satin: never use fusible batting with it - even if the package says it doesn't bleed onto fabric! This is not true when working with satin. The glue from the batting soaked through my satin and made it a darker pink in that area.

The flowers you see around the top trim of the cupcake wrapper are little crafting flowers I got from the ribbon section at JoAnn's and each one is hand sewn onto the quilt top.And the whole cupcake from cherry stem to cupcake wrapper was appliqued onto the quilt top. The swirls were difficult because of all the smooth directional changes. But well worth it in the outcome.

Even through the difficulties, I love everything about this quilt from the boldness in it's simple design, the clean precision of the lines, the color scheme, the satin centerpiece, the dreamy stars, the quilted designs in the corners, and the brickwork backing. It also earned a written appraisal of $590 as an art quilt from the wonderfully talented and knowledgeable Cindy Brick (http://cindybrick.com/about-cindy) I just can't say enough about how proud I am of this piece. It truly is a work of art and will always hold a special place in my heart.

Quilting Hiatus!

So I've been in cosmetology school and haven't quilted in over a year. I will be posting about my last quilt made in April of 2011. And I'm starting a new piece in the next week or two with pics to come! Can't wait to get back to it!

Flannel Baby Boy Quilt

So, I will never make another flannel quilt so long as I live! This is a very special quilt for my best friends son. I thought it was a great idea at first. But, I learned a lot after I pieced the top together. Here's an example of why you should research and ask questions first: Flannel frays easy and fast. You should always use at least a 1/2 inch seam allowance instead of the standard 1/4 inch used with cotton. I hope I am lucky enough for my friend to enjoy her baby quilt for a couple years. Of course, I will make her another one as soon as this one starts to wear thin but, how embarrassing to make something that is a keepsake with all the birth info and have it fall apart!

I was trying to use traditional boy colors and I wanted it to be really soft without being really expensive material. Quilts can get pricey when you're not 100% accurate on the math and you're paying $10/yard sometimes. Anyhow, I figured green, yellow, and blue were good colors and these are the materials I found. I used a red bias which I'm putting on now. I haven't even tried to stitch it yet because, another error, I bought a thin bias for thick material. I should have spent the extra couple $ to get a thicker bias so that all 3 layers will fit inside without bunching. I'll let you know how that works out when I'm done.

I thought this was so cute with the zoo animals! I love monkeys because they remind me of my little boy and I love giraffes because they remind me of my husband - tall, skinny, big eyes, and long eye lashes. He hates when I say that but, he doesn't realize it's a compliment. I love them.

Bright Bear Hug

So, this one is my favorite quilt for the stitching. Not because I did anything great on it but, because I got to practice and see just how much I'm capable of with it.

I love the colors and the corner designs (the hearts and bear claws). This was done by combining the romance pattern with a bear claw and you get a Bear Hug! Thanks Jessie!

This was fun to make and I learned a lot of little tricks and tips on how to get the seams to perfectly line up. Very cool and I feel very accomplished!

This quilt is for my teenage niece! It's also the first quilt I actually quilted.

Skull & Crossbones Quilt

So, this is my 2nd attempt at making a quilt top. I think it's a drastic design improvement from the 1st. My cutting could have been at least 75% better than it was so not all of the lines are perfect. Not even close! This quilt is a very special quilt. I made it for my niece who's expected in late May '10. I hate typical or traditional girl/boy designs. I wanted something that was different and that any viewer would be amazed with. I hope I accomplished that.

All of that being said, I did join a quilting club that has a side sample club where we actually get to sew and create in the class. At the club meetings there are guest speakers and such but, I prefer the classes where I can learn new techniques. So, I learned the log cabin technique at the first class I attended. This quilt is made in the "court house steps" variation of the log cabin style. I instantly had ideas spewing from my mind when I saw the technique and before I even learned it. I knew what I wanted to do and I knew what colors and everything. This quilt was my baby and it was a lot of work. Because I don't have a lot of experience and have never taken a sewing class it's harder for me to make my ideas come to fruition due to the technical knowledge I'm lacking. BUT, I think I more than make up for that in determination.

Since I had just bought a new sewing/embroidery machine in January I wanted to try it out. I bought the skull & crossbones and the rose design that you see in the black corner squares from www.emblibrary.com. They are awesome, reasonable prices, lots of sales, and you can download the designs immediately, which I love because I'll be the first to admit like Verruca Salt (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) "I want it now!" The small heart came standard on my Brother Innov'is 900D. I used variegated thread for both but, I used pink thread in the same embroidery design for the eyes of the center skull. The center skull is an applique piece that I drew out on regular copy paper, cut it out, straight pinned it to my material after I applied my iron-on fusible interfacing, and finally zigzag stitched, very tightly, all the way around. This was my first time so there are several areas where the thread is too thick, etc. All in all, I hope everyone is too caught up in the striking colors and patterns to notice the mistakes!

Even though this is a long way from being a perfect quilt, I still LOVE this piece and as much as I want my niece to have it I hate to give it up. Verbal appraisal: $500

Sewing Machines

Argh! I thought I needed a nice new machine. Turns out, I do but, I don't need it for quilting. I'd rather have a nice top of the line used machine! I would love a 1990 - 2004 Bernina or Pfaff machine that has a needle plate with a hole for straight stitching instead of a zigzag hole. My machine keeps pulling in my quilts and it's really irritating. Can I please have my Walmart Brother base model back????

My 1st Attempt - Kindergarten Quilt

 
 
 
 This quilt is a standard pinwheel design using half-triangle squares. To be honest, I had no clue what I was doing or how to do it. I created my own grid on a piece of copy paper using a ruler and a pencil. I saw a show on PBS "Quilting With Nancy" that talked about the half-triangle squares and how to make them. I was inspired since I volunteered to make a quilt for my daughter's kindie class to be auctioned off in a fundraiser. With this being my first attempt I made a LOT of mistakes. I couldn't get the math right and I know my squares were more like oblong shapes. I do love the whole primary colors theme now that I made the quilt but I used to hate things that were themed in primary colors for kids. It reminds me of the whole girls wear pink and boys wear blue stereotype. Kind of like kids have to like or use primary colors just because they're kids. Example: red metal bunk beds with matching red/blue/yellow drawers.
Anyhow, I learned a lot by making so many mistakes and that is the point, after all, to getting better at what you do. I'm grateful that I have some creative bones in my body and can take a traditional quilting style and make it into something fun.