Three Cute Kids' Quilts

Just finished up three quilts for my friend Karen's grandchildren. She is a customer that showed up at my door several years ago after we had spoken on the phone several times. Imagine my surprise when I saw her and realized she was one of my sorority sisters in college! I did not know her married name. Anyway, she loves making quilts for her family members,and I have quilted quite a few for her.

This one is so adorable that I couldn't wait to quilt it. The fabrics are from a Moda "Layer Cake" collection by "Me and My Sister" designers and called "Oh-Cherry-Oh!"

The little dresses are embellished with cute trims, flowers, buttons, beads, ribbon roses, and embroidery. The dresses are fused, then machine finished with a buttonhole stitch. My machine did not like going through the fused dresses and I experienced a lot of thread breakage. So, I ended up just barely going in and out of the fused appliques.

I quilted in lots of daisy-type flowers and cherries on stems to coordinate with the fabric motifs.

Another quilt for this granddaughter features ladybug machine applique.

Although the ladybugs were also fused, I did not have any problem stitching in them.

The same border fabric from the ladybug quilt made a cute quilt for her grandson.

I did a meander with some fun and kookie insects here and there.

Today is rainy. I'm going to Capital Quilters Guild tonight with some of my bee members. It's a good day to stay inside and sew. I am all caught up on customer quilts and charity quilts...at least until tonight when I bring home some more Quilts on Wheels for the rest home residents.

And here is a big happy birthday wish for my super-special artist dad, Pete Turner. Love you, Daddy! (This picture was taken last year at his 85th birthday party. He is wearing the quilted birthday crown I made for him...embellished with paint brushes! He is standing with a former artist colleague and his wife.)

Wednesday Work-in-Progress: Little Girl Quilt

I managed to sneak one of my own quilts on to the machine the other day. This top is typical of the type of piecing I am doing these days...squares, four-patches, occasionally a double square...easy peasy. This one has a couple hearts machine-appliqued on the larger blocks.



I used a variegated Signature cotton thread called Tie Dye, and did some free-motion quilting with flowers, loops, and hearts.

In the block below, I chose to do "floral enhancement."

The back looks like patchwork, too. I probably should have used this for some "faux patchwork" on a border or charity quilt. But the colors go so well with the top. I hope to finish the binding and label today.

Here is a tip from my personal experience: check the pockets of your pants before loading the laundry in the washing machine. My failure to do that resulted in a clean, shiny cell phone that had to be replaced. It actually still worked after going through the wash, but the display screen was too faint to see. Now I have a cheapo black phone instead of my shiny purple one, but I got away with less than thirty-five dollars to pay for that little boo-boo. And I am not a big cell phone user since I am home most of the time. Actually, this one is easier for me to operate with less confusing buttons.

Here is another tip: I went to Michael's Craft store yesterday. All their Prismacolor pencils and Strathmore art sketchpads and paper were on sale for 50% off.