Two Finishes!

I've been very busy this past week trying to get some things finished.  Two of the things are completely finished. 

Weston's new baby quilt

This quilt is to replace the 'girl' quilt I made.  The doctor was WRONG!  Instead of the baby girl the doctor told them they were having, they had a boy instead.  I get to meet Weston for the first time, and give him his quilt next week. 

Weston's big sister has never received a quilt from me.  Of course, that had to be remedied.  Mady likes the color 'teal' and likes camouflage.  I think this quilt takes care of both.  It also has 'pockets' for half square triangles.

Mady's quilt

Half Square triangle 'pockets'

Mady's quilt is really lighter than the top photo shows.  I finished the binding as it was getting dark, and we aren't expected to have sunshine for days (snow expected tomorrow night).  I had to make do with indoor, evening shots.  Both of these quilts have been washed and are ready for their new owners.

I've also machine quilted another quilt, and have the binding ready to attach for it.  There is also another quilt waiting for it's binding.  Maureen quilted this quilt for me (THANKS MAUREEN)!  I'll get pictures of both of these quilts when the binding is done.

Quilting Frustrations

I should be working on the Sapphire Star borders, but I decided to quilt the Deer baby quilt instead.

Deer baby quilt top

I spray basted it on Tuesday, and just didn't want to wait to quilt it.  I have Shannon minky on the back.  I've used regular dotted minky many times, with no problems, but, this minky has a really long nap on it, and it's giving me fits. 

First, I echo stitched around the deer with my walking foot (I don't do free motion quilting).  The quilt is heavy, with minky and batting.  It just doesn't want to 'feed' like it should.  My stitches are uneven. 

echo quilting with the walking foot (notice the long nap on the minky backing)

The worst part is that the long nap is coming thru to the front of the quilt.

nap from the minky coming thru as I quilt

Next I echo quilted inside the deer.  There was still a bit of the nap coming thru on the deer, but much less, I think because of the fusible.

I was going to do more echo quilting, but, I was tired of fighting with the quilt.  I decided to do some straight line quilting.  I'd planned on doing cross hatch quilting in the open places, but, with the nap coming thru, and trying to wrestle the quilt, it wasn't worth the trouble. 

After following the edges of the border, I knew it needed more quilting, so I pulled out the blue tape. 

stitching down either side of the blue tape

I wound up stitching across the hooves and part of the deer.  I was using tan thread, and it shows across the brown.  I think I'll get my brown Micron pen and color those threads.

you can see the tan thread on the hooves

tan thread across the top antler

I'm hoping that the nap threads that came thru to the front disappear when this quilt is washed.  I've run my fingernail up and down the stitches along the back, and it hasn't done any good.  I know I won't be using this type of long nap minky on the back of a quilt again.  I'll stick to the dotted minky instead.

I have been working on something else this week.  I pulled fabrics and cut batting for 12 more project bags.  I've even quilted the backs.  I still have all the other parts to cut out.  That will be done this weekend, at quilt camp in Ottawa.  I'm teaching the ladies how to make project bags.  We'll be selling them at our Quilt Show in March 2019. 

Productive Weekend

I've been stitching away for the last several days.  I started and finished a quilt top.  This quilt top is for the big sister to the baby that was born a little over a week ago (was supposed to be a girl, but, turned out to be a boy).  I'd ordered the turquoise camouflage fabric online, since it is very hard to find.  I purchased the coordinating fabric at a local quilt store.

This quilt top was made on my purple Featherweight, EXCEPT for the blanket stitching on the letters.  I only have one machine that can do the blanket stitch, so, I pulled out the modern Janome. 

stitching around the edges of the letters

Yes, I know, I decorated the Janome.  With such lovely vintage sewing machines, with lovely decals, my poor Janome was boring to look at.  It's much happier now that it has some decals, too.  Here is one of the letters, stitched down.

stitched down letter

I tried something different with this quilt top.  Last month at my large quilt guild, the speaker, Annette Ornelas of Southwind Designs, showed us how she makes curved blocks without using curves.  She just folds the fabric, then places it on top of the other piece of fabric.  Well, I decided I wanted to use part of her method.  Annette folds her folded fabrics back, then stitches down the curves, but, I didn't want to do that.  I just wanted to have the layers.  So, instead of making half square triangles for this quilt, I folded another square, and stitched it to the first square, making it look like a half square triangle, but, making a 'pocket'. 

folded 'pocket' half square triangles

Here is the completed quilt top.

completed quilt top

I will say, with all the folded fabrics in this quilt top, it makes the top much heavier than I thought it would be.  I still like it.  I even know how I'm going to quilt this, so that most of the 'pocket' will stay open.

Well, I'd made a baby quilt for Mady's little sister (here), but, since the sister turned out to be a brother, I needed a new baby quilt.  The new mom thought a deer would be good.  I'd found a deer head online, and took it to the copy shop to be blown up.  The copy shop made it much larger than I asked them to, but, it works out well.  A friend found the deer hooves after I'd already been to the copy shop, so, I blew up that pattern on my printer at home.  Again, I had to use the Janome to stitch the edges of the fusible applique.  I haven't done anything other than machine quilt on the Janome in quite a while.

deer head and hooves

I knew it needed a border, so, here is the finished quilt top.  I have camo minky for the back of the quilt.

completed baby quilt top

I've been needing to work on the Sapphire Stars quilts, from Kevin's Mystery last summer.  I'm making 3 of these quilts (2 scrappy, and 1 just using 'fixed' colors).  Two of these tops will be for Quilts of Valor, but, one of the scrappy tops is going to be a (late) wedding present.  I need to have it finished early October, so that I can take it to the Family Reunion and present it to the happy couple.  I finished the 24 large quilt blocks this afternoon (12 for each scrappy quilt top).  These blocks are 18.5" square.

24 quilt blocks

I also stitched a scrappy backing for a Quilt of Valor.  I've had the top made for some time, but, hadn't made a backing for it.  I even have the binding strips cut out.  I'll take pictures tomorrow at the Quilts of Valor sew-in. 

It's going to be a busy, quilty week for me.  I have Quilts of Valor on Tuesday, the Wisconsin Quilt Show on Friday, and a guild sew-in on Saturday.