Monday, April 9, 2012

Flower Garden Quilt

See all the little circles?  Quilting the flowers was the best part of making this quilt.  I made them all free-hand.  Some turned out pretty, some a bit wonky and there's one that's downright homely, but altogether they look really great.  I used my water-soluble fabric marker and drew quick, little, five or six petaled flowers in the center of each square.  I quilted over the lines using the darning foot on my sewing machine.  It was so fun!



I couldn't stop with the flowers.  I quilted some teeny-tiny little ones where the white lines cross.


I've started to label everything that I do.  I think it adds a nice touch.  Of course, I had to stitch this little tag onto the quilt in the car on the way to the baby shower.  Just about all of my projects are finished up quickly and last minute on the car ride to where the gift will be given.

I made another little puppy dog.  He turned out pretty cute.  I revised the my pattern a bit from the last one and avoided the dreaded saggy bum effect.  With just a few more tweaks I'll have a really good pattern that I'll post so you all can give it a try.  He's a lovable little guy.  He fits quite nicely under the arm of a loving little girl or boy.



This is the family who I made the baby quilt for.  They are expecting a baby in about three weeks.  The father is one of Bill's good friends from when he was a kid.  The mother and daughter are from China.  They were married a couple of years ago in China and just moved to America.  We gave the puppy to the little girl.  She tied a balloon to him and carted him around with her everywhere.  See him on the table by the cake?

8 comments:

  1. I love how your quilt turned out, and the little dog is such a floral perfection! Both are! You are an inspiration!

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  2. I love the flower garden idea! and the little dog! I remember you had a dog like that when we were little. It had all your birth information on it I think? I loved that dog. I realllllly love this one. Did you put the pattern down in the last blog for the dog? Where did you get it or did you make that pattern?

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    1. I found a pattern from the book called Girl's World. I altered the pattern to give him four legs instead of two. Not a trivial thing, I'm learning. I'll give you the pattern when I get the kinks worked out.

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  3. How long did the quilt take you? It is so lovely. I am always afraid to start things for fear I won't finish, dumb. I gotta get over it. You have sooooo much talent and skill! Not only are they cute, but done with better that the store quality! Perfection is the word mom used, I agree!

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    1. This one was super fast. It only took about two or three movies on Netflix. Maybe a little more.

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  4. Ok I love this! I've been wanting to try quilting patterns freestyle but I have been a little nervous...I was going to try stars on a denim quilt I've had waiting to be finished. So my question is and mom don't look down on me for this one but which one is the darning foot? Is it the walking foot? And I'm assuming that you quilted everything else before you did the flowers, right?

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    1. I haven't tried stars yet. I'd practice a bunch on a sample first. I can see myself getting the direction all mixed up and just making a little scribbly patch instead of a nice little star. Flowers are pretty easy because you just keep swirling the circles around in the same direction. And if you accidentally make too many petals, it still looks cute.
      I'll post a picture of the darning foot. :)

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  5. Ya, I don't know which one the darning foot is either. I might need a picture. It turned out really cute! I remember your dog too.

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