Animal Parade - A Finished Quilt

This quilt is for my youngest niece who is now 6. I started it when she was 2 - I'm a bit slow it seems. K is a darling girl who is happy all the time and often says "today was a perfect day". She wanted animals on her quilt, so that's what she got. Her mom picked out the fabrics. On Canada Day, the year K was 2, I was asking her what animals she wanted on her quilt. She didn't really know. So my Mom, who is not a sewer, started giving her ideas - I would not have attempted some of these animals if it weren't for K wanting them.

Some progress shots of quilting:

This is how I mark my quilts usually - I trace or draw a design on the paper on the doctor's examining table, then sew over it. Then I rip it out. It's a bit tedious at times, but I find it accurate and never have to worry about marks showing.

My binding helper

Still helping with the binding

The Label, v 2.0; the first label had a missing word that I only noticed when I was sewing on binding. I tried fixing it but didn't like how it looked, so I made a new label.

The finished product, with K peeking around the corner.

I really enjoyed making this quilt and I enjoyed quilting it. K loves it and was snuggled under it the first night she got it.
It`s about 48 x 62, my own design.

Getting Some Quilting Finished

This quilt has been sitting, folded up, for two years, waiting to be quilted. I just couldn't find my mo-jo to do it. I'm on it now. It's for my littlest niece who is now 6 - it was intended for her 2nd birthday - oh well. Better late than never. She wanted animals on her quilt, so that's what she got.

I started quilting with some purple/green variegated thread that I bought at one time for this project:

I don't like it. It's too dark. Thankfully, I'd only quilted 2 blocks when I decided it was too dark so I spent an afternoon on the couch, watching a movie, and unpicking the quilting.

I then switched to a light purple which I like much better:

It's subtle and I feel like it complements the quilt, rather than taking it over. And my wobbles don't show as much.

I've been using a combination of quilting stencils and free hand free-motion to quilt this. I tried a design I saw online - I'm pretty sure it was one of Angela Walter's Craftsy classes.

 It's a paisley-like filler and it's in the 3 blocks above. It's hard to see so I got an up close shot - it looks yellow here, but it's not.

From the back:

It's a little easier to see here. I really like how it turned out. It was simple to do and filled the space nicely. I didn't wobble too much, even when my cat tried to jump on top and didn't quite make it.

I hit a bit of a snag in a block that has pinwheels. I don't remember what I did in the centre of these pinwheels but they are really thick and sticking up quite a bit. I needed everything secure but didn't want to quilt through the centre because of the thickness. I used this quilt stencil and it turned out great. The centre still sticks up, but it looks like it's because of the quilting, rather than piecing/pressing.

I want to get this finished as soon as possible so I can get a fresh start on my selfish sewing for 2016. I hope you're getting some quilting time in for yourself these days.

2014 Here I Come

My friend L has already reviewed her quilts of 2013 and set her goals for 2014 and she's 8 1/2 months pregnant. She's amazing and my hero!

I am not by nature super organized and I'm okay with that (if I got super organized I'd never have anything to set as a theme for the year). Here's my review of 2013 and goals for 2014 all in one big post.

2013 Review:
Dear Jane - I seem to sew and sew and sew and it never feels like I get much done. Two women in the class are actually finished all 169 square blocks. I'm not there - yet.
I finished 33 blocks this year (doesn't sound too great), which equals 743 pieces (sounds better).


I made some really cute baby shoes - some for gifts and some I sold.

I finished this quilt top for my niece

2014 Goals:

Dear Jane
I have 48 square blocks and 44 triangles left to go - that equals 7.6 blocks per month in 2014. So, I'll aim for 8 blocks per month.

Quilt my niece's quilt - before the end of Feb so I can show it at the guild meeting on Feb 27th.

Make the drapes for my family room before the end of January. I've figured out the math I think

Make a baby quilt for someone at work - before  March 2nd cause that's the baby shower date. I'm thinking low volume and have a simple pattern picked out.

Make a crosses quilt for a 1 year old - during March break.

Be more chatty on my blog. I'm not chatty by nature and I think I'm too vague on my blog and that my personality doesn't come through as much as I'd like it to.

Finish a red and white hunter's star - by June 15th - in case the recipient comes home for a family gathering.

Those are all the sewing goals I'm setting for this year. Life will create more as I go through the year. Everything else that gets finished beyond this will be a bonus.

My personal theme for the year is health and wellness and meeting those goals will also take some time.

Wish me luck!

Mini Retreat At My House

I invited some friends over for a day of sewing at my house - C made it. We had a great day. She arrived about 9:40, with two coffees in hand (I'm not a coffee drinker so none in my house). She set up in my dining room and we got down to business.

Notice a coffee and a giant drink of water

C sewed away on sugar block of the month. They look great but are pretty finicky.

I finished this quilt top this morning - the one for my niece.

for some reason these are flipping when I insert them and I can't get them straightened out - kindly tip your head

Once I'm back to work next week I'll get it sandwiched then I'll start quilting. My machine likely needs a tune up before I start quilting though.

For lunch I made us homemade roasted red pepper soup - delish but I forgot to take a picture.

My afternoon sewing consisted of gifts for people who read my blog - I took pictures and will show them once the gifts are given.

I'm linking to Patchworktimes - check it out.

Design Wall Monday

I must be busy cause it's been awhile since I posted. My friend L asked if I was okay. I am, just busy with work I guess. And I had a cold too.

My design wall update is on the floor this week because the design wall is upstairs still and I'm too lazy to go up there.

Here are two more rows for the quilt for my niece

My blocks all seem to be off square and wonky - oh well. A little trimming goes a long way and hides a multitude of sins.

Head on over to Patchwork Times to see what everyone else is up to.

Design Wall Monday

I made great progress this weekend - I decided I'd worked at my job hard enough all week and that I needed some rest and play time.

I love having my sewing room on the main floor - it's so easy to slip over there and sew for a bit here and there. For some reason, going up the stairs before was a huge obstacle.

Here's what's on the design wall this week

This is all my progress to date; Row D and E of Dear Jane and the top row of the Animal Parade quilt for my niece

Close up of Animal Parade

Check out what everyone else is up to.

Design Wall Monday - Animal Parade

I just finished the final animal block for my niece's quilt - and since it's still Monday, I'm going to post it to Design Wall Monday.

I'm really happy with the way these turned out.

Sadly, I have to take this quilt down for now and get working on my Dear Jane or I won't have my summer homework finished - and I don't want a detention from the teacher.

I'll update you as soon as I can get back to this one.

Design Wall Monday

I've been working on the animal quilt for my niece and almost all of the applique is finished. I need a dark purple thread which I'll pick up on Wednesday this week and then I'll have almost all the blocks finished - I still need to do her name and find her hand print.

Here's what's on my design wall this week - the completely finished blocks

Check out Patchworktimes to see what everyone else is working on.

Wordless Update

Design Wall Monday

I'm making great progress on Animal Parade, a quilt for my niece who will turn 4 in October.

A few more blocks have more satin stitching finished around the applique:

This one is completely finished

some details on the butterflies and flower - just need eyes and mouths to be finished

I'm enjoying putting this quilt together and doing the satin stitching - it's not as tedious as I remember it being before.

Here's the overall picture:

I'm linking up to Patchworktimes - go check out what everyone else is up to this week.

Animal Parade Progress

I've made great progress since Monday. Over half the blocks have something satin stitched on them. None have eyes yet - for some reason I always leave that til the end.

Either purple or red thread is going in the machine next. My machine is making noises of protest so I'm going to see if I can get it service quickly.

I'm hooking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced - check out what everyone else is making.

Design Wall Monday

I've made some progress on my niece's quilt. All the animals are appliqued on - now to do the stitching around them. I still need to applique her hand print from when she was 2 - I just need to find it first.

rainbow

teddy

hippo

full design wall

 I'm linking to Patchworktimes design wall - click on over and see what everyone else is up to.

Animal Parade Applique

I have all the animals attached to the fabric so now I'm ready to stitch them on.
My friend L suggested I show exactly what I do to make these blocks so here goes:

1 - find a good image (since I can't draw that well); I use colouring pages I find on the internet and shrink or increase them in size as needed

2 - trace the image out on an adhesive product. I like Lite Steam A Seam 2 - it's tricky to find right now. If you want your image to be the same orientation as the original, trace from the wrong side of the image.

3 - adhere the steam a seam pieces to the fabric as needed. Then trim.

4 - layout the design. The steam a seam has a little tack to it so it will sit where I place it and is moveable until I iron it down. I use the original image as a guide to help with layout.

6 - add stitching lines to add definition - in this case it's the white chalk lines

7 - start satin stitching - I use a medium tear away stabilizer underneath to prevent waving. I use a bobbin weight thread (Wonderfil in this case) and a size 60 needle. I set my machine to zig zag with a stitch width of 2 and length of 0.2. I try to work from back to front in terms of depth - in this case I've done all the definition marks before going around the outside.

8 - some pictures of how close the needle is and how to do inside and outside curves. I set the needle to stop in the down position so I can move my fabric more easily. Going around tight curves is tricky and needs a lot of stop and start to keep the curve smooth.

9 - all finished - except the eye, throat, and tongue - and I might add a few teeth but not as many as the original picture - too fussy to do that. I'll do those when I have that colour thread in the machine. I use a little fray check on the back side to prevent the satin stitching from coming undone and try to overlap seams as much as possible to lock them in.

10 - Finally, tear away the stabilizer. I haven't done that yet because this guy isn't quite finished.

And there you have it. It looks a lot more complicated, when I see all the pictures, than it is to actually do it. It does take time and I like my results. The details add interest and make the little critters seem more alive

On a side note, I painted my front room this morning, had a shower, then went out for breakfast. Sometime when I wasn't watching my cat jumped onto the window ledge with fresh paint on it and she left kitty paw prints

thankfully the paint was only a bit tacky and not totally wet so nothing seemed to be stuck to her paws.

Later in the afternoon the kitty got up in her usual position

right where I'd painted - at least it was dry by this time.

I'm going to have to barricade this section tomorrow when I paint again so she doesn't get up there.