Finished Quilts

Posted on April 28, 2012 by RachelK — 1 Comment

Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt Pattern (Tutorial)

I am not sure if this is considered a pattern or a tutorial, I guess it’s a pattern since it ends with a finished product, but I always feel like when I just blog about it, I should call it a tutorial! Either way, my post about my Scrappy Irish Chain quilt is one of the more popular ones on my blog. I get quite a few Google hits from people looking for this type of quilt. The Original Post does not have an actual tutorial on it, so I thought I would make one up. This gave me a good excuse to test out EQ7 and some pattern writing skills too! My hope is to make some actual patterns to sell using EQ7, but of course first I have to have good practice with it. So you get the benefit of all my practice patterns! Here is the original quilt I made:

I only had black fabric at the time, but I love how it looks and it’s very different from other Irish Chains I have seen. I really should take the time to get some new pictures of it, but for now, I will just teach you how to make your own!

*One side note, this tutorial will have solid borders, but mine has pieced borders. I couldn’t figure out how put that together in EQ7, so I just stuck with the solid borders. Someday I will figure out how to describe the pieced borders for you.

Tip: When you are making a new pattern, I would highly suggest making a test of each block first to be sure that the instructions are correct before you cut into all your fabric. Pattern writers try their best to make no mistakes, but no one is perfect and it’s best to find out there is a mistake when you have only cut a small amount of fabric than after you cut it all. This also gives you the chance to test the technique and understand how it works before you have to assemble the whole thing.

Materials Needed
Based on fabrics that are 42 inches wide

3 Yards background fabric
3 Yards scrappy fabric

Finished Quilt Size
56.5 inches x 79 inches

Directions
This quilt is made up of 2 blocks.

Block A

Block B

We will be putting these two blocks together to form the whole quilt.

Assembling Block A

We will be making 35 of these blocks. Cut 140, 2-inch squares from the background fabric. From various scraps cut, 735, 2-inch squares.

For one block, you will need 4 pieces of background fabric, and 21 pieces of scrap fabric.

Refer to the image above for the correct placement of the pieces. When sewing try to press the seams for each row all in one direction. Then alternate the direction for each row, this will make assembling the rows much easier. Here is a guide for sewing.

BF=Background fabric
SF=Scrap Fabric
> or < = Direction to press seams Row 1
SF > SF > BF > SF > SF

Row 2
SF < SF < SF < SF < SF Row 3
BF > SF > SF > SF > BF

Row 4
SF < SF < SF < SF < SF Row 5
SF > SF > BF > SF > SF

Now sew the 5 rows together, I find it easier to sew in pairs rather than just adding one row at a time. Here is my method:

Step 1: Sew together 1 + 2; 3 + 4
Step 2: Sew together 3&4 + 5
Step 3: Sew the last 2 sections together

You will have 35, 7.5 inch blocks when you are done.

Assembling Block B

We will be making 35 of these blocks. Cut 70, 2 x 5 inch rectangles and 35, 5 x 8 inch rectangles from background fabric. From various scraps, cut 140, 2 inch blocks.

For one block, you will need 4 pieces of scrappy fabric, 2, 2 x 5 pieces of background fabric, and 1, 5 x 8 piece of background fabric.

Refer to the image above for the correct placement of the pieces. To each end of the 2 x 5 rectangle, sew one scrappy square. You will make 70 of these pieces. Take two of these, and sew them to each side of the 5 x 8 rectangles.

You will have 35, 7.5 inch blocks when you are done.

Assembling the Quilt

To assemble the blocks, you will be alternating the blocks in each row. There will be 7 blocks in a row, with each row starting with the opposite block as the one above it. Please refer to the picture as a guide, but here is a placement guide as well.

A B A B A B A
B A B A B A B
A B A B A B A
B A B A B A B
A B A B A B A
B A B A B A B
A B A B A B A
B A B A B A B
A B A B A B A
B A B A B A B

Once each row is assembled, sew them all together. Once again, I like to sew the rows together in pairs. This will make assembly much easier than sewing one row on at a time. Be sure to match up the seams as you are sewing as well. My method of sewing these rows together is as follows:

Step 1: Sew together 1 + 2; 3 + 4; 5 + 6; 7 + 8; 9 + 10
Step 2: Sew together 1&2 + 3&4; 5&6 + 7&8
Step 3: Sew together 5&6&7&8 + 9&10
Step 4: Sew the last 2 sections together

Assembling the Borders
For the borders, cut 7, 2.5 inch strips from background fabric, selvedge to selvedge. This will give you 7 strips approximately 42 inches long. Trim the actual selvedge part from all the strips, squaring up the ends in the process.

Take two strips and sew them together end to end to form a strip that is about 84 inches long. Repeat. You will now have 2, 84 inch strips. Sew these strips to the left and right sides of the quilt. The strips will be larger than the quilt on the top and bottom. When pinning, be sure to leave a little extra on each side for easing in. Start pinning the borders on in the middle of the quilt and work your way out. Be careful not to stretch the blocks as you are pinning. Once the borders are sewn on, trim the ends so they are square with the top and bottom of the quilt.

Take one more strip and cut it in half, sew each half to another strip forming two strips that are about 63 inches long. Attach these to the top and bottom of the quilt in the same manner as above.

And your top is done! Now just use your preferred method of basting, quilting, and binding your quilt. Then take a step back and enjoy all your hard work!

If there are any questions about this tutorial or if I have made any mistakes, please feel free to let me know! I considered turning this into a PDF as well, if that would be useful to anyone, let me know in the comments and I will get on that.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on April 25, 2012 by RachelK — 2 Comments

Quick, Easy, and Cuddly Quilt Finish

This has to be the absolute quickest finish I have had in a while. While we were at the local quilt store the other day, my son found this super soft nubby fabric. I know there is a good name for it, but I can’t think of it right now. It is usually used for the back of baby blankets, but my son just loved the feel of it. So I picked up a yard of it (it is 60 inches wide) and then 2 yards of fabric from the clearance rack as well.

This is a very simple quilt, no piecing. I pulled out one of my Puff battings, throw size I think, and laid it out flat. If your batting has a scrim side, be sure that side is face down.

Then layer the fabric for the top on the batting face up.

Then the last layer is the backing fabric. Place this one face down on all the layers.

Make sure everything is nice and stretched out and smooth. Be sure that your kitties are out of the room, or this might happen.

No worries though, kitty marks smooth out very easily. 🙂 🙂 If the edges of your top fabric are not straight, draw a line up each edge. This will be your sew line, so be sure it is at least 1/2 inch from the shortest edge of the fabric.

Pin through all three layers right along the line you drew. Pin all 4 sides, leaving an opening about 8 inches long or so on one side.

I started sewing this with my walking foot.

But found that my regular foot worked just as well. I didn’t do a very good job of spreading out my fabrics so I did get a bunch of tucks on the nubby fabric as I sewed (with both feet), but it really did not make a difference as because of the nap of the fabric you couldn’t see them at all.

Sew around all 4 sides leaving the 8 inch opening unsewn. Once you are done, clip the edges back to a 1/2 inch from the sew line, clip the corners a little closer, but do not cut through the stitching. Turn the quilt through the opening you left and push out the corners. Adjust everything so it lays flat. This is a weird photo, but you can see the corner turned out here.

Fold back the top and bottom fabrics a 1/2 inch and pin the opening closed.

Top stitch 1/4 inch from the edge all around 4 sides. You do not need to hand stitch the opening closed as this top stitching will close up the opening for you.

Once the top stitching is done, your quilt is finished and ready to be loved!

Sorry if this isn’t the most polished tutorial, I just tried my best to take pictures as I was making it, but didn’t really plan it our real well. LOL If you have any questions as you are trying it, be sure to ask! This is a very quick and simple quilt, I didn’t do any ties or quilting as I did not want to interfere with the softness of the nubby fabric.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on April 19, 2012 by RachelK — 12 Comments

Rainbow Quilt with Blended Fabrics

First off I want to say a big thank you to the two bloggers who joined me for my very first Virtual Sew Day. Leila, from Where the Orchids Grow and Mary, from Mary.Emmens were great fun to quilt with and seemed to get a lot of sewing done, which was the goal!! It was nice to not be talking to myself all day.

If you are interested in joining along next time, I plan to have another Virtual Sew Day on May 20th. This will be the weekend after the US Mother’s Day. It should be a lot of fun, so mark your calendars!!

The project I was working on was binding my rainbow quilt. I finally finished my quilt today. Here it is!

This quilt will be given to a friend of mine.

My friend organizes a luncheon that includes a raffle and silent auction each year for the breast cancer center he works for. Donations help raise money for women getting tested for or having to deal with breast cancer.

The back of this quilt is a floral print that I had in my stash, my quilter thought it might be a vintage sheet, which is quite possible since it was wider than normal. I have used sheets as backing many times and have always had good success.

Even though I have my own longarm, I knew this quilt needed something special done with it. Mary, over at Quilt Hollow was able to quilt my quilt with a wonderful flower pattern.

She fit me into her schedule and had the quilt back to me in record time since the function happens near Mother’s Day, I didn’t have much time to get it done. Here is a shot of the quilting from the back.

I took the quilt to this great park we have near us that used to be a zoo/amusement park. It was fun to get some different shots of the quilt.

As I said, this weekend for the Virtual Sew Day, I worked on the binding for this quilt. I chose some kona grey I had in my stash, I wasn’t sure how it would look, but I think it actually frames the quilt well.

I used my own binding tutorial for this one. I was going to machine stitch it to the back, but I decided to go ahead and take the time to hand tack it to the back.

I finally finished today. Now all I have to do is put a label on the quilt and it will be all done.

I know whoever wins this quilt will love and appreciate it. I will also be bidding on this quilt as, let’s be honest, I would love to keep it all for myself!! hehe

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

**ETA I just found out (like literally minutes after I posted this) that my friend is no longer with the breast cancer center, but he has moved on to Fundraising for the Boy Scouts. So it looks like the quilt will be staying with me for a while. I was only associated with this center through my friend, but no worries, this quilt will be loved, and perhaps one day will find a wonderful charity to help out. I am sad about this, but I have learned in life that all things happen for a reason.

Posted on June 28, 2011 by RachelK — 3 Comments

Dr. Seuss Baby Quilt

I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on personal projects lately, but recently I found out that a friend of mine was pregnant! Not only that, but she and her husband decided to quit their jobs and travel Europe for 2 months. Then they would be moving to New Zealand. She is from New Zealand, so I figured she would go back one day, but it was sad to see her go. I wanted to make her a little something before she left, so I decided a baby blanket would be fitting. Even though I still owe two very special people baby blankets, I was on a time crunch with her, so I whipped this one up in a day a few weekends ago.

I used my stash of Dr. Seuss fabrics, since the sex of the baby is still unknown. I figured Dr. Seuss is a pretty gender neutral theme.

The other fabrics in the quilt were what I had in my stash from other projects that never went anywhere. The grey on the front was supposed to be the backing to a quilt that will never get made. And the backing fabric is a lovely dot pattern. I had originally picked this fabric up to make a hand bag, but that project never panned out either. This piece of fabric was just the right fit for the quilt too. I didn’t have to seam it at all, which made the whole process so much quicker.

I meander quilted this on my longarm, and I think it turned out just lovely. I have always loved the look of a nice all over meander as it really ties everything together once the quilt is done. I really didn’t like the grey before quilting, but after, it just blends in so well.

I wasn’t sure what to do for the binding, so I decided to play it safe and went with the same grey I used in the top.

If you think you have seen this quilt before, it’s because I used the pictures of it as the example for my longarm quilting services, which you can read more about here. If you are interested in having one of your tops finished up this way, contact me about getting a 25% discount. Another bonus for getting the longarm services done with me, if you buy batting at the same time you will get a 10% discount on your batting. I can be reached at HappyQuilting at DewberryLane dot com.

I am very pleased with this little quilt, I even remembered to put a label on it!! That way all the New Zealanders will know that this quilt was handmade by someone in the US.

My friend seemed very pleased with the quilt, and I hope her new baby enjoys it as well. Now I must get my behind in gear and get to finishing up two more promised baby quilts.

Update: I now have this pattern for sale! You can buy it in my Craftsy shop here or on Etsy.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on May 31, 2011 by RachelK

We Have a Winner & a Finish!

Wowee!! Thank you so much to everyone that stopped by my blog for the Sew Mama, Sew Giveaway. I had well over 600 comments and many of you felt my blog was interesting enough to start following it. I really appreciate that. I used random.org to pick a winner on Friday, and have contacted them. The big winner was Leah, who had this to say:

“My most treasured quilting tool is my rotary cutter for sure. We are the best of friends, spending almost every day together. She has only nicked me once and I forgave her. After all, we are BFFs :)”

Congratulations!! The awesome thing is that Leah was actually comment #1 on my blog!! Who says that being the first to comment means you won’t win? I will be sending your prize out tomorrow Leah!

So this weekend was Memorial Day weekend. My husband was in the military, so we always take time to remember those men that we knew that have fallen. We are very blessed that many of the men we were friends with are safe at home with their families now, but sadly a few were not so lucky. If you didn’t take the time to silently thank our soldiers yesterday, please try to remember to do that today.

It was a pretty productive weekend for me actually. Since I got back from MQX, I have been bound and determined to figure out the problem with my longarm machine. I was having issues where it would freeze up and completely stop if I slowed down too much while sewing. This, of course, really makes it hard to have sharp points, because you have to slow down a bit to get those. Additionally I was having lots of issues with eye-lashing thread on the backs of my quilts. This is very frustrating as I purchased the machine with the hope of quilting for others eventually, but if I can’t get these issues fixed, there is no way I would put anyone else’s quilt on there!

So I sat down on Saturday and did some research on Google to see if I could find some fixes. There were a few suggestions for the whole stopping when I slow down thing, which I did. Then for the eye-lashing, I pulled out my new tension gauges and figured out how to check the proper tension for my top and bottom threads. I put in a new needle, and crossed my fingers. I threw a quilt that my son helped me create and just went to town.

I was super surprised to find that all my issues were fixed! The machine still has a little bit too much vibration, but I think that may be because my table isn’t quite level.

For the quilting, I tried a simple design that I learned from my MQX class. I was able to get pretty sharp points, and when I slowed down to make them, the machine kept plugging along. I need to work on slowing down overall to help keep my stitches more consistent, but I am very excited for what I have already been able to do!

This is the back of the quilt, I know many people would think I am crazy to put ‘Cars’ on the back of this beautiful front, but this is 100% my son’s quilt. He picked the fabric for the front, he picked the pattern, I made the blocks themselves, but he did the placement of them. So he got to pick the backing, and he picked this cars sheet I picked up from a thrift shop.

I went with a simple brown fabric for the binding. I figured that would help keep the front looking nice and separate it from the backing.

Seeing the backing and the front together does make me cringe and smile at the same time. It makes me cringe because it is such a beautiful, grown-up front, and the back is such a kid-quilt backing. But it makes me smile too because it is just so my son to combine these two things.

I am still practicing on my quilting, but I have my meander down pretty good. I am hoping to be able to offer my services to others pretty soon. I will probably just focus on doing a simple meander for people, which will keep the costs really low. I will keep you updated on this if anyone is interested in my services.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on May 13, 2011 by RachelK — 56 Comments

Online Quilt Festival

If you are new to my blog, welcome!! If you have been here before, thank you for visiting again!! Today I am very glad to be participating in the bi-annual online Quilt Festival hosted by Amy’s Creative Side.

All around the web, quilters will be posting pictures of a quilt they have made and sharing the story behind it. They then post the link to their quilt on Amy’s blog, and are entered into a drawing for a chance to win some pretty fabb-o prizes from Amy’s sponsors. I am happy to say that Dewberry Lane is one of Amy’s proud sponsors!

We have donated 2, $25 dollar store gift certificates, which you could win! Just visit Amy’s blog to see all the details.

Dewberry Lane is a brand new online store that specializes in all your non-fabric quilting needs. May is our Grand Opening month! We are hosting all kinds of giveaways around the interwebs, so if you want to be kept up to date on those, be sure to follow this blog.

We also have a newsletter that helps keep you up to date on our specials and new items in the store. You can sign up for the newsletter on the left-hand side of the store itself … (Click here). All of our newsletter subscribers are automatically entered into a monthly drawing for a free pattern every month, so be sure to sign up for a chance to win!

We also have a coupon code that is good for 10% off! Just use Festival when checking out.

Now on to the good stuff! My quilt.

This is a very special quilt to me. I normally only make quilts for my husband and my son, so there aren’t very many chances to use pink. When I won this stunning Riley Blake fat quarter pack from Stash Manicure, I knew I had to make something special for myself.

Finding just the right pattern to show off those fabrics was not easy. I have been saving this one in particular pattern in my files for some time now. It is a free pattern from Ashley of Film in the Fridge called Unfurnished.

It had all the elements I wanted, a little bit wonky, easy to make, and it would show off the fabrics perfectly. I was able to whip this quilt top up in less than 2 days. Here is the finished top:

With the leftover fabric, I even made a few little bags to hold some Halloween treats.

It took me about 4 months to actually do the quilting on this top. I had it on my longarm, but I just didn’t have the time to actually finish it up. In February, I finally said enough was enough and I chose a simple quilting pattern, which finished up in less than 2 hours. I just chose to do lines of loops for this one. I really like how it looks with the vertical dimensions of the top.

The backing was a beautiful sheet I found at the thrift shop, I love this fabric so much. I think it fits the quilt perfectly.

I only got to use the quilt for about a month before my son claimed it as his own. He has an obsession with blankets and quilts and isn’t too picky about what they look like. Unfortunately he also decided to use a marker one day and left the cap off right on my quilt. So now I have these lovely red splotches of marker on my quilt. Luckily it’s washable marker, so it should come right out (I haven’t had time to actually do it yet), but it makes me cringe every time I look at it.

I hope you had fun looking at my quilt. Be sure to hop over to Dewberry Lane and sign up for our newsletter to be entered into our monthly drawing for a free pattern! Don’t forget to use the coupon code Festival while you are there, to get 10% off.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on November 3, 2010 by RachelK — 2 Comments

Baby Blanket

This is my son’s baby blanket.

I made this 7 years ago when my son was born. Ihonestly knew very little (make that, next to nothing) about quilting at the time. I had only made a few other quilts before this one, so I decided to use a pattern that was simple to make and that I had used before. The pattern is called ‘Yellow Brick Road’. I would highly recommend it for beginners.

At the time, I didn’t know how to do a regular binding so I wrapped the backing to the front on all my quilts.

The backing was a cute dinosaur fabric that I had, and I still have pieces of that hanging around my house.

Here’s the part of the story that I am completely ashamed of though. This was not the first blanket I made. I put together another quilt, one that had much cuter fabrics than this one. I had the top finished, I basted the backing, batting, and top and then attempted to quilt it on my domestic machine. The thing was, I didn’t have a walking foot, didn’t know I needed one, so the quilt ended up all bunchy and weird looking because it wasn’t feeding through right. No big deal right? Just unpick and tie it like I had all my other quilts right? Well stupid, stupid me didn’t realize that unpicking was even an option. I threw the whole thing away. Yes, you heard me right. Only because my machine sewing was bad, I chucked this great quilt in the trash. I did not even remember this story until I took pictures of this quilt to share with all of you and the horror came flooding back to me. I absolutely cannot believe I was so stupid. I can only hope that someone way smarter than me rescued the quilt from the trash and unpicked it, like I should have, and made some child happy with it.

Even though I detest frogging, I certainly would have done it instead of wasting so much fabric and batting. I do not even have pictures of the first quilt, but I do remember that the fabrics were more boyish. I wanted the quilt done before he was born, so the I just grabbed whatever fabrics I had on hand. I can absolutely promise you I have never thrown away another quilt. My son loves this quilt, though he is not attached to it like a lot of children are to their blankies. I had a blankie that was basically rags by the time I was his age. He doesn’t ‘need’ this to sleep, but he will sleep with it. In fact he’ll sleep with it and 10 other quilts. He doesn’t have one favorite blanket, they are all his favorites.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on October 29, 2010 by RachelK — 11 Comments

My Christmas Quilt

I thought it might be fun to participate in Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival today.

This is Amy’s fourth Quilt Fesitval, and I have always enjoyed looking at all the inspiration. This year I have a blog, so why not participate!? If you click on the banner above, you will be taken to the post about how the quilt festival works and also get to see all the other blogs that are participating and sharing a quilt that they love.

So without furhter ado, my entry is a Christmas quilt I have. This quilt was finished about two years ago. I was seeing Christmas quilts around the web, and I felt inspired to make something with a little bit of red and green. I went out and bought the fabrics and put together the whole quilt, start to finish, in about two weeks.

The pattern I used is called ‘Stacked Coins’. It’s a really simple pattern where you sew short strips of fabric together, one on top of the other. I used a peppermint fabric to bind the quilt (kind of hard to see here, sorry).

I used a penguin flannel for the back. The fabric I had ended up being just a tad short, so I pieced a strip to go in the middle to make everything fit right.

My son loves this quilt, and I sometimes have to remind him that it’s not really his. Though if he were to press the point, he would probably get it anyway. My son has an obsession with blankets, the more the merrier for him. He can often be seen sleeping under up to 10 blankets and quilts at night! I’m not complaining though, at least I know the quilts I make are truly loved.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on October 17, 2010 by RachelK — 5 Comments

Giveaway Winner & My Stripey Quilt

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful comments on my first giveaway. The captions everyone came up with were simply awesome. I had a blast looking through them, but had such a hard time narrowing down my favorites.

Here are my top 10 favorite captions (In no particular order):
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Kitty on a Hot Pinned Roof from Paulette
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Yuck! I guess she must have said “quilt basting” not “quilt tasting!” from Riel
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Ancient Chinese Kitty Toture from Karie
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CAN YOU HAZ ANY MOAR PINZ?!?!? from Brittainy
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Hmmm…now, where is the spot that will maximize destruction? WOMAN, KNOW WHO YOU’RE DEALING WITH! from Dot
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Ummmm….no bologna….no cheese. Quilt sandwich? I think not…. from Kim
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But I thought the song said Follow the YELLOW brick road?!?!? from Kristin
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Ciao, you must place the remaining safety pins in their proper position. No lifelines and you must complete this level. Remember you have A MINUTE TO WIN IT! Ciao, your time starts now! from Nancy Sue Phillips
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Here we have the native feline stalking the ever present pin bug. Watch now as it slowly stalks its prey. Those pin bugs can be quite a handful for the felines. from Mel
______________________________________________________________

If only I could train Ciao to bind as well as he pins from Jackie W
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All the entries were so creative!! I am blown away with what you guys were able to come up with, but I could only choose one as my winner. The reason I chose the winner is because we are a joking family. We are always teasing each other and joking around. A few years ago my husband taught my son to call me ‘woman’. You have not lived a day until you hear your 4 year old say “Woman make me dinner!” LOL Of course this was all meant in fun from my husband, and I think it is hilarious. (Though we have had to have the talk about when it is appropriate to call me this, it’s a little embarassing when he says it in the middle of Wal-Mart!! Oh and that he should NEVER call any other woman this as some may not think it is funny at all.) So with that reason, the winning caption came from Dot:

Hmmm…now, where is the spot that will maximize destruction? WOMAN, KNOW WHO YOU’RE DEALING WITH!

I also used the random generator to come up with the second winner. All comments left counted for the drawing, minus any duplicate posts. There were 309 comments left and the winner of the random drawing is Billie K from Billies Bee Blog with a post of:

Who’s been sleeping on my blanky???

Billie

Once again thanks to all my commenters and thanks to those who found my little blog interesting enough to add me to your follow list. I am truly honored and hope I can live up to it!! I will email the winners to get your snail mail address.

I thought I would show you a better picture of the quilt from my caption picture. I used the stripey quilt tutorial to make this one. I had initially made it to use at work since I was always cold, but then I switched jobs to an office where it wouldn’t be appropriate to have it, so now it just gets balled up and loved at our house (hence all the wrinkles!).

If you hang around my blog long enough, you will find that blue and orange is a common theme for me. This quilt was bound in a bright orange solid fabric.

The backing I used was just a big piece of fabric I had hanging around. It was kind of a stretchy material, so it wouldn’t have been suitable for using in a top.

This quilt was quick and easy to make, and I do plan on making another quilt using this method again soon. If you haven’t seen this before, be sure to check out my quick tutorial.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on October 6, 2010 by RachelK — 3 Comments

Monkey Quilt

About a month ago I finished my second official quilt on my new longarm machine.

This is another top that was purchased from a woman on the quilting board I visit. I was also able to buy the cutest banana fabric for the backing from her, so all I had to do on this one was get it on the machine.

Here it is fresh off the machine.

This quilt went to a friend’s son who had his first birthday last month. I wanted to customize the quilting to make it more special than a quilt that could be bought at a store. Plus it gave me the chance to practice my skills on the long arm machine. The overall design of the quilting I went with was loops. This gave me something different to try from the meandering I did on the horse quilt, plus I think it’s a little bit more fun for a baby quilt.

I also put a few hearts in the quilting. This added a little bit of the extra customization I was going for and I think they look very cute framed by the brown blocks.

The last thing I did was I quilted her son’s name right into the design. I was a little scared to do this as I have heard that some people have a lot of trouble doing letters, and I knew if I screwed up I would have to unsew, and I think I have made my feelings on unsewing pretty clear. But I kept the letters nice and big and luckily his name is pretty easy to write in cursive. I think it actually came out really good.

Here is a shot of the back with the banana fabric.

This quilt was a lot of fun to make and it was great practice for a little extra customization using my longarm. Here is a full shot of the front of the quilt.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel

Posted on September 26, 2010 by RachelK — 1 Comment

Horse Quilt Finish

I was finally able to take some pictures of my first finished quilt on my long arm! This top was made by a woman on a quilting board I visit. She was clearing out her sewing room and lucky for me I was able to pick up 11 finished tops from her. I bought the tops to practice my longarm skills on before I move on to my own quilts, but the tops are so beautiful I can’t just let them languish at my house once I have practiced on them! I am sure I will be able to find a happy home for each one, and the best part is the quilt is still completely homemade even if it wasn’t all done by me.

Here is a picture of the quilt just off my long arm:

This is a close up of the stitching, it’s a little blurry, but you can see I just did a basic meander.

This is what the backing looks like. I was able to pick up a bunch of fabric from a local quilt store for a killer price since she was trying to clear out her shelves. That was great for me since I needed a bunch of fabric to use for backings for all these practice tops I have.

I was able to get the binding on this one quickly since it isn’t too big. Here is a full shot of the finished quilt.

This quilt was given to my mother since she has a love for horses. She loved the quilt, but I had to tell her that she should actually use and abuse it!! I do not make heirloom quilts, I love to see my designs loved and used. Nothing makes me happier. These shots were taken at her barn.

Happy Quilting!
Rachel