Many quilters look at baby and child quilts as the perfect avenue to go easy and do an edge-to-edge. I am not so lucky, most days! My clients send me quilts to do because of my custom quilting. So, I get to make all the sweet baby quilts look fantastic. These are actually jobs that are super fun to quilt because they are on and off in under a day. The ones here took me on the order of 4 hours each, give or take. They are actually a little lighter on the quilting than I often do, but this makes for a very drapable and snugly quilt.
This one is for Jan, a very prolific quilter from Napa. She is often sending baby quilts as well as others. Her typical quilt though, is appliqued. This one has just a touch of applique - the birdies and some text. Applique this large would benefit from having either a puffier batting or stitching on the applique, BUT...there is piecing underneath 2 of the birds, so I opted not to stitch on them. I personally, remove the back fabric, but I am reluctant to do this to someone else's quilt. They are still very cute.
I chose a simple triple stitch/argyle effect on the gray squares. Though not clear, the stitching lines are both white and pink.
Here's a look at the back, which is mostly a lighter fabric. Pretty, gentle texture. I love a densely quilted quilt, but really, not all need this, and not all want to pay for that. Simple and pretty is enough.
Here's a second quilt, but for a Maine lady. It is relatively simple too. It's basic so that the fabrics and quilting can show.
The one thing I had to do was something interesting in that gray rectangle. We agreed on quilting some of the animals from the fabric in an aqua thread. I made templates from a cereal box, using Press-n-Seal. I think I have shown you this (if not, then it is a good tutorial for another day).
Here's a closeup of Dumbo...
And the hippo...
I discovered rather early in the quilting process that I was probably short on my budget (ie, her max cost was in jeopardy if I just quilted as desired!). Two reasons for this were the two flanges I had to deal with (yes they are as big a pain as you might think!), and she asked me to center a panel on the backing. I gobbled up 1/4 of my budget before I had taken a stitch! I had to get creative with the patterns to make the most of my time.
But...I am a sucker, and rather than doing fast feathers, I started with the overlapping swirls in the white area. They were not nearly as fast as I hoped! My problem, not hers. I chose something a bit simpler, and geometric for the large panels of animal and dot fabrics. Often prints look best with a simple/geometric quilting, as it does not compete with the prints. Clamshells was ideal.
The border is a 1"-1/4" bead board, which stitches reasonably quick, and looks fantastic on outer borders. It, too, does not compete with the polka-dots. Here is my back...YES - it is actually centered. I don't do that everyday, and I did warn the client it might not be perfectly centered. It is flannel and super soft.
So, I am down to just a few quilts in my studio, but they are doozies. There's a large Neimeyer star, a big custom of another pattern, and another Ladies of the Sea. Not sure if I will conquer these before January, but it does feel good to have all but 2 of my XMAS quilts done, and most of the smaller stuff finished.
I have to return to getting my teaching goodies ready next, as well as a show quilt that may or may not be ready for MQX. The quilting is still not finished. My personal motivation is largely to blame. I am writing patterns for a couple of quilts - boy who knew how much work that would be?!? You probably think I forgot about the hexagons. Not a chance - They are just about to get the backing pieced so I can have some hand applique to do. I want that quilt ready for the fall shows.
...sigh, the crazy lady clearly has her head in the cloud.
Quilt on, friends!
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