Mr. Fox

I was lucky to be able to take part in the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap round 14. I had so much fun being snoopy and trying to figure out what my partner would like. I was inspired and decided to with a design that was a little more fun than serious.

I was inspired by Pile O’Fabrics cross stitch block tutorial. This little block could be turned into so many cute designs. I had a vision of a little fox made with all different orange fabrics. I had one problem though there was no way I had 39 different orange prints. Luckily some lovely ladies (locally and not so locally) donated some of their orange scraps to my vision which helped me to create the most handsome Mr.Fox ever! Okay maybe I am bias. He also has 10 different low volume prints and 4 text prints mixed in with those 39 prints, that is a lot of fabric for a little quilt.

 

You might notice that my blocks are a little smaller than the tutorial. I used 1.5” squares and 4ish” by 1.5” strip. The linen was about 1.75 (I left it the original size in the tutorial). I squared them off to 2 3/8” so sewn they are approx 1.75”. This quilt ended up being 20” by 19.5”  for some reason it isn’t quite square. Oh well.

I decided to hand quilt because I didn’t want the quilting to take away from the design. I used an Aurifil orange variegated thread in 28wt. 

I even made my very first ever label. Sure it was just with a Sharpie and Heat n Bond but I am proud of myself, lol.

 

This quilt will be heading to its new home in a little bit. I have loved making it. I hope he makes you smile :) Everything came together so nicely and I really really hope my partner loves him!

Linking to Needle and Thread Thursday and Finish it up Friday

WIP and a little finish

December is the month of lots of sewing but not much blogging. Some of my family read my blog so their projects are off limits for blogging at the moment…

I can show you some little things I have been up too though. I am taking part in the Doll Quilt Swap on Flickr, which I am super super excited about! I snooped and then snooped some more and then came up with a cross stitched fox for my partner. I was lacking some orange but some lovely ladies helped me out with some extras! I love this community! Here is a progress shot. I am hoping he will be very handsome!

 

I still have a lot of blocks to sew but so far so good ;) I used Pile O’Fabrics cross-stitch block tutorial but it is a little modified because I needed the blocks a little smaller. I am trying to figure out his ear tips and eye though. Should the eyes be the same print? how about his ears? hmmmm. What do you think?

My little finish is some sweet dumpling pouches. I decided to give Quilt As You Go a try! I have to say that QAYG is a lot of fun. I thought these would make a great “just because” gifts. Although I had to “fix” up one (darn a couple little holes caused by unpicking. I put the zip in upside down, oops) so my sister is getting my damaged goods ;)

I really enjoyed making these. You can find the pattern for these here. I used the harder pattern which is about 4” along the bottom.

Linking to WiP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

My Little Designer

Shortly after Miss L. broke her arm she designed a quilt on paper and brought it to me asking if we could make it for her Rapunzel stuffy. At first I hesitated since I did not have the fabrics she wanted but I decided that I didn’t want to crush her enthusiasm. (I may have been feeling sorry for her since she had broken her arm) Needless to say we did a little shopping at Pink Castle Fabrics. She wanted Yellow and Purple with a yellow bird on the purple side and a purple bird on the yellow side. We found the perfect yellow and purple combo fabric! Beechwood Park by Jenean Morrison

Here is her design:

She was thrilled when her fabric arrived. She and I planned a little bit more then I told her that I would make her birds after she went to bed. I paper pieced them using this pattern.  The next morning the birds were done and we cut the rest of the pieces for the quilt top and she helped sew the seams by pressing the presser foot.

Apparently there were some things that I did not see the way she did but in the end she was happy.

Again after she went to bed I quilted it. I tried some Free Motion Quilting Loops. My stitches are far from prefect but she is four she doesn’t care. I also attached the binding by machine with a zig zag going around the quilt twice. This way was  just quicker and I knew she wouldn’t have the patience for me to hand sew it for her. Although I suppose it would have been a good learning experience for her.

I hope we continue to have projects to work on together. The final touch was button eyes for the birds. (There are two birds the yellow one is kinda hard to see since she wanted them both to have purple little flower wings. I wanted to sew this little bird all yellow but this was not my project)

Here is the final Mommy and Me Mini Quilt. She is pretty happy with it! Btw her cast comes off soon too. Yay!

And some close ups:

Final size is approx. 16.5” by 16.75” 

linking to finish it up friday at crazy mom quilts and Ellison Lane’s Modern Mini Challenge.

Simply Color Pinwheel Doll Quilt

I can finally share this finish! I love how this little quilt turned out!

I made Miss L a baby doll quilt to match her Pow Wow blanket for Christmas. These pinwheels came from all the scraps that were cut off of the Pow Wow blocks! I had a few struggles with it but in the end it was worth it. The quilt is about a 22 inch square.

Since I had cut the Pow Wow blocks out of a layer cake I also had some three inch scraps. So I decided to use them as the backing although it was not quite enough but luckily I had a few other pieces of simply color hanging around.

Little Miss L decided she likes the back better than the front but that is alright with me. Here are a few pictures from Christmas morning. Miss E loves her butterfly doll quilt  as soon as she unwrapped it she needed to find her baby and put her baby to bed. So sweet!

Dancing/Rocking with their babies. I love these little girls!

linking to finish up friday at crazy mom quilts.