The Twister Baby Quilt is Finished!

 I finally finished the binding on my Twister baby quilt!  While waiting for my Large Twister Ruler to come in I decided to try a tutorial I found online to make your own Twister ruler.  I used 8.5" squares and used my 6.5" square ruler to cut it up again.  Honestly ~ the Twister rulers are much easier to use than the 6.5" square LOL!  The little grippy feet on the bottom of the ruler make life much easier when it comes to re-cutting the quilt top since it holds the ruler above the seams so it doesn't shake or rock.  I would buy a 6.5" Twister ruler if it became available though because I like the size of these blocks.

I used my Accuquilt Go! cutter to cut up some of the left-overs into stars to go in the boarder.  I think that it really high-lights the stars in the blue fabric, and, joy! it uses up some of the scraps!!  Gotta love those artistic opportunities that a quilt technique can present you with!  I used a button-hole stitch to machine applique the stars down and just love them!  My Go! is making me like applique again!!  This was one of the main reasons that I bought the Go!  To fall in love with applique again.

Here's a close-up of the machine quilting I did in the pin-wheels.  I pretty much just tried to emulate the quilting that they did in the book and I love it!  I love to quilt feathers and I love the way that they look so it seemed like a match made in heaven!  All-in-all, though, it makes for a pretty densly quilted baby quilt; but, the batting is so soft so it's not stiff and heavy.  This is just a bit more quilting than I usually do.

I plan to re-do this pattern and use the Large Twister Ruler to do a nine-patch of pin-wheels instead of a 16-patch and see how I like that.  I already have the fabrics pulled from my stash; and, I tell you, it was all I could do to force myself to sit down and finish this binding before I cut into the next fabrics!  Some days my self-restraint is better than others LOL!

So what are you all working on this weekend?

Twin Baby Quilts and a New Rug hooking Project

I'm starting a new rug hooking project Woohoo!! A friend of mine designed this and let me trace this out onto burlap so that I could hook this. I thought that it would look amazing on the bench right inside the door to my sewing room. The outer boarder is the largest that it can be so I'll have to see if this rug gets a boarder at all after I hook the center LOL! I think some nice bright colours for the tulips and a mottled blue for the sky would look cheerful and welcoming. If I can do a little boarder I might try the bead-stitch using two colours to give it a bit of pizazz. I finished drawing this last night ~ I only had the straight lines of the boarder to do but that is the least fun part of drawing a pattern I find so I think that's why I put it off.

I found this little video on Gene Shepherd's blog and thought that I would share it with you. It is Gayle Burton talking about Rug Hooking on her local news channel. Her work is amazing and the video is definitely worth a watch! She has a beautiful series of stair-kicks that I just love ;)

I've also finished two more baby quilts for twin boys! I just love the light blue and brown colour combination that is popular now. Brown is such a soothing colour ~ but I know that some people find it too drab for baby quilts. I am sure that the parents will like these ones though ;) And, yes I know, I know, I did the 4-patch 1-patch baby quilt again ~ but I just love that pattern! I am even now in the process of making another one of these quilts, as a commission, so you'll be seeing at least one more in this pattern. I may have to find another favorite baby quilt pattern soon. This one is out of my favorite baby quilt book by Ursula Reikes Quilts for Baby: Easy as ABC. It is a great book that I highly recommend as it is full of simple, usable and beautiful patterns.

Do any of you have a baby quilt pattern book that you just love that you might recommend to me?

Vampire Baby Quilt

Hi all! I finished another baby quilt lol. It seems that's about all that I do sometimes. Don't get me wrong I'm not complaining, I love making baby quilts, but, I need to start quilting something else again lol!

This baby quilt is for a friend that really likes Vampires a lot!! I ordered the vampire fabric online, via eBay, and, the rest of the fabrics are out of my stash. Vampire fabric that is child-like is actually pretty hard to find. Most of them were pretty vicious looking and that's not what I wanted for a baby quilt :) My husband suggested the attic windows setting to make great use of the bats at twilight fabric. I think that he made a great suggestion b/c it really looks like you are looking out of a window at twilight! I used the setting from the "More Quilts for Baby" book but I actually did a traditional attic windows block instead of the easy attic windows using a half-square triangle. I didn't have a lot of the great web fabric and the y-seam allowed me to actually use less fabric than the half-square triangles. Sometimes the harder route is the best route :)

I hope that they like the quilt!

Yet Another Baby Quilt! I Am on a Roll!

Yey! I finished turning the binding to the back on this baby quilt last night while we watched a movie!

I know, I know this is yet another 4-patch 1-patch baby quilt but I just love that pattern! This is the absolute last of the baby bali fabrics that I bought a few years ago. I bought about 1 meter of each of the two baby bali's that my LQS had in and I wish now that I had purchased about 3 meters of each as they are sooooo wonderful! The colours can suit a boy or a girl, although this quilt is going to a girl, and, because they are batiks they are wonderful to work with and press like a dream! I backed this quilt in a mottled yellow flannel fabric to be nice and cuddly. I would have made it longer like the baby quilt in my previous blog post; but, like I said, I honestly don't have anymore of the batiks left! LOL! It is still about 36" square however.

Now to peel off the baby fabric that I had put on another UFO and replace it with something less babyish so that it can be used as a table-topper. I was going to use a UFO as a baby quilt but it really isn't very babyish. It could be used as a baby quilt but I think that if I put something more genaric on the back it may be more appealing. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow maybe.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!