THE MAKING OF A BABY CLOTHES QUILT - part 5

Today I'll show you how I trim the framed blocks and assemble the "sandwiches". It's all sewing from here on.

The finished blocks need to be 9.5" square so I use my handy-dandy 9.5" square ruler to trim all the blocks. This ensures that all the blocks are the same size and have a straight edge all the way around. It's pretty easy if you find the center of each side and align the 4.75" mark with them. I center everything on the clothing square.

On this quilt I used two layers of flannel on the back. I always use one layer for the middle, but this customer wanted an especially cuddly quilt so we went with flannel for the back layer, too.

After assembling the "sammies" I put a couple of pins in to keep everything in line until they can be sewn together.

Then I stitch around the "ditch" where the frame is sewn to the square. This makes the stitching about invisible on the front. And it makes a nice square pattern on the back. Usually a rag quilt is sewn with an X, but that won't work with this type of quilt.

In the final installment, I'll show how I sew the blocks together and you can see the completed quilt. Thanks for your interest in this process and my quilts.

ROUND ROBIN III

Here's Round Robin Quilt number 3 as I received it. It is for my friend, Lynn, one of my Texas buddies. I think this quilt reflects her sweet personality perfectly. I just love all the pastel florals. Again, I love the pinwheel blocks, too! I'm going to have to work on mine so I can include them in future quilts. The original block is the pinwheel with the first row of squares. Next is how it looked after I added a row of squares in pastel florals in pink, blue and yellow. The hardest part of doing these round robin quilts is getting your addition to come out even when you're piecing it. Measuring and computing are not my strong suits, but this one came out pretty well. Here's a pic of Lynn's finished quilt. Isn't just precious? It looks so snuggly and pretty. The variety of prints is just astounding. I know that Lynn is very happy with her new quilt, too.

ROUND ROBIN I

Since I posted about my round robin quilt, I thought I would show the progression of the other round robins that passed thru my sewing machine. It's an interesting process to be sure.

The first block I received was from our group leader, an experienced quilter. I mean she has a quilt shop and teaches classes!! Talk about pressure! After thinking long and hard I came up with a simple block pattern in two tones of blue, to pick up the blue in the starter block. I didn't think of taking the "before and after" shots til round robin quilt 2, but below is a picture of the finished quilt.


The light block in the middle was the orignal lock and I added the blue squares. The other participants finished it off with mostly 30's reproduction fabrics. It turned out really cute, don't you think?

BABY CLOTHES PILLOW COVERS

Here are the two travel pillow covers I made to match the last two baby clothes quilts. For the front I just made two four-patch blocks and framed them with the same fabrics I used in the quilts. For the blue/green one I used the green for the framing and then the blue for the back.

blue/green front

blue/green back

For the pink one I used the backing fabric for the framing and made the back from some of the flannel receiving blanket my client asked me to use in both quilts.

pink front


pink back

The great thing about these pillow covers is that they are removeable and washable! It was totally my client's idea and I think they will look so cute with the quilts.

NEW BABY CLOTHES QUILT

I just finished another baby clothes quilt and I think it's the best one yet! Of course I feel that way about just about every project. My client and I had to compromise on the backing color and I think it turned out great. My client wanted green as it's the recipient's favorite color, but I thought blue would be better as most of the fabrics were in or had some shade of blue. So we compromised by using both and I just love it!!!

One of my favorite things about making these quilts is making appliques out of some of the embroidery on these clothes. I also try to transfer any cute little pockets, too. So much fun!

Here are some pictures of the quilt. And, of course, it's even better in person!

front

Love the dinosaur!!

Pockets and puppies

Back

I'm now working on one more quilt for this wonderful client and this one is for a girl with lovely shades of pink. I'm hoping to get it finished by the end of the weekend and will post pics as soon as I can.

NEW ETSY LISTING

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've posted a listing in my Etsy store for a custom baby clothes quilt. Followers of my blog can get a 10% discount on any item in my store. Just convo me and let me know what you've purchased or are interested in. www.grandmabarbara.etsy.com

WHEW!!

Sorry to have been away so long, but I've been busy, ok? I did a floor to ceiling cleaing of the kitchen, breakfast area and laundry nook. It was a lot of work, took me four days, but I must say everything looks really nice. I took everything out of the cabinets and managed to weed out alot of stuff. By the time I was done I had nearly two big boxes of stuff to go to the charity shop.

Since the kitchen was all clean and neat, I decided I would install a new kitchen faucet. The old was was leaky so it was time. I did that yesterday. I had forgotten what a chore working under the kitchen sink can be! There's so much to work around besides the pipes. Like the diswasher connection and the garbage disposal. I don't know how these big men plumbers do it. It took several hours, a cut finger and scraped knuckles, but it's done!! And it looks so nice. Works great, too!! Well, except for the sprayer. It works great, but isn't totally secure. I need someone to hold the top down while I go under the sink to screw down the nut that keeps it down My arms just aren't long enough to do both. I even tried locking pliers, but there's just not much to hold on to so I'll wait for visitors.

The weather has turned hot, hot, hot!!! That's the usual norm for Houston, but it's a couple of weeks early. And we need rain really bad!! If you have rain in your area, could you please send some of it down this way? My water bill is going to go thru the roof!! And tap water isn't all that good for the lawn either.

Mr. Squirrel is still visiting, but mostly in the backyard. For the third time already they've chewed thru the cord of the smaller bird feeder. I tried putting hot sauce on it last time, but I guess it's worn off. I need to see if I can find some light, flexible wire this time. I don't mind them eating the seed, but I wish they wouldn't demolish the feeders!!!

Today is Sunday and I'm trying to take it easy and recover from yesterday's work. Who knew plumbing would use so many different muscles!?!? I'm hoping to get the last blocks for my strip quilt done today so I'd better get to it.

And I want to say thank you to everyone who reads my blog. I love looking on the FeedJit feed and see where everyone is coming in from. Amazing!!! Thanks for visiting and please leave a comment, if you want to.

QUILT PROJECT UPDATE

I now have my patriotic disappearing nine-patch quilt all sewn together and ready to clip. Hopefully I'll get that done and have pictures in a couple of days. It's really coming together nicely. I've used denim on the back with white flannel in the middle for a little punch.

Another great thing has come out of this project - I now have figured out where to put my temporary design wall. I bought a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth at Walmart a while back, but with little spare wall space, I couldn't figure out where to put it. Yesterday I was in the small entry hall I have and the proverbial light bulb came on. On the one wall without a door I had hung my first quilt project - an Ohio Star wallhanging. I have it on a dowel, hanging from a couple of cup hooks. I thought, "ok, I can work with this." I found a longer, narrower dowel, attached the tablecloth with some safety pins and hung it on the cup hooks. Just the right amount of space and good lighting, too. Here are a couple of "before and after" pics.

This is the wall as usual with wall hanging.

This is the "design wall" with patriotic quilt inital layout.

DISAPPEARING NINE PATCH PROJECT

I should have started taking pictures of this project sooner, but, oh well!! I'm making two totes from a charm pack from MODA of the "Gypsy Rose" collection by Joanna Firueroa of Fig Tree Quilts. This is a beautiful collection of fabrics with soft, rich colors and sort of boho florals and prints. This project used 36 of the 38 squares in the collection. Not enough for even a small throw quilt, but good for two mini totes. The lining will be a very pale shell pink floral. I'm not sure about pockets, but there should be at least one interior pocket. I also need to come up with something for the straps. Anyway, this is a picture of the four blocks I created. I really love this look and I'm sure I'll try it again. I want to thank Fabricsnquilts for the tutorial she posted in our Quilters Corner Group. You can also find other tutorials/instructions on the net. It's a very easy way to make very interesting blocks.