Thursday, June 21, 2012

Stella's Quilt

Stella lives two doors up from us. She is one of my "adopted" granddaughters. Stella is a horsewoman. She has been riding horses since she was four. The child truly loves horses. I found a CD of horse designs and knew that they were meant for a quilt for Stella. I stitched out a few and shared them with her. She just wanted to look at them and touch them. I let her pick out some that she wanted on her quilt. Stella also has a VERY pink room. To say that pink is her favorite color is an understatement. So, the color of the quilt was a given... it had to be pink. I went to a class at our guild where we learned the Square-in-a-Square technique. This quilt was the perfect venue for me to practice those skills. I found a pattern in the Square-in-a-Square book called Montana Stars. It was perfect for this quilt as it had plain squares alternated with the S-n-S's. I went to Stitch 'n Quilt in Mableton, GA and picked out a stack of pink fabrics to make it scrappy. I even found Georgia Bulldogs in pink. Once the top was made, it became a decision on how to quilt it. To some, it looks like feathers, but I like to think of them as half hearts as this is truly a labor of love. I love the way feathers look on the back of the quilt. It gives the quilt back such great texture. Would I do things differently on the next quilt? Of course. Although I would do some things differently, I would do many things the same. In this quilt, I learned the value of planning the quilting design in advance. This is only the third quilt I have free motion quilted. It's perfect for the recipient!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Long time, no post...

So the other day, a friend said to me, "I keep watching your blog to see what you are working on." The problem is I'm working on half a dozen things and nothing gets done. However, I have found a new gadget that is worth sharing with you and they are the Wonder Clips by Clover. I was sewing the binding on a quilt (yes, it is finished... more to come on that in the next blog) and I thought I would give the Wonder Clips a try... I absolutely love them! The last binding I put on a quilt, I pinned... and I kept sticking myself with the pins. The Wonder Clips don't stick. They are easy to reposition as the binding is being stitched down. I had bought a couple packs of 10 and finally bought a box of 50. I'm so very happy with my little clippies.