Wrens & Friends Quilt *LOVE*

So I found this fabric (Wrens Friends by Gina Martin) on Moda and fell in LOVE with it and fell in LOVE with the United Notions Pattern that was free. I instantly ordered the required 2 layer cakes and charm pack and other supplies and got to work!

It was actually pretty simple to piece. I used the sketch pen feature on my silhouette machine to trace the circles and the flowers on non-fusible interfacing. You then sew on that traced line for both the circles and the flower. Next you cut a slit in the interfacing and turn inside out.

Here are what both the Circles and Flowers look like after turning inside out and pressing.

The circles are sewn on the flowers in the center with a clear stitch and I did a zig-zag. I also used spray adhesive to attach the circle to the flower and flower to 10×10 and did not use pins.

Then, the flower is sewn to the remaining set of layer cakes. I found it was best to lay out everything before sewing to make sure it remained “random”

After piecing the flowers onto the remaining layer cake cuts, you just piece the quilt together in rows and eventually into the entire topper.

The next step is to baste the quilt with the backing (I had to do some sewing to make my backing wide enough.) I used this Bella Solids Aqua from Fat Quarter Shop to do my backing. The next step was to put the three layers together, I used spray adhesive and basting (rounded) clothes pins. After it is basted, I started free-hand stippling. U know there are stencils you can buy with chalk, but i found it easiest to do it free handed. Yes, this was my first time and there was a lot of practice.

After all of the stippling was done (This took a couple weeks, a couple needles, and couple headaches), I trimmed the edges up to be ready for the binding.

For binding, I used Wrens & Friends Cream. I followed the tutorial on Moda’s bake shop with instructions on making thebinding and sewing it.

Once I sewed on the binding, I was DONE!!!

More…..

This is by FAR! My favorite project yet and cannot WAIT to do my next quilt!

Quilts for Kids

Since I have gotten into quilting as of late, I decided to look into quilting for kids and charities and came across Quilts for Kids!

http://www.quiltsforkids.org/

They will send you fabric and patterns and you have 4-6 weeks to return the finished product. You can also make one on your own and send it in.

I was bold and ordered 2 kits so I could make 2 quilts.

The Sail Boat boys Quilt:

And the Rainbow Alphabet Quilt:

This charity really moved me as these quilts are given to children in various children’s hospitals to use in the hospital. They are then sent home with them when they leave or with the family if the child does not make it. When reading the testimonies, I was absolutely taken aback by house much these children and families loved these quilts and was moved to make some.

Here are the finished products:

On the back of each quilt is a label with my name on it:

Quilted Tree Skirt

When planning my Christmas decorations in November I thought there was nothing better than to quilt a tree skirt.

I searched high and low for a pattern and came across this Winter Wonderland Pattern and also ordered some Moda Christmas fabric.

The pattern had a choice of clean cut or “wonky” strips and I went with wonky.

I cut all the fabric (fat quarters) and them sewed them to be a certain width an length and then trimmed them to be rectangles and squares. Once I did all that I sewed them in rows and soon had a large square.

The next step was to layer the quilting and to quilt it. I chose to use muslin for the backing as it won’t be seen. If you want to have a reversible one, you could even choose a pretty print or solid fabric. I chose to stitch in the ditch but you could also do a decorative stitch. Once it is quilted, I ironed and cut out a circle in the middle and then a line from the center to one end for the opening. the last step was to sew on the binder and the ribbon for the ties and it was DONE! 🙂