Baby Quilt

At the start of November, one of my quilting friends, Frances, asked me to embroider flowers for a baby quilt she is making for her youngest son's first baby called Sofia.  For this, Frances choose the Floral Sketches set from Hatched in Africa to alternate with the card trick quilt blocks she had made.

After finishing the top, she had it quilted by Hettie Pringle who did a beautiful job as always.

According to the proud grandmother, the quilt attracted beautiful comments at the stork party.

Lovely Hearts Set 2 embroidery designs updated

The set I wrote about in this post was revamped and replaced with new designs in my store here.  It is on special for one week and include a free design to download and try before buying.  The designs are available in 3 sizes.

The set includes 8 hearts with a bow at the top of the heart and 4 without the bow.  For the applique, I used satin ribbon in two contrasting colors which I basket weaved.

Now I still have to transform these blocks into a quilt which will be for sale.

Lovely Hearts Set 1 embroidery designs updated

The set I wrote about in this post was revamped and replaced with new designs.  It was much more work than I originally anticipated, embroidering all 12 designs as well as using them in a project to help boost sales.  It just felt forever the last 3 weeks or so, but it is finally done and uploaded on my shop's page here.  It is on special for one week and include a free design to download and try before buying.  The designs are available in 3 sizes, two of which I used in the quilt as you can see below.

Even taking decent photographs of the completed quilt was a no go. 😒

A close-up of the center.

The set includes 8 hearts with ribbon weaved through embroidered buttonholes with a bow at the top of the heart and 4 without the ribbon.  They embroidered beautifully and the ribbon added that bit of oomph and 3D dimension to an otherwise plain heart.

The first time using scuba for a quilt and I really do like the softness of the fabric although it gave me loads of trouble with the quilting since I used the stitch and flip method rather than adding a binding.  Wont make that mistake again.  

Bubble puff quilt No. 7

I received an order for another puff quilt 3 weeks ago and as we are almost going on holiday, I started ASAP.  It was the first time I had to stitch one according to measurements (cot size 140 x 70cm) and had a bit of trouble getting it to exact size as it reduces in size when the puffs are stuffed.

The order was for grey and white with blue and yellow.  As I had the animal print already, I send a photo of it to the client, and she immediately gave the go ahead.

After adding an extra row to the top and bottom (which are quite difficult to do with all the puffs already stuffed) the quilt was still not the correct size.  I then added a 2-inch grey border all around and finished with a blue binding.

Another extremely happy client who will take the quilt with for their new grandson when they travel to the Netherlands at the end of the month.

Puffed bubble quilt Nr. 6

Had an extremely happy customer this morning when she picked up her baby's quilt she ordered in turquoise, brown and beige.  The quilt top as well as the back was done in 100% cotton.  I usually use a mix of different fabrics as it is more cost effective but getting different prints and/or shades in any one color is just an uphill battle.  So, off to our local Elna dealer I went after a fruitless stop at Jacksons whose variety of quilting fabric has sadly diminished alarmingly.

Whilst surfing the internet, I stumbled onto yet another technique to construct a bubble quilt and decided to combine it with Tracy's method which I used to stitch this quilt.  What I like about Narelle's method is creating the pleats before sewing all the blocks together as you can then alternate the directions of the pleats creating less bulkier seams.  It was also a lot faster than Tracy's method where all the pleats have to be created and stitched one by one which felt like it took an eternity.  So with puff quilt number 6 done and dusted, I finally have a less time-consuming method with a backside that fits snuggly. 

Bubble quilts 4 & 5

I completed this quilt which was ordered in December by a friend of mine for her newest granddaughter which is expected in April. I used this method which was brought to my attention by one of my quilting friends.  Although it is not necessarily a faster method than stitching the individual pockets (the general and most widely used method) it certainly has some positives going for it like using less fabric and thread and the most important one for me is getting a much nicer backside as I just wasn't satisfied with previous methods.

The front with a ric-rac braid added around the edge as this method doesn't require a binding.

Back

The original one I made during the middle of December, turned out a big disaster which derailed me for a few weeks.  I used polyester cotton, not thinking anything of it as one gets the most beautiful prints for babies/children.  But oh boy, never again.

Whilst stitching the pockets, the fabric kept on unravelling, but I kept on making the pockets, thinking that when I stitch the final seams, everything would be fine as would be the case with 100% quilters cotton.  After adding the back, I discovered that the quilt is literally falling apart at the seams.  I was horrified.  So, I put this one aside and continue with the butterfly bubble quilt using among others mini matt.  I also immediately overlocked all the seams just as a precaution.

So, after mulling of what to do with the polyester cotton one, I decided to take it apart and overlock all the seams as well, cutting off all the unraveling fabric.  Stitching together the rows was rather difficult as all the pockets was stuffed already, but I finally manage to put all back together again, add the back and..... it was still unraveling....  Not all the pockets though as I used different types of fabrics.  I then closed it up by hand and stitched a serpentine stitch over all the seams, catching both sides of the pockets.  

I even cut the backing piece with a pinking blade, didn't help, was unravelling before my eyes.  Finishing the edge with a binding solved this problem.  So, at the end I made a quilt which someone could still use, but I could never sell.  Learned a very valuable lesson the hard way.  

According to a local dealer, the cotton to polyester ratio is being reduced resulting in a lower grade fabric.  Now, my question is, what is the use of manufacturing a fabric that will come apart after the first wash (if it will stay together that long)?  I used to stitch with polyester cotton all the time when my daughter was little.  When I asked the dealer where I bought the fabric for advice to curb the unravelling, I was taught to use Fray-Check....  Oh boy, a puff quilt containing 121 puffs will take how many bottles of Fray-Check???

This is the beautiful, yet sadly imperfect and smaller quilt which was made twice.

Another Bubble quilt done

 I received an order for a bubble quilt with butterflies and finished it today, ready to be delivered.

And so on to the next one. 😃

First order delivered

While I was stitching a pink bubble puffed quilt to put up for sale, it was immediately snatched up by a dear and loving family member who is constantly helping young people in need.  She also ordered four spit cloths and as I had some pockets left over from the quilt, I sewed them into a little cushion.

On the back I used a bright printed heart fabric with the same message I put on the blue bubble quilt.

Below are the spit cloths.  I embroidered little fairy dolls on each.