Sunday, July 31, 2011

Care Bear Stare 2

I also found the terribly adorable backing fabric at the Quilt Box and of course, it also wasn't wide enough when I added the rainbow. So mom advised a pattern that didn't need to be centered, and this is what I came up with:



and then I gave it to my newfound friend Another Mary Ann to quilt: She's incredibly talented, and here's what she came up with. 















And the final product, with yellow butterfly binding.


Care Bear Stare I

My first actual quilt was for my niece Maiya, who recently turned three and is HUGE into the Care Bears. I found the panel at the Quilt Box and then after a LOT of looking, found the solids for the Rainbow at Hobby Lobby. Here it is in pieces:


And here are the rainbows for Sashing:


I went with the order of the rainbow in the panel rather than "traditional" rainbow order. For the corners, I had already picked this adorable fabric (also from the quilt box).


Which came in extra handy when it turned out I had tried to pair a 42" rainbow with a 45" panel. Here's a photo of piecing together the final product:


...with help from the cat.


And, here it is! The completed quilt top!



Next up, backing and quilting by Another Mary Ann.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Oz Pillows

Technically, my first quilting project wasn't even a quilt. My Mother-in-law is a HUGE Wizard of Oz fan, and my own Mother comes out from California a few times a year and visits me and my local quilt stores. So, while dutifully dragging her to every shop in a 40-mile radius, I came across the panels and thought - a pillow! this would make a nice gift.

Mom wisely waited until after I had bought the fabric to point out that no, I couldn't just sew the two sides together and stuff it with cotton like we used to when we made fabric tree ornaments as kids. Instead, I added black sashing to make the panels fit an 16" pillow form, backed them with warm and natural, and used my walking foot (sewing machines have other feet?) to quilt them.

That year, My (then future) Mother in Law received two pillows: The Wicked Witch of the West, and the Good Witch of the North. 



I couldn't bear to make her choose which side she wanted to display, so I backed them both with fussycut scenes from the Yellow Brick Road Collection.



Later, for her Birthday, I decided to start at the beginning, with the "Under the Rainbow" Panel. It's still quilted with a walking foot, below are a few pictures of that.





Thursday, July 28, 2011

Hello World

I guess I should introduce myself: My name is Robin, by day I am an engineer and at night I do yoga, dance, bake, and clean at just *slightly* under the rate I am capable of making a mess at :-) I am married with 2 cats, and new to quilting as of last year. Fortunately, several legacy quilters including my mom (Hi Mom!) have stepped up to help me learn.

My first "Real" quilt was a Care Bear design for my 3 year old niece, where I made a rainbow around a panel. Since then I have made quilts for 3 out of my 4 nieces, plus a tree skirt, and mom has started reminding me "you know, you MIGHT want to keep some of these for yourself!"

Here's a pic of my first:



I have learned I am attracted to bright colors and panels, and to patterns where the trick is in arranging simple blocks (rather than tackling involved ones). I got on blogspot to follow some of my favorite quilters, and to try my luck with Stash Manicure's beginning quilter giveaway. And I did keep the tree skirt!

-RLQ