The Zoo Quilt

This is the first quilt I made.  My quilting friend who started me out encouraged me to create something special for the birth of my first niece, and helped me to pick out the fabrics that I would need.  I created several templates for the various animals from drawings that I could find online.  Then I used a fusible interfacing to transfer the animal drawings onto pieces of fabric.  I pieced a few of the background pieces together as needed and top stitched each piece of each animal, tree, etc. to the background fabric.  The finished product was long arm quilted by a friend.

Game of Quilts

Winter is coming, so make quilts!  This was my first attempt to participate in a quilting challenge, in an event where I would have to use my own creativity and not just follow another pattern.  I think the hardest part of creativity for me is trusting that what I can visualize will actually be acceptable by others.  I'm not sure why that matters!

In this challenge, Maddie of the BadAssQuilter's Society (my new favorite following) asked us to be inspired by the hit TV drama "Game of Thrones" and limit ourselves to the use of four fat quarters, of predetermined coloring, to an 18-inch square quilt.  Hmmm... favorite TV show, quilting, AND be a BADASS? Yes, Please!

I ordered one of each of the color packs, but unfortunately only got around to finishing one quilt.  (Moving puts a limit to creativity time!)  It was definitely a learning experience as I forced myself to learn a new technique for the border.  I think I could have been happier with the results if I had more time to perfect my corners, but I was super psyched to get something entered in time at all!

My Love to the BadAssQuilter's Society!  http://www.badassquilterssociety.com/

The Baby Blocks

I like to make gifts, but I am very good at waiting until the last minute to get a project rolling.  With an upcoming baby shower for a very good friend, I managed to find inspiration for an adorable project for making baby blocks out of minkee fabric and embroidered animals and letters.

The credit (and very excellent instructions) can be found at Embroidery Library Projects.  I almost exclusively rely on Embroidery Library for all my embroidery pattern needs.  They are affordable, you can pick and choose exactly what you want, the site is very search friendly, your account stores your design purchases for life, they often have deals and birthday bonuses, and I could go on and on.  It's also a great site to send your friends and family so they can pick out something that they want you to embroider for that special occasion or project.

I used the Pets on Parade and the Furry Friends of the Forest for some of the blocks I have made to date.  For the letters, I used the Fun Applique Alphabet. Another handy tidbit comes from having nephews born with first names and middle names that are both 5 letters long.  For these boys, I made sure I had letters that could spell their first names on one side of blocks, while also having letters to spell their middle names on the other side. Now the joke is that the names are going to start getting longer in the future to see how many more blocks I can make!

The Road Trip Quilt

Credit for this inspiration and pattern are given 100% to Cluck Cluck Sew.  I was looking for a very quick project in preparation for a weekend trip to my Aunt's long arm machine.  With my sis-in-law en route for a weekend visit (without the nephews), I was hoping to have something (anything) that we could throw on the long are for some quilting fun.

I was not disappointed!  Within 3 hours of purchasing the fabric I was done with the quilt top, and less than 24-hours later we had it quilted!  I intend to gift this to a brand new baby girl of a dear friend of mine.

The Black Tie Baby

There are so many times when I finish a cute little project I think, or someone comments, "you could sell a lot of these."  However, I doubt I could ever make and sell enough of anything to match the compensation I get for my day job as a civil engineer.  And, for the most part, I think that mass producing instead of taking on new projects as time allows would take a lot of the fun out of my hobby.  Yes, I could get a lot more accomplished in the free time I do have... but isn't the point of free time to be free?

I appliqued a black tie and plaid vest onto a onesie at the request of my sister for my nephew's first wedding appearance.  I loved the outcome so much, I made another for a cousin's baby boy of the same age. (See photo)  Obviously I take no credit for the photo.

I would like to make more of these, especially when it seems there are so many baby boys as of lately!  I would REALLY like to make these to have on hand so I'm not making something at the last minute. :)

The Rubber Ducky Dynasty

This was the theme to one of my nephew's birthday party, I made this shirt at the request of his mother!  Embroidery pattern credit is due to Embroidery Library, and the writing I added with the pre-loaded fonts on my sewing machine.  Just a simple addition for a new favorite toddler's t-shirt!

The Super Hero Quilt

My inspiration for this quilt came from the intended recipient, a nephew with an obsession with all things super heroes (and villains). With his 6th birthday occurring shortly after his family's move to a new house, I figured that a new super hero quilt would be a great birthday present and new bedroom theme.

I decided to create blocks filled with various super hero logos. Each were appliqued using patterns that I purchased digitally through Etsy vendors. I'm guessing there is some copyright faux pas regarding the purchase and use of licensed logos, so we can just pretend that the heroes represented here are made up and were in no way intended to reflect any copyrighted materials, okay?  This is probably also the reason why the vendor I purchased the designs from oddly no longer exists. There are a lot more hero logos (and sizes) available in the world, but I kept this somewhat simple.  I used various fat quarters for the different colors needed in each applique pattern.  

(Superman, Dark Wing, Robin, Wonder Woman, Flash, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America)

Unhelpful helper.....

I made each block 12.5" x 12.5" so that they with 1/4" seams they would finish at 12"x12".  The background fabric I used had a faded dot pattern which looked slightly comic book like to me. I put 2 1/2" black strips between each square.  My sister gave me the final dimensions that would best fit the bed, but instead of creating the entire quilt out of super hero blocks, I decided to do something a little different on the sides that would hang over the edge of the bed.

I purchased embroidery patterns of super hero action words and spaced them out on the black fabric that would fall over the sides of the bed. The embroidery patterns can be found here: Embroidery Library - Superhero Power Design Pack. The words read ZAP, KABOOM, POW, CRASH, BAM, and KAPOW.

Finished Quilt Top

I have the great privilege of having an Aunt with a long arm quilter, and I finished this quilt with a Marvel comic book patterned fabric on back.  I know my nephew loves the quilt, but the figurative cherry on top was getting official approval from Iron Man in person. I like to consider myself a pretty Super Aunt!