Finishing quilted gifts

Although I haven't been blogging much, I have spent a lot of time completing projects (and of course starting many others – but that's for another post!)

Here are two projects that I completed.

Batik Lap Quilt

Batik lap quilt

This quilt was begun over a year ago at a quilting retreat. I don’t often use pre-cut fabric but had gotten these two packages of batik Mini-blueberry Pie Charm Squares by Timeless at a really good price. The colours turned out to be absolutely stunning.

At the time, I was just starting FMQ, so the finished top sat around until I was confident enough to quilt it. I finally quilted it this fall using a lovely stencil. Since the colours are very busy, the quilting shows up well only when looked at up close. I used a lovely shiny blue Madeira polyester thread (Polyneon No. 40). I really like the way it came out.

What I learned:

Quilt label

• When purchasing this type of pre-cut packages, there will probably not be any left-over fabric for the binding (oops!). Luckily, Jan, the owner of The Pickle Dish in Carleton Place was coming to our guild meeting, so I sent her a picture of the quilt and she brought me three beautiful fabrics to choose from. 
• My quilts get quilted when I’m ready. Trying to hurry things is asking for trouble.
• I know that I don’t do deadlines well. This was a supposed to be a wedding gift but it turned out to be a first wedding anniversary gift! I’m sure that it's going to a good home :-)
• I can’t remember where I read about this technique for making a label but the person used a nice font, printed the message and then used a light box to copy the message onto fabric. I think that it turned out well.

Quilt-as-you-go Baby Quilt

Front and back of the QAYG quilt

The other completed project is a baby quilt. It was a Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) technique that I found on a blog, made by ChrissieD. It’s a QAYG Wholecloth Stripy Quilt. The idea is to use one wholecloth fabric for the front of the quilt, while quilting strips together on the back of the quilt. It’s a great idea, but I didn't really have a fabric that I wanted to use for a quilt top – so I just reversed the concept.

I had a lot of fun putting all of these pretty flannel strips together. In theory, a QAYG quilt is pretty much completed when it’s all pieced, but there was no way I could just leave it quilted with only straight lines.

Quilted flower

Quilted sun

I used some stencils to guide my free-motion quilting (FMQ). Some of the quilting doesn't really show much because of the busyness of the fabric, but it just had to be done!

Here’s one of the flowers that showed up as well as a sun.

What I learned:

• I used flannel for both the front and back of the quilt, as well as a light batting. Personally I think that it’s too thick. 
• Next time I will either not use a batting or use a cotton on one side. I would love to create a real wholecloth quilt with this technique. Check out ChrissieD’s website to see her stunning quilt.

This post is linked to Needle & Thread Thursday, Link-a-Finish Friday, Keep It Simple Make It Fun (KISMIF) and Can I get a Whoop Whoop?. Just posted on Free Motion Mavericks. Check out the fun!