Baby Bear

My nephew, Joe and his wife Braden are expecting their first baby in May, and there will be a baby shower for them at the end of March.  Of course, I will make a baby quilt for them!  We know that the baby is a girl, so PINK! I saw a series of baby quilts called Patch Pals, and I decided to make one of these for the new baby.

The original bear in the pattern called for brown fabric for the bear, but I decided to make a pink bear.  I have a lot of scraps and pink in my stash, so I went ahead and cut out my squares, made my HST's, and laid out the bear.  If I sew accurately, this should measure out to 30 x 46.   Here it is, all laid out:

Seeing it all small like this gives me a better perspective than it's giant size on my design wall. I can see that there are a few dark pink squares in the head that I will switch out for lighter pinks.  The original bear didn't have a tummy either, but I added it in.  You can see my light pink fabric that I chose for the inner border, and I want to do something fancy for the second border.  A pieced border.  I'll wait until I get all these rows sewed together before I decide what to do, but I have an idea in mind!  I have to keep working hard on it because March is only a couple of days away!

Did I mention that I sent my sewing machine off for an "oil change" and a wellness checkup?  I am sewing these squares on my old $99 Brother from Walmart!  Oh, how I miss my needle threader, auto thread cutter, auto needle up/needle down, knee lever to lift the pressure foot, and about a dozen other bells and whistles on my Brother Innovis!  But my little Brother does a good job, a little noisy and not as smooth, but it gets the job done, and the stitches are even and the tension is good.  A good little back up!

Bottled Rainbow Progress

I have been working on my Bottled Rainbow quilt and it is a really fun quilt to do.  Here's how it's coming along:

The one thing I thought would be easy was selecting the fabrics for each color.  I have a LOT of fabrics and scraps!  But this turned out to be a lot harder than it looks!  Each patch is a different fabric, and there are between 12 and 18 different patches in each color.  Some fabrics I thought would be perfect for the quilt turned out not to work at all.  Too blue for this green, but when I put it with the blues, it was way too green!  Or, too pink for the reds, but also too red for the pinks. So a lot of fabric got put away and didn't make it to the quilt!

I have one block to cut patches for, it is the "Berry" block.  (2nd one from left in 2nd row.)  You can see that I have "auditioned" fabrics for this block and pinned the possibilities to the block.  Here's a close-up:

I have left this block til last because it is very hard to find good matches for this hue. I'm gonna have to take this block to the fabric store and see what will work.  For the most part I did not have to -buy any fabrics for the patches.  But this one has me looking around.  It's almost a purple, but not quite.  Until I can get to the fabric store, I am working on applique-ing the patches to the block. 

The patches are supposed to be "raw edged appliques."  That is, just stitched on with a straight stitch, and leave the edges to fray over time or in the wash.  It's supposed to give the quilt its unique look.  I do NOT like that look.  I prefer crisp clean edges!  So I am using an applique stitch on my sewing   machine and edging each block.  SOOOOOO much nicer!  Here!  Judge for yourself!

 

The blue one has been edged, the "avocado" one is raw edged (but not frayed yet).

Sorry, I don't have a picture of one with the frays so I looked on the internet and found one.  It's not a bottled rainbow block, but you can see what I mean by frayed edges:

To me, that raw edge looks sloppy.  Unfinished.  I know it would be quick and easy to leave the patches like this, but I prefer to edge them.  That's just me.  :)

Harry Potter Blocks

As I mentioned previously, I am doing a block-of-the-week Harry Potter quilt.  Here are my blocks so far:

The Marauder's Map

This is a new block for me, I didn't have this one in my first Harry Potter quilt.  It was a new technique for me as well--the map is on special fabric fused to paper and put through my printer.  Then you iron it to set the ink, peel off the paper, and your good to go!  You can print any photo that is on your computer this way!




Week 1.  The Crystal Ball.  This pattern is from the 2011 Quilt-a-Long.  There is a new updated pattern for 2015 that I like better.  I printed out all my (old) patterns before the Quilt-a-Long started, so I used it, but if I have background fabric leftover at the end, I may redo this block with the newer pattern.

Week 2.  Books.  Again, it's the old pattern.  The newer pattern has an extra book in it, instead of 2 spaces.

The "Every Flavor Jellybeans!"  I had done this block earlier and will use it in this quilt.

 The Goblet of Fire.  Again, a block done prior to the start of the Quilt-a-Long

 The Dragon!  You may remember when I tested the pattern for this dragon for the designer.  Now I will use it in this quilt.