I finished my mother-in-law's 60th birthday quilt. It's similar to the one I made my own mother almost two years ago. That was the quilt that "got me back into quilting" after a 2 1/2 year break. I've really imporved my skills since then! Now that I have two kids I don't have time to make a huge quilt but I needed to incorporate at least three pictures into the quilt. It was hard to fit it all into a manageable size. Those photos are 4X6 and I think the whole quilt is about 55 to 55 inches wide and about 18 inches high. There are some cute details-- the flowers are made out of yo-yo's with buttons from my grandmother's collection (actually after taking this photo I added a few more flowers) and I got one of those tools that adds rhinestones so I added a few of those too. The "books" are lightly quilted and the background is heavily quilted, about every 1/2 inch. I'm glad I finally got it done because I'm really behind on another one and I have many many small projects I want to do!
5 comments:
Hi, I love this little quilt project!! So cute! I am new to quilting but have always wanted to do it. Did you use a pattern for this or is it your own design? If it's a pattern could you comment back with the info?
I've enjoyed your blog.
Thanks for the feedback! I did not use a pattern. I just drew my idea on graph paper and went from there. I think there are 5 or 6 separate "blocks" in this one-- can you see them? For the "upright books" I just cut different width strips (about 1.5- 3") and attached them to the background fabric at the tips and then sewed them all together. For the laying down books I did the same thing only turned them sideways. It's easiest to put a photo on laying down books but also they could sit on the shelf on their own. For the leaning books I took the same concept as the uprights, leaned them and then added the tringles of background fabric. The flower pot is appliqued on (I used heat bond and then sewed just inside the borders leaving the edges raw). The flowers are yo-yo's attached with buttons in the center and rickrack stems. I added the two borders- the inside one looks just like wood grain-- and binding and then... viola! If you click on the picture you can see it bigger. If you want I can send you large format photos of this quilt and the other, similar one I made so you can inspect them better. This whole project is quilted pretty heavily. I don't like quilting as much as piecing but I can get pretty OCD about the whole thing! Best of luck. I'm a self taught sewer and quilter-- use your library for quilt books and read all about it and then just try different things.
Thanks nkd.
I think this may still be a little out of my league!! I think it is so clever, love it!!
maybe after more practice, i'll try something like this.
Well, good luck when you do. Remember, if you don't do leaning books this quilt is all squares/ rectangles-- you just need a little vision. Feel free to contact me for help if you ever try it!
Nikki
What a wonderful gift.
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