Category Archives: Whole Cloth Quilt

Dinosaur Quilt Finished & Delivered

It took very little time to finish up the whole cloth dinosaur quilt I made for our local Community Service group. It is great to have quilts available for children in crises and I think this one is perfect. Cute dinosaurs on the fronts and snuggly, soft flannel on the back.

A not so artsy photo – complete with ladders and scrap wood in the background!

The binding is a bold red and white stripe, leftover yardage gifted by my sister some time ago.

I quilted around each dinosaur and if needed (to travel to the next creature) I echoed some of the trees or volcanoes. Simple and fun!

It finished at approximately 40″ square, a good size for a toddler needing a quilted hug.

Whole cloth quilts are a lot of fun and provide such easy FMQ practice. Here are a few I made in the past.

Panda Garden Recess Whole Cloth Quilt

I couldn’t bear to cut up this fabric. The little panda bear scenes deserved to stay whole. I had made this as a sample to use in my quilt show vendor booths some years back.

Commissioned baby quilt using Fiesta Fun.

This was a commission done for a customer. It was, again, a great chance to practice FMQ as I quilted around the flowers.

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Whole Cloth Quilt using Valori Wells’ Marikech fabric

Some years back, my niece asked me to make a quilt for her best friend’s first baby. She really wanted this boho elephant fabric which was no longer available. But you know how it goes – I put it out there that I needed a piece of this and was able to buy it from someone who had it on her shelf. Just enough to make the quilt.

Sometimes, a fabric is just so pretty as it is, I feel like I don’t need (or want) to cut it up. What do you think? Have you made a whole cloth quilt? If not, I bet you have a perfect large scale fabric in your stash to give it a try! Plus, it is easy to quilt and a nice way to get some practice. Quilting around shapes that are already there helps those shapes to pop a bit and is a great way to improve your FMQ skills.

Sharing with my usual link ups. Please take a look at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Wednesday Work in Process

Hello!! Just a quick note to check in with you this fine morning. We had a sudden thunderstorm last night which was fun. However when we have a quick change in barometric pressure, that triggers a migraine which was the not-so-fun part. This morning I am moving a bit slow and thought I would post a bit about what I am working on.

This week I made a few more placemats for our local Meals on Wheels chapter. Our guild is collecting them but hasn’t yet hit the number they are hoping for. I made five of them in February and am always happy to make more!I happened to have a stack of strips (2 1/2″ x 5″) leftover from the coin quilt top I just shared. This made it super easy and fun to whip up a small stack of mats.

For each mat, I used a different stitch on my Janome to quilt them. It was nice to try out some of the stitches and see what I preferred.j

Yesterday I shared this on Instagram. I am making a simple whole cloth quilt for our guild’s community service group. They have an abundance of fabric and when I was last there, I picked up this cute print to make something for them. It is an older fabric from Blank Quilting Co. It seemed better to just leave it whole and quilt it as is. I will finish this up today so I can bring it over tomorrow to the work-day. These dinosaurs are so dang cute and will make a child happy some day!

I will close with this cute picture my husband took the other day. He has been working on getting our irrigation water going for the spring and summer. When this sprinkler was running, the geese came right over for a drink. We have not seen them use this as a drinking fountain and found it so funny. Even more so when the geese gave us a stern look after he turned off the sprinkler. Hahaha. Silly goose!

Hope you are all well and happy!! What are you up to this week? Leave me a quick note so I know how you are doing.

Linking up with a few favorite sites. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Playful Pandas Whole Cloth Quilt

I don’t know about you but I am really lazy about getting my sewing machines serviced.  I procrastinate, put it off longer and longer with my usual excuse being ‘I clean out the bobbin housing all the time so it must be fine’. But oh my gosh, think about how often I use these machines of mine.  The poor things need to be taken care of!

When my smaller Janome refused to stitch more than two inches without giving me grief, I realized it was time.  I took it to a woman in town who is a whiz with machine repair and maintenance.  She kept it for a few days and worked her magic. Some $80 later, my machine is purring along. What a huge difference!!  When I picked the machine up, Debbie had a sandwich size Zip Lok bag filled with lint and gunk. I can’t imagine how she got it all out of there but she did. The machine is like new!

I decided to take advantage of this amazing transformation and practice some free motion quilting. I have not been doing too much quilting at home because the machines were not cooperating (now I know why!)  To have a nice big canvas to play with, I chose to do a simple whole cloth quilt.  Have you seen Art Gallery’s line of fabric called Pandalicious? Of course it  features adorable panda bears. Designed by the very talented Katarina Roccella, these prints are really sweet and just filled with the personality of spunky pandas. I have a few pieces of the line in my shop and decided to play with the feature fabric.

Panda Garden Recess is a large scale print which tells the story of panda families frolicking in a garden of pastel blues and greens. I cut  a 40″ piece of this fabric and a 44″ piece of Hidden Panda for the backing. After trimming the top to a 40″ square and quickly pin basting the layers together, I started quilting loops. My machine was entirely cooperative and the tension was perfect. It is much more fun to quilt when my equipment is properly taken care of.  🙂

 

The quilting took no time at all.  After squaring it up, I decided it needed something more than just the binding.  I had a large scrap of a jade green solid in my stash and cut some 1 1/2″ strips to make a flange.  I am always, always a fan of a flanged binding!

As I mentioned earlier, the adorable backing is called Hidden Panda.  It is another of my favorite prints. The loopy quilting I did (which doesn’t really show up in the pictures) works well with the curve of the print.  Looking back, it would also have worked to quilt the piece from the back, by quilting along or tracing the curves. Another project for another day!

There you have it.  My machine is back to its amazing self and I have a sweet quilt as a result.  Next weekend is the quilt show for the Pioneer Quilter’s Guild where I will be a vendor.  It is going to be held in Roseville so if you are a local, come out, say hi, and enjoy the show!  I will use the quilt to show off this fun fabric in the booth.  After that, maybe it is destined for Project Linus or a spot in my Etsy shop.  I haven’t yet decided.

We are supposed to have a wet, rainy weekend and I am prepared!!  I have two projects currently vying for my time so I am very much looking forward to a quiet weekend in the sewing room.  There is also a tiny quilt show scheduled for the weekend and I may hop over there to take a look at the quilts.  We shall see!  Hope you have something fun planned as well!  Enjoy the weekend.

Linking to my usual favorites as well as one new to me;  Finished or Not Friday over at Busy Hands Quilts.  Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.

Fiesta Fun – A Whole Cloth Baby Quilt

I have such a bright, cheerful quilt to share with you!  This is the second time I have made a whole cloth baby quilt for a customer. The first time was last fall, when I did the elephant quilt.  Check it out here for the details. I very much enjoy making these. This quilt was a simple project because there is no piecing involved. My customer really loved the Mexican Dress fabric from Art Gallery Fabric’s Fiesta Fun line. This is actually the second time I have used this fabric line in a baby quilt.  The first time was when I made the Knock Knock quilt while pattern testing for Sarah Goer. The colors in this line are a fantastic mix of brights and pastels against a pure white background. It is a lot of fun for a baby quilt. There is much for baby to look at!

My customer and I emailed back and forth numerous times one night as she selected the backing and binding fabric. After having two boys, she is expecting a girl.  She wanted bold and bright colors so she went with a Ta Dot polka dot fabric from Michael Miller.  The polka dots were used for both backing and binding. I really think this was an excellent choice.

Rather than put the dots right up against the floral fabric, I suggested using a flange in a solid deep orange (Pure Elements in Tiger Lily from Art Gallery also).

 I think it is good to have a break between the bold orange dots and the busy floral fabric.

Quilting this was a lot of fun. For the most part, I outlined bits and pieces of the floral design. As I moved from one part to the next, I would add a loop or two.  Having this busy print was like having a stencil for the quilting. I didn’t outline everything though. For a baby quilt, I like to have some space between the quilting to keep the quilt soft.

The quilt finished at 40″ x 40″ and I gave it one trip through the wash before packaging it up to send to Texas. Hopefully Baby Camille will get lots of use out of this quilt for a long time to come!

Just in case you are in need of some gorgeous color in your sewing room, I do have all of these fabrics in stock in the shop.  🙂  I will be linking up this week with a few of my favorites. Check the tab at the top of the page for links!

Also, I want to let everyone know I drew two names for the giveaway of Carrie Bloomston’s book!  Congrats to Susan S. and Nancy H.  Here are their comments:

Susan S. said: “I would like to design a house that perfectly fits my life style and compliments it’s surroundings.”

Nancy H. said: “Great interview, Bernie. At one time, and not too long ago at that, I would have said that my one wish was owning a cozy, welcoming quilt shop where people felt as though they were home. Now, it’s a tough choice. The simple answer would be to finish my quilt in time for the show in two weeks! But I think it should be more substantial than that. You’ve really stumped me!”

It was so interesting to read the responses to my question, ” what would you try if you were guaranteed success?” There were lots of interesting ideas put forth.  Thank you for joining in!