Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Yellow Brick road and Noel quilts

Life has been busy the last month, went to the Houston Quilt Festival and made two (small and easy) quilts. In the middle of October I went to the Pacific International Quilt Festival and picked up the Noel quilt kit. I had seen it in various magazines and fell in love with the center panel. Once I got the kit I discovered the pattern called for fusing the triangles to the squares to make the trees. Not happening. I used the Tri rec tool to make them instead, much happier without the raw edge applique! Squaring up the center panel was a bit tricky, since it was warped, but I managed in the end. Quilting was another adventure, how to do it? Finally went with "in the ditch", only the ditch is really the printed lines for the most part, and a tree shape in the tree blocks.

A friend of mine decided to make a Yellow Brick Road (Atkinson Designs) for a baby quilt, so when I needed to make a baby quilt too, this pattern was already in my brain. I made a large one a year or so ago, so I found my pattern, some fat quarters, and went to work. I used 10 fat quarters to get a decent sized baby quilt with no borders, then another 8 fat quarters and leftover bits from the front to piece the back. After quilting and trimming the backing I used the trimmed bits to make the binding. Love the fabric, was going to use it for a pieced bit of clothing, but I think it is perfect for a little girl's quilt. Quilted with Warm and Natural batting, King Tut #905 thread on the top and Masterpiece #147 on the back.