Big Finish: Plus Quilt

My recent finish was this Plus Quilt, commissioned for friend Lily's 1st birthday.  You can see my first post about this project here.  It's a twin size (approx. 65 x 90 in) and possibly the largest quilt I've made to date.  I've entered this quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, in the Bed Quilt category.  Click here to vote for my quilt!

The fabric is Hot Chocolate by Jacqueline Savage Mcfee, purchased from Hawthorne Threads. For the back, I used a large dot print, with a pieced insert to get the desired length.  Despite some trouble with my basting process, the dots on the back are surprisingly straight.

Because of the size of the pieces, quilting this was tricky, and I ended up mixing techniques. First I hand-quilted inside each plus sign using #8 perle cotton (pink and white). Then I stitched in the ditch of each horizontal seam. Left with some spaces that were still too large to leave unsecured, I added a tie in the center of each block. (Thanks Mom, for helping with those ties while I finished the embroidered label!)

Lily's grandmother requested the label below.  I made a similar label for Lily's Raw Edge Circle Quilt and still had the font saved on my computer, so that's a nice link between the two quilts from Lily's grandparents.

 

The timing worked out perfectly and I was able to deliver this quilt in person to Lily, her mom, and her Gigi.  I hope it will be well-loved and used for many years to come.

 

 



 

 

Big Finish: Embroidered Monogram Pillows

Now that Christmas has passed and gifts have been given and received, I'm happy to be able to share these embroidered pillows that I made for my two sisters. The letters B and G are for their last names.

This project started with the B embroidery. I found the font pattern here, in the collection of flowered monograms from a vintage embroidery book, La Broderie Blanche, 1912.  I chose everything in this pillow to coordinate with the acorn fabric.

After I finished the embroidery panel, I considered a few different designs to frame it.  I settled on this Sun Rays block design from Twin Fibers (tutorial here).  I love the look of the mitered corners, and the strips allowed me to incorporate a lot of different fabrics to coordinate with the acorns.  The back of the pillow is done in the brown with white hash marks.

As I was working on the B embroidery, I decided to make another pillow with a G for my other sister. I decided to use a different monogram design (found here) and a different color palette.  I tried to just figure out the hand embroidery as I went along, and this design required a lot of fill stitches.

The fabrics in the surrounding Sun Rays block are almost all from a scrap pack that I received from Art Gallery Fabrics after I responded to a post about the giveaway on Facebook.  Lucky me!  The back of the pillow is the same grey scroll print that's just visible on the outer border.  For both pillows, I used this tutorial for adding a zipper with a flap to conceal it on the back.