OK - so last week sometime, I said I would post pics tomorrow.... well, this is tomorrow in "Angie time"...LOL!!
My latest project has been two quilts that I finished for "
Quilts for Kids" - a group that is giving hand-made quilts to kids who are hospitalized with chronic diseases. When we first received the package of quilts for our group, I tried to pick out a girl-friendly theme since I'm pretty much stuck with boy quilts at this point. Alas, however, there were no pinks and princesses to be found. So, the first one I picked was as gender neutral as possible... bugs! Now, before you go "ewwww," these are friendly, cute little bugs. And the colors were nice and bright. There are even a couple of ladybugs. :) The other kit I picked was airplanes...a natural for me. Tanner loves airplanes, so I finished this one in his honor.
The kits came with pre-cut fabric and backing, so all we had to supply was the batting (the cotton in-between the layers) and the thread. Oh, and the time...LOL! The fabric was sent in pre-cut strips, which made the blocks super quick to cut out and piece together.
I finished the bugs quilt first. It was a cute blue and green jungle-print four patch block alternating with a solid yellow bugs block. The inner border was green and the outer border was the same bug print, but with a black background. I have to admit I wasn't crazy about the black, but c'est la vie!
The actual quilting was pretty easy, though tedious. It was just a straight stitch on the bias going from corner-to-corner on each of the squares. The kit instructions specifically asked for a lot of quilting, so I stitched the lines at a little less than two inches apart. (The extra quilting was requested so that the quilts would stand up to frequent hospital washings.)
The backing for the bugs quilt (which I named "Bed Bugs") was a pale yellow batik and we were instructed to bind the quilt using the backing (more on that in a minute).
The second quilt kit I picked out featured bright, primary colors and airplanes. We ended up naming this one "Just a Plane Quilt". The colors for this one - a red and yellow four-patch and a blue background fabric with multicolored airplanes - seemed to flow a bit better than the bug quilt. Like the other, it was easy to cut, piece, and sew and I used the same quilting for this one as the other.
The backing for Plane Quilt was a light, almost sky, blue with purple-ish diamonds. Like the other quilt, the backing was also part of the binding. I had never tried this type of quilt binding before, and I've never liked that method since learning to hand-stitch binding. While I had machine-bound my first two quilts, I had not done so by using the backing. The instructions also specifically asked for machine binding, so I complied.
To make the binding, the quilt sandwich (the top, batting, and backing) was pinned as usual, leaving about two inches of the backing free. Once quilted, I trimmed the batting with scissors (I would normally use my rotary cutter) in order to not cut the backing. Then I went in with my rotary cutter and trimmed the backing to a one-inch trim. At that point, I folded the backing edge almost to the batting/quilt-top edge, then folded again and pinned it down like there was no tomorrow. I guess I could have ironed it, but at this point, I was ready to be finished!
Once pinned, I fed the quilt though my machine, being carefully to take out pins before they hit the needle. I've heard many, many ladies say that they have broken needles by hitting pins, and I just don't want to have to deal with that...LOL!
Now, I can't say this is my favorite way to bind a quilt, because I am still partial to the hand-stitching method. However, this did give me the opportunity to use some decorative stitches that came on my machine. Claire had brought one of her quilts in and showed me that she used a button-stitch, so that is where I got the idea. For the bugs, I used what looked like a fancy cross-stitch pattern and for the planes, I used a diagonal stitch. It was really pretty! I also used a variegated thread on the plane quilt. I happened to have it in my thread box and the colors matched perfectly. I think it really added some character.
I also ended up with a few good scraps for my stash. When I make my first scrappy quilt, these will be part of it. A fun story to tell people when they see it.
The quilts have been sent off now, so the next step is for me to log on to their website and register. Once I do that, the recipient can also log on and look for my quilt. Of course, this part is totally optional, but I think I will do it. It will be nice to see where these quilts end up. :)
