A special music quilt

Back in 2013, I made a nautical quilt, stocking and two pillows for a woman having her first baby. I couldn't help her with her 2nd baby due to machine troubles. She's now having her 3rd baby and asked me to make a music quilt set for this baby in blues and greens! I finished this quilt earlier in the month, but held off on the post since the baby is due around New Years!

This quilt is my own design inspired by some photos the mom sent me.

I used my Silhouette to cut these applique pieces. However, my Silhouette is super old (maybe 10 years) and was never meant to cut fabric. It kind of stopped working mid-way through this keyboard and I wound up doing a lot of it by hand.

The rest of the shapes worked well, but I do think it might be time to retire the Silhouette until I can replace it with a new model.

I considered putting a cassette tap on here as well, but I figured the record would be enough explaining for mom and dad! Haha!

My favorite part of this quilt I think is the music striped binding!

This is the first quilt that I forgot to put my label on the back! I realized it after I had sewed the binding on, however, I had packed up my sewing room for Christmas and couldn't even sew a label together to hand sew on there!

Along with the quilt, I made a matching stocking. I used Amanda Murphy's Modern Holiday  book for the pattern. The name is hand stitched by transferring the name on the cream fabric and stitching on top of that.

She also asked for 2 pillows. I made one that links to the quilt with this little guitar.

The other links to the stocking which of course they both use quilt fabrics!

I hope the whole family loves these and that baby boy Ryan arrives safe and sound! What a wonderful new years gift.

My christmas quilt - a bee quilt with lessons

Last year I joined the Bee Hive quilting bee run by Blossom Heart Quilts and got put in a wonderful hive of women. We got along so great last year we decided to keep going this year!  More about that later though. My month to bee queen was August and I decided to make a Christmas quilt since I still don't have one. I chose the Ripples Block in red, green and black.  And I'm so thrilled with how this came out! Though it wasn't without drama.

I decided since this was a quilt I would bring out once a year that I wanted to so some special quilting on it. I have also been taking  Amy Johnson's Craftsy class "Quilting With Rulers on a Home Machine" and wanted to try out my new skills. By the way, the class is wonderful! I loved it so much I'm taking her 2nd class. And here are the results!

I even used a sparkly thread for those stars. It was very finicky to work with, but the sparkle it adds was totally worth it. It was very hard to photograph and capture it, but I tried...

The drama came in when I washed it. When the quilt came out, it had bled ALL over. This was despite having about 6 Color Catchers in the wash with it.

 This is one small area, but the entire thing looked like this. I literally stood in my laundry room and cried! All the work my bee mates and put into it and all the work I had done quilting and it was a MESS! Then I hit up the internet.  People recommended a product called Synthropol which is apparently sold in quilt shops. However, it was Sunday evening so that wasn't going to happen.  A friend from my guild told me that Blue Dawn has the same chemical make up as Synthropol and what it does is keep the dies in the water from adhering to your fabric.  So I got out a big plastic bin and filled it with water, Dawn, my quilt and a bunch of color catchers. I let it soak overnight and in the morning, dumped out the pink water and pulled out the color catchers which were dark pink.   I soaked it again all day and this time the water ran clear.  I let the quilt line dry and to my immense relief it looks SO much better!

There are a couple of small spots, but for the most part, you'd have to be looking for them to see them.  And the lesson I've learned going forward... add 1 cup of white vinegar to your wash load with a fresh quilt. It will also keep the dyes from sticking to your quilt!

So back to the photos. Here are some more close ups of my quilting...

 The back still needs its label (i have it ready!)

And the binding is a fun polka dot.

Many thanks to the ladies in my bee hive. They did tremendous work! I almost hate to put it away until Christmas!!

Quilt stats:

Quilt name: Christmas Ripple

Pattern: Ripple Block

Fabrics: scrappy
Finished size: 48" x 60"

Finished: April 2016