Ethan's Quilt

I finished this quilt in a rush right before Christmas and realized that I need to post pictures of Ethan's I Spy quilt.  I had made a small baby quilt for Ethan when he was born.  But now he is 4 and has been sleeping in a big boy bed so he needed a bigger quilt. 

This quilt began with lots of super cute fabrics.  All kinds of fun "boy" things included.  Ethan's room is blue, so the fabrics focused on blues with lots of red and yellows and a few greens added.

This is a close-up showing the quilting.  I used a walking foot and straight line quilting 1/4" on either side of the ditch between the squares.  I have enjoyed reading the http://www.redpepperquilts.com/  blog for a long time.  Rita, of Red Pepper Quilts does a lot of quilts with squares and uses this quilting technique with stitching on either side of the seam lines and I really like the look of it.   So I decided to use this technique on Ethan's quilt.  It also kept it so the fabrics/prints are the most important thing, rather than the quilting being too busy.

Ethan's baby quilt had minky on the back, and he loved it.  So it was a no brainer that the I Spy quilt have minky on the back.  I was a bit concerned because the minky is so slippery, and can get wrinkles in it.  The quilt is 62" x 74".  So it was very large too.  I ended up pinning the minky to the carpet with straight pins, nice and smooth.  I then sprayed it with the June Tailor basting spray (from Joanns) carefully layed the batting on the back smoothing it out, and then spray basting the batting and laying the pieced top on it and smoothed it all out.  It was completely stuck together - no pins whatsoever!  I quilted the entire quilt on my Juki and the quilt stayed together throughout the entire quilting process - and there were no wrinkles or puckers on the back. 

 I was on a tight timeline to get the quilt done before the grandkids were coming for Christmas.  I had worked hard to get all the cleaning and grocery shopping done before some bad weather hit, so that I could work on the quilting during the storm (2 days before our family Christmas).  The storm hit, ice, snow and high winds, and I got to my studio, got bobbins all wound, everything set up and ready and started stitching, and quilted for 15 min. or so when all of a sudden the machine stopped - the electricity had gone out!  I was so upset and frustrated.  Just had to wait till power came back on.  It did finally come back on a few hours later,  and I got right back to the quilting and got it all done in time before the grandkids got here :>)

Ethan, loved the quilt, and even brings it with him when he comes to Grammy's house.  It's really fun to look at all of the fabrics, some of Ethan's favorite super heros, construction vehicles, bugs and animals... 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed seeing Ethan's quilt.  I have been finishing a lot of quilts in the past few months (It's been a long winter), so I plan to show more quilts in the upcoming weeks.  So please stop back.

Random Christmas fun

My youngest daughter sent me this pic from the Meijer parking lot the other day.  She texted me "Mom, thought you would find this humorous"  and she was right.  I laughed out loud and still smile every time I see the picture.  I told my daughter I hope the driver noticed before she drove off.  She agreed but thought that would have been really funny to see the ball of yarn trailing behind the van...

Isn't this Christmas Tree skirt beautiful?  My daughter Alyssa made it!  She saw a picture of a similar one online and decided she could make that - one of those sometimes detrimental traits she learned from her mother :>)

She used a matelasse fabric she found at Joanns and then used osnaburg also from Joanns for the border.  She made a stencil and stenciled on the words.  The border also has silk ribbon stitching around the inner edge of the outer border.  I think it turned out beautifully.

My grandkids Ethan and Cora got to go on the Polar Express Christmas train with Mom and Dad.  Here is Ethan and Cora (at left) with Santa on the train.  They got to ride the train, had hot chocolate and cookies, and saw Santa and Mrs. Claus.  I think they had a really fun time.

This is a house and garage my grandson Ethan built.  I love the colorful symmetry with the block shapes. 

He also built this tower and bridge using legos and wood train tracks - so amazing!  Especially since he just turned 4, again totally symmetrical, he does have some OCD tendencies :>)  So we are on the hunt for fun building sets for him.  It seems all the Lego sets are to build a specific building or vehicle... just haven't found the right set for him.

 

This is a sneak peek at a surprise I Spy quilt for Ethan.  I intended to get this done for his birthday, but with all of the wedding stuff that didn't happen.  So, I am trying to get it done for Christmas.

 

OK, I think thats all for now.  Hope you enjoy my random Christmas post.  Hope you are having a joyous season, without too much stress.