Embellishing a Pre-made Quilt Part 1 is here.
I couldn’t convince Timo to want stripes so after many more hours of hand stitching squares to his quilt, I had this:
Red fire trucks. With a matching border:
Would I buy this if I saw it in the store? Probably not, but I love the smiles and joy I see on their faces that they have something that Mommy made for them.
For boy #3, the conversation went something like this:
Me: Honey, do you want stripes on your quilt?
3: Yeah!
Me: That’s a good boy.
Whew! The stripes could be done on the machine – yeah! Here he is enjoying his new quilt:
And here are he and his brother breaking it in, minutes after it was completed:
Since I did the first quilt, we’ve had a few potty accidents and it has revealed that although these quilts say they are washable, they really aren’t. The quilt is quilted all over except for a large section in the middle that is tied, and after washing, the batting bunched up inside. I took it all out and I’m going to slip part of a blanket in that space. So for the one with the red-stripes, I free-motion quilted through the entire center. Even with the stitch regulator, it was really hard maneuvering such a big quilt through the machine. I was sweating and my arms were sore. Is this how it is for all of you? It makes me want to get one of those fancy schmancy machines that I see advertised in quilt magazines, but who has the $ or the space? And besides, I want the buff arms.
ah, well, live and learn, i guess!
love the fire trucks – and the pillowcases look great!
They look great. I really love the idea. We are working on redoing the boys room into a camping these. I may need to try this. (Sorry about the potty accidents. Hopefully the additional quilting will make it more durable for future washings.)
I like the way those stripes look, nicely done. Bummer about the quilt bunching up like that in the wash.
Those turned out so well! I haven’t a clue as to how people do machine quilting without one of those big ole machines. I had a hard enough time doing a little crib sized one!
Both are very adorable. I can see the boys are enjoying them! Sewing and working out at the same time!! Good one!
Awesome job!! Both quilts look fantastic! I still think it’s a GREAT idea embellishing pre-made quilts. Genius.
Hey those look great. Listen I’m new to the blogging world and I was trying to set up a blog with wordpress. I think that is who you use. It posts my title but not my text. Any help would be appreciated. My e-mail is digitizing3@yahoo.com if you need to reach me. Also my blog is jackielawrence.wordpress.com
Thanks
Free-motion quilting on a regular ol’ sewing machine is what I imagine it would be like to break a horse. Really, a couple more quilts and we should have the finest arms!
You sure can tell a lot of love went into those bed sets. And those sure look like happy boys!
Very clever. Never would have thought of doing all that customization. Pillow cases really complete the job.
The quilts are great! I bet your kids will remember them forever.
Fantastic job. I love the red fire trucks-that’s my favourite. What happy little guys you have.
They all look wonderful! And I can see you boys love them too!!!
As far as machine quilting, I keep focusing on the arm muscles. It is quite frustating manuevering all that fabric but it sure is faster than hand quilting!
Cute quilts–even cuter boys!
The quilts look great! No wonder your boys jump with joy…
Free machine quilting a big quilt is a pain… in the arms! I tend to stick to straight lines for big projects…
Hand quilting? That sounds even slower. And I can’t use a thimble.
good son, good son.
i take it the bunching was bad. i like the puckering look myself, but not when it’s completely out of control.
I free motion my quilts all the time!! I also do straight stitching. I don’t have problems with feeling like my arsm are going to fall off!! Next time you do free motion don’t drop your feed dogs on your machine. If you keep them up you have more controll over the quilt. No more struggling!! Also get yourself a pair of gloves that have nubbies on the inside of the palms and fingers so that you have more controll over your quilt. Do you have a quilting foot for your machine? If not go get one! The quilting foot keeps the fabric together so you don’t have puckers. You did a great job on the boys quilts!! And I think they like their quilts too!!
If you need any help with quilting just give me a jingle!! I’m always online!!
Dawn
Hi Linda -
I love the quilts – especially the one with the stripes. I think part of your dilemma with free motion quilting is overusing muscles. I have free motioned a few things (with feed dogs down and my embroidery foot) and I’ll tell you, my neck and arms were sore afterwards and I sweated through the whole – and it was only a little piece.
I think it’s just getting the motions down and not overusing certain muscles trying to get things done.
The nubby things don’t work for me. I just use a pair of latex gloves.
Hope this helps!
Blessings,
Stick with the buff arms. I love the quilts and the conversation about the stripes. We have sooo many of those at my house.
OH no, that was me in that last post-I didn’t want to log out from Sandy’s warm hands blog. I’ll just post one more time-it’s good for the comment count, right?
Kimberly
http://www.thegivingflower.de
Lovely fabrics on both quilts. I love the shot of the boys jumping on the bed. Such a universal joy.
The bigger the quilt the more of a workout for me. I really need to get my machine recessed. The drag caused by the table being higher makes it more work. I second Dawn’s comment on the gloves. I couldn’t do anything without them.
Those are so cute and meaningful! I love what you’ve done with their room!!!!
That sounds like what always happens to me when I try to take a short cut — just end up doing more work later. Well, you will figure it out, no doubt and in the meantime, those boys are enjoying the quilt so ALL IS WELL.
I made my son a quilt for his bed and the first time I washed it the batting all bunched up – so I took it apart and used white flannel. Worked PERFECTLY. I’ve washed it a bunch of times since then (he’s a bed wetter too) and it washes GREAT. And even better is that it’s a little thinner than a regular quilt so it fits in the washing machine better. I’ve started using white flannel for ALL my “quilting” now.
And your quilts are super cute!
Duh! Just ignore me – I just NOW got that you said “pre-made” quilt. oops! lol