At Last: the Facets of Time and a Baby Play Quilt

My 'Facets of Time' quilt turned out really well, I do believe.  The finished quilt measures 68 1/4 inches by 80 3/4 inches.  Here it is on the couch in the living room.  :)

I had to rip out a seam or two to re-do as I was quilting it, but I am really pleased with the end results. I quilted the segments of the hexagons 'in the ditch' and free motion quilted the borders. I used a meander pattern on the brown inner border and a free motion butterfly kind of a pattern on the outer border.

I was able to finish it using my Janome which I had surprisingly had some problems with earlier. Turned out that my usually dependable Janome Horizon Memory Craft 7700 machine just needed a bit of adjustment to the tension (Thank you, Red Deer Sewing Centre! ) It also needed a better quality needle, a Schmetz to be exact. It works beautifully again now!

I used the back fabric of the quilt and flipped it over to the front to make a mock edge, but I admit, I do prefer the look of a separate edging around a quilt.

I have placed  this little beauty in my living room on my white couch and it looks great against my terra cotta colored wall behind it. :)


Play Quilt:

Now I am working on a 'play quilt' for my twin 7 month old grandbabies. I have 4 "Delectible Dino" blocks for it, plus I'm working on 4 "Hankie Pets" made of Minkee with hand embroidered facial features and 3 dimensional floppy paws. These Hankie Pets are a lot of work; More work than even the dino blocks!  (The Hankie Pet block patterns are from a Black Cat Creations pattern called Hankie Blankie Pets Baby Quilt.)

I started with the easiest one, the green Minkee frog, then worked on the blue Minkee puppy and after that the yellow Minkee bear.  I ripped out quite a few stitches at first until I got the hang of it and started liking my hand embroidery noses and eyes.  I still have to finish the pink Minkee kitten.

10" X 5" rectangles about to turn into pinwheels

I got tired of doing the embroidery and went on to make some of the pinwheel blocks. After making 4 of them with yellow heart fabric and the fabrics from the background of the hankie pets, I tried to place the blocks according to the arrangement on my hand drawn quilt diagram. It didn't seem to look quite right, and I saw that I would need to make some pinwheel blocks with the same blue fabric as the dino blocks to make them all 'fit' together. (The last of that blue fabric...)

I want to make some 'surprise' blocks, too; create a peekaboo flap that will have an appliquéd animal underneath it to add some interest for our babies...

My daughter suggested some ribbons attached to the quilt blocks for the babies to finger. I also want to put some 'prairie points' on it someplace for them to inspect and grab.... This little quilt plan is just developing and changing as I go along. I hope I am going to love the end results! :)

A possible arrangement for the play quilt blocks....