New Toddler Quilt- Monster Cars

Monster Cars Quilt for my Grandson- Feb 2015

Too narrow- needs a strip of blue along each side.

In between quilting his twin sister's butterfly quilt, I worked on blocks for my grandson's new 'Big Boy" quilt.  I liked this bright colourful Monster Trucks fabric and it seemed to meet with his approval, too, when I showed him the fabric.
I fussy cut the monster car panel into squares and added the colourful sashing around each one.

I loved the vibrant green fabric with Monster Cars, but wasn't sure what kind of blocks to make with it. After going through a few quilt magazines for inspiration, I decide I would try friendship stars and square in square blocks and see what I liked best.

I cut a 4 1/2 inch square out of thin plastic to use for fussy cutting the cars out of the green fabric, trying to get a good variety without wasting too much fabric. I have a nice chunk of dark blue minkee fleece for the back so I had plenty of car fabric to work with.

I sewed the centre blocks together and then arranged some of the other blocks around it to see what I liked.  This is the pattern I ended up with. It is only 40 inches wide, so I added two 2 1/2 inch strips of blue fabric along both sides. It was already 60 inches long so I decided not to add any more to the top and bottom.

I pinned the layers together, Minkee Back, inner batting and quilt top, and started thinking about how to quilt it. I wanted the cars to stand out so I decided to do ditch quilting around most of the blocks sides. After struggling with tension issues, I changed the needle and then the top thread.

(I know the theory is that your bobbin thread and top thread should both be the same type, both cotton or both polyester, but in this case my tension issues were resolved when I changed the top thread to cotton, leaving the bobbin thread polyester! Go figure.)

The only problems after that were on the back stitch when it yanked the top thread in a ball underneath!  After much fixing with the seam ripper and adjusting and readjusting the tension dial, I left the quilting till the next day.

It worked better the next day… maybe my machine just needed a break. Also I didn't back stitch at the beginning and end of my rows. I  did clean out underneath the bobbin as much as I could reach with my little bush. It's amazing how much fluff accumulates so fast under there!

I made the binding strips out of the colored stripe fabric and it sets off the blue around the side blocks  well, I think.
My 3 year old grandson loves his new quilt and often sleeps with it. I'm so pleased! I made him a pillowcase, too, to match his quilt.  :D

One of a kind 'Monster Truck" quilt for my 3 year old grandson H.

May 2015 quilting/ Sewing

I don't do a whole lot of sewing in the summer once gardening season starts because I'm usually very busy with my 7 flower beds, greenhouse and vegetable garden.  But on the rainy days besides, reading, I like to have a sewing project to work on.

Raggy quilt for Tanner

Flannel Raggy Quilt

In May I made a new flannel raggy quilt to keep here at the house for our own little grandson to use.  He was about 18 months old at the time, although he seemed so much older. He's such a little smart guy and talks so well. :)

Jean Purse

I also worked on a jean purse in May for our grand niece Apryl was had just turned sweet 16 a few weeks before.  

Apryl's jean purse

I bought some second hand jeans at the thrift store in town and cut off the legs. Then I turned the top of the jeans inside out and sewed along the bottom to form a bag. I measured the length and width of the bag to make lining for the inside.  Using double thickness of fabric, I made some simple pockets and  sewed the pockets on each side of the lining. Then I slipped the lining on the inside of the bag and used Speed Sew to adhere it all around the top edge.

Inside pockets and zippe closing

Handles: To make the handles I cut a piece of denim from the legs, 4 inches wide by about 22 inches long. Next I pressed it in half length wise, wrong sides together, then opened it up and pressed the 2 long edges towards the long crease in the centre. Next I  folded it together and sewed up the open side. I made 2 handles like that and attached them to either side of the bag. 

I wanted a zipper to close the top.  I sewed two double pieces of fabric onto either side of a plastic zipper, then sewed that to the top of the bag. Voila!

Back of bag