On this muggy, no rainy, now sunny Father's Day, I am off to visit with a very new father and his brandy new son. His son
Erol is a week old today - he came just in time to make this Father's Day pretty special.
Erol's arrival gave me the perfect kick in the butt to try something I had been sitting on for a while. Ever since I bought the lovely painted yellow thread, I have wanted to try a really simple quilt using it for the quilting. And use it I did.
I took two yards of Alexander Henry's "Fishies" and two yards of white, and quilted them together with a nice thin batting. I sewed all three layers together, with the rights sides of the fabrics facing each other (good thing the white is right on both sides so there was no real way to mess up) and left a good size gap on one end. I turned the layers right side out, smoothed out the wrinkles, and then used a good sized tupperware lid to trace circles all over the quilt.
Update: I should explain the circles a little better. After sewing the three layers together and turning them right side out, I secured the layers together with quilting pins. Once everything was nice and flat, I took a tupperware lid and traced it with a disappearing ink marker. I traced about 5 circles, then just followed the lines on my machine with my walking foot very slowly. I then traced more circles and repeated the process until I thought there were enough. After I was finished with the circles, I top stitched the border to help hold everything down.
After quilting the circles, or bubbles, I quilted a yellow border around the edge and hand sewed the gap left for turning. I love the yellow on the white - it stands out but the colors are still subtle. I like it but would also love to see what it would look like with a higher contrast - maybe a painted red thread next time...
The quilting on the Fishie side is very subtle. I am a little disappointed that is hardly visible, but that might be because the pattern is soooooo busy that most quilting couldn't compete with that full stretch of fish. I like it though - and I am already picturing it on a toddler bed for when Erol is a little older.
When I bought the
Fishies, I also picked up a fun peachy colored seersucker. I am going to try something similar with that one to see if the textured seersucker will show off the quilting better. Wish me luck. Good thing there are twins waiting for quilts in
Californina to keep me motivated.
The twins' mother made her feelings about pink pretty clear, so I picked up this awesome seersucker at Purl. It is made up of red, yellow and blue stripes. I backed it with a solid white and quilted it with the painted yellow thread.
As for the quilting design, I traced the center of the flower and drew the petals freehand. The flowers alone didn't provide enough quilting so I added partial circles to the border. Overall, I am thinking it is pretty cute. It should segue nicely from a crib to a toddler bed too.
