Friday, June 24, 2011

a quilt for Belle's baby

We interrupt the interruption for a baby quilt.

Belle and Sister Suzy were attached at the hip from third through sixth grade. We moved Sister Suzy to a new district in seventh but they have remained close over the years. So after I got over the shock of the baby shower announcement in the mail and gave it some thought, I decided to make a quilt.



This is an image from EQ6. I decided to try-out a construction method for flying geese I saw in a you-tube video while I was fooling around on the net one day. Ricky Tims showed Alex Anderson how to do a one seam flying geese block. This is such a cool idea.

One thing that is not discussed in the video is how to make different size flying geese blocks. So I made a sample one based on the dimensions they gave in the video and using my great intuitive powers and discernment skills that says whatever size you wanted the unfinished block to be was the size of the rectangle. (Okay, I had to make a couple to get it right. LOL) So to translate this into English. I wanted a 2" x 4" block finished size. Add 1/2" for seam allowances, so the unfinished block is 2 1/2" x 4 1/2".



I cut two 2 1/2" squares of blue (sky [duh!]) and a 4 1/2" x 2 1/2" print for the goose.



Lay the squares out side by side with right sides up. Fold the print in half with wrong-sides together. I pressed my prints because it all sandwiched together neater. Lay the print on the left-hand square, folded side pointing up and raw edges together at the bottom. This is essential!! I made 40 of these things backwards before I realized I had messed up! Then lay the top square on right side facing down. Pin the right-hand edge.



When you put the block in the machine to sew be sure and have the fold of the goose pointing away from you and sew a scant 1/4" seam.



Open and press seams to one side.



Open the fold and pin the fold line to the seam line. You don't have to pin but burning your fingers while pressing is up to you!



Press. Set the blocks together however you like.



This is the quilt finished. The dimensions are 43" x 55". I used Warm & White by The Warm Company for the batting. It is a needle-punched cotton batting that was very nice to work with and didn't give off a bunch of loose fibers as you worked with it. In other words, it was easy on the lungs!



This is the backing. It is a print called bubbles and I really like it for children's quilts.



This is a close-up of a corner. I originally was going to use just a two-inch yellow border but it didn't do much for me. Then I decided I would 'color-wheel' out the orange, yellow and red. Nope that didn't look right either! Changed the placement of the orange and yellow and liked the border a lot better.



I got some labels the other day so I added one!

Have a good day!

Judy

2 comments:

Leigh said...

Judy, I love it! Thank you so much for showing this tip! One of these days maybe I'll have time to get back to quilting too.

Judy said...

Your welcome! I also like the three dimensional look of the geese. Maybe this winter when your garden is resting!

Thanks for commenting!