Heart Baby Quilt with Flannel Back

I found this lovely, easy pattern at Blue Elephant Stitches.  Check out this site- she makes lots of beautiful quilts and takes the nicest pictures! 

I used 3 inch squares from my scrap bin- some of the neutral squares are brighter squares turned over.  Sometimes if you have a medium fabric that isn't dark enough to be considered a dark, you can flip it over and have a light. I have heard of people doing this and now I know it works!

Now, I am a pretty good "piecer" but not a good "quilter."  I can't hand quilt, and my machine quilting stitches are so bunched up and ugly, so I used a floral flannel for the back and no batting.  It goes against everything that I know, but I stretched it on the floor, pinned front to back and "quilted" it on my machine with just the regular quarter inch foot- no walking foot. I did a criss-cross pattern and it turned out sooo good- like a professional-good.

The baby who received this lives in Florida, so it doesn't have to be warm.  I see more no-batting quilts in my future!

Horse T-shirt Quilt

Here is a quilt I made for a friend who was really involved with horses.  I guess its like if you are a runner and every race you run gets you a t-shirt- she went to lots of horse events.

This is the first and only quilt I have ever made using t-shirts.  I just kinda made it up as I went along- its about a twin size.  I took the shirts to the fabric store and tried to coordinate some of the colors.  

After I added the iron on stabilizer, I squared up the pictures.  Every one was a different size, so I just added fabrics until they were the same size as the next square.  If you've ever pieced a quilt back from extra yardage and left over quilt blocks, this is about the same method.   

The letter blocks were stitched on an embroidery machine. (Her horse's name was Shoshoney)

I added some easy quilt blocks to make it interesting and to take up space. 

This horse block was found online under "horse coloring pages."  I figure coloring book pages are usually pretty simple and easy to copy and embroider. I just traced the pieces, ironed on the fabric, cut the pieces out, peeled off the paper, ironed them on to the backing fabric and used a blanket stitch around the edges.

  I was concerned that it would feel stiff, but if feels just like any other quilt without all the stabilizer.  Overall, I think it turned out really good and would do it again.

Easy Street Finish (almost)

I have finished the top of Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery.  The weather here is dreary today, so these are the best picts I could get.  This was such a great mystery- I had no idea until the final post where she was going with it.  This is a another quilt I probably wouldn't have attempted had I seen it from the beginning- it looks very intimidating.  Also, I really hate large, on-point quilts.  When you're sewing the rows together, they are soooo long.  But, in the end it was totally worth it. 

I feel strongly that this will actually make it to the long arm quilter (I have so many tops that just hang in the closet!) The store bought quilt on my guest bed has seen better days and the colors are similar, so this will replace it.  This will be my first quilt that actually makes it onto a bed in my own house!

Here's the border- love that plum!

I have already started on a pieced backing from left overs and yardage that I don't love anymore. I think it will look really fantastic or tacky- it can go either way. As long as I can use up some fabric, it doesn't matter- its on the back. When its finished, I'll take some full length picts with the back.

Thanks again, Bonnie for all of your hard work and generosity!  I can't wait to see everyone's finished quilts, especially the red, lime and aqua one.