This quilt is brought to you from Megan of Fresh Poppy Design :) Okay okay, if you don't know Heather and I (Megan) we do our multi-crafty things on our Fresh Poppy Design blog (also the name of our quilt patterns) and we share quilt stories here!
Heather and I have sewn for many years, for me personally I think it all started with some pj pants, but we first learned to quilt 3 years ago when we were expecting babies only 1 week apart. (And they ended up 2 days apart.) We made our first quilt for our babies, the quilt I am sharing today is the 2nd quilt I ever made.
I used Chocolate Lollipop fabric by the fabulous Anna Maria Horner for Freespirit. (I think there are some other odds and ends thrown in there.) We did use a purchased pattern but I cannot find it to credit it for the life of me!
I think this is my favorite block. The funny thing is that Heather always goes for pinks, and I go for blues...in our fabric choices, decorating, etc.. So we decided that for these quilts we would pick outside our normal ranges...so you guessed it, Heather's (same quilt) is blue. And we both in the end admitted we liked each others better...and have planned for some time to switch them when we can.
So wouldn't you know it that my favorite block is blue and green :)
Our amazing aunt Wendy who is a fabulous crafter taught us many of our quilting tricks. Bless her heart she had to put up with some ridiculous questions. She is also an amazing machine quilter, and she does all of our quilts.
(If you're in the Utah area send us an email and we'll get you her info!)
Here is one thing I learned. Don't do polka dot binding unless it's very small. I didn't know to look at it on the bias, which on the bias it is straight dots, and thus doesn't look too great. My favorite bindings are stripes and ginghams. I also like a bright color for the binding that just pops.
I only ever have two choices for my backing. I can either pick my very favorite fabric (which I did here) because then I can flip it over and enjoy the solid backing just as much. And I don't really pay to much attention to how it may relate to the front (although of course I have it match.) My other backing choice is minky...it is just so much more snuggly and thus more used!
There you have it! A quilt by yours truly :) We may throw these ones in here and there...hope you enjoy them! Linking with AmyLouWho.
ALSO on MONDAY we are premiering a
BRAND NEW BOY QUILT PATTERN
that is so amazingly cute and having a
QUILT PATTERN GIVEAWAY EXTRAVAGANZA!!
Check back first thing Monday morning for many many chances to win.
Macy turned three and we decided to re-do her room. Her room had been very gender-neutral (ie- boy) because before she was born we decided not to find out if she was a boy or a girl. So it was time for a change. There is no denying it- Mace is very very girly. Very pro-pastels. So when I thought about making her a big girl bed quilt I wanted it to scream girl so I could always remember just how pinkalicious she was at age 3.
I used this Folksy Flannel fabric that I love. It is so so so soft. I never really sew with flannel but the few times I have I've thought "why don't I sew with this more often?..." Macy insisted that the dominant color of the quilt be pink (shocking,) so I chose brick shot cotton and I think it goes pretty well. Its woven with pink and orange threads and it has a pretty orange shimmer in the sunlight (Alton, if you are reading this I know you are rolling your eyes. Go with it. And thanks for reading my blog.:)
I used this wonderful hexagon quilt-along tutorial. It is super clearly written and I was so happy to find it online- for free- what you can't find online these days...
I really wanted to work in this Alice in Wonderland fabric. Its actually a robe from a fabric designer that makes PJ's as well. My girl has quite the Alice obsession. So I worked her in to be falling down the center of the quilt- down the rabbit hole I guess. When I finished the quilt I wasn't super pleased with how the pale blue Alices looked against the other bright fabrics, but such is life.
I included a bit of his yellow shirt to remind her of how much he loved her.
I made a label for the quilt as well and sewed it to the back- my first label, I think. I hesitated posting it because its syrupy sweet and might make you think I'm overly sappy. And I guess I am when it comes to my girl, so I'm posting it anyway... Of course I couldn't have completed this quilt all myself. I had major help again. Lori helped me work out a few (tons) of my headaches. And then she even hand bound the quilt when I was done. Just to be kind. I know, I'm lucky.
I updated her bulletin board with matchy-matchy fabric and new pictures of family and friends we love. Helps us remember them in our prayers- seeing them right above her bed. Also found a sweet Alice print and made some fun flowers from this Martha tutorial to make it feel a little more golden afternoon-ish. I go back and forth between thinking the flowers are cute and then cheesy, but they took me more time than you would think so for now I'm sticking with cute...A few days before her birthday and before I had done the big room re-do, she was talking about her favorite topic- Disney movies. I asked her "Who is your favorite, Mace?" She looked at me and without missing a beat said "Mulan, Mama." Interesting. So naturally I pretended I didn't hear her and changed the subject.
This is her fake sleeping while I snapped pictures. The fake snoring was pretty comical. Goodnight, miss Mulan.
