Boy Quilt from Lilabelle Lane Creations

Sharon from Lilabelle Lane Creations is a mum, quilter and embroiderer among many more things I'm sure!  And it shows in this quilt with the combination of piecing and embroidery.  Such a sweet quilt for a little boy!  Make sure to stop by Lilabelle Lane Creations, see her 2011 finishes, 2012 finishes and Mini Quilts for a treat!  Thanks Sharon for sharing your quilt!

A Boy Story Quilt

This quilt just makes my heart go all warm and fuzzy.

It was a Quilt that I was always going to make ... one day.

Well that day came when I thought my second son was going to need

surgery at Easter and if I was going to be at the hospital then I needed

something to work on.

We left the specialist and went straight to the fabric shop, supplies bought.

Home and then some stitchery's were traced.

I was ready and the journey of this quilt began and the self imposed

deadline was set.  My gorgeous Nephews 3rd birthday - 7th June.

I did it!

 and the matching Pillow

I even put a quilt label on it so it is a real finish!

It has been quilted with an all over Kite Pantograph by Linda at Ladybug Quilting.

Thank you Linda.

- Quilt Stats - 

Pattern 

"A Boys Story" by Annie Downs of

Hatched and Patched

Finished Size

54" x 68" (138cm x 170cm)

Every stitch of this quilt was placed with love for Liam

and Lily has finished it off by filling it with cuddles.

So and Update on Declyn. 

He never had surgery. 

A lot of time had been spent at specialist and physio appointments (still one more Specialist Appt) so the stitchery's were still well timed!  He is allowed to return to sporting activities on the 1st June. He has done no running or anything for over 11 weeks and has just been given the all clear to ride his bike, he still has to get his fitness back up .....

"Really Declyn, do you have to play football this year?"

Arghh ...  boys will be boys

 and on that subject, remember Aiden's little adventure into the 

"knee injury playing field" as well?  

Yes he dislocated is patella (knee cap) and has a small tear in his ACL.

Now boys, you know I love you both but no more Knee injuries OK

 and I know you joke about it now, but really, both of you at the same time?

I'm off now. 

Have to go buy some wrapping paper and a card and get this Quilt ready to mail.

Thank you for sharing the journey of this quilt with me.

Now what ..... something new?

Argyle Robot Quilt from Don't Tell Quilts

Amanda from Don't Tell Quilts submitted her darling quilt a couple weeks ago.  Amanda is just like Heather and I....she doesn't like to make the same quilt twice!  That is exactly our problem.  Often we get asked why we don't sell more of our quilts or other sewing projects, and there are a few reasons but one major one is I don't enjoy making the same thing over and over.  Back to Amanda, she started her blog when she was making a quilt for her brother and named it "Don't Tell Nathan Lindsey!" as in specifically telling them not to tell her brother.  And things have just taken off from there!   She just opened her shop, so check it out!

Here's my very appropiately named Argyle Robot.

 What is there to say about this?  It's argyle, it's got a robot.  That about covers it really.

 My husband commented that this combination was very me.  Apparently argyle and robots aren't an obvious combination to most people.  But really, they so work!  What is more geeky sophisticated than argyle?  Nothing, that's what!  And robots are equally geeky sophisticated.  Especially this one, he has a bow tie.

 I backed it in fleece, which caused a whole right side wrong side internal debate while I was laying it out.  And, Holy Lint Roller, Batman, my floor is now devoid of stray threads.

 (also, I used the June Taylor fusible batting; it was on a major clearance.  My opinion: weird.  It worked well enough on the solid piece sides, but beneath my piecing, not so hot.  I still used pins.  Who am I to tell June, but I don't expect I'll be fusing it again.  I did get a queen sized batting for six bucks though, so not a total bust.)

 This was also my first time quilting with embroidery floss.  And I loved it!  It is the perfect look for this.  It had to be something as visible as floss or a whole element would have been missing.  Argyle isn't argyle with out the crosshatch.

This little bit of me is headed to my etsy shop.  We'll see if there are any other geeky sophisticates out there.

I also finished my Princess and the Pea quilt pattern.  That request took some brain power; I made a quilt pattern but I've never used one myself!  Got a few of those in my shop as well.

Crossroads

I (Megan) finished my quilt with Robot Factory from Robert Kaufman, and I am so happy!! :)

My honey named it

Crossroads

49 x 63

This was really fun to create.  I knew I wanted something modern and angular to fit in with a robotic type theme.  I was laying in bed one night thinking of quilt design (anyone???) and then I thought of intersecting blocks that look like the feed into each other.  A-ha!  The cool thing is that I think with feminine fabrics it could look like a star or even flowers.  And I really love looking at the pattern of the khaki Kona, kind of looks like old fashioned ceilings and woodwork, do you know what I'm talking about?....

I went with straight-line quilting, again to keep the modern feel.  Plus with boys quilts you don't want to get to swirly :)

Don't those little funky robots make you happy?!?  And I just love the gears, wrenches and graph lines.  I love featuring fabrics in quilts, so with this pattern it allows you to fussy cut your favorite prints.  Back to thinking of a more feminine fabric line...it could be really cute to make those robot feature blocks into pinwheels, don't you think?

I went back and forth a lot about the border.  I considered continuing the pattern, but after sketching it, laying out fabric, it just lacked a wow factor.  I love that it is these monochromatic squares.  I think it frames it but isn't too distracting.  And I always have to have a binding that pops!

And the backing.  Don't you love seeing your quilting on the flip side?  I couldn't resist featuring those robots again.  It was just one of those piece as you go methods...if you can call it that :)

Crossroads is our newest pattern and to celebrate we are offering a

20% discount on all the patterns in our shop

using the promo code

CROSSROADS

now through Sunday October 2nd

Happy Quilting!  See you tomorrow for a feature I  know you'll love!!

Rockets and Robots, Oh My!!!!

Elizabeth from Don't call me Betsy made this darling quilt and room for her little guy.  These are my favorite quilts, quilts for the little people in our life.  I love her adventures of making this darling quilt and super fun little boys room. Her blog is pretty new, so go on over and give her a good welcome...

Once upon a time...there was a little boy who was unusually tall for his age. And his parents talked in passing about moving him into a twin bed, with him quickly outgrowing his toddler bed, and suddenly, lists were being made. Shopping trips planned. My husband and I are pretty project oriented, so when we decided to move our son Ryan into a big boy bed, it was full steam ahead for both of us. Ryan's really big on rockets and astronauts, so I thought outer space would make a great theme for the new room. And then, I remembered the box of clearance fabric in my closet. Oh, Fabric.com, your blowout sales are so killer sometimes! I snapped up the whole Robots collection by David Walker for $3/yd earlier this year, not really knowing what I would do with it, just that it was adorable, and I that it would make my munchkin smile. I knew it was the perfect place to start for a twin-sized quilt to go with this new big boy bed.

Rockets and Robots Oh My! quilt front At first, I wanted to make another mixtape quilt, but then, I decided for the sake of continuity for my son, I would use the same pattern I used for his baby quilt, the Zoology quilt. I adapted Elizabeth Hartman's Simple Modern Baby Quilt pattern to fit a twin size bed, causing a big headache for me, thanks to all the math, but leading to a really adorable quilt finish. The fully randomly pieced back I threw in several other fabrics, after visiting some local quilt stores, including some Moda marble dots and some Heather Bailey. I worked on the quilt slowly, while also working on all of the other facets of the room - painting, adding wallpaper decals, shopping for the furniture, and so forth. Every time Ryan would see me working with the fabrics, he'd ask what I was doing, and I would say I was working on his special treat. He was quite patient for a toddler!

An attempt at being arty... When we finally declared the room complete, he was more than excited. He was positively ecstatic. He ran around, looking from piece to piece in his room, from the artwork on the walls that his father and I painted to the wallpaper die cuts to the quilt and so on. The room has become his little sanctuary and he just loves it. I love that my living room is no longer decorated in the primary colors of his toys! He even snuggles on the couch to watch TV with the quilt sometimes. So sweet! Even now, six weeks after he's been in the "big boy room," he still shows it off to everyone who visits, and tells everyone about his "special treat" quilt. I love how much he loves this quilt, it just makes me smile to see him with it. It's the first quilt I've ever hand-sewn the binding on with, as I normally machine everything since I am completely unskilled in hand sewing. It was tedious, hard work, but it sure does look awesome.

Mr Roboto quilt from My Little Gems

Meet Sharla the mind behind My Little Gems...if you haven't already.  This is one of those blogs that has it all, recipes to fun kid activities, craft ideas and more!  I think my boy's and I are going to make this tomorrow, so cute!  And who doesn't love a ruffle pillow...especially when there is a tutorial for it!  Sharla made this darling Mr. Roboto quilt for her third son:

A few years ago, while in Utah, my home state, I visited American Quilting. I loved just about everything in the store! The fabrics for this quilt were on the wall, and they sold a little quilt kit to make this quilt. I was pregnant at the time, and planned to make this quilt for my baby, and use it as an inspiration to decorate the nursery. I bought the kit and backing fabric for this quilt- along with several others. :) Well things did not go as planned. Shortly after that trip, I found out the baby I was carrying had some complications. He had some unknown kidney problems, which would probably mean an early delivery so that the specialists could figure out what was going on.

Sure enough, after many tests and ultrasounds, we had our baby at 37 1/2 weeks, early for me.  Obviously the quilt never got finished. After our little boy was born (my 3rd boy), we immediately had to see specialists, get tests done, etc. He ended up having surgery at 2 months old, and was hospitalized from an infection at 3 months old.

Finally, months later things calmed down. Mr. Robot was calling me to finish him, but because I waited so long, I decided to add more to the quilt. After seeing this same quilt done with a striped border instead of just striped binding, I went on a search for more of the striped fabric. It was hard to find. The fabric was out of print and basically sold out everywhere. When I finally found some, I was able to complete the quilt. yay! Thanks to the cute ladies at American Quilting, and Amy from Diary of a Quilter, for the inspiration! It was actually a good thing that I wasn't able to finish this quilt any sooner, because I love it even more- with the extra striped border. This quilt is one of our favorites. My children play on this just about everyday. It was my first attempt at off-set squares. I have made several quilts from this same design since then. I have really grown to love quilting, although it isn't my forte, there is something wonderful about completing a quilt, and seeing your children love it to pieces.

As for our baby, well he is just fine. He has managed to maintain his health, and will be having another surgery at the age of two. Hopefully his last surgery. And in the meantime, I have several other "boy" quilts to finish. ☺

Thanks so much Sharla for sharing this darling quilt.  Glad to hear that adorable baby is doing well, and we will pray that the next surgery will be his last.  God bless!

Linking with AmyLouWho.