Monster Truck Baby Quilt from Jedi Craft Girl

Extra fun and simple baby quilt from Jedi Craft Girl today!! And she gives a tutorial to boot!  I love that it's very BOY but still a BABY quilt.  A great combination.  Check out Amanda's really cute quilted tote tutorial and her iron-on image pillows...more to add to my list!!

  I came up with the idea for this quilt when I was invited to a baby shower for a friend who loves going to Monster Jam.  I wanted a cute, modern take on the monster truck and this what I came up with. To begin, select fat quarters  of various prints.  I choose gray, white, black and green.  You can choose any prints or patterns you like.  I only had 8 different fabrics, but I would have liked 12. 

Next, cut your fabric into 12.5" strips, then sub-cut into the following measurements:

Do this with each of your fabrics.  Now mix up the pieces and sew the following 12" (finished) block:  (quarter inch seams)

You want the top and bottom pieces to be the same fabric, and the center to be different.  Press the seams toward the 6.5" piece.

I love personalizing quilts, especially if they are gifts.  To add a name to the quilt block, print the name using your favorite word processing program.  I tried several different fonts until I got the one I liked.  If you can, reverse the image when you print.  Take yourHeat N Bond® Lite and trace the reversed name in pencil.  Iron the piece of Heat N Bond® with the name to the WRONG side of your fabric.  Then, cut the name out.  Peel the backing off and arrange the letters how you want on your quilt block.  Finally press to attach it.

I outlined the letters using a straight stitch.  I went around each letter twice to give it the "sketch" feel....which I love.

  After you make 11 of these blocks, lay them out.  For the truck applique block, cut a white square 12.5"x 12.5"

  

Next,  follow the same technique using Heat N Bond® Lite to applique the monster truck to the quilt block.  Click HERE for the truck pattern.

To finish the quilt, sew the blocks together to form rows and sew the rows together.  Quilt as desired

Note: These are big blocks which help make this a fast, easy quilt to put together in a day.  If you would like the same look, but with smaller blocks here are the measurements:

For a 10" finished block: cut pieces 10.5" x 5.5", 10.5" x 2.25", 10.5" x 3.75"

For an 8" finished block: cut pieces 4.5" x 8.5", 1.5" x 8.5", 3.5" x 8.5"

Essentially the bottom strip is 1/2 the block size, the top strip is 1/3 the block size and the center strip is 1/6 the block size.

Here is a little peek of the baby shower - we centered the colors and theme around the quilt.  We even hung the quilt in the entry way so it was the first thing people saw as the entered.

I love that we were able to get a stack of tires!!

Monster truck cupcakes - complete with "dirt" on the top.

FAB boy quilt from in my sewing room

When we got this submission from Kerrie of in my sewing room, Heather and I were won over!  Both of our "babies" are boys.  It's really fun for us that our kids that are the same age are all boys...although currently my boys boss Mr Weston around, hopefully in the future they'll be as BFF's as H and I!  Back to the great boy quilt, well...see for yourself!!...

When my sister and her family moved into their new home this summer she decorated my nephew Donovan's room with a "transportation” theme so I designed this quilt to go on his bed.  After eight months, in December 2010, I completed what I dubbed the Dump Truck quilt (actually called Convoy, from a Buggy Barn pattern).  It was originally to be a gift for my nephews 3rd birthday.... but since his birthday was in July that didn’t exactly happen!  I pieced most of the blocks in the spring and in the fall I finished sewing the quilt top together.

In November I bought a new sewing machine for quilting and began the huge job of quilting a full sized quilt.  I spent quite a bit of time searching on-line for the best design to use.  I decided to begin with the roads.  I did free-motion quilting and made a gravel pattern in circles.

Next I did a boxy stippling pattern around all the free area’s.  It took quite a while but it turned out exactly the way I’d hoped!

  I made a scrappy type binding and I absolutely loved the way it added to the overall look of the quilt.  As usual, my two cats were extremely helpful in breaking in the coziness of this quilt while I did the hand sewing on the binding!  Gotta love ‘em!

The trucks and tractors needed to be quilted as well.  So after the binding was done I went back and added stitch-in-the-ditch quilting to the tractors and dump trucks.  It was the perfect finish!

  

The best part was giving the quilt to Donovan and seeing the joy in his face when he opened his gift! 

  I have to say, I think  it was a perfect fit!

Thanks again Kerrie!  Make sure to stop by and say hi at in my sewing room.  She's really creative and a fun read!


PS Stay tuned for later today when we are having a Denyse Schmidt fabric giveaway!! You read that right, can't wait to share some with ya'll!! :)