Friday, May 7, 2010

Donnie Dinosaur, Pink zigzags, and bees

Though we've been busy with moving, I did get two quilts finished while staying with my parents. This first one was for a baby boy, born early March. Kelly requested dinosaurs or space. My first thought was dinosaurs in space suits, but she clarified the "or." I couldn't resist having one of the dinosaurs at least play with a rocket. These dinosaurs were all inspired by the illustrations of Mark Teague from How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? 

Previously, when I've done much applique, I usually turn under the edges of all but the smallest or strangest shaped pieces. For those, I would use an adhesive (heat n bond lite) and then sew around. I decided to just use the adhesive  for all of it this time. For some of the larger pieces, I did cut out the centers of the pieces before ironing them on. Things were a bit stiff, but I knew that would happen. However, I didn't realize how unhappy my machine would be when it came to quilting. Too many thick layers with the heat n bond on the front and back. Many skipped stitches. I ended up having to rip out quite a bit of the quilting stitches and redoing them. Of course, when I searched for help online, I found a great tutorial for using starch for applique, same concept as the heat n bond, but washes out. Good to know for next time. Anyway, I quilted each section around the dinosaurs differently. I wanted to make this a two sided quilt, but the quilting looked kind of odd on the dinosaur on the back. I think that would have worked better if I'd just done an allover quilting design.
All in all, I'm still happy with how the quilt turned out. It was just quite a learning experience for me. Always good, though. This quilt is approximately 48 x 60, made with all kona cottons.

I also made a lap size quilt as a wedding gift. I'd asked the bride's colors months ago, and had this in the plans.
Somehow, I still didn't get it totally finished until right before the wedding. Stipple quilting. This quilt is approximately 75x80.
It would have looked nice staying in my house, too.
I got quite behind on my bees. This is my mini quilt for Adrienne of Quilter bees.
And this is my row (really bad photo) for Tanya of Sew Bee It.

5 comments:

Valerie said...

Seriously?! That dinosaur quilt is just plain awesome. And I love how creative the back is as well -- kind of leaves a bit of mystery as to how big that dinosaur just might be. :) How did you get your applique shapes? From book illustrations?

I know what you mean about the heat 'n bond. My mom and I picked up some super thin iron on stuff at a quilt shop in OKC and it made a world of difference on the applique we were doing. Wish I could remember the name of it though...

So fun meeting you last night. It is so cool to finally meet people in real life that share the same sewing interests!

Angie said...

Thanks, Valerie. I drew the applique shapes based on the illustrations.

If you remember the iron on stuff name, let me know. I think I'll try the starch next time, but it sounded like a lot more work.

I'm excited about being part of this group!

Barb said...

Your dinosaur quilt is just wonderful!! Love all your quilts.

Leslie said...

your dinosaur quilt is so amazing....you are so talented and creative!! i love the back. what a amazing way to tie it all together.

Rebekah said...

This dinosaur quilt is amazing! I love how you pieced the back with the triceratops spikes :)

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