Heart Doll Quilt

Another UFO completed.  This was an orphan heart block that I decided to turn into a doll quilt for my Etsy shop. I backed it with fleece, which makes it nice and snuggly.

I also tried something new with the free motion quilting on this one.  Podcast listeners may remember that whenever I do free motion, I always include at least one heart in the pattern.  It's my little signature.  For this one, I added a bunch of hearts throughout the quilting.  I thought it would be fun for the recipient to count the hearts, like a little mystery to solve.  I'm going to include a sealed envelope for the buyer with the correct answer.

Speaking of dolls and such, check out this adorable little homemade wardrobe that a friend's daughter made for her American Girl doll clothes.  It's an upcycled cardboard box!  She turned her closet into a special room for her American Girl dolls.  Of course they then needed their own closet, too.  I think she may have a future as an interior designer.  She already understands the importance of using space wisely....

Four Square Quilt: Done!

I spent this weekend finishing up some UFOs.  Why don't I do this more often?  It provides such instant gratification, just spending a bit of time on half-done projects to turn them into finished loveliness.

The best finish was the Four Square quilt.  Longtime Quilted Cupcake podcast listeners or blog followers may remember this quilt- it was the very first full size quilt I ever started, in 2009.   It was featured on my first podcast episode and  second blog post ever.  Check it out here - we've come a long way since then!   In fact, I had to go back and add a title to that post - it didn't have one!

The pattern, called Four Square, is from Quilts & More, Spring 2008.   It was also featured on the cover of a BH&G book,  Easy Quilt Projects.

I quilted it in strips, and then assembled them to make the quilt.  Because I'm hard-headed, I did it my own way.  I'm sure there are better ways to quilt as you go, but I did what worked for me.  Before I did another quilt this way, I'd probably want to learn a better technique.  The good part of my "technique" (losing the term loosely here) is that it allowed me to do a lot of free motion quilting without struggling with a full size quilt.  I started this quilt well before I purchased the Singer 201-2 with the big harp.

I decided to piece the binding, using strips of fabric from the quilt.  Really happy with how that turned out.

The quilt's somewhere between full and queen size, which means taking pictures of it (when you're short like me) is a challenge, as shown below:

Here it is on my new bed with the headboard I made (Look for a new tutorial coming soon on my easy headboard project!)

It's backed in flannel, so it's very snuggly and warm, definitely a winter quilt.  I think I'll give this one to my hubby.  We each like having our own covers - that way, nobody gets cold.  Yes, we've been married 20+ years - little things like separate covers make us happy.

I'll share more about this quilt in my next podcast, which I'm planning to record this weekend.