Fancy Forest is quilted!

I machine quilted and sewed the binding on my Fancy Forest quilt, by Elizabeth Hartman.

I was thinking about different ways I could machine quilt this little quilt for my 13th grandchild, baby Jacob.

I saw this wood design and really loved it!

I watched a few tutorials on how to create the free motion look, did some practice drawing with pen and paper, and was set to go.

I was nervous to start for fear I'd ruin the quilt, but luckily, I didn't ruin it :)

Here is a closeup of the quilting.

To tell you the truth, it wasn't that hard, but my neck got very stiff hunched over the sewing machine for hours.

It probably took about 5 hours of quilting, and a lot of thread!

I used a light gray Aurifil thread.

I backed the quilt with a really soft steel blue minky.

The nap makes the fabric look like it has different shades of color.

The minky fabric melts into the stitches, it has a great effect!

I really want to keep this quilt....but no, I made it for Jacob :)

I hope he falls in love with it and rubs the softness while he sucks his little thumb!

Lol!!!

Minky Blanket Tutorial

I have a few things that I make for each grandchild when they are born.  I make them a baby quilt, a quilted wall hanging, and an heirloom blessing gown/outfit.  

I asked my daughter in law what type of quilt she would like for her  baby.  She said she preferred soft ones rather than quilted ones.  I went to www.fabric.com and looked at their vast assortment of minky fabric.  I chose two pinks, one for the front and one for the back.  I thought I would try something different and add a shag trim.  I also bought some flannel from JoAnn's to put in the middle.  I read that it helps stabilize the slippery minky fabric.

I pinned the flannel to the wrong side of one of the minky pieces, and machine basted all four sides.  

I forgot to mention that I cut the two pieces of minky fabric 33"X42".

I cut the shag minky seven inches wide.  I cut 3 strips and sewed them together to make one long strip.

Be warned, when the shag minky is cut, it sheds more than a Pekingese dog!  See what I mean?

After picking up most of the shedding shag, the rest is hard to get rid of....it sticks to the cutting board so I had to get the vaccum cleaner out.  I really didn't care that it was so messy because I think the results were worth it.

I sewed the shag minky to the pink minky, right sides together.

When I reached the corner, I folded a large pleat in the shag to allow for ease.  The minky is so shaggy that even if you do make a mistake, it will never show.

I sewed the second piece of pink minky to the shag minky, right sides together, again folding pleats into the corners. This time, I left an opening about 8 to 10 inches long. 

Then I turned the blanket right side out.

There is still an opening where I turned the blanket.

Where the opening in the blanket is, I folded the l/2" seam allowance in, and topstitched the opening closed.

I continued the topstitching all around the blanket, making sure I didn't sew over any shaggy pieces of fluff on the top side or the under side.  I kept making sweeps with my hand on the underside to make sure that there weren't any pieces of shag in the way as I sewed my way around the blanket.

I folded the blanket in half so you could see the two prints.

Don't you just love the fringe?  

It ripples as it moves :)

With the shag border, the blanket measures about 36"X45".

Here's a close up of the "ripply" shaggy minky.

Here is Kylie Violet (4 days old), wrapped up in her new blanket.

The blanket can even hold two little girls, Kylie's two year old sister, Neo!

Neo loves her new baby sister!

This is my son Addison, with Neo and Kylie wrapped up in her new minky blanket.

This is my daughter Vanessa and her niece Kylie in the new blanket.  I guess I have given you almost every scenario I can think of with Kylie in her minky blanket.  

Thanks for letting me share and I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial.