Paperdoll Quilt, Finished!

It's been almost 5 years, but my Paperdoll Quilt is quilted and bound and finished!!! 

It is so difficult to get a photo of a quilt, have you ever tried?

Do you have any tips for me?

This is a full view of my quilt before it was quilted.

This post will show you how beautiful Cindy Paulson quilted my treasured Paperdoll Quilt!
Here are the paperdolls, in the center of the quilt.
I love the "pebble" quilting on the "paper doll" block.
I also think that the vertical quilting behind the paper dolls really shows them off.

I want to mention that the paper doll quilt is lying on a bed with a quilt on top of it.  
You may notice the quilt underneath at the edge of the paper doll one.  
Do you notice the quilted flower vine on the polka dot border?

Cindy quilted "x's" in every single 1" square!
Don't you love the little pom pom trim added inside the binding?

It just turned out so pretty!

Little dainty swirls, enhancing the hand embroidery.
I love how the quilting makes the suitcase look even more vintage.

The kite looks like it's in motion :)

Cindy is always so careful  not quilt over my embroidery, I completely trust her with my quilts!

She quilted around the embroidered sprays of water from the hose, to complement the embroidery :)

Thank you for letting me share my quilt with you.
I'll take a photo of it hanging on the wall after Thanksgiving.
I think it's sort of Christmasy with the paper dolls on it.
It reminds me of little girl things like "The Nutcracker" and sugar plum fairies dancing in my head.  Lol!

Paper Doll WIP

Welcome back to Paper Doll Friday ♥

Here's the center of the quilt, I changed the dolls' hair to blonde and named them Rebecca Louise and Lindsay Leigh after my two oldest daughters who are only 16 months apart.

They are grown women now, with children of their own :)

It took me 2 whole weeks to cut and sew the sashing and sew all the blocks together.

I am thrilled to have the top done, I just need to add the 2" border.

My husband and I went for an early evening drive in my convertible and found this place to hang my quilt top.

Isn't it beautiful?  I am in awe of myself for finally finishing it, ha ha!!!

My husband had the bright idea to include me in the photo.

I'm wearing a hat to keep my hair from flying all over the place!

Here's a closeup.

It's really difficult to see all the detail, but you can search paper doll quilt to the right of the blog and I have tutorials on the applique, and all sorts of detailed photos.

I'm really anxious to see how Cindy quilts my paper dolls, I know she will be so creative :)
Unfortunately Cindy is booked for a while and I won't be able to post my finished 

Paper Doll WIP

Welcome to paper doll Friday ♥

I am sewing over 1000 l l/2" little squares together for the sashing.

There just isn't enough room on the floor to lay out all the blocks.

I don't want the blocks to get wrinkled, so I pinned some twine along one wall of my sewing room and attached the blocks with clothespins.

Ignore the "sports" border on the wall!

With all my pretty sewing things surrounding me, I never notice it!

As I counted some of the strips, I laid them over my pennant so that they wouldn't get mixed up with the uncounted ones.

See you next Friday, I hope to have the quilt top completed )

Paperdoll Quilt WIP

My daughter Lindsay and I took this class from Lori Holt, the "master" of applique, everything vintage and all things beautiful!

It is Lori's "Paperdoll" Quilt.

I think our class was 6 or 7 years ago!

Our family moved to Florida, and now we are in California.

I have been working on this gorgeous quilt off and on over the years.

The blocks are all complete, I just have to sew the sashing and the borders.

Sashing and borders doesn't sound too bad, does it?

Did I tell you what the sashing consists of???

That's right!!!

Lori told me to enjoy the journey, so I am :)

Square by square, I may be a little obsessive, but I match each and every color.

Sewing, sewing, sewing, pressing seams open, sewing some more, pressing more seams open, watching old Bette Davis movies, stopping to prepare dinner, sewing and pressing some more.

I'm making some progress :)

A bunch of rows are completed but there's so much more to sew and press.

Stay tuned, I will post my progress on this adorable paperdoll quilt every Friday until it's finished.

That's my promise to myself, and I'm sticking to it :)

Needlebook Tutorial

Before I begin this needlebook post, I need to say something to any of you who might be looking for my "paperdoll quilt" post.

Due to Christmas and a new grandbaby and life in general, I am not able to finish the paperdoll quilt at this time.  I will dedicate Friday's post to that quilt asap.  

I saw this sweet little needlebook on Nana Company quite a while back and pinned it to my "Want to Make It" board on Pinterest.  

I love every single thing that Amy creates :)

I finally got around to making one and I had so much fun making it!

The tutorial is here.

I loved choosing vintage fabrics and cute little embellishments for this project.  I made it as a gift for a young woman who loves ♥ Anthropologie.  I tried to make it as interesting and unique as possible.  Notice  all the details?

I added a double pocket on the back side of my front cover.

I made it more of a sewing kit that a needle book.

I originally had silver safety pins here, but I found some pink ones at JoAnn's and used them instead.

This is my favorite page!

Leaf pins, velvet rick rack with little x's embroidered on it.

Sparkly buttons with two trims of ribbon.  

I like the swatch of linen that the needles are pinned to.

I added another pocket to the back cover.

I chose each little square with great care!

The back cover looks cuter with some hand stitching.

The needlebook is smaller than it looks.  It is only about 3"X4".

I was able to squeeze all of these supplies into the needlebook/sewing kit.

I loved making this little needlebook and would like to make some more for my daughters  and daughters in law, all 5 of them!

Oh, and one for me too!

Paperdoll Finishing Kit

Every Friday for the past few months, I have been blogging about my paperdoll quilt.  I have finished appliqueing and embroidering all of the blocks.  Now it is time to put the quilt together.

This is the basket I have been keeping my goodies in for a couple of years now.  

The stars and dots fabric is the border and the gingham is the binding.  The little white pom poms are sewn next to the binding.

This is the fabric that will be on the back of the quilt.

Really vintage, it looks like Betsy McCall!

 Does anyone remember her?

This colorful jellyroll will be used to sew the sashing.

Look at the sashing!!! It's tons of little squares!

I can hardly wait to start working on it.

Unfortunately I won't be able to begin putting the quilt together until the new year.  The Christmas season is always so busy, a fun busy!  I will continue this paperdoll adventure on the first Friday of 2013. 

 

Paperdoll Block

These are Blocks 1 and 2, I completed them on schedule when I was taking the class from Lori in Utah.  Then we moved to Florida.

We had four grand daughters born within seven months of each other, and I was very busy making them all baby quilts, quilted wall hangings and very detailed blessing gowns with bonnets to match.

My paperdoll quilt was put to the side and I have just worked on it here and there since then.

Let me introduce to you, Rebecca Louise and Lindsay Leigh, my paperdolls named after my real life daughters who are only 16 months apart in age.  They are now 31 and 30 years in real life :)

I changed the dolls around a little and changed their hair color.  

Lindsay was born on Thursday, it's embroidered on her underwear.

Notice the detail?  Rebecca is wearing an old fashioned roller skate key around her neck.  She has a band aid on her elbow and her knee.  Her toes are painted red.  

The directions....the scissors are appliqued, and the rest is embroidered.  I remember as a really little girl, cutting out paperdolls.  Sometimes I wasn't too careful and cut off their tabs :)

This is Blocks 1 and 2 completed.  

FRIENDS 

all that

you

will need

is 

your

IMAGINATION

to begin

your 

many

ADVENTURES

together

All the blocks lying on top of each other and folded in half, waiting to be blocked and sewn together.

All 14 patterns are finished!

I still have more to show you next Friday :)