two quilts

Well, I did it! I finished the two quilts just in time. Binding went on late last night and I managed some very poorly lit photos in my sewing room early this morning before Avery and Claire took them to school.

Long story short, Avery and Claire recently started spending more nights away from us at their father's house. It's not something we expected would happen. And it's been challenging (i.e. sucky) for all of us to get used to.

I decided to make the girls quilts for their beds there. It was a surprise at first-- I hoped to have them done before the first long stretch of visitation while I was in Austin at QuiltCon. But when I realized that wasn't going to happen, I proceeded to have one of those mom moments where I thought, "What if something awful happens to me while I'm out of town and the girls never knew I was sewing up quilts for them and oh my gosh I'm freaking out!!!" So I told them. And they were really excited. They love mama-made quilts.

For Claire-- the brighter, the better. I threw in some horses for good measure.

For Avery-- a bit bolder. A few months ago she told me she was really liking red and orange more now, with the blues and greens she always loved. Of course her favorite color now is salmon, but she'll have to settle for something smaller in that color.

Both are backed in minky dot for extra coziness. It feels good knowing that Avery and Claire will be wrapped up in a lot of love each night under their quilts, even if I can't be there to tuck them in.

Notes:

All fabrics came from my stash, except for the minky backings. If you see one you like and want to know more details, let me know and I'll do my best to help identify it.

Quilting with minky wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Some tips I learned:

--- I used spray baste , no pins (I hate pins!). Everything held together great! Zero puckers.

--- Before I quilted, I stay stitched the layers around the very edge of the quilt top. This kept the quilt top square and eliminated any shifting along the edges.

--- I set up a quilting area that consisted of my Gidget II Sewing Table , my cutting table behind it, and a folding table to the left of my machine. The quilts were HEAVY, and this helped reduce drag a ton.

I machine stitch my binding using a blanket stitch technique from Pat Sloan. I do a double fold binding, but stitch it like she does. It's super secure and looks great.