Quilt Exhibit: Animal Quilts

 

Hello! Welcome back to the Musee de la Grande Route. You are in for a special treat today. I am showcasing a specially curated selection of quilts of my animal (and insects) quilts.Some of these quilts have already been featured in the museum, but today you get to see them with new friends. 

 

A lot of these quilts were made for my rotating quilt collection, so they are seasonal. Wedding Wishes has lots of butterflies.

I enjoyed this technique for making the llama.

This one was one of my very first art quilts. I used dishwasher detergent to fade fabric to make the clouds.

 

This one is great for patriotic picnics.

This one was a free pattern.

This one unleashed my inner child.

 

Dog Gone Cute is a pattern by Lorna McMahon by Sew Fresh Quilts. I recently saw this pattern made with lots of dogs in bright colors.

A recent quilt about traveling.

This one is made with the same technique as the llama.

 

I still love the puffiness of the elephant on this quilt.

Not all pieced or appliqued. Some of them are a part of the fabric.  It has a bear and reindeer.

 

 

You can see all of our Musee de la Grande Route exhibits or click on the links to see a specific exhibit:

Animal Quilts (you are here)

People Quilts Exhibit

Holiday Quilts 

Elephant Quilts 

Scrap Quilts

Tree Quilts 

Red Quilts 

 

Linked with:

 

Put Your Foot Down 

June Monthly Mini 

Peacock Party 

Scrap Happy Saturday 

Off the Wall Friday 

Brag about Your Beauties 

National Dog Day!

Quilting the Quote Quilt

 

After the backing has been added to a crazy quilt, the next step is to simply tack it to secure the layers.

This sounds great in theory. After all the work of adding so many embellishments, you may be done with it and just want to finish it off so you can show it off and/or move on to your next quilt.

 

However, for me, it is a big pivot to move from maximalist, everything goes, to minimalist tacking stitches. I am not anywhere near tired of the quilt.

2021:  Week 26 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

Besides, you can make the argument that it isn't really a crazy quilt. I think the fact that it doesn't fit the rules of crazy quilting makes it even more crazy. 

I put the free motion quilting foot on, and did some doodle stitching. Then I got out some stencils I got from a magazine subscription, and I quilted some motifs.  It is a light color thread so the effect is very subtle.

 

I spent the week quilting the Quote Quilt and resisting the urge to start other quilts.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 163 out of 178 days

Success rate  = 92%

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

Friday Photo Fun

 

Backing the Quote Quilt

Sometimes when making a quilt, it stalls, sometimes for no discernible reason. I prepared a backing for the quilt at the beginning of the year. The plan was to move forward and finish it. I had a sheet I could use for a backing, and since it showed the stitches from the quilt, I pressed a fusible interfacing to a big sheet to use as a backing. All I had to do was to join the front and the back together. But it stalled.

The fusible was a little bit stretchy, but since it was fused, it probably wouldn't stretch the quilt, but it added a soft layer to a quilt that already had a soft layer, and while I wanted the quilt to be comforting, I didn't want it to feel like a comforter. I knew from experience that the layer flattens very easily, so quilting it would probably be all it took to smash it down, but it would require dense quilting so the quilt stalled.

I decided a couple of weeks ago that I should listen to my hesitation and move on to a plan that will actually get the quilt to a finished mode.  I found some dark blue fabric that will hide the  stitches, which made me feel more motivation, but not enough to actually piece the fabric. The pieces were not wide enough to fit the width of the quilt so it would take some piecing to put the backing together.

 

I decided to take a quick look to see if I could find a wider fabric and found this angel fabric. There is a sticker on the fabric so I must have gotten it at a really good price at a sale, because I don't normally buy this kind of fabric. I have no idea how to use it. But it is perfect as the back of this quilt. It adds to the comforting factor, and there is enough to cover the width of the quilt when used horizontally. I also found another dark blue fabric that will fill in the rest of the length of the quilt and looks like it will be big enough to use as a binding as well.

I was watching a Zoom session from a library in California about making portraits on fabric for Juneteenth and decided to do some stitching. I added a motif from the backing fabric to the front of the quilt to tie it together.

2021:  Week 25 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I spent the week working on the quote quilt. I sewed the backing fabric so it is now ready to be sandwiched. I also added some embellishments by hand and some embroidery stitches by machine. I continue to hope to sandwich it soon.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 156 out of 171 days

Success rate  = 91%

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

2021: Week 24 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

The weeks are going by so fast.  In week 24, I worked on the backing for the Quote quilt. I had made the decision in week 23 to use a dark blue backing and had chosen a couple of batik pieces that would work.

 This week, I looked again in the closet and found a different blue backing fabric that I liked better. This fabric is wider so will require less piecing, and I think it fits the theme and age of the quilt better.

 

 

2021:  Week 24 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

I spent the week choosing, washing, drying and pressing the new backing fabric. I thought I would have the backing ready this week, but I had more appliances breakdown, the dishwasher, the oven, and the internet, so finding workarounds took a lot of my "free" time. I am still taking full credit this week to be kinder to myself.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 149 out of 164 days

Success rate  = 91%

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

2021: Week 23 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

2021:  Week 23 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

If you recall from my last post, the Amalfi Coast quilt changed sizes between the time I was measuring and cutting the inner border fabric and the time I sewed that inner border fabric to the side of the quilt. I put the Amalfi Coast quilt on a timeout because it needed some time to think about what it had done. By the way, Barbara Brackman did a post about the quilt block. Apparently it is called housetop and not rooftop, so it is a good thing I am calling the quilt Amalfi Coast.

While it is in timeout, I have focused my attention on the Quote Quilt. I have been reading Rhonda Dort's instructions on how to make a hexagon crazy quilt and she recommended a particular kind of stabilizer, which I bought for that quilt. I haven't started the hexagon crazy quilt or the million other quilts I want to start because of my lack of time, and because there still have enough momentum in the quilts that have already been started to continue to move them along.

 

 

Anyway, I decided to add some of that stabilizer to the back of the heavier parts of the Quote quilt - the booklet and the quilter. I need to sew more of it to secure it on before sandwiching. I also made the decision to use a dark blue backing fabric instead of the sheet/interfacing combination I have already prepared. That sheet which already has the interfacing fused on will become a Kawandi quilt once I am ready to start new projects.

15 minute days this week --2 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 142 out of 157 days

Success rate  = 90%

 

What a big drop from 93% to 90%! Last year at this time, I was at 91%, so I am not too far behind. My work schedule is dramatically opening up again so I don't think I will have any trouble with catching up.

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch

2021: Week 22 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

 

We are in the heat of peak season here at work, so quilting time is severely limited. But since I am working from home, I realized I could take my 15 minute breaks and use one of them for quilting!  The 15 minutes is less than 15 minutes because it includes a bathroom break and commute time back and forth to my desk, but it is only fair, since the time we count for work also includes breaks. Normally, 15 minutes of quilting winds up being more than 15 minutes when I am on a roll, but then, work does go over sometimes too as it takes time to close up everything.

2021:  Week 22 of 15 Minutes to Stitch

 

I added the two rows of sashing to the Amalfi quilt, formerly known as Seaglass Rooftops. I also measured and cut the inner border strips.  I sewed a side of the inner border, but it was too small (did I stretch the fabric when I was measuring?), so one of my breaks was used for ripping.

15 minute days this week --7 out of 7

15 minute days this year -- 140 out of 150 days

Success rate  = 93%

 

Linked with:

15 Minutes to Stitch