Quilts on the Brain

Wow, this new blogger style is really messing me up. I can't figure out how to move stuff. Sad because I am really excited about these quilts! They were keeping me up at night, so I had to finish them quick!
Rome's Driving Duvet Quilt

I started with this duvet cover I got for Rome. It was huge. Queen size for his twin bed. I have a queen size comforter I put in it, but it was just too big. So, I decided to cut it down and make it a blanket on its own. I measured, cut, sewed it inside out, turned it and put in the batting.  Turns out Duvet covers are not true to size and have a little lot of extra room for the comforter inside. So, when I went to pin it, it was way bigger on the back than the front. Oops. Oh well now. I flattened it out as best I could, pinned it and proceeded to quilt the edges (in red, green and yellow) and around the roads on the back side.

 You can't really see the edging or the quilting. I thought about doing colors in the middle, but after doing some in white, just stuck with that. It was hard! The roads are mostly straight, but then you have to turn the corners and figure out how to stuff the whole quilt through the machine. I also don't have quilting pins, so I was being stuck the entire time with regular pins. AND I worked on this while the kids where playing outside, so they kept coming in and laying on it while it was on the table. (Rome kept trying to drive his cars on it while I was still sewing. Sooo helpful) I had to keep warning them that it still had pokeys in it, so please don't touch! I got poked a LOT. I was so happy when this was done. It has been sitting on my shelf for months and I was tired of being poked by pins!

You can see the quilting a little better here. This is after Rome played on it for a while.  He thought it was pretty cool to jump and roll on it for about an hour. Hopefully he will still like it when it gets cold enough for a blanket on his bed.

Now I need to think about what to do with the extra piece. It is only 20" wide by 90" long, so not wide enough for a pillow case. Still it is super cute cars and roads. Maybe it will end up in a quilt somewhere else. I think 10" squares would work. Hmm...

Next, Flowery Stripes Quilt.

I started with a fleece blanket I got for Capri. I never liked it and never used it. Not even once. I thought it would be perfect to turn into a quilt. I took it with me to the store and got some fat quarters to match. It was tough, they are kinda weird colors. Then, I tried to decide what pattern to make it. I didn't want squares and I only had 3 colors, not 6 or 10. I ended up liking a kind of stripey pattern. 

All pieced out

Ready to quilt

It is pieced together and a little TON more difficult than I expected. I used the scraps of the sheet I cut out for the Rocket Ship Rainbow quilt below. What I didn't realize is that it is not a cotton sheet. It is a knit. Kint = s t r e t c h. Yikes. I did not see that one. As an added bonus, my fleece is very thin and stretchy too! Oh My Goodness, this was hard to put together! I measured and calculated and contemplated.  Finally, I cut out my strips and started sewing it together only to realize that I was going to run out of white sheet for the strips. (notice how some are missing in the picture) Eek. I stretched out what I had left and came up one strip short.  Then, I laid out the quilt and saw how crooked it was. I didn't take a picture because it was very depressing. The side I was planning on not cutting because it should all line up was at least 3 inches off. Ouch. Anyway, I squared it all up and took the scraps and sewed them together to get my last strip to finish the top. Phew! 

On the back, I took my last three strips of colored fabric and striped them to put an extra piece down one side. I thought it would look nice. When I tried to sew it on however, I realized just how stretchy my fleece was. Greeeeat. I sewed it on and just hoped it was straight enough. I finally got it all together and decided to quilt it in straight lines. I sewed down the middle of each strip too, just to help with the extra stretch. I thought it would help with the shifting if I sewed one way and then the other. So, if you look close you can see the pull of the stitching  from the "ditch" to the middles. So Fun I Tell Ya! (just FYI, sarcasm is part of my vocabulary) I turned the edges and sewed them down and I was done!  I washed it up and it is so soft and cozy!

For all of the trouble this quilt caused me, it actually came together pretty quick. There was a couple days in between for contemplating what I wanted to do, but the actual piecing and quilting only took 2 or 3 nights work. So, 6 hours, maybe? Not bad considering and it turned out pretty cute. 

I actually like this blanket now. Capri does too. I thought about giving it away, but I might keep it around for a while. 

Rocket Ship Rainbow.

This one went a completely different direction than I had planned. I started out wanting to find fabric to put a top on a cream colored fleece blanket I have lying around. What I found was 5 fat quarters in rainbow colors. I liked them so much that I went back to the store to find a back to match! I saw the rockets and it was perfect! As a bonus, Rome saw the rockets and was in love! (For me! Can I play with it? Please!) Awesome, rocket ships for Rome.

I cut out the sheet I was planning on using to the right size and picked out a general pattern. I cut the rectangles to 6x9's and 6x3's. Originally I laid it out like this first pic, and I liked it okay. The rainbow effect was cool, but when I went to put it on, I just didn't fit right. So, I changed it up. I figured out what I wanted, cut it all out and used the extra for the back. 

The back was supposed to be easy. It had other plans. I sewed my stripes very carefully to get the length I needed. I used the very few extras to make my 42" fabric into the 46" I wanted. Then, they didn't match up, either one of them. Arrgh! They were both at least an inch off. Don't freak out Jocie! Just work it out. Okay, so I cut an extra strip for both of them. I put one on both sides of the rainbow colors, and had to add another anyway. bleh. Finally I got them all to 46" and sewed the back together. At this point something in me decided that I needed to wash my fabric. Yes, I did a big "no no" and did not prewash my fabrics. Sorry Grandma! I was taught better I promise. So, I washed it, dried it, sewed the sheet on, turned it inside out, added the batting and saw the damage. Yea, the rainbow stripe is now a bit smaller than the rest of the quilt back. Lucky I spent so much time adding those extra inches huh. I got it as flat as I could, stitched it closed and edged it on all sides. Time to sew on the rest of the rainbow.  I washed the squares I had cut, trimmed the edges that frayed and checked out what I had left. The rectangles weren't quite square anymore and some were quite a bit smaller than they used to be. Special. That is what you get for not following the rules and prewashing your fabric. I put all my pieces on, glue sticked them down and decided to zig zag them on. (no pins, thank you!) I went down one side and came back the other and tried not to notice when it was very not straight, stretched and puckered. I kept reminding myself that this is for a 3 (almost 4) year old and  He Does Not Care. He probably doesn't care if there is a rainbow on the other side of the rockets at all. Or that a few of my large rectangles were already cut smaller and had to be sewed back together.  In the end it turned out okay.  I totally planned it that way you know. 

Awesome Rocket Ship Rainbow Quilt Finished.