Blue and yellow quilt

 I finished this blue and yellow quilt (41.5" x 55") yesterday.  I worked on the quilt top last weekend.  I laid out all the precut squares of about 4" on the floor in the spare room and rearranged them until I was  happy with the layout and then stitched them together into squares of four.  These were part of several batches of precuts I have bought over the years and thought it was time to get them stitched up into a quilt.   In hopes of not having to add more than a thin batting I rough cut old sheets into squares and then stitched the squares to them with a square of stitching.  As I went along in this process I realized that not all the squares were the same size so I measured the smallest one and then trimmed all the others to the same size centering the joins to the middle.  

  

It was a bit of work but sure worth it when it came to stitching the squares together.  So much easier to line up the corners!!  I had picked out navy broadcloth for the binding and had a blue heavy weight cover to use as the backing.  I had picked up the rows into piles so I laid them out yesterday back into rows.  I stitched all the rows up and then stitched the rows to each other including the thin batting into the seams.  I dug out my backing to find that did not have enough that was good to get a backing for this quilt.  Bummer!!  I dug out a different one but because it was medium weight I decided to add another layer of cotton for batting.  I laid them into a sandwich, pinned it extensively and added a few rows of quilting to adhere all the layers to each other. 

I cut an 3" binding out of the navy and madeup a double fold binding.  I bound the edge using navy thread and a wavy stitch to ensure I did not miss the backing.  I like the idea stitching the batting to the squares and then all you need to do is add a backing and the binding.  In this more traditional type of quilting I can certainly see the value of trimming all your squares to insure they are the same size before you start stitching them together.  I see that I must have mixed up the last two rows  - oh well - it will have to do!!    It will be washed and the set aside for donation to the Linus Project.    Therese

Baby card featuring a cute baby in a tub, rickrack and ribbon and a scalloped border

My friend is going to be a grandma and wanted a card to celebrate the arrival of her grandson!!  I chose a warm blue card and some coordinating multicoloured diamond paper which I paper pierced with my pattern tracing wheel before adhering it to my card.  I combined the baby image with the greeting in Corel Draw leaving room for the embellishments and laser printed it.  I watercoloured the baby and tub and added clear glitter to the bubbles.  I added the blue rick rack to which I had tied a little length of red ribbon securing the ends on the back with double sided tape.  I trimmed the bottom with scalloped decorative scissors and used a push pin to paper pierce each scallop.  I added the embossed line using my score too.  I used my distress tool on the top and sides above the rick rack.  I mounted this focal element to my card using 3D foam tape.  Babies are the best!!!  Therese