Karli's Quilt - True Love

I've started piecing this quilt little over three months ago and I am happy to say its at last finished.  I don't think I've ever made a quilt with such care and attention to detail as this one.  

This is the first quilt I've made for a customer, and even though its a paying job its still a labour of love.  I have enjoyed every moment in making this quilt and by far I am most proud of this one.

This quilt's name is 'True Love', not only does the hearts symbolize love, but it also is a reminder of the love felt, even from the first moment when she learnt she was pregnant.  For this Mom to be, she is so overwhelmed with love and emotion for her unborn baby, due in September, that I think this quilt be a beautiful reminder of how she felt even before she is born. 

'Louise, I hope you 'love' this quilt, just as much I loved making it.  May you have a beautiful, healthy, strong and happy baby.  She is going to be the luckiest baby girl, having a Mom like you, and may all your hopes and dreams for her come true...  God bless '    

For this quilt I used Willow Jelly Rolls and Layer Cakes by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake and main green yardage of the same range for the backing.

Piecing and quilting was done on my Bernina.

For the free motion quilting I used Colourful Embroidery Thread no C1181, I've quilted, stippling, swirls, feathers, connected circles and pebbles.

The finished quilt measures 65 x 77 inches (165cm x 195cm)

Here are some tutorials for creating the two sided hearts, padded hearts using batting and how I hand baste my quilts.  I've also included a link to a video showing you how I've quilted the circles inside the sashing.  Just click on the images below to direct you to that blog post.

           

Pattern used for this quilt is in a local magazine 'Craftwise' issue 83 Jan/Feb 2012 called Meadow Friends.

For all other blog posts on this quilt click HERE.

Happy quilting.

Padded Hearts Using Batting Tutorial

I am amazed at how fast this baby quilt is coming along, not to mention how much fun I'm having.  This quilt has quite a few different elements, like applique and then these padded hearts.  So I'm going to show you exactly how I've made them.

Your first step is to make a heart template.  Take a piece of printing paper and fold it in half, and  roughly draw out one side of the heart meeting in the middle of the fold.  Cut it out on the drawn line, open it up and compare it to the size fabric you want to use and see if it fits.

Once you're happy with your template, take two pieces of fabric, right sides together and trace the heart shape using a fabric marking pen.  I used a fine line water erasable pen.  Pin the pieces of fabric to prevent shifting while sewing, and carefully top stitch right on the marked line taking care to keep the curved edges nice and round.  I noticed that when I speed up a little bit when stitching the round edges, that the curves ended up rounder than when I stitched slowly. Once you've stitched all around, cut a ¼ inch seam all around the stitched line.

Next you'll need to cut away the seam allowance at the point of the heart as close to the seam as you can without cutting into the stitches. Then you split the fabric cutting slits very close to the seam, to ensure once you turn it right side out, that the round edges will fold in smoothly.

 

Then carefully pull the pieces of fabric away from each other and make a cut big enough to turn the heart inside out.  Shape and flatten it out, and press using a hot iron.

You'll then need to cut out heart shapes out of batting, every so slightly smaller than the finished heart, that way it will fit nice and snug and you wont get bumps and lumps if its too big, or gaps when too small.  Carefully insert the batting inside the heart, smoothing out any creases.

You then finish off by hand sewing the opening at the back.  I'm not too worried about it looking perfect, since this will be at the back, and it will get quilted on top of the finished quilt top, this is just to make sure its all secured.

In total I made ten of these hearts that once I'm completely done quilting this baby quilt, it will be top stitched in place.

Linking  up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Happy quilting.