Vintage Lamb – The FINALE

For the last several days, I have been posting about a baby quilt featuring 1950’s lambs!! Yesterday’s post, although lacking in photos brought it up to the quilting process.

NOW, THIS WAS WHAT I HAD BEEN WAITING FOR!!!

Could I use stitching to give the lamb some texture??

And the answer was……

….a resounding YES!!!!

I started out with swirls quilted with a cream thread, concentrating to make them larger in the body area and smaller on the legs and head.

I started to continue the swirls onto the tail but then decided that it needed something to make it more distinct so I switched to a different design….

After I had quilted the lamb, I decided that it needed an outline so went around again with a grey thread. That helped him to pop off of the background. I did choose not to outline the tail with grey and am happy that I didn’t because it gives that appendage a bit more dimension!!

The butterflies and ducks were quick and easy…..

…and for the flowers, I simply followed the fabric design!!

Now it was time to tackle the background!! After studying the top for a bit, I decided to quilt the meadow in a slanted wavy line that echoed the background piecing.

In the sky portion, I added some fluffy clouds and continued with the wavy lines, but this time they were horizontal across the top……

As I was working on the interior, my mind kept looking forward to the borders!! I had one idea of adding more flowers but I just wasn’t happy with that thought.

While I was procrastinating, I pulled out my I-Pad and started playing with the design in “ProCreate”. At that point, I thought about 1950’s decorating and realized that there would have been lace and trims and other decorations to “fancy” up the item.

This was the idea that came to my mind…..

What if I add quilting that gives a lacy looking design????

I started out using a small clam shell ruler and quilted all the way around the interior edge…..

Next, I drew a line a to mark the outside edge of the quilt and added clamshells there as well…..

Now, what was I going to put in between these two clamshell edges.

I played around with several rulers and finally decided that the “Elvira” ruler from Angela Walters could be used to make a wavy design down the middle of the border.

And, if I repeated the same design on the other side of the center line, I would get a quilted channel down the middle of the border.

To further highlight the scalloped edge and central design, I added dense quilting between the designs…..

I had been worried that the quilt might be too stiff, but once washed, it was soft and cuddly….just what a baby quilt should be!!!

The final step was adding a three-dimensional flower in the lambs mouth…..

It is EXTREMELY well sewn down so that there is no chance of it coming off!!

So, here is the final quilt…..

I am supremely happy with how it turned out and I can’t wait to meet the little girl that it will belong too!!!