The Whole Story Comes Together!

When I got ready to quilt this piece, I started with all of the animals, making sure that I stitched around EVERY…SINGLE….PIECE….OF….FABRIC.

It was fiddly, and there were TONS of thread changes, starts and stops!!

I wanted to do something special on the path, so I started out with oval “stones”…three across the path. Then I decided that it needed more, so I went back in and added another “stone” in the middle of each. I liked the final result…..

For the trees and leaves, I just outlined them and then added a bit of filler quilting….

….and did a wavy “U-turn” in the sky…..

But, the stars of this quilt are the fun animals….

Jenny requested that the quilt be named for the baby, so “Sutton’s Storybook Grove” is the winner…..

Although I had to rush to get it finished in time, I thoroughly enjoyed the process and LOVE the finished quilt. Jenny told me that, when the new Mom opened the gift, she declared it absolutely PERFECT!!

So, which animal is your favorite?

———————————————————————-

Check out my new, ONLINE, ON-DEMAND Free-Motion Quilting Course

CLICK TO LEARN MORE

These Animals Are Well Read!

When we left the baby quilt last week, I had finished all of the background….

Now it was time to start adding the book-reading animals. I was SO excited!!

The first one that I did was the Owl sitting in the tree….

I chose to use Wonder-Under to prep the animals, trying to only stick it to the edges of the design.

I prepped each animal or group individually, adding them one at a time to the quilt top….

I knew that it was going to need something else to the right and top so I added some roughly cut-out pine trees.

Then it was time to square up the top…not something that I particularly enjoy!

I laid it out on my cutting table…..

….and played with it for a few minutes. Then I grabbed my Laser Square…..

….and quickly cleaned up two of the edges…..

The other two sides were equally easy to square up and it went up on the wall for a final look…..

I noticed that the racoon seemed to blend into the background, so I carefully pried up the fused edges and added a lighter color of fabric underneath…..

Now it looks like he is sitting on a rug!!

I quickly basted it….

As I was cleaning up my studio, I found another tree that I hadn’t used, and it HAD to be added to the top….

Come back tomorrow and see the full reveal!!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

If you have an interest in ruler quilting, check out this online course…..

Click HERE for more information

Let’s Grow the Tree

I feel like it has taken forever to get the baby quilt background in place, so I was VERY excited to move on to the next part of the quilt…..

THE BIG TREE!!

I delved into my stash and did a fabric pull for the tree parts….

ONE NOTE HERE….. I am patting myself on the back for not having bought fabric since January, and I plan not to buy any more this year. When you look at my studio, you can see that I probably will NEVER need to buy fabric again!! HA!!

As before, I am trying to only use Wonder-under on the edges of the fabric pieces, so I started on the outside and worked my way in….

It was super easy to keep adding branches and fabrics to the tree trunk….

I am not super happy with the “ledge” that separates the trunk portion from the limbs, but I have plans to cover it up with a squirrel.

I pulled one large scrap of dark green fabric, ironed Wonder-under to the back, and started cutting out largish leaves…..

I did the same with a lighter green, then again with an even lighter one.

I decided to put the leaves in groups of three, and this is the result…..

The next step is to add the various animals reading books….

…..I can’t wait!

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

One of my favorite things about quilting is motivating others and helping them in their quilting journey. As part of this endeavor, I LOVE to present programs and workshops to groups and guilds around the world. All of my programs work well with Zoom meetings, and I would love to speak to your group.

You can find out more at this link…..

Forest background

When I last posted about the commissioned baby quilt, I had brought it to this stage…..

But then life got in the way, and I couldn’t get back to this project. Since it is due soon, it was time to re-join the creative world!!

The first step was to add the left-hand side of the forest, leaving space for the BIG tree…..

I had to do some finnagling to get the path to stay in place…..

Now it was time to add some hills in the background….lower on the left side and higher on the right…..

Okay….background is completed…..

Tomorrow, we will add the big tree!!

……………………………………………………………

STOP SAVING YOUR SCRAPS FOR “SOMEDAY”

With Crumbs for the Geese, you’ll confidently turn even the smallest pieces into a vibrant, finished quilt—no second guessing, no overwhelm.

🎥 You’ll also get a 30-minute step-by-step video on crumb blocks and precise flying geese
Just sew, build, and enjoy the process

Check out the pattern HERE

Now the FUN begins

Last week, I shared how I set up my pattern and design board for the new baby quilt…

Baby Quilt Inspiration Board

And now, it is time to start adding fabrics, and color, and making decisions…..

YIPPEE!!

When I saw the inspiration photo, I started sondering if I had enough of those peachy colors…..

OKAY……no need to worry!!

I knew that these colors were going to be the path, so I selected a bunch and laid them out by value….

My plan was to sew these fabrics in strips, going from light to dark. To get me a feel for what I was doing, I put a piece of tracing paper over the path and divided it into parallel strips….

At this point, I got engrossed in doing the sewing and forgot to take photos, but here is the final result….

I LIKE that path!!!

Now I pulled out the greens and started finding a gradation that I liked….

I wanted to use similar strips, but didn’t want to sew them in straight lines; instead, I wanted to have some curves in there as well.

I didn’t want the curves to be raw-edged without some fusible, and I didn’t want to fuse the ENTIRE strip, so I did the next best thing…..

I cut a 1-inch strip of Wonder Under and fused it to the edge of my fabric….

I cut a gentle curve out of the strip….

…and it was ready to fuse to the previous strip….

This worked well…

Now my problem was figuring out how to attach the grass to the path with fusible on the edges.

I finally decided to cut a strip of Wonder Under in the shape of the path (REVERSED OF COURSE)….

…placing it carefully (and fearfully) on the greens….

It took a bit of finnagling, but the result was great….

Unfortunately, we are on the road for a few days, so I won’t be able to work on this until next week.

YIKES…..my deadline is August 5th!!!

MUST…..GET……BUSY!!

……………………………………………………………………………..

Do you struggle to decide what to quilt in your blocks? If so, check out my FREE series…..

Click HERE for more information