Let’s Quilt the Cows

Once the Highland Cow baby quilt top was ready to quilt, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do and hopped onto it….

I LOVE how the cows look with the dreadlocks!!

Next week we will finish it off!!

From Moo to Quilt: Where mountains touch the sky

After finishing the pasture land yesterday, I was so excited to get back into the studio to work on the sky.

I originally had this fabric next to the cows…..

…but I felt that it was too bright to fit in that spot. Then I spied THIS fabric on my shelf…..

I loved the undulations (like hills) and the blue color was perfect.

But I only had a fat quarter, and of course, it was a SMALL fat quarter (only 19-inches wide. This meant that I would need THREE cuts from this particular piece.

I started out by deciding that I wanted about 1 inch of green at the top of each slice, and drew them out before I cut them.

I checked each slice before applying the rotary cutter to make sure that the designs would work together….

It was a lot of work for one 3-inch row, but was completely worth it….

I was pretty sure that I wanted to add a row with mountains so that was where I headed next.

I sketched a basic pattern….

…. and started adding fabrics (and making changes as I went).

I wanted to use Wonder Under for the outside edges of the hills, but didn’t want the fusing to extend over the entire piece. I have found that adding fused fabric on top of fused fabric often causes stiffness, and I wanted to avoid that.

My process was simple…..

Draw the curve (reverse side) on the Wonder Under…

….cut out the curve, leaving fusible on each side of the line….

…..iron the fusible in place, making sure to leave enough fabric below the curve to complete the pattern, then cut along the curve…..

I made a number of changes as I went along, mostly adding some peaks to the curves and moving a few fabrics around.

This was the final result…

Once trimmed, I added it to the rows already in place….

…and kept on building upward!

I was struggling to find enough appropriate fabrics to make the quilt a full 60-inches in height, but my husband reminded me that it was for a baby and there was no “PERFECT” height!

That was just what I needed to declare the quilt top FINISHED….

I am super excited about how it has turned out, and I can’t wait to get started on the quilting…..

I am thinking dreadlocks for the cows….what do you think?

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From Moo to Quilt: Something to stand on

After fixing the “errors” that were driving me crazy (see Thursday’s post), I was excited to start designing the quilt!!

The first step was to turn the three cows into the main strip for the quilt. I added strips between the cows and on the outside of them as well…..

Things were not particularly straight, and I knew that if it started out “wonky”, it would just get wonkier as it went!

So, I pulled out my laser level (find it here on Amazon), and lined up two sides and one corner….

….and trimmed to the red laser line.

I repeated on the other side….

…and did the same!!

Now that I know the main section is squared, I can start adding the rows.

The pattern had these fun thistle blocks……

….and I thought it would be fun to have a row of those…..

It was fun to actually do some piecing!!

I spent the next little bit auditioning fabrics to become the “ground beneath the cows”!! This is where I ended the day….

I am super happy with how this looks, and it got the thumbs up from the person who commissioned the quilt…..ie…my daughter!!

Next step is to add the top section.

Come back tomorrow!!

Some fabrics deserve more than a tiny square.

Woodland Walk gives your favorite prints room to shine with larger blocks and an easy layout that showcases every detail.

No overcutting. No overthinking. Just beautiful fabric on display.

👉 Get the pattern here

From Moo to Quilt: A few tweaks needed!

The second project that I took on my guild retreat was making a Highland Cow baby quilt for one of my daughter’s friends.

I picked out a pattern and did a fabric pull before the retreat, and then pieced the three cows during the retreat…

They were relatively easy to piece together, with lots of sew-and-flip…

…using 1.25-inch strips!!

I did struggle with the cow on the left that was reversed in direction. There was a LOT of ripping….

Interestingly, another retreater (Beverly) also had a Highland Cow pattern from Art East, although hers was a bit BIGGER than mine…..

I left the retreat with the three cows pieced and ready to go.

Now it was time to start adding background to the quilt. I started by throwing fabrics on the wall that roughly matched the baby room color scheme…

But, before I started putting strips together, I needed to fix two places that were bothering me. Here, the body “hair” and the leg blended together too much…..

So I picked out the sections and changed the bottom color…..

It didn’t make a ton of difference, but at least my eye doesn’t go there immediately now!!

The other problem was that I had mis-calculated the grass on the right side of the middle cow, and they weren’t going to match up…..

So….first step was to fix these issues, and now I can start putting the top together…..come back on Saturday, and we will get the bottom section finished!!

Some fabrics deserve more than a tiny square.

Woodland Walk gives your favorite prints room to shine with larger blocks and an easy layout that showcases every detail.

No overcutting. No overthinking. Just beautiful fabric on display.

👉 Get the pattern here

A Scottish baby quilt

Yesterday, we looked at the first quilt that I plan to make on my upcoming quilt retreat. Today, let’s talk about the second one.

A few years ago, my daughter, Jenny, commissioned me to make an ocean quilt for her friend’s new baby. I had SO much fun making this one…..

Now, this friend’s sister is expecting and Jenny once again commissioned me to make a quilt for her. But, this family travels a lot and currently lives in Scotland, so the request has been for Highland Cows!!

I am SO EXCITED!!!

I found this fun pattern…..