Doll Quilt #3 – Machine Quilting Practice
I wasn’t necessarily planning on making a third doll quilt right away. An unexpected win of some really cute fabrics from Brooke at Silly Mama Quilts changed fate for me and a doll.
Aren’t these just so darn cute?! Nice and bright and I love all of those geometric patterns. We need to make a dolly quilt right away, don’t you think? HSTs or maybe rectangles or maybe squares. There are 16 different prints and they could mostly be for a boy or girl. So I left out the pink squares, trimmed each square to be 5″ and then cut them in quarters.
Doll Quilt #3 Decisions
Once I had a nice selection of 2.5″ squares, I set about laying them out in a random pattern. I don’t do too well with random . . . just saying. So here was the original layout:
I’m here to tell you that it did not stay in this order! I decided to add another row to the length when I ended up with three extra squares. Then when I pressed each row in opposite directions so they would nest with the next, I messed that up. Good grief. How hard is that?! So I got exasperated with myself and ended up sewing them however they would nest best (say that fast three times!) and not have the same color touching each other. Hmm, too small at 14″ x 18″ so it is getting a border added. Finally, here is the top before quilting. So darn many colors ended up near each other!
Quilting Dilemna
What technique should be utilized for quilting this little gem? And more importantly, will I be good and comfortable enough to use the technique later on a bigger sized quilt? Sure I will! This is only fabric, right?! No one is going to live or die . . . it’s for a doll . . . who cares. I DO! I want the sweetie who ends up with this to love it. So I decided to use the Angela Walter’s technique for the orange peel FMQ pattern. It is usually quick and I can do the whole top in one session which is nice. Of course I forgot to put the feed dogs down so it was a bit challenging and the thread kept breaking. Here’s a closeup of the orange peels where some of them missed the corner I was aiming for:
And here is the finished piece along with a shot of the backing with Curious George:
I even added a cute little loop in each corner to make sure that had quilting in it as well! I lived through the FMQ and am alive to tell about it!
In case you haven’t heard about A Doll Like Me, or would like to see our Doll Quilt #1 and FMQ Practice or our Doll Quilt #2 with Ruler Work. Both posts explain a bit about the background for the dolly quilts. These quilts are all on the way to hopefully be shared in a new home where they will receive lots of love!
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Awww…that quilt is adorable and the orange peel is great! Not exactly meeting the corners is the way its SUPPOSED to look, unless you’re doing it for a show…at least that’s my philosophy.
Cheers
Terry
Roseanne it looks so adorable! 🙂
Definitely a winner. The audience for the quilt is not going to be critical, but it is cute!
Honey, this could have been ME writing this post. I do not do random well either. My engineer husband tells me that there is, in fact, no such thing as truly random. So remember THAT the next time you are stressing over random! As for the nesting row thing, sweet mother of Betsy Ross I can’t get that right either not matter what I do. I have taken to labeling my rows ahead of time with letter beads and safety pins…sometimes that works. And sometime, not so much! Then there is that crazy technique where you never cut the threads between blocks when chain piecing and it all ends up as one ginormous spiderwebbish looking thing. My new mantra is from Debi Payne Designs: “Imperfection is a form of Freedom”! So there! Thanks for the post, your candor, and the laugh! I appreciate you!
PS – the quilt is adorable and the colors are perfect for A Doll Like Me!
It turned out perfectly! The child who receives your quilt will be happy to snuggle their baby doll in such a cheer! Curious is the perfect addition! 😊🐒
I often mess up my rows when I take them off the design wall. Your doll quilt is really bright and cute besides the mess ups. Random is hard.
Adorable!! It will be loved no matter how it was quilted or how many of the colors are close!
Great work and I think in the end who sees a missed corner! Only you and after awhile not even you!
So cute!!! The quilting orange peels were perfect!! Nice job.
We usually over agonize about fabric placements and layouts. To everyone else, it looks great. No, really it looks adorable. This will be one lucky kid!!!
ooohhh Foundations by Sassafras is AMAZING! I love that line so much… it made such a cute doll quilt too 😀
Lovely fabrics! Such a cuttie!
The border was an excellent idea and it looks wonderful!
I love the fabrics! The doll quilt is adorable some lucky child will love it! Great job with the orange peel FMQ-
You definitely have a win win going on. You get to practice quilting and some sweet child will have a fun quilt for their dolly! Who knows that little quilt might just entice a child to be a quilter someday:)
I like the 2nd random layout best… and the cute fabric.