05 April, 2018

Bubbly

It all started, as every quilt does, with a stack of fabric. This quilt was to be a special one for our five year old granddaughter's bed. She knows what she wants. The walls of her room are decorated with painted circles: red, turquoise, two shades of green, yellow and, of course, Lynnleigh's favorite color: orange. My daughter-in-law and I selected the fabrics and the background from swatches while standing in the room where the quilt will live. A flax linen was chosen for the background. I knew what Lynnleigh wanted: lots and lots of circles. Circles of every size. I wasn't certain how to execute this one but I spent much time thinking about it and then, suddenly one morning, I awakened with a plan! I had ordered the background fabric wide enough so that there were no seams. I backed the colored pieces with Misty Fuse and went to my trusty AccuQuilt cutter and began cranking the layers of prepared fabrics through.
I gridded off the background fabric with a thermal-ink pen and placed the circles in what appears to be a random-ish (I can't do true random placement, it's not in me!) design within an outline. 
I fused them in place, one at a time with a dry iron. The ironing fixed the circles to the background and eliminated the placement lines at the same time. I left a little additional length as I wasn't 100% sure how long this needed to be. I would take it to the actual bed for a trial before I trimmed anything!
The quilt lay-out before trimming. The quilt top got two-thumbs up from Lynnleigh after the try-out. (Actually, she wanted to keep it, immediately, right there on her bed. I had to convince her to let me bring it back home for finishing!)
The next step was the applique. I used a straight stitch around each raw-edge. The constant turning and manipulation of the quilt under the presser foot caused some of the circles to begin to lift and work themselves loose, I secured them with safety pins. (My pile of safety pins, removed as I went along, revealed that there are 74 circles on this quilt top!
The quilting began! I decided to use "Curls" a pantograph from Beany Girl Quilts. I loved the movement that this added.
Here it is, with the quilting all finished. I am excited to think about Lynnleigh's reaction to it being on her bed for real. It is backed with fabric from a sheet, white background with tiny gray elephants: her favorite animal! 😉 It is twin sized, measuring 56" X 80". 
Yesterday I prepared a pieced multi-color binding from the scraps; it is basted in position and ready for hand finishing. I showed this photo to a friend and she remarked that it will match my granddaughter's bubbly personality! The quilt was named, right then and there! Bubbly? 

Oh yes, the quilt and the girl!

Life is Good!

9 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

this looks great - I love circles too and I bet she loves it

Janet O. said...

Absolutely adorable!! Even though I only "know" this little girl through your blog, this quilt seems so fitting. Wonderful outcome!
BTW, It is not in me to do true random, either. I got a chuckle from that statement.

Quiltdivajulie said...

Fantastic!!! She is going to LOVE it - and you for making her wishes come to life.

Needled Mom said...

That is perfect. She will love it.

Quilting Babcia said...

We can almost hear her bubbly excitement when she gets her finished quilt! This is perfect!

cityquilter grace said...

seems like that little gal has inherited a terrific color sense...beautiful!

Lindah said...

Fantastic! It truly looks bubbly and perfect for a certain bubbly little granddaughter.

45th Parallel Quilter said...

OMGoodness ... what a wonderful quilt ;-) What fun to make for her, too. I can just imagine how excited she was. You are just the BEST Grandma!! Thanks for sharing this joy! Linda

Tanya said...

What a wonderful quilt. The quilting pattern is so perfect for the top and all the colors are so cheery! Great job!