Baby Butterfly Quilt Finished

Girl's Safari Quilt Side

My little girly safari quilt is all finished.  I washed it before photographing it for you so it has that ultra cuddly look from not preshrinking the batting.  Where the yard was short the tops of the heads on the baby animals is cut off, but I find the effect charming.  Like a Built in Peak-a-boo.

While I did marry into being an aunt, and all of my siblings have experienced the first "niece" in DD, this quilt is for my first niece.  The quilting is loops with extra quilting on the WonderUnder + raw edge butterflies.    Randomly I threw in a couple of stars and whenever it seemed right I added a heart so those are at least every foot or so.  The top and bottom borders of pink are quilted loops of hearts.  I wasn't sure which thread to use, so I laid out all of my pink threads, and the winner was a nice muted mauve surprisingly enough, but it looks nice on both the front and back, with just the right amount of blending.  So the baby's name would stand out I quilted that in florescent bright hot pink and then loops of hearts in the mauve underneath.

Quilted Baby's Name

Clearly this is one of my reversible quilts.  The butterflies are the same batik as the binding and front bordering strips.  For an extra bit of detail I hand embroidered antennas on the butterflies with lilac embroidery floss which if you click the image below to see it in a larger size you might even be able to see the antennas on the bigger butterflies.  

Baby's Butterfly Quilt 2nd Side

The best fairy tales say  you can give the baby a blessing for the future:

Dear Sweet Grace, I wish you to be able to forgive easily and 

love deeply. 

Baby Butterfly Quilt

Pink Safari Quilt Flimsy

This is a little quickie quilt.  A love it up and wear it out sort of blankie.  It is reversible with this wonderful baby animal print.  Nearly all blocks have a detail in pink that matches the broad strip that I added.  The more I stitched on the pink the more I loved it for this quilt.  It is a batik with flowers but it has a certain tribal look which goes great with the baby African Animals.  I found this print as a 35" inch remnant and the friend I was with said "well no one else will have anything like it".  That is for sure.  The piece wasn't quite the right shape so the pink was added to square it out a bit.

Butterfly Quilt Back

The back is a grey blender with raw edged applique butterflies on it.  I was planning to quilt the antenna onto it using a buildup of thread, but instead I think I will use a bit of lilac embroidery floss instead.  The pink butterflies are made from the same batik as the pink strip on the front and I have already made the matching pink binding.  I will be quilting this one with simple swirls all over it.  As though the butterflies are fluttering around.  In a big open area I will be quilting the baby's name "Grace" and likely run over that a time or three so that the thread builds up well.  I would love to see this quilt on the frame by the first of next week.

Tigger Models Again!

Pink Dress with Crystals

Give me a T-I-Double G-er!  Tigger is my model for today's doggie dresses.  The pink one is embellished with crystals, as per my friends request.  I have to tell you those crystals take a long time to get into just the right spot!  I think I have an hour in the crystals alone.

This second dress, has been tickling at the back of my mind since making the first dress.  My friend had raved about lined dresses she picked up somewhere - made in China and she was so impressed that they were lined.  Well since I don't have a serger each edge is double stitched anyway, so I figured aside from cutting the lining material it's the same amount of work lined or unlined.  She had also commented on dresses with multiple tiers of ruffles and how they can be such a pain.  My mind told me everything is gathered at once, so it is mildly more work but not hair pulling.  Hence this dress is lined on the bodice and has three tiers of ruffles.  I did not line the skirts because that would have created lots of extra bulk and I was concerned about how warm something like this would be.  When I was all finished a bit of sparkly ribbon caught my eye and I stitched it on with a little bow.  I adore this dress.  I plan to offer it to my friend and if she doesn't want it I will be selling it online.  The ribbon is iridescent so it is worth clicking on to see in more detail.

Lined Dress

Love the new fabric mom!

The other day I did a little fabric shopping and found this lovely baby animal safari print.  Tiny thought it smelled amazing right away, which is a surprise normally she only gets like this after I've been a serious number of hours into a project.  I am planning on using this as a backing for a baby quilt for my sister.  The binding will be a wonderful pink batik that matches those great flowers.  The reverse is the grey fabric above as a background, and the pink batik will be butterflies appliqued on it.  I will be quilting it with pink thread.

Green Dress

Thursday I believe it was I finished up this little green dress.  The crystals on this one are purple which I picked up out of the print.  I put the final touches on this one right before seeing my friend so it and the others have already gone to their new home and have likely been worn on a real already.  Likely Tigger is devastated!