Friday, December 27, 2013

Handmade Christmas gifts - Pt.2

After I finished the quilt for my mother-in-law, I turned to finishing the quilt I'd started for my son. He had picked out the pattern and colors himself, but I think he forgot he asked for it LOL! I got the quilt onto the long arm the Friday evening before Christmas, started quilting it on Saturday, and finished it Sunday afternoon. I did the binding on Monday while the boys were at the movies with my in-laws (great timing!) He wanted it to be WARM. So there's 2 layers of 6.8oz polyester batting in it, and it's backed with black fleece. Take that!

And here's the final result. I am really pleased with how it turned out, my intersections looked a lot better than some of my previous projects. I guess that means I must be getting better!


This pattern is called Diamond Double. I picked it up at my LQS recently. My son had seen it once when I had to pop in for a cut of fabric, and asked me a couple weeks later if I'd make it for him :)


The center section is quilted with a loopy design, with some stars mixed in.


I debated the quilting on this one. I am relatively new and inexperienced with my long arm and free-motion quilting in general, and I always worry I'll "ruin" the project with bad quilting. But because this quilt was staying home, and I was pretty sure my son wasn't going to care what the quilting looked like as long as the quilt was warm and in the pattern he picked, I decided to be a little experimental. I got on pinterest and started poking around, and found a few nice simple designs I thought I could probably do in the blue border and the black corners, and modified another one to fill the inner black border. Then I filled in the wider black border with a simple winding line. I did a little doodling with these designs before I started actually stitching, to make sure I could do the transitions properly when I turned the corners. It's not perfect, but I'm really happy with it anyway. And my son LOVES it (and sure enough, doesn't care about the quilting hahaha!)


This is the second of 2 finishes for me in December. If you missed Part 1 and the quilt I made for my mother-in-law, you can read that HERE. And if you're looking for motivation to finish some projects of your own, check out my Facebook group, UFOQueen2013 (I can't change the name now lol). It's a great group for motivation and inspiration!

Linking up at:
December Finishes  
The Free Motion Quilting Project



5 comments:

  1. I really like the colors! It has a nice 3D effect. I'm a new FMQer myself, so I never critique anyone's quilting! I just look at mine and shake my head! I think yours looks great.

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  2. Thanks! I could critique a million things about this, but it wouldn't change this quilt, which my son loves :) in his eyes, it's perfect, and that's good enough for me! And I got some good practice and feel more confident in doing something other than loops and meanders.

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  3. Congrats on a wonderful finish, Shannon! I can see that your son sure does appreciate his 'handmade with love' quilt made by his mom! You did an awesome job!

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  4. He really does! He gave me the best hug he's given me in YEARS when he opened that :-D

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  5. I love the photos you took of your two gift quilts being opened. It looks like your son really likes his too! I think it is beautiful! I love the colors and your quilting is beautiful too! Congrats on another great finish and thank you for linking up!

    xo -E

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