Doll Quilt Show and Tell 4

Now, find me a little girl - or a grown woman - who wouldn't love this quilt.  I am thinking of adapting it to at least a lap size or even bed size.  A whole flock of appliqued birds on a modern, bold background?  Hmm, I already have a collection of pinks and browns set aside for another idea...

The quilting really makes this design.  The pattern is simply that of my quilted interpretation of tree branches.  Swooping and curving across the quilt, the branches support the bird and add some flow to the design.  And boy was it fast!

I have to give credit where credit is due.  We have pretty rockin'  Friday nights in this house. Hubby was watching TV and I was quilting a few feet away in our messy dining room.  I threw the fabric that has the small birds in it and a pad of paper his way, with the instructions, er... command, to draw me a larger version.  First shot and he got it bang on.  I probably should have put his name on the label.

Another label, another skinny binding, and another quilt for the order completed.

Doll Quilt Show and Tell 3

Simple, modern, and bright.

A pile of scraps and this multi-coloured sale fabric brought this quilt into being.  I pieced together the scraps into a roughly square shaped block.  Once trimmed I bordered it asymetrically with the white fabric.  Very fast, very simple.  It is an idea that could be easily adapted to a much larger quilt and I am tempted to try it, maybe ending up with a result much like this?
I kept the simple thing going with wavy lines in a variegated thread.  Nothing too fancy on a doll quilt.
The back of this one is a stripe that I bought at the same time as the front white.  I have tonnes of it left, so you may see it more than once!

Doll Quilt Show and Tell 2

How is this for an improv piece?  

I started with a pile of fabric and scraps that I thought would go together.  Of course, I couldn't resist adding a circle, and then another (can you see it?)  This one isn't photographing well, but I assure you, it's cute.  This one is for the daughter of dear friends, a little girl who is essentially a big sister to my girls.  Her birthday was a month ago.  She has the busy social life of a 7 year old, so I haven't even seen her since her birthday.  Just a belated treat.

There is a mix of old and new fabrics in this one.  More Amy Butler...  And some fabric that has also been seen more than a handful of quilts produced on the dining room table.

I stole my quilting idea from one of the fabrics, the pale pink with black outlined flowers and dots.  A few lines to anchor the batting and a scattering of flowers.  It isn't perfect, but I imagine that this one will get some rough love.  It will more than stand up to Clare's love, and hopefully her sister's!
Rather than make big labels for these doll quilts I decided to make tags.  Each tag has my name and "Naps" on one side. (More on "Naps" later).  The other side has washing instructions. Every other quilt I've given away has gone to people I know, so I can verbally pass on washing instructions.  These doll quilts are almost all going to strangers, so I had to include the instructions in an easy format - love generously, wash and dry gently.

She just couldn't resist getting her hands on it...

Doll Quilt Show and Tell 1

There has been enough whining and pining for better days on this blog.  Let's get back to some quilts, shall we?

This is the first of 7 doll quilts I am wrapping up.  Six of these are for a special order, and one for a precious little friend.  With the order the request was made for 4 modern, 2 traditional quilts.  I think this one could qualify as either.  It is a rail fence design, but I made the middle section larger than the two side ones.

Isn't that middle bar fantastic?  I'm not supposed to be buying fabric, but I fell in love and bought it in three colour ways.  This one is my favourite.

With such a busy design I went for a simple loopy swirl to quilt it.  Nothing fancy, nothing distracting.

All of the doll quilts have simple backs, no piecing on something so small.  I sadly let go of this favourite Amy Butler for the back of this one.  It's been used on more than three quilts I've made, plus one that was made for The Monster.  It's time to move on.

Over the next week or so I will share all of the doll quilts, and hopefully a few other finished pieces (if Hubby will hold up the quilts in the freezing ass cold for me).