DrEAMi Doll Quilts

Oh, what a week it's been. It all started with a post from Bernie at Needle and Foot that highlighted A Doll Like Me, the business of Amy Jandrisevets, who makes dolls for children that match their physical characteristics (perhaps with a limb difference, or hearing aids, or any other unique feature that might not be available in commercially-made dolls). Amy also provides doll quilts to include with the dolls under special circumstances. This month Bernie is challenging quilters to help Amy build her supply of doll quilts through a project called Spread the Love, Quilting for Kids. Please go to Bernie's website to read all about it, and then go to Amy's Facebook page. It will be well worth your time. Well, this project was irresistible to me--as well as a whole lot of quilters; don't you love being part of this community?

First, I needed to decide just what I would make. Lots of people collect novelty prints and have lots of kid-friendly fabrics. I don't have that kind of stash. I have used those prints occasionally, but pretty much use them up on a project. I had just a few pieces, but they were the remnants of border edges, and the designs were cut off leaving partial pictures--like half a mermaid or half a car. I only had one piece of fabric that seemed to have possibilities. I rummaged in my fabrics and found a few pieces that were big enough for both backgrounds and backings. I decided that those along with some of my solids stash would work if I made my own little kid-attractive motifs. The result is this little set of quilts:

First some overall stats: 
The solid fabrics are mostly Kona, with a few others thrown in that I don't have info about. I had just the right scraps of my favorite batting (Quilter's Dream Select in white) for all three quilts. (Don't you love when that happens?!) It has a wonderful drape, so it's great for little projects. I pieced with my Singer Featherweight and quilted with my Singer Treadle and a walking foot. I used a 2 3/8" binding folded in half.

So let's take a closer look at each one: They each deserve some description and individual stats even if they are tiny, don't they?

The little heart quilt was my first one:

I had been attracted to the Regatta quilt by Daniela of Block M Quilts that everyone has been making. My quilt is based on that one, but I substituted little hearts for the background squares. The little hearts are a tiny version of the heart pattern at Cluck Cluck Sew that you are all well-acquainted with. I didn't have gradients of colors that make the Regatta quilt sing, but I still had fun messing with the pattern. I don't think I have the Regatta quilt out of my system yet, but this was a fun way to scratch an itch.

Here are the stats:
Size: about 22 by 23 1/4 inches
Heart size: 2 by 2 inches, finished.
Threads: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing and bobbin when quilting; Aurifil Mako 40 wt. cotton thread in 1148 (Light Jade), 1154 (Dusty Orange) and 2132 (Tarnished Gold) for top quilting.
Fun connection: The floral fabric was leftover from a baby quilt I made years ago.

I designed a fish on a scrap of graph paper for my second quilt:

When a blogger friend saw it, she thought it was the Kissy Fishy pattern from Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts. So, of course I had to look up Lorna's pattern. They are similar, but that is by coincidence. I just sketched until I had something I could l make from two shades of orange I had. However, if you would like to make a similar fish, I highly recommend you check out Lorna's patterns because I'm sure her seaming scheme is superior to mine. (And I don't do patterns!) 

Here are the stats:
Size: about 22 by 24 inches
Fish block size: 5 1/2 by 3 5/8 inches, finished.
Threads: Superior Masterpiece in Granite for piecing. Superior King Tut in Mint Julep for quilting
Fun connection: The striped fabric and some of the solids were leftover from the baby quilt I made for one of my grandsons.

Do you see that darker area where I pieced the back? I thought I did it "right" until I saw this photo. We'll call it a design element.

The design of the third quilt was determined by the one piece of novelty fabric I had with complete motifs (cars and trucks). I used every bit of it except two narrow strings I cut to even it up. I had to add substantially to it, so this quilt got four little car blocks, which I designed on graph paper and paper foundation pieced.

I used a suede print fabric for the sashing and borders to mimic roads. 

My husband  quilt advisor chose the binding, and when I started cutting it, I saw the name on the selvage:

Perfect

This quilt can also be a mini play mat!

Here are the stats:
Size: about 22 by 23 3/4 inches
Car block size 6 3/4 by 3 1/2 inches finished; whole block 6 3/4 by 7 3/4 inches finished. "Roads" are 2 1/2 inches wide.
Threads: Superior masterpiece in granite for piecing; King Tut in Canaan (variegated gray) and Temple for quilting. (I meant to use the Temple in the top thread for the road lines, but forgot. Now I'm glad I used the gray because the white would have emphasized the wonkiness of the lines--wonkiness is a hallmark of my walking foot quilting and my state's roads, though, so it's all good.) 
Fun connection: The gray and car print fabrics were in a baby quilt I made for a grand- nephew a few years ago. That quilt had (much bigger) pieced vehicles, too.

I thought I was all done, but then I read that some children who Amy makes dolls for also receive hospital gowns for their dolls as they sometimes need to spend time in hospitals. I just happen to have a hospital gown that I wore home from the ER after I broke my shoulder last year.  Mari at Academic Quilter found a pattern for a doll-sized gown in just the right size at Read Creations. That made me happy because I do not have any dolls in that size and was trying to figure out how to make a gown by guessing the size. So I made three little gowns from the pattern. There is still plenty of gown left for more if they are needed. Those gowns from the hospital are voluminous! Especially the one I had since it was made fit around broken limbs (Not sure we ever figured out exactly how!)

My stand-in doll. The gown will look much cuter on one of Amy's dolls.

This pattern was so fun!! I made three changes--I cut the seams of the shoulders and side seams about a quarter inch larger so I could do French seams, I used 1/2 seam binding instead of 1/4 inch because that's all I could find, and I extended the binding about 4 inches longer to make it easier to tie the thicker tails. I am so glad that something good could come from this gown.

If you have an opportunity, consider making a doll quilt or gown if you can. It's such a wonderful project for this month!

I'm linking this post up with the Spread the Love Linky party that Bernie is throwing beginning February 25. I'm also linking to crazy mom quilts for Finish it Up Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and with mmm! quilts at the end of the month (February 24, I think?) for DrEAMi (Drop Everything and Make It) because wow has this been DrEAMi!!

I hope you are having a wonderful month, DrEAMi or not!

Throwback Thursday--J's City Quilt

For 18 years, I've been having fun making baby quilts for my great-nephews and great-nieces. Today, I'm sharing one I made for J, who was born in March 2012. 

My plan was to make something car related that could be used as a play mat. My first thought was to buy yardage with a roadway printed on it--you know the kind I mean. But the fabrics I found weren't big enough to suit me and I didn't want to piece a repeating pattern. So I made my own design instead. 

I used graph paper and planned how wide the roads should be so that common toy cars would fit on them and then planned city blocks to fit between them. A quilt like this could be pieced any number of ways, but I chose to use a freezer paper technique. I made a master pattern and traced it in reverse on the freezer paper. Then I searched for a car print fabric to use for the backing and used that fabric for the color scheme of the buildings. Alexander Henry "Beep Beep" was just the right fit for my project. 

I cut the freezer paper apart and ironed the pieces on the wrong side of the fabrics I chose, added 1/4 inch seam allowance, and then pieced the quilt puzzle style. That was probably more work than the design needed, but I had just finished a different quilt using that technique, so I stuck with it. The good thing is that because of the way I planned it, I still have the master pattern if I ever want to make another similar quilt.

Here's the finished quilt:

The quilt was about 40 1/2 by 48 inches before washing, with roadways 2 3/4 inches wide and blocks just over 16 inches by 8 1/2 inches. I hand quilted with cotton thread, following the lines of the roads, windows, and edges of buildings. I don't remember what batting I used, but I'm thinking Warm and White. (This was made in pre-documenting, pre-blogging days. At least I did remember to take photos and keep the master pattern.) It was one of the last baby quilts I made with hand quilting or tying. Now I do free motion quilting on most of the quilts I make for kids. The binding is the same pattern as the backing fabric. 

J is about 2 1/2 years old now, and he uses the quilt just the way I imagined he would. 

I'm linking up today with Quiltin' Jenny for Throwback Thursday. 

Baby L's City Traffic Quilt

When the October/November 2012 issue of Quilters Newletter came out with the City Traffic Pattern by Pam Rocco, I knew immediately that I wanted to make it, so when we found out my nephew's family was expecting a baby boy, I got to work. This pattern was so much fun to work on--kind of liberated piecework, but it can be more structured, too, if you want to do it that way. I decided to change the setting a bit. Pam's quilt had three rows of vehicles set vertically. I wanted four rows (two lanes of traffic each way) without it getting too big, so I set them horizontally, which actually makes her quilt horizontal (kind of) and mine vertical if you get what I mean. Hard to explain, but you'll see what I mean if you look at her pattern. 

Before I planned the colors, I looked for some car fabric for the back and picked On Track by P&B textiles. Then I sorted through my stash to find solids to coordinate. Fun, fun, fun, and my sewing room looked like a fabric explosion while I picked through everything. I bought a light gray fabric with some sketchy lines for the background and a darker gray for the sashes and borders. 

The finished rows were 6 inches high and the sashes were 5 inches (I think) with outer borders 6 inches (maybe?) Finished size was probably a little over 45 by a little over 50. When I make quilts, I figure out yardage and block sizes and other things on scrap paper that ends up who knows where when I'm done. Then, if I ever want to make a quilt of the same design, I have to start all over--WHY DO I DO THAT?? (This blog is supposed to make me keep better track, so I hope to do better in the future.)

I used leftovers to extend the backing fabric and used backing fabric for the binding, which is machine sewed since I figure it will get washed a lot. I used Quilter's Dream Cotton Select for batting and meandered quilted on my treadle with Superior King Tut Cotton in Temple. 

I got the quilt done just in time for L's birth on August 7. I picture him when he's a little older racing his toy cars around the borders.