Doll/Toy Quilts

My close friend's Daughter learned I was making mini quilts for kids to use for their toys and asked if I would make one for her child. She has three children, so after asking their ages, I decided to make three so they could each have one. 

My friend and I do not exchange gifts on these usual holidays, and we have not extended our interactions to include either of our adult children or their children. However, making practice pieces is a smart part of quilting.

It feels like part of "Make every moment count" to have every stitch count as well. I think of all the notebooks I filled when I was in college and how many files I tossed a few years later. They were essential to learning at the time, but ended up being such a waste of paper in the end.

These are more of the practice pieces for me. And they will have usefulness for a period of time and then also get tossed. This one goes to my friend's Grandson, and was an opportunity for me to quilt around the shapes, remembering to back space. It was one of those old panels just kicking around in my stash that had no where to go. I feel more comfortable with this process now, and would not be hesitant to use it on a full size quilt.

The second one was originally a calendar block I made for the swap that finished off too large and was really impossible to cut down. It is cute and I hated to just throw it away and am glad it got saved. I added a border to it from a leftover "Angel Wings" scrap. Then, I taped diagonally and machine quilted a snake-walk on either side and did one more maybe four inches out from each of those lines. 

I think this method will work wonderfully on CC's Hot Pink quilt. The tape came off easily without marking the fabric.

I've started a little larger quilt for the older child (think she's 7-8) using up 6" blocks from my stash. It will go together quite easily. I'll do the binding on all three at one time and then send them off.

It feels good to re-purpose fabric pieces and use up what is in my closet stash.  I rather enjoy the challenge.