My first ever strawberry rhubarb pie!
Very yummy. Very messy in my oven despite a cookie sheet under it. Totally worth the effort and mess.

I also finished this before my last quilt guild meeting. The background I had previously constructed so I pulled out scraps of white and text fabrics and challenged myself to make a girl without drawing her first. I had been watching a show where the characters were going to wedding – guess that got stuck in my head as I started cutting and fusing her together.

The background is made from tiny scraps of hand dyed fabric fused to batting. In a few places you can see the batting between the fabrics pieces. I stitched it randomly with white thread.

I made a bouquet for the bride with tiny buttons and silk ribbon. I used the decorative stitches on my machine to embellish the dress and binding.

Quilt guild meetings are motivators for me to finish at least one project. I finished two quilt tops and a few dresses for the little girls in my life before the last meeting.

Whirly Squares (54” x 54”)

I struggled to finish the quilt tops. I had parts of them done but couldn’t quite figure out how to make them big enough for a throw. After some experiments and doubt, I finally settled on the multiple borders for Whirly Squares and additional improv piecing to add to the random stacked coins section.

Yellow/Green dress, size 6T.

I made 3 of these dresses in sizes 6T, 2T and 6-9 months. They are adorable. I found the pattern here. A few others were completed too but they are surprises for later!

Increased stress and illness have snuck into our lives.
I take smaller than usual chunks of time to be creative;
slowly stitching together quilt tops as I push past the doubts of my fabric selections,
sewing dresses for little girls
and completing super secret projects that make me giggle ever time I think of them.
I clean and organize my home (especially my studio)
so that when the juggling and need for increased amounts of sleep subside
I can jump back into my creativity with abandon.

I had a tin of dyed fabric scraps and free time. I challenged myself to only use my free-motion foot to create this. I even used my free motion foot and a zig zag stitch to attach the button.

The base is cotton batting. All of the pink fabrics, trims and crocheted square were dyed with watered down acrylic paint. I like creating with what I have nearby – no planing, no stress – only a desire to see what happens. Sometimes it works; sometimes, well those I hide away or toss in the trash, but at least I learn what doesn’t work.

I quilted and bound my diamond quilts. Two more quilts for holiday gifts now done!

Diamond in Diamond back

I tried spray basting for the first time. Overall, I like the ease of use and time saved not pinning. However, I accidentally sprayed basting spray on my dining room floor. I have had no luck removing it. Does anyone have suggestions for making my floor not sticky?

Multi Diamond (54” x 54”)

Multi Diamond back

The winners of the mini kits are Marie and Chiska! I hope you both enjoy creating girl art quilts as much as I do.

One of the ladies in the workshop said with a huge smile on her face that making a girl art quilt was like playing with dolls. I would have to agree; it’s a cross between paper dolls and fashion plates.

I gave the participants in last week’s workshop a mini kit containing the dress pattern, two faces pre-fused to fusible webbing, ruffles and a few embellishments.

Would you like a mini kit? I’ve added a dress already cut out, extra ruffles and additional embellishment to two mini-kits and have them ready to ship to two lucky readers. Leave a comment telling me where I should go on vacation in late June (I’m at a loss for vacation ideas) and I’ll randomly select two winners on Monday Apr 16th.

Today, I’ll show you my preferred method of quilt construction where the background is quilted before the girl is attached. The first few step are identical to those I shared earlier.

Step 1: Gather items for quilt: pattern, faces pre fused to fusible webbing, fusible webbing, background fabric, backing fabric, batting, ruffles, fabric for dress, embellishments.

Step 2: Color the face with colored pencils and cut out. If desired, you can draw different hair with a permanent marker before coloring.

Step 3: Trace dress pattern onto the back of fusible webbing, fuse dress fabric to the fusible webbing and cut out. If making a short sleeve dress or if you want to add legs, fuse webbing to fabric matching the face and cut out arms and legs. My arms for these girls were straight lines.

Step 4: Assemble girl together by removing all release paper from the pieces and fusing the girl together on a piece of parchment or teflon sheet.

Step 5: Quilt the quilt and bind if using pillow case binding technique.

Step 6: Fuse girl to the background.

Step 7: Outline stitch around the girl. If I were using a traditional binding technique with bias strips, I’d attach the binding at this time.

Step 8: Attach ruffles.

Step 9: Embellish the quilt with buttons, ribbon, metal trinkets, embroidery floss. Write a saying on a piece of fabric fused to fusible webbing, trim and iron to quilt. Stitch around the saying and attach a hanger to the back of the quilt.