Portrait Quilt

I just wanted to remind you that I am now blogging at rachaeldorr.blogspot.com . Here is a recent post - please come and visit me there.

***************

I'm really struggling with blogging at the moment - I hear others say the same - but it really is a time sucking sport. I seem to have a lot of quilt requests at the moment which makes me more than aware of the time I'm spending away from my ever 'speeding to adult hood' little bunnies. This quilt however really deserves a little narrative.

I never thought I wanted children. Children plain scared me. When I fell pregnant with my first child I was petrified. I remember crying in check ups. The ultrasound pictures scared me. I remember standing in prenatal yoga and being asked to touch my belly and 'be at one' with my unborn child - to feel lucky - I didn't feel lucky I felt purely petrified. I barely made it through prenatal classes - in fact I turned to my husband at one point and said 'if I have to watch one more video I'm going to cry'. I didn't know what it was to have a child. I didn't know how it felt. I didn't know that the moment I saw her that I would fall so deeply in love that the past 9 months of petrification would melt away into pure awe. I didn't know that having her would be so much, mean so much. Since this little bundle arrived I've become addicted to the little people. I have 3 beautiful children whom I couldn't adore more - despite their tantrums and their insistence that my cooking is 'yuck'. I'd love to have more (i.e. read 'begged until all dignity is gone) but my husband insists that that shop is now shut!

So finishing this quilt which I have been saving the pajamas for for 6 years now (although I have only used the first 3 years of pj's in this one) marks something for me. Love - for sure - but also a strange confidence that I finally found to know that I could cut up theses precious things and do them justice. And sadly due to my mean husband that there will be no more little people coming along to dress in these cute clothes.

Can you spot Tinkerbell?

There was some distress from Bunny#2 when she saw her favorite Ariel Pj's had been included!

A huge thank you to my hugely talented friend Luke Haynes who taught me how to construct portrait quilts.

A huge thank you to my new equally as talented friend Karen McTavish who told me 'don't not do something just because you are scared' ... I will be taking that mantra to my grave.

And a big thank you to Michelle Jackson who's wonderful work I fist saw in my favorite Machine Quilting Unlimited and she showed me a different way to quilt portraits with tiny bubbles. I love the effect Michelle - thank you!!

I love this quilt.

And I love this little girl.

Best Beetle Ever

There are some really special moments when I hand over the quilts to the families I have been working for. 

I was sad not to be able to hand this quilt to Asia & S in person because they live some distance away. I was so utterly thrilled to hear their response to the Bess Beetle quilt was more than positive!

To quote the adorable little S - "This is the best quilt ever. I love Bess Beetle's babies there are so many of them"

Kids Art Quilt: Bess Beetle

There are few things I am more passionate about than turning clothes into quilts - but making quilts from kids art work is probably up there too. This was a quilt that I took some 8 days to longarm - that is about 64 hours of non stop quilting - which for a good sized twin sized quilt is a pretty decent amount. This quilt has some fun surprises in it too. The original drawing of Bess Beetle can be seen here. 

To begin with I began Googling 'beetles' to get some ideas. Beetle tracks popped up - and I liked that idea. So there are beetle tracks all over the quilt. I made my beetle tracks with a round foam brush and black fabric paint. Once the paint was dry & heat set with a hot iron it was time to load the quilt onto Freddie and begin quilting around those beetle tracks.

Kids Art Quilt: Sun Paintings

I have been working on the last Kids Spin Art Quilt and a quilt made with Bunny #1's first fabric line - I should really finish & quilt them .... and I can make all the excuses in the world to why we haven't completed them yet - but it seems a fact of life these days that my personal projects seem to take a back seat these days.

So like any insane person - I decided to add another project to my 'to be completed list'. This was a really fun & easy project to do with my young bunnies. I wish that I had taken more photos of the kids doing the project rather than the end results - but between fabric dye flying around, helping them cover the fabric, food stuffs being thrown everywhere & there being 3 of them and only one of me - it was a tad hectic - really fun but a wee bit hectic.

Bess Beetle's Quilt

I think I have mentioned before my little blog crush on Asia & her blog Fun at Home with Kids. It is a site I can loose myself in - make endless lists of projects & ideas to do with the little bunnies.

So imagine how excited I was to get this through the post.

S is her adorable four year old girl who seems game for any messy fun project - and I love that! Bess is her pet beetle!! And I have been asked to make a children's art quilt for them.

I can not wait to start work on S's quilt. I have lots of ideas - lets hope I can put them off!

WIP: Kids Art Quilt: Turning Your Kids Paintings into Unique Fabric

Here is my 5 year old's first fabric line. We couldn't be more excited!!

Kids Art Quilt: Fabric Building Blocks

This quilt has been finished for a while but I was trying to find a hanging solution for my larger quilts to make photographing them a little easier. (I should of used more quilt hangers but I only had 3 picture hooks at this time.)

This was such a fun quilt to make. I loved that I didn't have to do any designing and my two girls laid it all out for me. To learn about how they designed this quilt you can read more here.

Kids Art Quilt: Sharpie Art Quilt

This is an easy project to do with your little ones. You could make a simple quilt or jazz it up with free motion quilting, embroidery add notions etc. We went with something down the middle of these options.

WIP: Kids Art Quilt: Fabric Building Blocks

My scrap bag has got utterly out of control - over flowing onto the floor and carpet - so I spent the weekend organizing scraps into colored bins and discovering little bits here. Separating pieces that I  can turn into speedy negative space filled quilts. I feel like since Freddie arrived I have become a little bit possessed and obsessed in thinking about quilts I can quickly make so that I can load and spend the majority of time quilting them. The more negative space the better!