Art Gallery Fabrics reached out to numerous bloggers and asked them to make a project using one of their newest lines as part of Sewing Month! After browsing through their app (yes, they have a fabric app!) I chose Bari J’s newest line Anna Elise and made CT a new, toddler sized quilt to cuddle up with.

Before we start talking about the in’s and out’s of the quilt, let me first state that all of the fabric used in this project was provided courtesy of Art Gallery Fabrics. So this is pretty much a sponsored post. However, I would have still made this quilt on my own dime because it really is so perfect for my daughter. I never work on projects or with companies I don’t already love.

OK, now that that is all out of the way, let’s talk quilting!

The fabrics used in this quilt are not 100% up my taste alley, however they ARE up my daughters! She loves everything dainty and flowery. It’s just an added bonus that bunnies are involved too. She loves bunnies.

I kept all of that in mind when designing the quilt pattern. I still wanted a little of my taste in the mix, because I like the idea of when you look at a quilt, you know I made it. So I decided to basically divide the design in half. Added bonus, it looks like a sunrise over a sea of hexagons!!! The finished dimensions are 45″x60″, a perfect size for a small child to wrap up in and drag around the house.

The bottom half is almost all Bari J’s Anna Elise line, I think it’s only missing two prints? I used Sizzix’s Full Hexagon Die with 5″ sides to perfectly cut out all the pieces, and pieced them together using Y-seams. I decided half hexagons would have jumbled those pretty fabrics up too much. I still stand by that decision because I just love how clean and awesome those huge hexagons look together.

I decided to do some petal like leaves as the quilting. I’m not very good at feathers, so this is my version, haha. I only quilted the bottom half in this style, to help define the two halves.

The top half is a nice mix of Art Gallery Fabrics solids and blender in different tones of blues. To be more specific, I used Pure Elements Solid is Warm Wave, Prisma Elements in Subtle Turquoise and Larimar Sea, and Oval Elements in Zephyr. I pieced them together using a quick pattern I drew up that looked like the rays of the sun right before the sun rises. If anyone is interested in the templates, let me know and I’ll draft them up as PDF’s. I actually had mine printed as large blueprints at Fedex because I despise taping patterns!

For the quilting, I wanted to do a wavy cloud like design. So I mimicked the way I always draw clouds in my own illustrations. It turned out denser than I originally imaged, but I’m happy with the results. Also, it matches the density of the petals on the bottom. so it will crinkle nicely in the wash.

I backed the quilt entirely using Wind Melody Soft from Bari J’s line and then bound it using Art Gallery’s Pure Elements Solid in Verve Violet.

I am just so in love with the way this all came together! It was outside my comfort zone, but I am so glad I made it. I needed some change from my black, white, blue and purple (though I did sneak big chunks of blues in there!).

I’ve decided to start something fun to go along with these quilt posts! I have so many photo’s that just don’t go along with the writing or they are just too ridiculous not to share, so here is the first installment of…

Behind the Scenes and Outtakes:

Here you can see the quilt on the long arm and then me adding the biding on! I always take these photos with my phone, since I have it on hand, because you never know if you’ll need to go back and look at these steps. Plus, everyone loves work in progress shots. Or is that just me?

Here are my two failed attempts at using super strong magnets to attach the quilt to the playground equipment down the street! The photos aren’t TOO bad, but they weren’t what I was looking for. Though that one on the right looks like a child tried to take a quilt photo.

These two were me trying to use my new photo backdrop holder for the first time down at the train yard. The yard is right next to the Potomac River, so the wind is kind of bad. Also the clamps I bought to hold the quilt didn’t fit over the bars, so I thought using wooden pants holders was a good idea. It wasn’t!! I can only imagine how funny I looked to the commuters getting off the MARC train. The things we do for good quilt photos (and I still feel I could have done better with this one!)

The last one didn’t come out too bad, however I had accidentally switched my camera over to low resolution. So this is the biggest this photo will ever get!!!! 440px wide!!!!! I am soooo upset over this one.

Oh well, lessons learned!

Thank you again to Art Gallery Fabrics for providing the supplies to make this quilt for my daughter. She seriously loves it so much.

I hope you enjoyed the photos of the quilt, and the behind the scenes outtakes. I know it’s close to the end of the month, but you still have 5 days to make the most of Sewing Month. Get to sewing!

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