Saturday, September 09, 2017

Winnie the Pooh

As I mentioned a while back, because my direct report was "too busy" to organize an easy-peasy work baby shower for her assistant, I ended up doing it. Naturally, because of all that, I didn't quite get the last stitches in the binding of the baby quilt started back in April. And it's not even that big.

I fear the picture of the extremely adorable quilt label is on my phone (I really, really hope so) - the pictures below were taken with my actual camera (novel thought, I know) on the floor at work before I put the quilt in the gift bag. Nothing like waiting until the last moment to take pictures. I used both the camera and the phone, covering my bases as the camera on the phone is actually a better one than the Canon, which is at least seven years old, most likely more. You know how quickly things change in the digital world.

The Winnie the Pooh fabric squares were an impulse buy back in January when a pack of 40, five-inch squares were the daily deal at a favorite online quilt store. Silly me, I should have bought two sets, as when they are part of the daily deal, it usually means the retailer is running out of the fabric and it will soon be gone forever.

Which is what I found in April when I went to get some yardage to make things big enough for an actual quilt. The honeycomb fabric on the ends, which I don't particularly like, was the only fabric left from the entire line. Well, since this was all impulse anyway, I rolled with it.

Full quilt
There were forty-two of the Winnie the Pooh fabric squares in the original charm pack; I used every one of them. To make the quilt wider, the six character squares in each row are separated by 2" stripes of a medium gray, which is one color that is in most of the character pieces. In between each row, to give a bit of length, there is a pretty yellow two-inch wide strip. The six-inch strips of honeycomb fabric at the ends got the size where I needed it to be. If memory serves, the quilt ended up around 40 x 56.

The quilting is where the fun started.

I stitched "in the ditch" along the seam lines to stabilize the quilt. Then...it just sat there for over a month, while I thought about it. It's been a while since I've done much machine quilting. In addtion, the batting used is wool, which is not only nice and warm, but very fluffy. What to do?

With time rapidly winding down, I decided to do flowers. After all, the Hundred Acre Wood must have some pretty flora, right? Not to mention that the baby is a girl.

In each of the character squares, there is a swirly-centered daisy. The gray rectangles got a messy rose, or peony, depending on your viewpoint. The long strips simply got a run of leaves, which is also the filler used in the end panels.

All of the quilting is done with a variegated Aurifil 40 weight thread on the top, a solid Aurifil 50 weight on the bottom. The top thread moves from a medium yellow through a very pale lemon and back. The solid thread was a medium yellow. I love the heavier weight for adding a bit of depth to the flowers. Aurifil is an Italian thread, pretty much the Ferrari to everyone else's Ford. I use their color #2600-Dove for piecing, as the light gray seems to blend in with more fabric colors than an ecru or beige.

Assuming I do have one, I'll update with a picture of the label. It was worth setting up the embroidery machine for twenty minutes of stitching, I'll say that much, as well as being in keeping with the theme.

2 comments:

melissa said...

I do love me some Pooh. You did an amazing job of it. Love the yellow...and the stitching...it's all beautiful.

Unknown said...

Very, fery nice! I will need to mak a baby quilt for Quentin's band director, whose wife is expecting in February. Any suggestions for a MODERN baby quilt?