My sister is going to be a Grandma!!! I am SO excited for her! The baby, a boy, is due in a few months and the whole family is excited.
My sister is also a quilter and in her travels, before there was even a hint of a baby, she found these absolutely darling panel prints. She purchased them and saved them for when she would be a Grandma, or if that didn’t happen, she would donate them to a kids charity. I don’t know where she purchased the panel prints, but these were some of the nicest panel prints I have seen or worked on!
The first panel print is titled “In the Beginning” for obvious reasons. Here is the full view of the finished quilt.
Click on any photo for a larger view.
Here is a close up of the top of the quilt.
And a close up of the bottom of the quilt.
This is quilted with Signature, 100% cotton thread and many thread color changes were done to match the thread to the fabric.
Now for the fun quilting!!! My nephew, the baby’s father, is a heavy equipment operator. When my sister saw this panel print, she could not help herself! Here is the full view of the panel. It isn’t very large, only about 42 x 34 inches.
On a panel like this, I like to quilt “texture” into what is already printed on the fabric.
Here is a close up of some of the trucks.
And another close up of another truck. Please click on the photo for a larger view and you can see the stitching on the trucks.
Again, I changed my threads many times and I also used Soft & Bright batting.
I have one more panel to show you – Another heavy equipment themed panel. (My sister finds the GREATEST fabrics!) Here is the full view of the “Gravel Pit” and I went crazy with the texture! Yes, I did quilt pebbles in the gray “asphalt” on the panel! This quilt is also 42 x 34 inches.
Because I knew that I was going to be changing my thread a LOT, I decided to baste the quilt first. I like using a bright (usually neon) color, high sheen poly thread for the basting with a large stitch. After the basting, I put a color of thread in the machine ( I started with a variegated gray) and quilted the “asphalt” and anything else using that thread color, moving the quilt back and forth as needed to get to the area to be quilted. Then I changed to another color of thread and quilted ALL the areas that need quilting with that color. Before I quilted any area, I removed the basting from that section.
This photo shows the basting on the un-quilted quilt top. The quilt is on my machine with the bright overhead lights.
In this photo, this area has been quilted and it is hanging outside on a cloudy day. Click on any photo for a larger view.
Another photo of a basted area.
And here is that area quilted.
One more basted area –
And the same area quilted.
One more photo of another section of the Gravel Pit.
I have sent my sister photos of these quilts but I can’t wait for her to see them in person! These quilts are getting mailed back to the Midwest in the morning!
I can’t wait to hear about the reaction of both my nephew and his wife when they see these quilts. And of course, after the baby is born, I’ll get photos of the baby laying on the quilts!
Beautiful! Did you use a regular machine or longarm? With the size being so small and you saying you basted them first, I am assuming you did free motion on a regular machine. I am so impressed? Every time I try to machine quilt on my machine, it’s a mess and I’m never happy with the result. I keep trying, though. Usually, I end up doing my quilting by hand.
LikeLike
I have a Gammill longarm machine and my quilting is all hand guided (non-computerized.) Before I got my longarm, I free motion quilted queen and king size quilts on my home sewing machine. Hang in there, you CAN do it. It takes practice, practice, practice!
LikeLike
I love panel prints. They are easy to use to make a quilt top (after making sure they are square), much faster than making an applique quilt, and such fun to quilt.
LikeLike
I love panel prints. They make lovely quilts, are quick and easy (after making sure the panel is square), and such fun to quilt. The children in our family really love them, too, and often pick out the panel they want in their quilt.
LikeLike
Cindy they are adorable!! Only a quilter would realize how much time really went into these quilts. That is one very lucky baby boy to have those quilts made for him.
It never ceases to amaze me how quilting really brings the quilt top to life.
Thanks for sharing these!
LikeLike