I have a special quilt to share with you today.  I was asked to make this quilt for a new baby of a long-time family friend.  My family has known this family since before I was born (I’m now in my late 40s) and they are still very precious friends.  I take that back… they are family, pure and simple.

Another reason this quilt is special is because I’ve never made anything like it before.  It was a huge challenge.  I honestly didn’t know where to start.  But if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time at all, you know I like challenges. It intrigued me…  So I decided to give it a try.

I was asked to make a quilt of this truck, but with a green hood.  First I had to determine what details I wanted to include and which to leave out.  I didn’t feel comfortable with including every little detail, but obviously I needed to include enough to make the truck look good.

Then finding fabric that would work was also a bit challenging.  What values of grey would work for the metal parts versus the chrome?  I didn’t want to use metallic. And what to use for the green hood?  I really wanted to find a fabric that was green with some rust spots but ended up settling with the Michael Miller painter’s canvas green there in the middle.  In fact, I used the painter’s canvas in several grey tones as well.  I really liked the texture it provided.  Eve went fabric shopping with me.  She was a great help!  .

But, how do I actually put it together?  All my applique quilts up to now have been smaller pieces raw-edged appliqued onto a solid piece of fabric.  But in this case, the entire quilt needed to be appliqued since there wasn’t a background single piece of fabric to work with.  So, I decided I needed help.  I found a class on Craftsy called Pictorial Quilting Techniques by Wendy Butler Berns. I watched the whole class and then got busy planning the quilt.

I won’t tell you all the steps because I don’t want to give away any of Wendy’s steps, but many, many, many hours and a half-dozen glue sticks later, almost 100 pieces joined together to make this quilt . I embroidered the baby’s name onto the front license plate and added a hanging sleeve onto the back.  I am very pleased with how it turned out and so is the mom of a very sweet little one.  I heard there were tears when she opened it.  It measures 34″ x 45″ or so.  –

And I won 2nd place at the local county fair.

Linking up with Party Time at My Quilt Infatuation, Finish it Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts, Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya, and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict