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