Grandparents House Rules Wall Hanging

Grandparents House Rules

This is a fun panel my husband picked out when we attended the Road To California Quilt Show, Jan. 2018.  I created a couple of borders with some fabric I had and I even had some left over batting to use from a previous project. The panel is "Grandparents Rules" by Timeless Treasures.

Quilt top loaded, basted and ready to quilt.

I spent a lot of time quilting with black thread and it was really hard on the eyes to work with. Sadly the black thread on black fabric blends so well, you can only see the quilting with a little side lighting.

Started quilting pebbles and eventually got between all the letters and inside them. All these pebbles either make you better at them or just hate them. 

I tried adding in a few funky looking feathers and swirls.

More pebbles and swirls. I was close to being done at that point. Boy were my eyes tired of black on black. Even the side lighting was not enough to make it easier on the eyes.

A funky feather and more pebbles but the text was puffing out and that was what I was looking for.

You can't really tell but I did piano key quilting on the outer polka dot border. I just did the ditch for the gray and white inner border and the red border.

What a great feeling to be done quilting!

I took it outside to see if I could get a better view of the quilting in the sun, but the black on black was still hard to see.

I bound it with black and put a hanging sleeve on the back. We hung it up over a light I can turn on to help show the texture of the quilting. You still have to change angles to see it all. It was leaning towards the wall at the bottom, but it is straight....just in case you were wondering.

I'm happy with how it turned out. I don't know if I will ever do such a dark project again. 

Christmas Gift Quilts

I am happy to share with you the quilts I gifted to family at Christmas.

It was really hard not to share photos as I sewed away and completed them. We had a lot of family visit at Christmas and really enjoyed seeing everyone. I think everyone loved the little tv blanket quilts I made them. They are all a throw sized quilt with a fleece back and no batting. Light weight but warm enough to cover up while watching tv in the evening.

The tops were made from fabric I have collected (with the exception of one quilt top) and I used my Accuquilt to cut the pieces. I only used 3 dies between all 10 quilts and cutting went really fast using the dies. I didn't follow any pattern except for figuring out the layout on the pinwheel in the center of the green quilt.

For the backing I decided to buy fleece and I caught a great sale of 50% off which really made me happy. I decided to self bind the quilts with the fleece backing. I love how the fleece backing frames the quilt with this self binding technique. Fleece does a lot of fuzz buildup in the bobbin area both during quilting and binding, so I did a lot of cleaning.

The fabric is busy so most of the quilting stitches blends in on them quite a bit. I did a couple of pantographs quilts, but most of them were just free motion meander on my Handi Quilter Avante. I used Omni thread on the top and bottom line in the bobbin.

There are lots of photos in this post, and I hope you take a look at them all. I tried to match the fabrics for the person receiving them and to me that is part of the fun. I love the process of planning and creating the quilt top and see it come to life. You will see I love color and printed patterns.

This bright quilt comes to life on the longarm.

Girl quilt with fun prints

This fleece backing with cupcakes was perfect for the quilt.

Lots of fun boy fabric prints

I love the construction truck fleece I found for this quilt.

A quilt for a dog lover and tennis shoes for walking the dogs.

I love how this quilt looks completed, so bright and yet dark at the same time.

This fleece matches the front perfectly and looks great bound around the edges.

Modern and a bit of an eye chart, but I think it works.

The fleece is modern and thick and all the gray tones of this quilt work great together.

An outdoor themed quilt.

I could have gone with a green or tan fleece but blue fits the outdoor theme of sky and water.

A boy quilt with baseballs, Starwars and Batman.

Perfect for this boy quilt, baseballs on fleece.

Quilt corner folded back to show the printed front and blue mottled fleece back.

I cut some chevron print fabric in strips to make this arrow border that goes around the quilt.
Setting the tumbler shapes on their sides with a kind of positive negative print pattern makes
this feel modern and different than any other tumbler quilt I have made.

Such a fun quilt to make with all the bright pieces.
The bright orange inner border breaks up the zillion little print pieces.

Cute dog fleece print goes great with the top.

Fun faux fur minky fabric made this the softest quilt of the bunch.

I love purple and lavender.

Pretty fleece backing like feathers or palms and I was very lucky to find a
fleece with colors that matches the fabric on the front. There were not many greens
available in fleece.

The pinwheel in the center doesn't show up as well in the photo as in person.

A fun pile of the completed quilts.


I hope you enjoyed looking at my quilts, I really enjoyed making them.