The Reptile Quilt For My Reptile Man

Have any of your kids ever become so enthralled by something that it's all they ever talk about. My oldest son, Bryan, was like that in 3rd grade. I was nuts for snakes, lizards, snakes, frogs and did I mention snakes? You get the jist of it right? All he talked about were these animals, every report for school was done on snakes or lizards, which he then read on the loudspeaker at the school. I spent many afternoons in the herpertarium with him so he could see the snakes they had there.

So when I saw Meadow Friends by Deb Strain I knew that I had to make Bryan a quilt with it. I used the Boy Jelly Roll for the Key to Friendship Quilt Along. Earlier this week I basted, quilted and bound it so I had it to give Bryan when he came home for Thanksgiving.

I had no trouble figuring out how to quilt this...it spoke to me right away. I quilted around the key part of each block. I just had no idea how difficult it would be to do the quilting that way. I was turning the quilt every 2" - 5". Here's a closeup of the back to show you the quilting.

And Bryan loved it! As a matter of fact Tyler liked it too, I guess I forgot how much he loved frogs when he was younger. I have a big quilt planned for Tyler so he will not be forgotten :)

Here's a pic of Bryan snuggling with the quilt a few minutes ago.

Have you finished anything lately?

The Reptile Quilt For My Reptile Man

Have any of your kids ever become so enthralled by something that it's all they ever talk about. My oldest son, Bryan, was like that in 3rd grade. I was nuts for snakes, lizards, snakes, frogs and did I mention snakes? You get the jist of it right? All he talked about were these animals, every report for school was done on snakes or lizards, which he then read on the loudspeaker at the school. I spent many afternoons in the herpertarium with him so he could see the snakes they had there.

So when I saw Meadow Friends by Deb Strain I knew that I had to make Bryan a quilt with it. I used the Boy Jelly Roll for the Key to Friendship Quilt Along. Earlier this week I basted, quilted and bound it so I had it to give Bryan when he came home for Thanksgiving.

I had no trouble figuring out how to quilt this...it spoke to me right away. I quilted around the key part of each block. I just had no idea how difficult it would be to do the quilting that way. I was turning the quilt every 2" - 5". Here's a closeup of the back to show you the quilting.

And Bryan loved it! As a matter of fact Tyler liked it too, I guess I forgot how much he loved frogs when he was younger. I have a big quilt planned for Tyler so he will not be forgotten :)

Here's a pic of Bryan snuggling with the quilt a few minutes ago.

Have you finished anything lately?

Key to Friendship Quilt

I hope you have enjoyed the Friendship Blog Hop this weekend. Don't you just love the quilts Tiffany and Carolyn made?

Today it's my day to show your the quilt I made with that same pattern. Originally Tiffany and I were both going to use the same FQ kit, we both had the Sweetwater Designer Select Fat Quarter kit from The Fat Quarter Shop. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but these kits are a Fat Quarter Shop exclusive. The plan was to make use of the same fabric for the same quilt and see how different they came out. Then Carolyn joined and decided she was going to use her Pips jelly roll. That's what I remembered a jelly roll I had and we changed to format to showcase 3 different fabrics for the same pattern.

Here's my quilt. I call it Keys to Friendship.

I used Deb Strains Meadow Friends in the boy color way. I really struggled on the layout for this one. It happened to have about 16 brown strips. Being a very 'symetrical' quilter made deciding on a layout even more challenging...I know I need to loosen up, but that's another post lol. This was my first layout, but I wasn't happy with it. so I decided to make the outside and inside of each key piece match and was much happier then.

If you notice in Tiffany's and Carolyn's quilts they did more of a layout like I show above, more random. It's funny because Tiff originally had hers like mine and we both decided that it didn't work as well as the random way she ended up with. Isn't it funny how different fabric work differently?

I hope you enjoyed our Friendship blog hop! We plan on doing it again sometime and I hope you will consider joining us :)

Tomorrow I will be guest blogging at Sally's Quiting Corner, showing how I fold and organize my yardage fabric.

Sha :)

Key to Friendship Quilt

I hope you have enjoyed the Friendship Blog Hop this weekend. Don't you just love the quilts Tiffany and Carolyn made?

Today it's my day to show your the quilt I made with that same pattern. Originally Tiffany and I were both going to use the same FQ kit, we both had the Sweetwater Designer Select Fat Quarter kit from The Fat Quarter Shop. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but these kits are a Fat Quarter Shop exclusive. The plan was to make use of the same fabric for the same quilt and see how different they came out. Then Carolyn joined and decided she was going to use her Pips jelly roll. That's what I remembered a jelly roll I had and we changed to format to showcase 3 different fabrics for the same pattern.

Here's my quilt. I call it Keys to Friendship.

I used Deb Strains Meadow Friends in the boy color way. I really struggled on the layout for this one. It happened to have about 16 brown strips. Being a very 'symetrical' quilter made deciding on a layout even more challenging...I know I need to loosen up, but that's another post lol. This was my first layout, but I wasn't happy with it. so I decided to make the outside and inside of each key piece match and was much happier then.

If you notice in Tiffany's and Carolyn's quilts they did more of a layout like I show above, more random. It's funny because Tiff originally had hers like mine and we both decided that it didn't work as well as the random way she ended up with. Isn't it funny how different fabric work differently?

I hope you enjoyed our Friendship blog hop! We plan on doing it again sometime and I hope you will consider joining us :)

Tomorrow I will be guest blogging at Sally's Quiting Corner, showing how I fold and organize my yardage fabric.

Sha :)

The Friendly Mini Quilt Along

I was talking with 2 of my twitter friends Tiffany and Carolyn and we decided to do a quilt along with the Key to My Heart pattern.

Tiffany and I were on the phone together picking out a pattern for this project and we both fell in love with Key to My Heart. At first we were both going to use Hometown for it and see how different they were, but then I remembered I had a jelly roll of Meadow Friends and decided to use that. Later that day I invited Carolyn to join us and use her jellyroll of Pips. Thus started the Friendly Mini Quilt Along.
I looked at my blog calendar and gave us a date that I would post the finished quilt tops or (hopefully) quilts. I started on mine yesterday, this quilt is so easy, it's definitely a Quilt in a Day if you have the time (I would think 4 hours max to finish the top). I am already 1/3 done and I only worked for 1 hour.
So if you have a jelly roll or 14 FQs waiting for a project please join us. The deadline for submission for the blog post is 1 week from today, September 18, 2011. The pattern is available as a PDF file so you could get started on it today. I would love to show at least 5 different quilts.

Come back tomorrow for the start of the Sweetwater Designer Select series.

Sha :)

The Friendly Mini Quilt Along

I was talking with 2 of my twitter friends Tiffany and Carolyn and we decided to do a quilt along with the Key to My Heart pattern.

Tiffany and I were on the phone together picking out a pattern for this project and we both fell in love with Key to My Heart. At first we were both going to use Hometown for it and see how different they were, but then I remembered I had a jelly roll of Meadow Friends and decided to use that. Later that day I invited Carolyn to join us and use her jellyroll of Pips. Thus started the Friendly Mini Quilt Along.
I looked at my blog calendar and gave us a date that I would post the finished quilt tops or (hopefully) quilts. I started on mine yesterday, this quilt is so easy, it's definitely a Quilt in a Day if you have the time (I would think 4 hours max to finish the top). I am already 1/3 done and I only worked for 1 hour.
So if you have a jelly roll or 14 FQs waiting for a project please join us. The deadline for submission for the blog post is 1 week from today, September 18, 2011. The pattern is available as a PDF file so you could get started on it today. I would love to show at least 5 different quilts.

Come back tomorrow for the start of the Sweetwater Designer Select series.

Sha :)