A name quilt (comforter) - Happy Birthday Ankit

Yes, this is not a quilt, it's a comforter, made way back in September 2012 for my son's 14th birthday. And, why is it not a quilt? That's because, it's not quilted. Way back then i was quilting illiterate. To me, putting pieces of fabric together, having a batting and a backing meant it was a quilt. It was only once i joined the quilting group desiquilters that i really understood what quilting means. Believe you me, quilting sure does add a whole new dimension to the patch worked or pieced top. 

This, like my other projects was a fun and exciting one, it was a surprise, it was for my son and it involved everything about him. Together with my husband we decided on the words which meant the most to Ankit. I then decided to applique each alphabet of the words onto square fabrics which were in two colours - white and lemon yellow. To ensure that the words were identifiable, i decided to have each of the words in a different fabric. The appliqueing exercise was done every morning after Ankit left home and i had finished preparing lunch. That was the only way i could keep it a secret. 

This is how the comforter looks. It's fairly big at 90" X 100". 

And what did i applique on them. There's Ankit (his name), there's Nagar (his surname and what he's called in his football circle), there's football (his life), there's Gerrard (his favourite player for years on end now), there's Liverpool (the club he supports, but obviously!), there's Red Phoenix (the football club he started 5 years back), there's Cleo (our doggy). I also added a pocket of his school shirt. 







For the binding, i tried strip pieced binding using the fabrics which were used for the words. Since there were four empty blocks, i randomly added patches of the same word fabrics. 




I started appliqueing the letters in mid August 2012. We were then stationed in Vizag. It is said that when your intentions are noble, you will accomplish what you've set out to do. I finished appliqueing all the letters on the 5th of September. Sat through the night of 6th September and on 7th September when he returned from school, the comforter was waiting for him. 

He was happily surprised and thrilled that it had everything that mattered to him on it. Did he ever get a whiff of what was sewing? He saw a few individual letters, but never guessed. He did ask me on 6th night what i was up to. Saying that it was for a friend's daughter was an answer that he accepted. 

One always wants to do that something special for their child. One also wants it to be different. As they grow, they have their own tastes, likes and dislikes. How does one keep the excitement and surprise element going? I found this to be the one. I loved every second i spent putting it together. Cutting the letter templates, appliqueing them in the neatest possible way, hiding the letter patches!!! With each passing day,my excitement levels rose. It was a wonderful journey from start to finish to giving, just like it's been a wonderful journey of mothering Ankit!!

Owl Mitten

While going through the many many sites on quilting, i have come across some fascinating oven mitts and pot pinchers. i love the kitchen and spend hours in it. Making oven mitts with a twist has always been on my to do list. 

i decided to try my hand at making an 'owl' oven mitt. Since i had no tutorial, just a picture in mind, i used my regular oven mitt as a sample for the size. i cut out a basic template on paper of how my owl would look and used that as a guide to cut out the individual templates for the various body parts. 

i then proceeded with cutting the fabrics and the sponge for the batting. i used two layers of the sponge sheet just so that it would be more heat resistant. Even the fabric was double layered. Here are a few pictures of the WIP for the front of the mitt.

i simply machine stitched straight along the length to quilt. The eyes and the beak were appliquéd and then blanket stitched. The wings were machine stitched and then blanket stitched.

These are few pictures of the WIP of the back of the mitt

And...this is how the mitt finally looked...........

Things i would  do differently

• i would make the thumb insertion pocket a little lower down. this mitt just covers the wrist. Personally i prefer mitts which go up at least 2 inches above the wrist (extra protection from burns) 
• i would round off the mitt a little more in the lower part. i find it too broad.

i want to make more mitts, there are endless possibilities in terms of design and i think they'd make wonderful give aways. 

For Siya

Siya is a bubbly 4 year old girl. i met her around 3 years back and we hit it off immediately! i love children and she loves bangles!! It has been a treat to watch Siya grow into little girl from the baby i had first met her as. 

Siya's dad was transferred to another city. This was December 2012. I hadn't known their departure date. And, finally when i did get to know of it, i had two days!! Somehow, all my projects have been last minute!! Luckily have managed to complete them all and they have come out fairly okay. 

So the race against time began........ once again.................

Decided on making a bed spread for her. It would be colourful bugs and a couple of flowers. I sized them fairly large thus enabling quick appliquéing. 

It had four bugs in all, two on either ends. There were two flowers, again one on either end. 

For the bugs i alternated the fabric between the wings and the body. That way, every bug was different, yet, there was something common which held it all together. i so wanted to blanket stitch round the wings just to give it more texture, but sadly, ran short of time ( had to happen).

i had this colourful shirting material lying with me, so i used it to surround the centre panel. There was no batting needed as it was a bed spread. Used white cotton for the lining. 

Though most of my projects have been last minute, i doubt if i was so much on the edge for any as i was for this. i managed to finish the spread by half past eight at night!

By the time my husband and i rushed to Siya's house, she was fast asleep :( . I couldn't see her reaction. However, her mum called the next day and told me that when she woke up in the middle of the night, she was shown her gift and she insisted that she wanted to sleep on it! Very sweet of the parents to show it to her at that hour!!!

For Vedika

Prakash and Kanika are dear friends. They were blessed with a very cute baby girl in early 2011. Soon after, they invited us over for a sumptuous Holi brunch! It truly was a treat - paapdi chaat, poori - aalu and moong daal halwa to die for! Kanika is a phenomenal cook! 

I had one day to make something if i wanted to. i decided on a small quilt, something that they could use in the baby carriage in their car. 

Time was a constraint, so i couldn't go scouting for material. i managed to pull out something from all the material and scraps i have collected over the years. i was lucky i managed to find polka dotted fabric in the same colour combination but in different sizes of dots.

Since it was predominantly red, i selected this blue striped material for the top layer. Again, since it was red and also a new born baby what better shape than hearts. Along with hearts i decided to have stars as well. 

I used chalk to mark out the diagonal lines which would serve as blocks for the hearts and the stars. i decided to stitch on red satin ribbon. When i tried the sewing machine, i realized that it was pulling at the threads of the ribbon. i then hand stitched the ribbon as also the shapes. The only part where i used the sewing machine was when i layered the top fabric, the batting and the lining. While doing so, i also attached the border piping. 

For the batting i had used some casement fabric and for the lining, soft white pure cotton cloth.

All in all, it looked very bright and happy!

When Kanika and Prakash saw it, they were thrilled and stated that it was ideal for the car! Glad, it was used for the purpose it was intended for!

For Inika

Priya is a good friend. We met while working in the same organization while i was stationed at Bombay. In mid 2011, Priya was blessed with a baby girl. They named her Inika meaning 'little earth' What a beautiful name!

Once Priya got back to work post her maternity break, is when i decided to make a baby quilt for Inika. This was late 2011. i had two themes in mind - butterflies and ladybirds. The new mamma chose butterflies, so butterflies it was.

• for the top of the quilt, i used striped shirting material - again for the texture and the shine. I somehow seem to have an affinity for striped! Probably it adds to the fullness feel when you look at the piece. 
• the size was not too big - two and a half feet in width and five feet in length.
• the batting was poly fill sheets
• the backing was soft off white cotton
• the colours were based on the shirting material i had sourced, which was peach.
• for the design, i decided to place the butterflies in such a manner that the quilt could be used either ways length wise. This was something which i had realized after making Michelle's quilt. That was only one -sided length wise. 
• the bodies of the butterflies were all in light blue which lent a certain uniformity to the six creatures on the quilt.
• an idea which struck me (and which i loved) was to also include Priya's daughter's name!
• i used broad running stitches which gave a stringing effect to the name which was appliqued on either sides  and also gave the feel of everything coming together.

This is a close up of one end of the quilt. i appliqued three butterflies on either ends and also a few flowers. The name 'Inika' was also appliqued on either ends. The butterflies had smiling faces with eyes which were stuck on to them.

What i loved about this piece was the baby's name. It just made it feel so personal, made exclusively for her. One thing i would have done differently was to keep the piping the same all around. Now, when i look at the picture i really don't know why i chose that dull peach for piping along the breadth of the quilt. Also, i now think i should have made it a little bigger. Wonder what i was thinking!

Priya liked the quilt and i believe Inika was thrilled to see the number of butterflies! Apparently she kept going from one butterfly to the other!

For Michelle

My brother was living in a town in the Nilgiris ranges in the south of India. This was in early 2011. The high altitude gives Ooty the privilege of being a 'no fan station'. It is cold round the year - the only variation being the degrees of coldness during the different seasons.
What better thing to give my little niece Michelle than a quilt !!! And thus began my project.

• the size - it had to big enough for her to be able to use it even 5-7 years down the line - she was four then. it was decided to make it to an approximate size of three and a half feet by 6 feet.
• the design - after a lot of contemplation and a lot of net searches i thought a theme would be best. something which was babyish enough, yet wasn't too babyish that she wouldn't dare be seen with it when older. i decided on turtles and fish.
• the colours - i wanted to shift from the typical girl means pink. decided to use shades of green - plain and printed. i find it to be a calming colour. i also decided to add a dash of yellow for brightness.
• the materials - for the top i picked up some light coloured, striped, shirt material - the choice was the texture and the shine. For the batting i hunted the lanes of my neighbourhood and found poly fill sheets. For the backing it was a light green cotton cloth (shown in the picture below).

This was my first big project - many question marks but even more excitement. I drew a rough sketch about how the quilt would shape out and look and for a really good idea, i coloured using colour pencils. Then came the templates for the turtles and the fish. I sourced the fabrics from the only cloth shop next door - no particular plan except that it had to be in shades of green. Most of the cloth was what they call lizzy-bizzy. 

I first started by cutting out the shapes, pinned them onto the shirt material. I then hand tucked these on to the material with big running stitches. Each shape was then appliqued by hand. For a more prominent outline, the flippers and the heads of the turtles were blanket stitched with the same shade as that of the fabric. The body of the fish were also blanket stitched. 

The borders were machine stitched. The backing cloth was cut to size as also the batting.  The quilt top, the batting and the backing were layered and hand tucked together. The piping strip was attached to the backing material.This was followed by machine stitching them close to the edge. The piping was then folded over the  quilt top and hand stitched.

I decided to have happy animals, so the smiling faces. I stuck on eyes and they indeed added their own charm to it. 

I worked on the quilt for almost seven hours a day and managed to complete it in a weeks time. Michelle loved the quilt - found it 'nice-nice' and 'cozy-cozy'.