Alphabet Jungle Quilt

 

 

 

I made this 44" X 52" quilt for a baby shower this week.  It is made from the pattern Alphabet Jungle by Kids Quilts Ltd.  The animals were appliqued using my Pfaff Quilt Expression 4.0.  However the ABC block and the 123 block were done on the embroidery machine.  I did have to applique my pieces with a tight satin stitch so that it matched that of the embroidery machine but it turned out well.

 

Previously I have always used Wonder Under to fuse my applique pieces but for this project I used Pellon EZ Steam II.  The advantage of it is that you don't need to iron until the pieces are arranged onto the final fabric. There is a tacky finish which allows you to place, remove and replace as needed until you get it where you want it.  I have been told that Steam A Seam by the Warm Company is a better such product but it is not being produced as a new factory is being set up for it.

 

 



The Lion is my favorite but the Elephant and Rhino was very cute also.

 

 

 

 

I did not want to do an overall quilt design so I stippled in between the animals and on a few animal parts just for texture. Then I quilted the borders with hearts at the corners and just a loopy line around the border.

 

 



The Eggs Wars of 2014

Well just a week late but I needed to post about this year's egg wars. If you would like to read the history of the wars just go back to this earlier post http://juliannasjourney.blogspot.com/2012/04/egg-wars-2012.html. 

 

 

As usual, Hubby colored the eggs.  There were no fancy swirls or dyes this year.  Since no children were available to help him he went with the 'classic' dyed eggs but we did have this lovely centerpiece to showcase them.

 

There were 9 contenders this year and the winner was Jimmy.  We all think he holds his egg in some funky way so that his doesn't crack. Well we will all try again next year!

 

 

The McCalls's Quilt Along Continues

I haven't posted about the Quilt Along since March 2nd but I have kept up. Weeks 6 and 7 were spent making the Star in Star blocks. By far I have enjoyed these blocks the least. I needed to make 16 corners for the blocks that consisted of 1 inch strips set on the diagonal. Although they look cute the next time I see this block I will just cut a solid block. It has been suggested that they would benefit from paper piecing but I will probably never find out.

 

 

Week 8 was 12 pinwheel blocks and week 9, this week, was 12 nine patch blocks. I love the cute pinwheel blocks but the best part is that next week I will make 9 economy blocks and then the assembly of the quilt begins - thank goodness!