Vintage Strawberry Shortcake Baby Quilt

         My niece who is now about 8 months pregnant, asked if I could make her quilt with the vintage/original Strawberry Shortcake girl. I made her sister a baby quilt a yr ago, and now its her turn.  I had a time finding the original strawberry though. Even online. Then she told me she saw it at our local Walmart. I bought it and 3 other fabrics I thought would go. I really struggled over this one tho. I wanted some soft looking. Not too bright, but the colors I chose just didnt work when I started making the blocks. So with the help of my daughter we found a print from Michael Miller Strawberry Teatime line, and another dusty green. So I started over again.
       Since the Strawberry print was small, and I wanted a focal point in the center. I decided to hand embroidery the girl on a large block in the center. I used a coloring book image and traced her onto my white block.

She turned out pretty wel. I havent done much hand embroidery in my life. Most of its been with the machine, but I thought this gave it more of a vintage look. I was enjoying the hand work so much, that I made another block with freehand drawn cupcakes topped with a strawberry in the corners. 

      Here is the block that its all tying into:

Not wanting to stop all the fun just yet, I decided to embroider a block on the top with the words "Berry Sweet", and added some flowery vines, a teeny little butterfly, and a strawberry.

Here is the final product minus the binding. I just finished machine quilting it. Talk about instant gratification.

Now I need to decide on a binding color.  I auditions a few different colors in the pic below. Got any recommendations to help me out ?  :)

A New Toddler Quilt

   My son's girlfriend wanted a quilt for her two year old daughter that was small enough for her to drag around, but big enough to cover her. She picked out a Dresden plate design she seen on the internet. It was one large plate, so wouldn't be big enough by itself. So I added some borders and corner treatments. Here is what I came up with:

Remember you can click on it to enlarge. Her name is Cadence, so I added her name in the bottom right corner.

I still don't have my markings washed out yet. The quilt is far from perfect. I am sorry to say, most times I am not a perfectionist at heart. I started this by cutting out the pieces before we went  to Pigeon Forge, TN for our yearly trip to the car show. I pieced and quilted it entirely by hand. I started piecing on the way down the 9 hr trip. Then worked on it of an evening while sitting outside on the patio in front of our fifth wheel. Then finished it just yesterday by applying the binding and stitching her name.

I like how the quilting on the dresden plate makes it look almost rounded, and more like a Dahlia. I loved working on this pattern. A Dresden plate is quite fun to do, and works up fairly quickly. My kind of quilt,lol

 A lot of the time, I was stressing these ol eyes out by working in low light conditions. Sometimes straying from my markings. However this isnt too noticeable unless one looks close. This is the first time I have  used multiple quilting designs. Most of the time it was an overall shadow quilting, etc. She is getting this for her 2nd  birthday in a few days.

Latest Baby Boy Quilt

        I just completed my second quilt for a baby boy. Seems like this family has seen more little girls being born. I kinda re-designed the first pinwheel quilt I did , and added some little boy touches. I also tried out some free form quilting that I hadnt done yet. I combined quilt in the ditch with it. I am getting better at it. I still had a few small tucks in the back that I had to hide, but not too bad.

Also the applique puppy face in the center is one of my new designs that I am going to add for sale on my embroidery design site.

Baby Quilt For Coming DGD

    We are expecting out 4th grand-daughter sometime the middle of January. I started this baby quilt for her the first of September while on the road to Tennessee with our camper for the annual car show in Pigeon Forge. I finished it after our return the day before the baby shower the end of October. It is totally my design. i kinda winged it as I went along. I knew I wanted soft colors. I started with the center floral wreath then added the stars around that, then did a simple border. I want to embroidery the baby's name, birth date and weight ( the only time a woman ever truthfully tells her weight....well come to think of it, someone else is opening their big mouth even then,lol) into the center of the quilt. The mom loved it.