A Dinosaur Quilt

Still bitter cold here in Ontario so I’m staying inside. As the old saying goes, “My mama didn’t raise no fool!”  

I did get 7 out of the 11 quilts I needed done for presents but because I got so sick in December 4 adults will have to wait for theirs. So, today I decided to get the binding on some comfort quilts for the quilt guild. Another quilting friend quilted them but didn’t have time to do the binding before she left for the sunny south (so envious) and asked me to finish them for her. So I have all six bindings on but not sewn to the back yet. Tomorrow is another day! Today’s work got interrupted with a visit from my sister and family comes first.

Speaking of quilts, I thought I’d share one of the quilts that I did get completed. This one is for the youngest grandson who is 4. Hubby holds them up as I take the photo but the lighting is not good in the rec room so they are not the best quality photos but good enough for you to see them. Double click on the picture to enlarge it.

The dinosaurs came on a panel so I didn’t have to piece them. However, as you can tell, it was almost a square panel (printed panels are never square and the lines are never straight) and I wanted it to be a rectangle so I had to do some thinking on this one. I finally decided to first put a strip of red along the top and bottom of the panel which also helped square it up. Then I dug through the fabric stash (oh yes, I have a fabric stash too and it’s a doozy) and pulled out any kids fabrics that were in the same colour range as the dinosaurs. I cut them various widths and sewed them into long strips. This is called a “piano key” border in the quilting world. I just added these to the top and bottom to make it longer. Then the blue fabric was added, wider for the top and bottom but narrow along the sides just to pull it all in together. Ooops, ran out of blue fabric so I had to use green binding, which I rather liked.

I quilted around each dinosaur, and each section of the each dinosaur, including the dots and stripes and then did a meander stitch all around the dinosaur until the entire block was quilted. Each strip of the piano key was also quilted and another meander stitch around the outside borders. It took awhile to get it quilted but it turned out okay. I just hope Finn likes it. He loves dinosaurs, as most little boys do, so it should be a hit.

That’s all for a freezing cold Thursday – January 8^th, - Elvis’s birthday today. He would have been 80. My all time favourite singer. Also my late, previous sister-in-law’s birthday. She was my ex-husband’s half sister but one of our favourite people and she loved my Joe. She never married or had children so my grandchildren called her “Gramma Barb” and Joe and I took her on holidays with us and the kids. We still miss her so much. Too bad more divorced families can’t stay friendly! It worked fine for us.

Cheers

Violet