For the Boys - All Aboard

Jump on board by riding the rail or enjoy the ride of an undefeated NFL football team on my stop in the "For the Boys" blog hop.  There is an abundance of projects to sew up for boys of any age in this Blog Hop created by Madame Samm and hosted by Amy.  I would like to thank these two incredible ladies and Camelot Fabrics, the sponsor for this hop.

A Train Quilt for Brody

The first project is a quilt for my nephew, Brody.  I just had to get one of my Aunt Challenge quilts going. (I have a goal to make quilts for all of my nieces and nephews working my way up from the youngest.)  I saw this picture of Brody online one day and knew exactly what I wanted to draw out for his quilt.


Brody excited to visit a train

 

The Brody Express

Brody is always on the fast track, so this will be the perfect cover if he ever slows down.  The fabric is all Kona solids with the exception of the yellow which was in my stash.  The quilting is free motion and straight line.  The quilting on the engine is curved to make it look round.

Closer to show quilting

I am planning to make one more of these for another nephew and will offer the pattern soon.

If you stopped by yesterday, you've seen this picture.  Weekends in the fall become all about football around here and my hubby and I are big fans of the Kansas City Chiefs. (9-0 Baby!) I wanted to make my hubby something...

Kansas City Chiefs Stadium Blanket

We have been to many football games in the cold and  sat on rock hard bleachers.  So...

Stadium Blanket and cushion, American football style.  Go Chiefs!

A stadium cushion and blanket will make the games much more comfortable.  These are styled with NFL footballs in mind.

A look at the back and the quilting

I stitched this up using Kona for the front and Chiefs fabric for the back.   I quilted lassos to make the quilt look a little like the pig skin.  I did the binding on the machine.  This was a first on a larger quilt, for me.  It will make it a little stronger, I suppose, but I like hand sewing the binding.

Chiefs quilt

It was fun to finally make DH something.  He likes it enough that he took it out to his shop and took pictures of it with a sign he had out there. (Maybe he is tired of being the photographer's assistant)  lol.   I had to enhance the picture for him, just a little.  *giggle*

There are more of these in my future.  I have been asked to make the stadium cushions for some clients and my son is a Tennessee Titans fan and the fabric arrived today for his.  I will find time to properly draw this pattern to share soon.  *UPDATE The pattern is available HERE.

Now jump on board and ride on over to the other blogs sharing projects for boys today:

November 7^th

Amy's Crafty Shenanigans

Ridge Top Quilts

Creatin' in the Sticks  ME!!

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Meadowbrook

Malinis Quilts

Just Let Me Quilt

Kris Loves Fabric

I do have a little giveaway for you.  This sweet little panel by Leanne Anderson for Henry Glass Fabrics called God Gave Me You - Little Boys.  Just leave a comment.  If you follow this blog, add another comment telling me you do.  I'll have the winner announced by the 16th, right after this blog hop is over.  Please be sure I can contact you if you are a no reply blogger.  Good luck!  Update:  The winner was Bonnie.  She is going to make a quilt for a new baby with this panel.

Thank you for visiting and

Have fun,





Natural Charm for Charity

Natural Charm was made for the Hands 2 Help Charity Quilt Challenge over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and will be donated to Quilty Hugs for Happy Chemo.

Natural Charm quilt

You may remember this quilt from this post. I had a lot of trouble with my machine and with thread breaks. Since I was on a deadline for my May goal, the binding was done by machine and it was GREAT! I don't know if I saved time by doing it this way (pinning took forever), but it was fun getting out of my little hand stitching box.

Fabrics: one charm pack (Love Letters Batiks by Moda) and a light neutral batik yardage from my stash.
Pattern: 9 patch with borders.
Quilting: Stippling and leaves by me on my domestic.
Size:  50 1/2" x 50 1/2"

Machine stitched binding

 

 The binding was pieced with a charm pack (Love Letters Batiks by Moda) cut in half and sewn end to end.  The binding was sewn to the back first using the double fold binding technique and then wrapped over to the front.  About a thousand pins were used to hold it in place and I picked a swirly design from the stitches on my machine to sew the binding down on the front.  That binding isn't going anywhere...lol

 

Picture taking fun

Edyta Sitar has Laundry Basket Quilts, Carla has Disc Golf Basket Quilts.  My hubby loves the sport of disc golf, so he is making his own baskets in his Duck Creek Design workshop and is building a course on our land.   Picture taking, for me, is taking on a life of it's own...

 

 

 

 

It's amazing what a couple of days can do for healing.  I was crushed with the troubles I had with my machine and threads on this quilt, but I'm ready to "get back in the saddle again."  I really love this quilt and am so happy to be donating it to such a great cause.

 

I am on a quest to find my perfect thread.  What thread do you use for Free Motion Quilting?  Suggestions please.  I can't quilt another one until I find a thread that works for me.

 

Thanking everyone for help,