And here is doll quilt #2!

Here she is: the second doll quilt for my niece! I can't wait to see them both on her doll beds.

This one I did a tad different than the first. The first kind of looked like a sampler quilt and it kinda came together as I went (with not a ton of pre-designing), and this one looks more like a quilt you might see on a bed.

both quilts...taped to the wall. 

I had fun designing it. It required some math skills, though. And I didn't quite get the math right on the all the blocks the first time, so I had to do some of them multiple times. That part was a little frustrating, but at least I learned some quilt math skills along the way.

the original drawing/design of the quilt

It's gratifying to see something you have designed come to fruition. Even if it is just a mini quilt. You can see I designed it the old-fashioned way with graph paper and colored pencils.

I like the big center block with the little pinwheel in the center, set on the diagonal. That center pinwheel was one of the areas that gave me some trouble.

I highlighted the yellow fabric, since that is the color my niece requested.

A shot from the back

So....it's only almost a month after her birthday that they're both finished....And I'm sorry to say, that's not the latest I've been with a birthday gift....

But it's like the birthday joy continues, right? To get a present a month later? Sure!

Doll Quilt #1: Ta-Da!

I finally finished my niece's first doll quilt. The second is yet to come. Isn't this the cutest little quilt? Each block is a variation of a star block, and it was good for me to work on this because it allowed me to practice piecing new blocks (I've not made these types of blocks before), and to practice on my new sewing machine.

I can honestly say that it is so much more fun to sew on a nicer machine. The piecing of this quilt took longer than the actual quilting and adding of the binding. Hooray for small quilts that don't take long to quilt! I can see the appeal of mini-quilts now.

I decided to machine-sew the binding on. That is the first time I've done that, and I liked that it was done quickly, which means it will probably be done again.

these stitches look much nicer than the ones done on my old machine. Hooray for a built-in walking foot!

I love that tiny floral fabric, and that the quilt looks cute from the back, too

I quilted each block a little differently

I didn't want to over-quilt this because the pattern of the fabrics on the quilt-top is what I wanted to shine through most. So I quilted this mostly "in the ditch." I used matching yellow thread on the back (the bobbin thread), and a light gray on the front so that the fabric and patterns of the stars would be "the star"--see what I did there?-- and the quilting would melt into the background.

Cute, cute! Fun fun.

And bonus, when my niece grows up, she can use this as a fancy placemat. Ha ha.