Cluck Cluck Sew

I really love making new quilt tops, but actually finishing the quilts?  Not nearly as fun.  I have a closet of unfinished tops to prove it!

Since we’ve been home and I have nothing new to work on, I’ve been slowly finishing up some old tops and teaching my kids how to help.  

I made this scrappy Ziggy Baby top a couple of years ago, and it was a great project to teach my boys how to finish a quilt.   I used this pattern. 

My boys are a great age where they can run the sewing machine easily by themselves and even keep a straight-ish line.  I turned down the machine speed, taught them how to line up the edge of the walking foot along the seams, and they quilted along each one. 

 Anywhere they had to “eyeball” the line straight was tricky for them and I did the quilting.   Besides that, and a bit of unpicking and re-stitching the wonky parts when no one was looking, they actually did a pretty great job!

Aaaaaand it only took us about 2 weeks to finish quilting it.  ;)  LOL…it was veeeery slow going. 

I bound it, and I’ll help them donate it when we can.

The pattern is called Ziggy Baby…I wrote this one 9 years ago!  I added a page to the PDF with the cut sizes and a coloring sheet to make it scrappy like this version.  

What are you guys working on?   Any fun quilting projects?  I’ve been SO unproductive during this time, but I’m also enjoying the down time.  

I’m definitely feeling ready to start a new project though, maybe I’ll make a few more quilt tops to add to my never ending closet of unfinished quilts! 

Hi friends!  A lot has changed since my last blog post 11 days ago…sheesh. 

We’ve been hunkered down trying to stay healthy and finding a new “normal” for our family.  The kids are home now that schools are closed, my husband is working from home, but we have everything we need (and enough chocolate to get me through it).  We have so much to be grateful for…but it’s also a huge adjustment that will take some time.  

By Thursday I needed some “Mom quiet time”…so I spent a few hours finishing up this Zookeeper quilt  (with noise cancelling headphones on of course!).  

This quilt was made with the Zookeeper Prism ABC panel by Hoffman Fabrics.  I purchased mine from here, but you can also Google it and easily find one. 

I gave directions for how I cut the panel and made the blocks in this blog post when I made the top.   The letters/animals aren’t all the same size, so you need to carefully cut them, add borders, then trim all of the blocks down to the same size…the info is in the blog post.  

The panel would also be adorable left intact…just add a fun border or two, quilt it and done!  Super cute baby quilt.  

I had some questions last time about the color fastness of the panel, since it is digitally printed.  I haven’t washed my panel, but from what I can tell from others experiences and my own using digitally printed fabric, it should wash well…and the color fade should be comparable to other cotton fabrics from a mill.  I plan on gifting this to my kids’ school to be hung, so it probably won’t be washed a whole lot, but I wouldn’t be worried if it were.  If you’ve washed your panel, please let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

I quilted this top with free motioned loopty loops  all over the quilt.  It’s not perfect, but if you need a really great stress reliever during this time, I recommend learning how to free motion!  

Also, a public service announcement:  I saw that Paula Jean is retiring and will no longer be making or selling the Kwik Klip.  Guys…if you pin baste your quilts you NEED a Kwik Klip.  It saves your fingers and nails by  helping to close or open the pins quick and easy.   I bought an extra so I’ll never be without it.   I bought mine on amazon, but you can probably get one from your favorite quilt shop, or here.  It’s been my favorite notion for years.  

I put a green plaid on the back from my Hazel line of fabric (an old line), and I bound it with a gray Moda grunge basic.  

My machine binding tutorial can be found here, I haven’t posted that one in awhile and if you are new here it’s how I bind all of my quilts. 

I hope you all stay healthy and safe, and maybe even find some comfort in sewing and quilting during all the upheaval.   

Hugs to you all!!  -Allison