Oh my Cupcakes ~ A Quilting Adventure

I met Jennifer at Small Country Campground for Que and Cruz ~ she was set-up there with her it Works display and I ofcourse with our craft display. She was looking for a unique baby quilt for a little girl. I had brought a bunch of fabric with me to cut and pin together (making use of the time without children) and showed her the cupcakes fabric I had. Jennifer was looking for something pink and brown and this was what I had.
She wanted it to be designed similar to another panel quilt I had put together (purchased the panel, but I quilted it and backed it) so I sketched up a little something and we decided to put big cupcakes on the front of it with cherries and sprinkles. Here is the sketch.

Now I had never piece quilted like this, nor appliqued on this level either. The appliques were going to be made of felt and by hand for that matter. Thus, they would have to be satin stitched, with the machine, but with my guidance. The piece quilting part was fairly easy and everything lined up so nicely! We did two borders, two layers of batting and then quilted it all together to make a nice thick blanket. I was confident once the panel was together that this was going to be an easy project and fairly simple.

I was wrong...it was more complicated that I had bargained for ~ but I was loving the challenge. A lot of hours went into shaping the cupcakes and placing them in the right place, securing them to the panel and then finally sating stitching them for a permanent hold. That was the tricky part because my thread kept breaking do to the adhesive used to secure the appliques to the quilt, but it was something new and I caught on quickly how to fix that issue.

So the cupcakes and their red cherries were complete ~ thank God! Now the detailing was next. The sprinkles and the cherry stems were stitched on and it was a little trickier than I was thinking because I had to shape them the right way and ran into the same problem with the stickiness of the adhesive so it altered the sprinkles some, but the finished project is lovely!

Then I was left with an open space at the bottom and just didn't like looking at it, so we talked about embroidering the little girl's name on the quilt and well, thanks to my mmachine that was easy enough once I got the placing where I like it and we added her name to make this truly a keepsake quilt.

Lastly was to finish the backing and then top-stitch the two layers together...probably the easiest part of the whole thing. But it was great watching to piece together step-by-step and then seeing the project completed!

Little Miss. Leeanne ~ I hope you love your new blankie. I did love making it!

The Kidds
Baby-Bug Boutique