Doll Quilts

Eight doll quilts are finished. The other two require pieced backs and that will take a little longer. It would have been nice to have the minkee fuzz over with, but there will be one more day of it.

Only one got batting and real binding; the others were birthed. Much easier.

This is the class project from QuiltCon (more detail here).

I wasn’t able to wind a bobbin with invisible thread, so used a green that almost matched the green in the hand dye.  Instead of bringing the back to front in lieu of binding, I used this small floral that I found. Proportion really matters; it actually looked better when there was more of the floral fabric beside the piece. There is some of the light aqua in the hand dye but not much. I don’t suppose the doll will care.

Here is one of the big stitch flowers.

It will take practice and experimenting with and without a hoop. I do want to be able to add detail occasionally.

The other quilts got minkee backing and no batting (dolls don’t get cold). So the quilting was also minimal: organic wavy lines 4 inches apart, an off center zig zag, also four inches apart.  Some diagonal lines through squares.  None of these photographed well.

I’d thought to practice spirals, Plan A was to free hand the starting circle in the center 3 1/2-inch square. Then I realized a doll quilt didn’t need the close quilting I’d get if I used the walking foot to keep it going around. On to Plan B.

15 x 15

I really hate marking, so I keep trying free hand. Could I maintain an even 1 1.2-inch spiral freehand?  Almost.

Next time I’l try it without the aid of the 3 1/2-inch grid formed by the squares. I don’t think I could manage it free hand on a larger piece. The walking foot allows me to concentrate of direction without also having to think speed and stitch length. It worked well for each of the doll quilts. Experimenting is fun.