We are so excited to share our Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday- Llama Love You Quilt!
Check out all the special details below and can't wait to see other's creations!
Our name is SewWithSparkles because we like sparkles and glitter, but another thing we really like is embellishments to add some "drama" to our quilts/wall hangings. The possibilities are "limitless"!!! It's amazing how just a few embellishments can really bring a quilt or wall hanging to life!!!
All of these items can be bought at a fabric or craft store or on-line. You will want to add these embellishments to your top right before it's quilted!!! The ribbon and rick-rack can be sewed on by machine and the rest of the embellishments can be sewn on my hand. The faux fur is an applique process which uses Pellon 805 Wonder Under to fuse it to the background fabric. The "Llama Love You" quilt is really easy to make and such fun and personal!!!
This NO SEW superhero outfit is a gamechanger! Easy to assemble and is great for imaginative play, Halloween, and more! All you have to do is cut it out and a little glue and ironing!!!
My boys love that they each have their own special cape with their name and emblem/superhero power.
This superhero cape and pattern is perfect for the beginner as it takes very few supplies and can be done very quickly!
Pellon 72 is the trick to keeping the material stable for the belt and mask! Another great tip is to use "these belts" that can grow with the child or you can simply cut a piece of felt.
Lightning bolts / kaboom blast / blazing flames - you can choose colors and emblem it couldn't be easier!
Limitless is DONE! I'm so excited to finally share the quilt that has taken up most of my year and my 3rd quilt EVER! If you remember - I sew/quilt differently than most! I'm so proud of a community that is accepting and pushes the boundaries of the textile art industry everyday!
As I started paper piecing my last quilt (the first one EVER!) I knew I wanted to paper piece some more! It was fun and challenging but I combed through all of Wombat Quilts patterns and scoured Pinterest for star patterns. I just made them in all different colors - generally if it was a 4" star or smaller I used 1 color, a 6 or 8" I used 2 colors that were close on the color wheel so give some movement.
You can check it out using the link below and how to get the FREE diamond pattern as well!
Karen helped set the blocks together as I arranged them on our design wall (Black wall totally helped!) We made 5 sections and sewed pieces in between to "improv" piece it together - this is another one of those things mom totally did not think was possible. I'm a rule breaker I tell ya.
The sections made it really easy to add embroidery on top of as well!
Once the sections were done - I set to work on the details. I love sparkle and wanted this quilt to have subtle sparkle and lots of meaning! I used metallic thread to quilt in some sayings:
One of the last BIG details I worked on was the Glow Thread - a cross shape is outlining some of the stars that can only be seen when the lights are OFF! It echoes the message of lyrics and the limitless love of God that inspired the quilt in the first place. This was SO COOL to work with! I love how it adds extra dimension and another element to the quilt.
This was the first quilt that my mom and myself ever Quilted As You Go'd. We backed each of the 5 panels and additional side panels and I quilted them before attaching a backing. It was not difficult and made it much easier to work through machine quilting. We still love that we can quilt our own quilts!
It was an extremely easy process and made the work very quick! It was easy to do a panel, still have detail, but not be dragging an immense quilt through a machine!
I used a free motion star, loop, heart pattern that I just kind of worked out for the background to echo the star them. I just did stitch in the ditch when attaching the backing and went over the main pieces where panels were sewn together so you weren't able to see.
I went with a Rainbow Binding to offset some of the darkness of the background.
A post shared by Amber & Karen (@sewwithsparkles) on
Here she is in all her glory!
You can even read the word limitless on the bottom! I love how the rainbow galaxy part turned out. This may be my first quilt ever to be in a local quilt show. (non competitive!)
It has been a work of love and almost a witness to my faith in a way! I'm so excited to get this quilt used and wrap up in - the sparkle, the rainbow, the bright, the bold - the MESSAGE all tied together and I could not have dreamed up a better tactile version of this art!
Here's a version with my Disney pictures next to it - I just thought they looked cool - no real reference!
Up close version of the stars:
This almost gives me chills the way the rainbow and outlying sky glimmer with color! To watch, tweak, and develop really a work of art transform over months is SO COOL! I could just stare and stare...sounds selfish...I'm excited for others to potentially see it as well though and spreading the message! The closer you look - the more you see - the shine, the secret wording, the quotes, the detail it all comes together!
Well if you've seen or been around our blog you know I'm the risk taker. The jump in. The let's think later one. Heck i'm still under a year of sewing for the FIRST. TIME. EVER! That is not a joke - started July 2018.
You can read here all about how this quilt came to be, and yep improv piecing was new to us as well and here we are rocking it :)
Why not Quilt As You Go (QAYG) as well? It's not like we don't have enough going on in the quilt already? hehe We decided to go this route because I wanted lots of detail (read sparkle thread, metallic thread, glow thread)
1. Lay out 2 pieces of fleece on a flat surface (I used the floor)
2. Cut 5" slits every 1 1/2" or so on all 4 ends
3. Knot each slit and that's all there is to it!!! Easy peezy - no-sew !!!
Pillow Instructions:
1. Lay out 2 pieces of fleece on a flat surface - fleece should be 8" bigger than pillow form
2. Cut 4" slits every 1 1/2" or so on all 4 ends
3. Knot each slit and that's all there is to it!!! Easy peezy - no-sew !!!
We personalized the pillow using images from our no-sew costume pattern. The grand-kids are having a blast with their new no-sew superhero costumes!!! We have a Kaboom and Blazing Speed SuperHero!!! We also had a Lightning Bolt Superhero who didn't quite make the photo shoot!!! Grandma just loves these little guys and making things for them and seeing their little smiling faces and poses!!!
My love of soft and cuddly and sparkly combined with the comfort of a weighted blanket!!! It doesn't get any better than that!!!
All my grand-kids are boys so it was a little different and fun working on this precious little girl blanket and pillow for a friend!!!
Did you know you can sew a weighted blanket for about half the cost of buying one? I'm all about saving money and enjoy the sewing/quilting process. This weighted blanket is 36" x 48" and weighs 5 pounds (for a 4 year old girl who weighs 46 pounds and 43 inches tall) and only cost me $43.66 and that includes the pillow!!! I go to rummage sales for pillows and just wash them and re-purpose them or use my left over batting. I had leftover fabric from the blanket so making a pillow was a no-brainer/cost for me :)
I was in a time crunch otherwise I would have personalized the blanket or pillow adding an extra special touch!!! Instead, I just used some left over material as a bow to make a nice presentation when gifting!!!
