Robin's Double Quilt Order - Pt 2

Once I got approval on the "rough" layout for each of the quilts, it was time to start cutting and working on the items that needed to be appliqued.  I also especially wanted to show how I deal with some of the special items.  I want to show you how we go from this dress to a shirt block.

The first thing I do is just look at the dress and decide what the cutest or most prominent feature was.  Keep in mind I need to be able to sew it into a quilt so sometimes I can't keep every feature.  In this case, I wanted to keep the little belt and flowers and still show that it was sleeveless.  To do that, I'll need to add some plain fabric behind the top of the dress.  I cut the dress in half to remove the back and any lining (otherwise it would be bulky and hard to sew).  I picked a solid color white fabric and working one piece at a time, I just sew the dress down onto the fabric, easing around the curves.

Once the background fabric is sewn on, I cut away all the excess from the back and then just use my rotary cutter to trim the block square and to size.

For items that are ruffled, you can see they don't really cut cleanly across.  Don't worry too much about it, just leave it a tiny bit long and then when you sew it to another block it will still come out with a clean straight seam.

You might recall that one of the requirements for this quilt was to somehow cut the two blankies so that they could be saved for future use AND included in the quilts.  After thinking on it for a while, I decided to cut out a section from the lower corner on each blanket and then add a new panel of solid contrasting color (maybe with their names embroidered on it) to repair them.  I was more nervous than usual to cut these since I knew they had to be repaired and returned.  Normally, if I miscut from the blankets I would be able to just cut another section.

You can see on the pink blanket above that it was a double layer - I only cut out one layer of the blanket so later I wouldn't have to replace both of them.  On the other blanket, it was a single layer flannel blanket.  I sized the blocks (when planning the quilt) to roughly match one of my embroidery hoops.

Once I got those taken care of, most of the rest of the clothes were pretty straightforward.  A few had minor applique required but nothing too difficult.

Next I'll sew them all together and then cut and sew on the borders.  Then I'll be ready to quilt and bind it, yay!