November 26, 2010

Animals Quilt

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I made two of these quilts four years ago for my son's bunkbed.  One is a full size, and the other is a twin size.  I had them professionally quilted at that time but had never bound them.  Another unfinished quilt project on a bed.  I finished the full size one today!  Yeah!

I was a fairly new quilter at the time I sewed these and made them too small for the beds, not realizing how the quilting process reduces a quilt's size and how much shrinkage occurs when they are washed.  Plus, by the time I made enough blocks for the two quilts, I was sick and tired of making the blocks, and I also didn't want to get the quilts too big for the beds by adding another row of blocks.  Add another border, you say?!  I now know that is the easiest way to enlarge a quilt, but I was a beginner then and didn't know that!

I'll be posting a tutorial on how to enlarge a quilted quilt before binding it.  I hope you never have to use it.  Trust me, it is much easier to make the quilt large enough before quilting it.



When I saw this fabric, I knew it was it; it was totally my son.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I knew this was him, completely.  He loved it when he saw it and still loves his jungle/animal room four years later and doesn't want to change any of it.


My apologies - the pictures are a bit light.  The colors are more vivid than they appear on my screen.  The quilt is hanging on the clothesline.  The sun isn't very bright today, but our 3" of snow disappeared overnight, and it's now 45 degrees.

Linking to:
Tuesday Archives

6 comments :

Anonymous said...

oh I love those fabrics, they would go lovely in my african room!! great job on your finish!!

Julie Fukuda said...

Congratulations. That is a cute use of animal print and I like those setting fabrics as well.
Yes, a border can be more than a frame.

felicity said...

Great print, and a wonderful quilt to showcase it. Well done!

I'm here via Quilt Story.

Quiltstory said...

Way to go in getting it all the way finished! I'm interested to see how you made it bigger later. Looks good to me! Thanks for sharing :)

JanineMarie said...

I really like this quilt! And I checked into your tutorial about adding to the it. Definitely helpful whether making a new quilt bigger or adding to an existing quilt when moving up from a smaller to a bigger bed. Thanks for re-posting this.

Val's Quilting Studio said...

Myra...I'm so inspired...I always see prints like this I like and NEVER know what to do with them...thanks for this great idea! Oh and for rejuvinating this post under our WILD Tuesday ARchives theme. :)V