Thursday, April 28, 2011

Dirt bikes

It feels a little strange to return to business as usual after the devastation that ripped through my little corner of the world yesterday, but I suppose that's what you do. We were very fortunate and never even lost power, so I busied myself with my dirt bike quilt while I watched seven hours of severe weather coverage.

When I found out I was making a dirt bike quilt, I immediately remembered this quilt by Rebecca of Chasing Cottons. I thought the Michael Miller Extreme Team fabric would work well in an orange dirt bike quilt.

Sketch
So, after lots of thinking and sketching, I came up with this plan. I just had a few fat quarters to work with, and one of them had a large-scale print, so I wanted to leave it in tact. That print became the center framed block. From there, I did some simple patchwork and added the little road.

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And here's the top! I'm proud that I was able to execute my plan. (If you ever wonder why people sell simple quilt patterns, it's for people like me! The very basic math here just about melted my brain.)

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This is the center panel. It's not exclusively dirt bikes, but I imagine the little dude I'm making this for will appreciate the other extreme sports too.


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In addition to the orange solid (Kona Tangerine), I added in some blocks of Kona Aqua, which closely matches the icy blue accent in the Extreme Team fabric. I also added a few squares of Kona Ash just to round it out.

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I have to admit the road was a last-minute addition to my plan, but I'm so glad I included it! I believe it makes the quilt, in my humble opinion. And I can just see the little boy who receives it driving his cars up and down it.

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I had the pieces spread out on the floor when Luke woke up from his nap. He said, "Mommy! I like this one so much more than the one you made yesterday!" First reaction: Ouch! But then I remembered that he's my target market for this quilt, so he should like this one more than my Bottled Rainbows.

I'm thinking I'll continue the road motif on the back, but I'm not sure how to quilt it. Any ideas?

9 comments:

felicity said...

I love it. The road DOES totally make it. Okay, I think you should quilt it either with straight horizontal lines about 1" apart OR do a freemotion puzzle motif (inspired by the puzzle fabric!). Check out Kati (from the blue chair)'s post here - it has a sketch and it looks like it would be super easy to do.

Elizabeth Dackson said...

Oh my gosh, Katie, I'm so impressed!!! This looks fantastic. I am guarding my computer screen with my body so my munchkin doesn't see this, because he would totally request this! Great job, this little boy is going to be SO excited to open this quilt!

Angela Nash said...

That's perfect! Love the framed print and the road at the bottom.

For quilting I would probably do some straight lines in the road, frame up the print with a couple squares in it, and some kind of random stipple everywhere else.

tracy_a said...

Wonderful! My 3 year old would love it too!

AnneMarie said...

What an awesome BOY quilt! those are hard to do....you nailed it!

Anne at Film and Thread said...

It looks just fantastic! How about quilting it in a grid like a road map?

Glad you didn't lose power. Ours has been off since last Wed., but we left and came to a campground in TN this afternoon, so we have wifi for the moment!!!!

Kara said...

It looks absolutely fantastic. Congrats on a job very well done! I can only imagine how excited both of my boys would be to get such a cool quilt. I may attempt one (or two) of my own!

elizabeth said...

That's so cute! I felt so guilty - we didn't lose power either or have damage. It truly was "there but for the grace of God go I."

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