Thursday, May 19, 2011

Applique Monkey Quilt




This is my first attempt at making a quilt, granted it is only an appliqued quilt which in my mind is much easier than what I think of as a more traditional quilt made by sewing little pieces of fabric together but I did quilt it which was huge for me. Stippling/quilting (not sure what the proper terminology is) is one of the things that I think makes a quilt a quilt and while my stippling was not perfect and definitely needs work, it was fun to do and it made me want to do more and improve.


For the monkey I free handed a drawing of a monkey hanging  from a tree branch and then cut  the drawing up into pieces for a pattern. I like the over all design of the quilt but looking at it now that it is finished, I wish I would have made the tree branch span across the entire quilt because as it is now, it just looks like the tree branch is floating in mid air which is a little weird.



The backing of the quilt is very cute, it is a bunch of little monkeys in different positions, with the words little monkey repeating. For the quilt top, I used a soft yellow with little white polka dots which are hard to see in the picture. It is all bound with a yellow and white striped fabric.


I am quite please with the quilt and it gave me the confidence I need to try my hand at a "real" quilt. I am thinking it will be a stacked coin quilt for my daughter. Wish me luck, especially since it will be a twin size quilt (this monkey quilt is a crib size) and I am going to try to quilt it myself.

4 comments:

  1. ADORABLE!! I am always in awe of anyone who can quilt! Love the monkey! :) Thanks for linking up at the Sassy Sites Free For All party! When you get a chance, come back by and see what we've done for the American Crafter's competition... and maybe vote for us too! *wink*

    xoxo!
    Marni @ Sassy Sites!

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  2. So cute. We call one of our granddaughters monkey ( she climbs everything) I enjoyed my visit to your lovely blog. I'm following now. I hope you'll stop by Katherines Corner and say hello and maybe even enter my latest giveaway. Hugs!

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  3. This is so cute! I think this is much more difficult than normal quilting so you won't have a problem with that either. Very nice!

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  4. Oh I think your quilt is fantastic! Great freehand monkey - and I love your backing fabric too - very cute! Good luck on your next, bigger quilt - I'm sure it will be just as fabulous!!

    Thanks for linking to a Round Tuit!
    Hope you have a great week!
    Jill @ Creating my way to Success
    http://www.jembellish.blogspot.com/

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