JulieB Designs: Behind The Scenes » Flannel Snuggler

Comfort Pillow

julie — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:04:16 +0000

Bill’s Grandmother fell and broke her knee this week. She is going to have to spend several weeks in rehab. While Bill and I love being out here, it is really hard at times like this, to be away from family. We really wanted to do something to let her know that we were thinking of her. I thought about different things I could make for her room to brighten it up, but in the end we decided that a colorful pillow would be the best choice. Thankfully I had a stash of flannel to use but I needed a pillow. I made a quick trip to the fabric store, but would you believe that they were out. Thankfully Michaels was right down the street and they had just what I was looking for.

I sketched out my design and starting cutting fabric. I decided to put the heart on with a fringed edge so that I didn’t have to worry about fraying flannel applique. I’m not sure that I loved how that came out, but it worked for this project.

Update: Grandma is out of the hospital and doing well. Our hug from California was a huge success. If you know someone who is going into the hospital I highly recommend something like this to let them know you are thinking of them, even when you can not be there.

Last Minute Holiday Projects

julie — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 07:56:59 +0000

Due to a mis-communication I created a last minute Christmas quilt this year. December 13th we determined that we wanted to make a quilt for my sil. I thought we had ruled out the quilt for this year in favor of another gift, but it turns out I was mistaken and this was the year of the quilt. I am happy to make them. Especially when they are well received.

I have a complex of not wanting to be Aunt Clara giving the pink bunny pajamas (A Christmas Story). I love to make things and I love to give them away, but I know that my tastes don’t always match others, so I am a cautious home made gift giver.

I spent Sunday and Monday dyeing and rinsing flannel for the quilt. I knew I wanted tans and earthy greens. I don’t do a lot of tans so I tried creating a couple of gradations. They ended up a little closer in color than I would have liked, but do to the short time frame, I was pretty pleased with them and called them good.

Monday night Bill helped me to cut the fabric into strips and then use the AccuQuilt die cut machine to cut the squares.

Since it was Bill’s sister, it was his pleasure to pick the pattern for the quilt. He wanted to create blobs of color that kind of blended into the next blob. I don’t know if we were completely successful, but we had fun and it did break me out of my symmetrical and regimented patterning. We finished laying out the squares around 11pm on Monday.

Tuesday morning I labeled the squares so that I could keep them where they were planned and set them up for chain piecing. I spent the day piecing the quilt and was finished in time for bed.

Wednesday I spent the day washing and drying the quilt to get that nice snuggley texture and remove the extra lint before the sending it out. I also created my label pocket and label.

It was shipped on Thursday. Yeah! I love how fun these quilts are to make and the ease that the AccuQuilt adds in making them. With any luck it will coordinate with the home decor.

The photo is a little fuzzy. It was a quick overhead shot while standing on a bar stool, but it had to get in the mail.

Emily’s Quilt

julie — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:39:30 +0000

My sil needed a lap quilt this year, so it was a good excuse to make another rag edge quilt. I really love to make these. Especially since I purchased the die cut machine to cut and fringe the squares.

One of the best parts about making the rag edge quilts is that I get to dye flannel. I have a really nice, heavy-weight flannel that takes the dye just wonderfully.

This quilt was going to be all pinks and purples. I dyed up a nice assortment and then started playing around with them to see which ones I liked together. This is one of my favorite parts of dyeing fabric.

I am pleased with the assortment I put together.

Charity Quilts

julie — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:31:44 +0000

Last month I picked up the charity quilts that were finished by the members of my Bernina group. One quilt was a group effort, that was just wonderful. Others included class projects or UFO’s. I also got to pick up the flannel quilts that I had made up as kits. I was happy to hear that they went together easily for everyone. No matter the source, all were great.

First Commission Complete

julie — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:03:03 +0000

Today I completed my first commission. It was for 2 flannel rag edge quilts using my hand-dyed flannel and photos of the cheerleaders. I am very please with how the quilts turned out. I hope the recipients are as happy with them as I am. I pushed to get them done so that dh could hand deliver them. I hated to put them in the hands of UPS.

Whitestar Quilt

julie — Sat, 06 Mar 2004 21:02:52 +0000

I made this quilt for Bill’s manager to celebrate the team boat trips. It incorporates photo printed cotton fabric photos and hand-dyed flannels in a raw edge quilt design. I really love how quickly these raw edge quilts come together.

There are 27 photos and 21 different colors of blue and green fabric.

Linda’s Quilt

julie — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 17:49:24 +0000

Kristen and I wanted to surprise a friend for her birthday. We decided to make a neutral toned raw edge quilt with a couple splashes of color.

This quilt is made up of 36 different colors and is 50 x 70 inches.

First Flannel Raw Edge Quilt

julie — Sun, 07 Dec 2003 00:07:34 +0000

I decided to try out a raw edge piecing technique. I based the size of the squares on the width of my ruler to simplify cutting. I also decided to use a half inch seam allowance. I chose this size to cut down on the amount of fabric, but after seeing the completed quilt I am happy with the half inch seam allowance. It is still a nice snugly look, but it is not so ragged looking.

I also played around with the manipulation of the fabric in the dye to alter the look of the fabric. The more that I manipulated the fabric, the less white fabric I had and the less the fabric looked like tie-dye. When I was done I decided that I preferred my fabric to have no white in the finished color.

My sisters family needed a quilt that could stand up to a lot of use and minimal fuss. I created a fun raw edge quilt using hand-dyed flannels for the front and back. Bill created the pattern designs.

This quilt is made up of 21 different colors of cotton flannel fabric and is 50 x 70 inches.