Windy Hill Farm Quilt

Hey y'all!  It's been a while--Happy New Year!  I've been busy and not really sewing much, with having a baby and working full time and all that jazz.  I did sneak in a good bit of hand sewing in between hearings and on lunch breaks, which is how I whipped up this gem:



This is the Windy Hill Farm Quilt designed by Antonie Alexander, which is available in her book, Happy Quilts!. 

This quilt was a blast, especially since it was finished just in time to be the central decoration at my son's first birthday party.  Lil' Schep is totally digging animals right now, so I thought the farm theme would be perfect.  Having opted to do the blanket stitching by hand, it was a labor of love.  Alexander's book comes with a CD with PDF patterns for the applique pieces.  These have to be traced onto fusible web, which then has to be cut out, fused to the wrong side of the fabric, and then cut out again, only to have peel off the paper backing, to then fuse the fabric to the background.  Whew!  And then I thought it would be brilliant if I did a hand blanket stitch.

The pattern calls for a border made of small windmill blocks--this is the part I fretted the most over.  Piecing is NOT my strong suit, but my hubby and I tackled it head-on and I cranked out the border blocks in no time at all, even sewing in the early morning hours before work. 

I can't believe my little guy is one! 

And as the good Lord would have it, I found out that baby #2 is on the way right before I finished this quilt:



Move over lil' Schep, the new BabySchep is due in July!

 

 

But enough about me--you came for the pictures.  Without further ado:

 

 

Totes ma goats!



Farmer Girl

Farmer Boy

Brown Chicken, Brown Cow!

Baby photobomb.

Applause!

Hand stitched label.  Dad gets credit for being my helper in the sewing room!

Just a few more details about the quilt: I used a Michael Miller Luxe extra wide backing fabric for the back, which made free motion quilting this a breeze on my Singer Quantum Stylist 9960.  I used Aurifil 50wt thread to piece and quilt the entire quilt.  I used Sulky 12wt thread for the blanket stitching around the applique, and used an 80/20 cotton/poly blend batting in the middle. 

I hope you enjoyed reading about this quilt as much as I enjoyed making it!  Linking up to Finished or Not Friday, which is also doubling as TGIFF, and Finish it Up Friday. 

Until next time, God bless!