A Halloween hug

My son went back to Michigan to visit Kylee as it has been way too long since he's seen her.  She was supposed to come several times with mommy, but that did not happen.

The first thing I thought of was that Kylee needed a quilt. I knew she had a Halloween costume, but I thought she needed something special from Granmama to dress up in.

This was the patten I started and what I thought it would look like

But the blocks were really a bit wild. So this is what I got

I also knew I wanted Kylee to have minke on the back to snuggle with.

Oh yes ... Here we go .. The best part ... Putting it on the longarm!  So excited when I get to quilt my own quilts

I took a lot of pics of this quilt because I wanted to talk about your quilt being square and the importance of proper seams, and proper adding of borders. When finding the size of your border, measure the quilt down the center and get the measurement and then you cut the border TO THAT measurement.  You do not just start sewing a strip of fabric on.  Do we all know that?  Let me explain why ... When you see even if you are accurate as you can be, your outside edges will be stretched ... Your true measurement is in the center.  Don't believe me?  Next time you are quilting, measure the outside edges of your quilt, then measure the center ... See what I mean?  When you cut your measurement by the center and add your borders on, they square up the quilt.  When you see a strip onto a block, do you just start sewing willy nilly, or do you have it cut

to a measurement and then sew, pinning at either end, and easing fullness in where needed?  No difference!   I can ALWAYS tell whether someone has added borders and pieced properly.  If they haven't, their quilt does not lay flat.  This is what it should look like when it is on my frame

All those little 2 3/4" squares could have really thrown my squareness off.  I sewed them together first, then got my measurement from the center of my quilt, cut the strip, and then attached it the way I always do -- pinning at either end, matching the centers, and easing in any fullness while stitching.

See how nice and even the left side is?

The bottom lays nice and straight and there is no bunching up and unevenness at the bottom as there would be if my border wasn't added properly.

You can even see unevenness in the middle of quilt if the piecing isn't done properly.

Don't know that I love this pattern. I used a darker thread so obviously it shows more, but I didn't love it like I thought I would.

How cute is this binding?

Spots and stripes!!  And look how much this little girl loved it!

I made her a little pillow out of the minke and mommy says she loves the pillow and Kylee carries it everywhere ... She's found it with her teddy, and on the floor of the bathroom!  Haha

Ok now she needs something to dress up in ...

A little three tiered skirt!  I had to model it on our teddy bear so you could see how cute it was.  Hope Kylee loves it .. I haven't seen it on her yet.