Tuesday, August 30, 2011

"Clowning" around during Irene

My prayers and good wishes go out to those who are still without power or have been flooded out of their homes here on the east coast.  I know these are trying times for many.  We were very fortunate that Hurricane Irene just left us with some twigs on the ground after it came through on Sunday with it's strong winds and rain.

The rain started here on Saturday and for the first time in a long time, I was able to sit down and sew for more than an hour at a time.  Since I had finished Ashante Rhythms that you saw in my last post and it is all ready to be shipped to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza, I was ready to begin my next project.  With 3 babies coming into the family over the next 6 months, I knew that I was not going to get a chance to work on any of my 3 WIP's.  No they would have to wait for awhile. 

Instead, I started on a baby quilt for a little boy who joined the family 2 weeks ago.  I knew it was going to be a clown quilt.  I had even picked up some coloring books with clowns in them to get a feel for the applique I was going to have to make.  So early Saturday afternoon I sat down with my sketchpad, pencils, wonder-under and some fabrics I brought in Chile this spring and by later that evening. I had my clown all fused down.  (Thank God for crockpots, because I was able to put some short ribs of beef in about noon, and didn't have to worry about stopping to cook hubby dinner :-) ).  I spent Sunday afternoon and evening appliqueing him down with a tight satin stitch.  I figured that it will be washed many times over, so I better stitch it down good.  Tonight I went in and did another round of satin stitch on the ribbon collar to give it some dimension and then added highlights to the eyes and nose with some thread play.

So what do you think?
He will be in the center of the quilt top and he will be juggling balls, spelling out the baby's name.  I drafted the balls this evening as well, so I will spend time the rest of this week creating those appliques and then adding sides and top to the clown rectangle, so the balls can be appliqued in a semi circle over his head.  I expect the finished top to be about 50" x 40".

I hope he and Mommy like it :-)

3 comments:

Mary Anne said...

Very ADORABLE!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

so cute!!!

Renee said...

Thanks guys.... I have now added the balls. Can't believe how difficult it was to come up with designs for bouncing balls with the letters in the center. Will post pics later this week.