Quilter's Blog Festival - Mighty Max's Quilt

I am really excited to have a very special quilt to share with you all for the Quilter's Blog Festival that's being hosted by Amy's Creative Side.   Well, I'm just really excited that I finally started quilting and that there are so many wonderful bloggers out there who are so talented and generous with sharing their tips and tutorials that help self-taught quilters, like myself.  :-)

The quilt that I am sharing with you was made for a very, very special little guy, who's mommy is a friend of mine from high school who I was lucky enough to reconnect with over a year ago.  And by little, I do mean little!  Max was 2 pounds 1 ounce when he was born almost six month premature.  This fact in itself just astounds me, because I am six months pregnant right now and I can't imagine having my own little guy enter the world this early.  But Little Max did and he had a very long and hard first 100 days.   He had several surgeries and many close calls and it wasn't long before friends and family started calling him, "Mighty Max".  A name that describes him perfectly!   

When Max was in the hospital and going through all of her terrible ups and downs, I started feeling my nesting phase hit and for some reason,  I decided that I wanted to start quilting.  I think part of it was just the idea of making something snuggly and comforting for others and my own family.   I have made a few very simple baby quilts many years ago, but that's it.  And by simple, I mean that the quilt was one gigantic Ohio Star made from one huge triangle template.  I never quilted them, I just tied them, but they were great baby gifts and fun to sew.  But, I hadn't quilted since then and I'd say it had been at least 12 years or longer since I had made one last.   

I knew that I just had to make a quilt for Max.  I found this great tutorial for The Road Trip Quilt at Click. Cluck. Sew.   I went to JoAnn's and found this super cute fabric with the zoo animals on it and that lion reminded me of sweet, little Might Max.   This is a great quilt for a beginner, because there aren't any seams to match up!  And, it came together really quickly.   If I ever make it again, I will make it longer, but this will be a great size to wrap Max up in this winter.  

This is the first quilt that I did any real machine quitting on, too.   I went out and bought a walking foot, because I was working on another quilt for a benefit and was going to machine quilt on it.   I guess the benefit quilt was my FIRST quilt to machine quilt on, but I only went around the strips and didn't do any more than that, because I was afraid to mess it up. lol    I was actually working on both of those quilts at the same time, because I needed to finish the benefit quilt before October and I worked on Max's quilt here and there at the same time.   I decided to quilt it like the quilt in the tutorial was done and I'm glad that I did, because it was a good learning experience and just plain practice in sewing straight lines.

  

For the back, I used some snuggly, polka dot flannel.  :-)

I really wanted the label to be special, so I sat down and drew a larger version of the lion from one of the zoo print fabrics.   I embroidered it with some DMC floss and then wrote the rest of the label with a permanent marker.

So, as you can see, this is a very special quilt!  It's for a totally amazing little man, who I'm happy to say that after almost 120 days in the hospital, he has been home now for almost two months now and he's doing fantastic!  He weighs over 10 pounds and is a happy and adorable guy!   And, I really learned A LOT while sewing this quilt.   Besides learning how to really make, sew and quilt a quilt, I learned something else......I am here by and officially addicted to fabric and quilting.  lol  I have another baby quilt sitting by patiently waiting to be quilted and I can't wait to get started on it.   And, a Christmas quilt for my table....and a lap quilt for the living room.....lol  My husband has actually been hogging my sewing machine all week!   He's sewing a Matrix coat for my daughter for an Anime Convention.  She's a huge Kingdom Hearts fan (it's a video game. lol) and some of the characters wear coats that resemble those long coats from The Matrix.   That was a little much for me to tackle, but my husband has tailor blood running through his veins and he's a natural when it comes to sewing.  Yes, I'm jealous! lol    And, yes, there is a long list of other projects that I want to sew, mainly things for my own little man, who is due to arrive the first of February.   :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by!  I've linked up to The Blogger's Quilt Festival, Tidy Mom and Fun to Craft and The Airing of the Quilts.   I can't wait to sit down and look at everyone's quilts and projects that they are sharing.   Please know that I am so grateful for everyone's sharing of their quilts, tips, hints, ideas, you name it!   It is what really got me wanting to quilt, has helped me learn to quilt and is what's keeping me inspired to learn more and make more!

God Bless,

di

p.s. Oh, I forgot to tell you.......if by some twist you actually know who Might Max is (the world is smaller than we think sometimes and the internet world connects us all together!) please don't share this with Max's mom.   We are taking a little road trip soon so that we can hand-deliever this quilt to Max and I sure want to keep it a surprise!   I'm pretty sure, well hoping, that she doesn't read my blog......but I really wanted to share this quilt with you all for the Quilter's Blog Festival, because it is so special! :-)