We all love our kids and want to keep those old baby clothes. I've made a couple of memory quilts with old kids clothes. I need to post pictures of the last one I did because I made a huge boo boo. But my quick thinking husband helped me figure a fix. That's not what I want to write about now. I want to write about our pets. Our other kids that we love. The ones that don't talk back and actually listen to you.
A good friend of mine lost her beloved dog. He was a great dog and she took him to a lot of shows. He was her baby. So she was very, very sad when he passed. She asked me to make a ribbon quilt out of his old show ribbons.
Ribbon quilt?! What is that?! I have never heard of that before. And I've been quilting a LONG time! So I Pinterest-ed (is that a word??? It is now.) it. And there are beautiful ribbon quilts out there.
She gave me three boxes of ribbons and a few of her favorite pictures. One box had all of his AKC ribbons for agility in it. These are the ones she wanted me to use. I was so afraid to break those ribbons apart because I knew they mean a lot to her. But one by one, I pulled staples out and separated the ribbons from the rosettes until I had piles of ribbons all over my floor of all the different colors!
She had emailed me a picture of one quilt layout that she really liked. It basically had the dog's picture...OK...I need to introduce you to Samwise (or Sam) so I can quit calling him just a dog. Because he wasnt' just a dog. He was her family.
Meet Samwise! Sam is a Belgian Sheepdog. This is what she said about this picture:
"Here is a picture I took of him with his RAE ribbons. To earn an RAE you have to compete in both the Excellent class and the Advanced class on the same day (and qualify) 10 times. Sam’s Excellent scores were almost all 95 and above and he took first place (in the Excellent class) many of those times!
It took a while to figure out what to do. I had the picture of the quilt that she liked, but I don't like to copy quilts. I use a pattern like a recipe...as a suggestion to deviate from. So I thought I'll just sew a few ribbons together and something will come to me.
On a side note, sewing ribbons are not hard, but you have to sew a really small seam allowance, like about 1/8th of an inch to keep most of the words visible. The laser guide on my Babylock Unity comes in very handy in times like these! Some people use glue and glue them down to the backing fabric and then applique stitch all of the seams. But you know me, I have to do it the hard way because I think it will hold up better in the long run. And I'm not sure what the glue will do to the ribbons since I don't plan to wash this quilt once it's done. I do plan to stitch in the ditch around all of the ribbons with decorative stitches like stars...I think....
Ok. Back to the quilt...she really liked a star pattern around a picture. So I resorted ribbons. I wanted to make sure that I had a long row of at least one of each kind of ribbon he earned. Then the extras I could cut to make the patterns I needed.
It took a while before I actually cut through one of the ribbons. But after the first cut, I was fine. I plan to make the other picture of Sam a center of another star, probably using yellow to surround him and the blue ribbons as a background. I had to resort to my Electric Quilt 7 software to layout the star pattern. There's a small miscalculation that I won't point out. That's why I had to turn to my software. But it's there and I can see it. The bad part about sewing ribbons is once you sew through them, there's no ripping out stitches and redoing it. The needle leaves small holes and they are very visible if you pull out the stitches. I know from experience...but decorative stitches are a great way to cover them up!
A good friend of mine lost her beloved dog. He was a great dog and she took him to a lot of shows. He was her baby. So she was very, very sad when he passed. She asked me to make a ribbon quilt out of his old show ribbons.
Ribbon quilt?! What is that?! I have never heard of that before. And I've been quilting a LONG time! So I Pinterest-ed (is that a word??? It is now.) it. And there are beautiful ribbon quilts out there.
She gave me three boxes of ribbons and a few of her favorite pictures. One box had all of his AKC ribbons for agility in it. These are the ones she wanted me to use. I was so afraid to break those ribbons apart because I knew they mean a lot to her. But one by one, I pulled staples out and separated the ribbons from the rosettes until I had piles of ribbons all over my floor of all the different colors!
She had emailed me a picture of one quilt layout that she really liked. It basically had the dog's picture...OK...I need to introduce you to Samwise (or Sam) so I can quit calling him just a dog. Because he wasnt' just a dog. He was her family.
"Here is a picture I took of him with his RAE ribbons. To earn an RAE you have to compete in both the Excellent class and the Advanced class on the same day (and qualify) 10 times. Sam’s Excellent scores were almost all 95 and above and he took first place (in the Excellent class) many of those times!
It took a while to figure out what to do. I had the picture of the quilt that she liked, but I don't like to copy quilts. I use a pattern like a recipe...as a suggestion to deviate from. So I thought I'll just sew a few ribbons together and something will come to me.
On a side note, sewing ribbons are not hard, but you have to sew a really small seam allowance, like about 1/8th of an inch to keep most of the words visible. The laser guide on my Babylock Unity comes in very handy in times like these! Some people use glue and glue them down to the backing fabric and then applique stitch all of the seams. But you know me, I have to do it the hard way because I think it will hold up better in the long run. And I'm not sure what the glue will do to the ribbons since I don't plan to wash this quilt once it's done. I do plan to stitch in the ditch around all of the ribbons with decorative stitches like stars...I think....
Ok. Back to the quilt...she really liked a star pattern around a picture. So I resorted ribbons. I wanted to make sure that I had a long row of at least one of each kind of ribbon he earned. Then the extras I could cut to make the patterns I needed.
It took a while before I actually cut through one of the ribbons. But after the first cut, I was fine. I plan to make the other picture of Sam a center of another star, probably using yellow to surround him and the blue ribbons as a background. I had to resort to my Electric Quilt 7 software to layout the star pattern. There's a small miscalculation that I won't point out. That's why I had to turn to my software. But it's there and I can see it. The bad part about sewing ribbons is once you sew through them, there's no ripping out stitches and redoing it. The needle leaves small holes and they are very visible if you pull out the stitches. I know from experience...but decorative stitches are a great way to cover them up!
I plan to make two long rows of ribbons. Then I'll use the extras to piece it all together. I'll post more pictures of the finished quilt. I think it's coming together beautifully...just like Sam!
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