Babies & Barbed Wire.

Baby quilts are always fun to do.  Here are 3 recent customer quilts.

Fun prints, fun colors, fun design!

Cotton top and Minky back.

Close up of freehand quilting design.

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Cute Western print fabrics.  Dang!  I was wishing I had a couple of  "Cowboy" pantograph patterns after receiving this quilt top, hmm....  I wanted horses, hats, boots, cows, cacti, etc.  I stared at this for a while and looked at the details in the prints for inspiration.  Hmm . . . there in the yellow . . . was that . . . . ?  Yes!  Barbed wire.  Eureka!!

Now, for most of you, seeing barbed wire in a piece of fabric might not stimulate the creative juices, but for me it was the deciding factor in this quilt.  I knew that this quilt was for a new baby boy born into ranching.

Yellow barbed wire print with my "barbed wire" quilting.

Minky back with strands of "barb wire."

The whole pasture full of barbed wire with a lasso around the perimeter.

I have a small collection of Barbed Wire and I quilted my interpretation of what is called Burnell Four Point: Two twisted-strand wire with four-point barb. Patented June 19, 1877 by Arthur S. Burnell of Marshalltown, Iowa.

History of Barbed Wire

My collection is mostly from around my childhood home: a 3rd generation ranch where my great-grand parents settled.  There are a couple of pieces from 2 other local areas, but all of it came from within 75 miles of where I grew up in Southern Idaho.

Here is the Burnell Four Point in the center.

I started this collection when I was in high school.  Who knew that 40 years later I would be "quilting" barbed wire.  Just goes to show you that life sure is interesting!

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Then came another Western fabric quilt top: one big log cabin design with horses, hoseshoes, hats, boots and stars.  Dang! I was wishing I had a couple of "Cowboy" pantographs after receiving this quilt top.  Hey, didn't I already say that?  When will I learn!  This quilt was needed quickly, so I didn't have time to order patterns and wait for delivery.  I played up the star prints in the fabrics and went with an all over star. 

 Cotton top and Minky back . . .  so cuddly. 

I would guess that 95% of the baby quilts customers bring to me are backed with Minky. There are times I want to curl up in a finished quilt, they are very inviting!

Oh, by the way, I ordered my "cowboy" patterns and I will be ready for the next western fabric quilt.  But you know, real creativity begins when we are challenged to stretch our minds.  As my 7 year old grand-daughter told me, "Grandma, you have to learn to think outside the box!"  Yee Haw!