So this year I made sure to make quilts for my kids for Christmas. Not only did I make them quilts, I made them in secret and totally surprised my 3 children. Very rarely am I able to pull off a surprise, so I was pretty excited about this. It was the best part of Christmas for me. All 3 quilts have super soft Minky as a backing. I LOVE Minky and I will be making myself a quilt with Minky sometime this year. They quilted so well, and are insanely soft….to quote my son "this quilt feels like it was made of clouds"
This first quilt was for my middle son. He almost ruined the surprise by finding my hidden stash of minky fabric. I bought enough at Quilters Quarters (when I worked there) at their super sale to back 3 quilts. And I thought I was so smart hiding it in plain sight. Well…he found it and pulled it out and draped it all over himself declaring his wonder that such a fabric existed. I wished I would have made a movie of it, because it would make every mom and grandma on the planet want to make quilts with Minky fabric. The top was a spare I made while trying to remember the measurements for the "Meet Me at the Crossroads" quilt pattern that I wrote for
Fons and Porter Easy Quilts. It looks a bit masculine, and was the right size so it become Ethan's quilt. The back was all that mattered anyway!
The second quilt I did for my daughter. The top was one I made up while trying to write a quilt pattern for Whindam fabric. Most of the color prints on this quilt are lovely Kaffe Fassett prints. This was a stupidly easy quilt and I do hope you see the pattern again soon! wink wink. Anyway it was selected because it was about the right size. I say about because I was hustling along and didn't notice until the last row that the back wasn't going to be big enough. Whoops. Well, no drama. I finished quilting what I could and took the quilt off the frame and added another piece of Minky to make the back long enough. Then I finished the quilting on my Bernina. No worries at all!
The back of this quilt was a
Minky type called rose swirl. it feels like you are petting feathers or rose petals. The softness is almost indescribable. It was the most popular quilt at Christmas. Emma had to fight to get her quilt. Her Uncle, Grandpa and Dad kept wrapping up in it. Not together mind you. That would be strange. Now, I did have some drama with the fluffy Minky poking through to the front. Emma doesn't care, but that might be important to you. Don't back an Heirloom with Minky Rosebud.
Emma picked out this fabric when she came to work with me in November. Quilters Quarters was having a wild sale (buy 9 yards of fabric and get 8 free) It was a mad house and the shop girls and I cut fabric until our arms were numb. My sweet Emma came to help put bolts back on the shelves. She was so funny! And she worked so hard. She found this red rosebud Minky over in a corner (I had no idea we even had any of the fabric in the store) and she drug it over behind my battle station. Like a lioness with a wounded antelope. She said "I want some of that!" so how could I say no?
And this quilt I stayed up until 0200 the night before we left for North Carolina to finish for my sweet little guy. He was the only one to go into Hancocks of Paducah with me when we stopped there over Spring break. He fell in love with this Viking fabric. He would drag it out off and on over the 6 months I had it asking me when I was going to make him a quilt. We sat down and he sketched out his plan…some were stranger and much harder than others. In the end this is what I came up with.
The best thing about this one besides the total shock on Sam's face was the quilting. I quilted it with dragons! What???? Yep Dragons. My Statler Stitcher really does have every design known to man.
Twirling Dragons and Vikings. It there any better combination for my Sam? Nope I don't think so.
So, what do I want you to take away from this post? Minky fabric is awesome! I wouldn't use it for a magnum opus, but for a quilt you plan to wrap up in and wash a zillion times YES!!!! The children in your like will LOVE them. And so will you…so make several.
** I am not paid by anyone to sing the praises of Minky. I just dig it.
*** I did quilt a quilt with something called cuddle. it was bought at Joannes or Hobby lobby and it was a stretchy disaster. It was fluffy on both sides. Be aware to buy a couple inches extra so the stretch factor can be dealt with. Personally I think it was cut wonky.
Have a great day and happy quilting folks!
xo
Tia
