Recently in Personalized Quilts Category

I have a soft spot for owls - all birds, really - so this custom quilt was quick to catch my eye.

Katie's Chi Omega custom quilt has charming custom owls reflecting the personality of sorority members. What a great way to celebrate a sisterhood!

This charming custom quilt was featured at Piece and Plenty Quilt Guild's October 2011 quilt show in Rolla, Missouri.

Actually this custom quilt was made by Bobbie Wedge, who I've associated with quilts almost ever since I met her!

One of the things I like most about this custom quilt is that it was on her "to do" list for many years - how many of us have our lists??

And yet here the custom quilt is, finally finished - hand appliqued, which is almost a lost art form.

I feel inspired to finish projects on my to do list every time I see this custom quilt!

What a lovely idea to make a custom quilt for someone for their anniversary!

Even though I make and design custom quilts myself, I'm always interested in seeing what other wonderful quilters are doing - and knowing Lois Marler only made this custom anniversary quilt even that more special!

This lovely floral custom quilt was another entry in Piece and Plenty Quilt Guild's October 2011 quilt show.

Over the year  we've made hundreds of custom quilts for school fundraisers and this year was no exception.

What made this fall's 2011 school auction season special was that I got to make a custom quilt and custom throw pillows for my brother, Dr. Stephen Ekker, who founded InSciEdOut, a wonderful science-based curriculum to help kids, and teachers, get excited and engaged learning math and science.

Now Stevie - well, Dr. Stevie to the rest of you, will be the first to say he didn't do this alone. It took a  great group of educators, scientists, teachers and parents  who quickly saw the vision and pitched in.

Two years ago, I was privileged to be in Rochester, Minnesota when they were having one of their summer camps on Mayo Clinic's campus. It was exciting to see kids, teachers, parents and scientists getting excited about what they were seeing, and learning.

As part of Lincoln Choice K-8's annual fundraising auction Saturday October 29, 2011 in Rochester, Minnesota, participants will have a chance to bid on three of my "have fish, will travel" custom InSciEdOut throw pillows - I think during the silent auction.

The custom throw pillows feature a storage pocket in the back, a handle on top and for a little bit of whimsy, a little fish tail off the printed InSciEdOut logo on the front.

The custom pillows are washable in cold water and have a removable pillow insert.

The silent auction starts at 11:30 am and closes at 12:30-1:20 pm.

According to the auction information, rooms will be closed one at a time so that you will have a chance to bid on as many items in different rooms as you would like.

The live auction will start at 2 pm and will feature a 92x102-inch, custom queen size photo quilt featuring some of InSciEdOut's adventures this past year.

Besides presenting at a National Science Fair in Washington, DC, students and InSciEdOut staff paid a visit to the White House where President Obama literally popped in while they were having cheeseburgers.

The custom quilt features InSciEdOut's logo embroidered in the center surrounded by favorite photos.

I also used 100% sustainable, renewable bamboo fill, which feels very much like cotton but is easier to harvest.

The custom InSciEdOut auction quilt is finished with machine quilting and can be easily washed in cold water.

Lincoln Choice K-8's fundraising auction will be held in the gym and items will be on display in the stage area.

To be able to bid, you'll need to register and get a bidding number at the "bank" located in the library at the front of Lincoln Choice K-8 School.

Good luck!

There's a lot in a name, especially if it's embroidered and added to a gift.

Even after 13 years of running a custom gift business, I'm periodically surprised at how adding a name to a quilt and gift can make a gift that much more special.

Making special personal gifts is the foundation of Bluebird Gardens.

The concept has evolved over the years to include personalized baby quilts, such as Applique ABCs Baby Quilt (left) and New Noah's Ark Baby Quilt (right)  including monogramming ready made and custom baby quilts, as well as making personal matching gift tags for easy inclusion in baby scrapbooks.

This spring, we've also seen an increase in Bluebird Gardens customer requests for our embroidered patches services, a reflection, one customer said, of the down economy.

Adding embroidered patches can be a great inexpensive way to personalize quilts.

After giving one of our personalized baby quilts as a baby shower gift last year,  Sarah said her family went "wild with the idea" of having the baby's name, birth date and other information on their baby quilts.

Sarah said now "the pressure's on"  to personalize all her future baby quilts!

No pressure, Sarah.

Our embroidered patches can be made in a variety of sizes, font styles and colors, and come with an embroidered stitched border to make it easier to applique, or sew them, on a quilt.

Embroidered patches can be sewn either on the front, or back.

Although it may be tempting to put embroidered patches on front,  consider the request of a 7-yr old customer who asked me to change the location of an embroidered patch  last year so he could pull up the quilt and look at his name on the back before he went to sleep at night.

Yes, it's ALL in the name...

Happy dreams, Harold!



Charlotte

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Every once in awhile, a Bluebird Gardens customer makes a mistake with their personalized embroidery order when they're making a personalized quilt into a personalized gift.

Shirley - we're not giving her last name to protect the guilty - ordered a personalized double wedding ring throw as a wedding anniversary gift early December.

We shipped the quilt to her and shortly after Christmas, got the following email:

"I've made a big mistake.

Didn't realize until my husband went up to put it up that the anniversary date is July 20, 1989 instead of July 30, 1989.

Can you make another one...My husband will never let me forget this mistake.

PS Do you have discounts for redo for dummies?"

Luckily for Shirley, once she shipped the quilt back to us we were able to take out the 3 and substitute a 2 so all she paid was a minimal embroidery fee and shipping.

We can't always easily fix a personalized embroidery mistake but, considering the grief Shirley was probably getting from her husband, we were glad we could!

Charlotte

Bluebird Gardens: custom quilts, gifts, gardening
Bluebird Gardens Quilts and Gifts Blog
Bluebird Gardens Quilts and Gifts on Facebook
Bluebird Gardens Etsy Shop
Bluebird Gardens Twitter
Gardening to Distraction on a MO Hill



 

Now that the family has presented this white custom anniversary photo memory quilt to the happy couple, I can show you how well it turned out.

What I love about this white custom photo memory quilt is how much time family members put into making each of their custom photo quilt blocks.

Some of the quilt blocks are collages of photos, which are typical custom photo memory quilt blocks.

The ones that caught my attention were the custom photo quilt blocks family members made in a scrapbook style, including photos, original artwork and the name of the child featured in the block.

Several custom quilt blocks featured baby photos next to a footprint or hand print.

The custom photo quilt blocks with a baby picture, then a high school picture were also fun to see. You get a sense of the child's personality and interests looking at those custom photo blocks, making this custom photo memory quilt even more special.

I often tell customers they have the hardest job designing a custom photo quilt. They are the ones who have to go through all those family photos and decide which ones to include, and not include, in a custom photo memory quilt.