Fly With Me

As Frank Sinatra would serenade, "Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away." My brother as a little boy dreamed of being a pilot. When he was 16 years old he became a private pilot. His pride and joy is a yellow Citabria. Whenever he has taken me flying I sing Frank Sinatra's floating song. My brother is the best pilot in the world.  For his birthday I demised an almost perfect replica of his sweet little baby ;) 

Blue 4 yards flannel

White 2 1/2 yards flannel

Brown 2 yards flannel

Yellow 2 yards flannel

Black 1/4 yard flannel

Ocean blue propeller 1/2 yard cotton

Propeller checker 1/4 yard cotton

Blue yarn

Yellow yarn

White yarn

Quilt batting queen

Backing  8 yards

Cut the blue 4 yards in half and sew to create a square.

Cut the white and brown in 6 inch strips. Sew the white strips to the top and bottom of the blue square first and then the sides. 

Sew the brown strips to the white. Top and bottom first and then sides. 

I created the airplane structure with taping 8x10 paper and cutting out the design desired. 

Use the pattern created to pin to the fabric and cut the material. 

To sew the design on the quilt I should have used an iron on applique, however I used safety pins and sewing pins galore. I am surprised I did not bleed once from the many pin pricks. ;)

I sewed a straight stitch and covered the edges with a close zig zag stitch so the edges would not fray. 

I rolled the quilt to easily maneuver and shift the quilt. 

I tired a new method, instead of cutting strips and binding, I used the receiving blanket tactic where you flip the right side out. Lay the top face down, lay quilting batting over, hand sew edges together. Lay the backing and top quilt to face each other.  Sew the edges together starting in the middle of one of the sides. Continue sewing until you have reached the side you started. Stop sewing about 18 inches from where you started. This will create a hole where you will pull the quilt right side out. I do not have a quilting frame instead I used pins again to keep the quilt together while I tied with yarn. I tied the clouds, the yellow on the plane, and as you can see the blue.  

After tying the quilt, I pined around the edges and sewed three sections, closing the hole that was created to pull the quilt inside out.

I sewed three sections to give a border. The backing was a map design with pine trees and deer. My brother has always loved the outdoors and adventures. 

Complete and finished to be snuggled in.