a quilt for snuggles

Considering the fact that I only made half a dozen quilts last year, I am as surprised as anyone that I am here now to share my first quilt finish of the year before January is even over! I am pretty impressed myself and I am hoping it is the beginning of a good year of makes.

I have had this quilt on my list ever since it was published. I mean, I went over a year ago when it came out and bought the magazine just for this quilt, and it just sat at the bottom of the list. Then weeks ago, as I was sitting down freezing my butt off, I kept thinking how much I needed to make myself a quilt with a nice, warm, snuggly back. This quilt immediately popped into my head and I could not rest until I got to work.

It was back in December I made the first block, and had decided to go with a scrappy black background. I went out and got some more black and then holidays and travel happened so it sat. When I came back to it I realized that I definitely did not have enough black for all the blocks (even only doing 12 instead of all 20) and since I didn't feel like buying more, I did what I do best and made it work. Somehow I got it into my head to do sort of a gradient background of black, dark gray, light gray, and white. It was not an exact science and I am not entirely sure it worked right, but I love it anyway. I was happy to be able to use a fair number of scraps for this one, so that was good. These blocks are no joke though. So.many.pieces! I even went with the strip piecing instructions and it was still nuts! I was not sad to finish these blocks, that's for sure. The quilt ended up being roughly 57" x 75" I think although I forgot to measure after quilting/washing and I am certainly not climbing out from under it now to check :)

The back ended up being some perfect fleece that I have been saving for years. I think it was part of one of those tie blanket kits that I got super cheap intending to make something else with it, but there it was and oh so perfect! I had to do a strip of the coordinating teal along the bottom to make it long enough. I decided to go ahead and still put batting in, partly to make it warmer and partly so you couldn't see the black through the lighter fabrics. It is so thick and soft! I quilted it following the chains through the quilt and then went back and did another double set of lines halfway(ish) between those. I love it and it went surprisingly well. After I quilted, trimmed and rounded the corners (I don't know why I was so set on doing that but I am certain it was the right decision), I serged the entire edge to keep it nice and flat for binding and it helped so.much. I went with solid blue for the binding because for some reason that was stuck in my head. Since I am not totally crazy, I did decide to machine bind this time since, let's be real, I had no desire to hand sew through the fleece.

The point is, I love this quilt and it is already hanging out on my bed, keeping me warm while I snuggle and watch movies and read and knit. Good stuff. It really is quite a bit warmer with the fleece, and I am very very pleased. I am also pretty thrilled that I got it done so quickly; it just feels like a good start to the year. Of course, I am not entirely sure what I am going to tackle next.....clothes? another quilt? scrapbooks? any number of other things on the list? Oh the difficult decisions in life haha!

I-spy a finished quilt!

Holy crap, it's December already! Perhaps it goes without saying, but it's crunch time. While I have not made it to this space much recently (trying to cut back on the computer time a bit) I have been sewing up a storm! I have made some really good progress that I am looking forward to sharing, and I am going to start with a finished, and gifted, quilt!

I have already mentioned this one a couple of times as I was working on it, but I have finished the i-spy economy block quilt for the preschool teacher and it has been given, and I believe already used for a picnic :)

Despite many many problems along the way, this turned out well. I am glad it won't be living at my house where I can see the mistakes every time I look at it, but it is somewhere that it will be super used and loved. I let the little one help me with laying out the blocks and she did a great job. She has such a good eye and it is so much fun seeing her carefully consider and then choose her combinations, even if it does test my inner control freak a little bit. The teacher was so impressed when I told her that I didn't do any of the color combinations.

I backed it with a polyester microfiber sheet from target, and while it is so cute, it was not worth the hassle. I think I have only really had problems with puckers on the back when using a polyester sheet, so I think I am done going down that road.  The quilting is organic wavy lines across, since I figured that would be pretty secure for a bunch of preschoolers, and the binding is scraps that I had laying around. It feels good to have made a quilt. I won't tell you how many more I'd like to make....but there's a new year coming and it is filled with possibility!

Still to come, a bunch of clothes for me, a holiday dress for the little, and a duffle bag for our travels, and then maybe it will be time to share some gifts. Our holiday journey begins on the 18th so I am feeling pretty pressed for time since I essentially lose a week. And hopefully in that time I will start my sweater so I can work on it while we are gone if I feel so inclined. With any luck, I will be back soon to share some of those other makes!

a very important first

Today, I am pleased to show you my little girls first quilt! Every once in a while, she has been asking if she could sew with me and help make something. She's 4 now and I thought she could handle it, so we set about making a small quilt together. It really is small, just baby size really, but she helped do so much of it!

It started with a charm pack of constellations that I got at sew south and have been saving. I knew I wanted to use it for a small quilt, I just needed a pattern that wouldn't need much more. Enter the modern disappearing 9 patch quilt. I actually had a couple of options for her to choose from and that is what she picked, so we used the charm pack plus a few extras, and some gray that I had enough of. I let her lay out all the 9 patches and help sew them together (sitting on my lap guiding them though) and then she did the layout of blocks after that. I did the cutting and ironing, but she picked out the back (a soft, light lawn fabric from my grandmother), helped baste, helped decide on quilting and then quilt it, pick binding, and sew the binding on. As a side note, it was a little hard for my inner control freak not to move things around or suggest alternates, but I am glad I managed it and let this design be hers.

It was actually a pretty long process since she got bored pretty easily so it sat around a lot between steps, but she is so proud and happy to have this little quilt to play with. At this point, I try to let her help when I can and she is interested and we will probably consider getting her a small machine in the fairly near future if she wants one. We'll see. In any case, happy weekend everyone!

cat love

Do you ever get an idea, and it seems like it should be so simple, and then you try to make it work and it is anything but simple? Because that is the story of this quilt. You see, I found out recently that a dear friend from high school is having a baby boy in a couple of months. I decided ages ago that I would make her a cat quilt at the first opportunity, and this happened to be it.

Now, there are tons of great cat blocks out there, really there are, it's just that I had my mind set on using a Florence layer cake that I have been saving for just the right thing. So basically I wanted a cat block that would use 2- 10" squares, one for the cat and one for the background, and would end up 10". Apparently that is no easy task and I am not kidding when I say that I had one piece that was 1.5"x2.5" left of each background, but I made it work! It took quite a long time to come up with something I was happy with, and a couple of test blocks, but here we are.

 

The binding is stars and it is backed in some delightfully soft minky. I quilted it with some random grid design. I stinking love this quilt. It will be a tough one to send away, but I know that it will be loved. Now I just have to make some other cute little things to go with it! Right after I finish about 10000 other things ha! I am hopeful that I will be back with some other sweet finishes later this week :)

cascade in rainbow

Sometimes, it's the little things that make you realize how fast life is racing by. Sure, I am aware that my baby turns 1 in a week and that I have a kid starting preschool in a couple of weeks, but really it's when I look at a finished quilt that I feel like I just started a couple weeks ago and realize that it was started 2.5 months ago! How did that happen?? How did I let it sit around in my way for so long??  One of life's mysteries I suppose, but in any case, my cascade quilt, started so long ago, is finally finished!

I actually pieced this in a weekend and, get this, I even knew how I was going to quilt it, but I really really didn't feel like piecing a back. So I put it off, for quite a while it seems. Finally, I sucked it up and put something together. I don't really love piecing quilt backs, I much prefer if at least most of it is one piece, but I didn't have anything that would work for this. So I grabbed and shuffled things around and made it work. I am glad that it gave home to so many fabrics I've had sitting around for such a long time. I started with the rainbow stripe from ikea and went from there. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out in the end.

This quilting is something I've wanted to try for a while. I'm not so good at it, but it was kind of fun and I like the result which must be all that matters. The binding is a combination of pac man fabric and crosshatch.

In conclusion, I am glad this is done. I now need to figure out whether it is going to a new home or staying with me. I guess we'll see. This week I am hoping to really get going on a bunch of gifty things since quite frankly, I am running out of time. But really, all I want to do is knit! My sweater is coming together quite nicely and almost looks kind of like a sweater! Maybe I can use that as a reward for getting other things done.....I'll have to try that!

the end of the pony club

I don't know if it is with great sadness or relief that I write this, the final post in the journey of my pony club quilt. Maybe both? Either way, the journey has come to an end. I know that I mentioned before that this has been a bit of a roller coaster, a lot of love-hate going on, but I am happy to say that I am absolutely in love with this finished quilt!

I started this almost a year and a half ago, and took a long break from it last year. This year I decided it was time to finish it up and I had a great time doing it. 89 blocks from the book plus my one addition, mostly scraps for the blocks. The cornerstones are sketch in mist, and it is sashed and bordered in interweave chambray, which I have to say, turned out to be the perfect choice. It has more depth then a plain gray but was easier to work with then a linen, I thought. I had wanted to use a peppered cotton, which would admittedly have been softer, but this one was just the *perfect* shade of gray. I was worried that the blocks wouldn't have enough breathing room with the tiny sashing (it only finishes at 1" wide) but it seems I needn't have worried.

It is backed in a lovely, soft Joel Dewberry voile and, in a strange move for me, bound in that same chambray. I don't know if I have ever bound something to match the border, but I think it was the absolute right decision for this quilt. It felt like it took ages to bind this thing, probably because of the weight difference between the voile and the chambray, but it worked out in the end.

It took me a long time to decide on quilting. Part of me really wanted a nice allover design, like baptist fans or something, but I just don't have the skills yet to pull that off and I knew I would just get frustrated and feel like I ruined my quilt, so it had to be straight lines. I thought about just staying in the sashing, but I really wanted to secure the blocks themselves a bit, so diagonal lines seemed a good answer. I knew I wouldn't like just an X through each block, but when I thought of doing a double X, hitting on either side of the cornerstones, I fell in love. I really think that makes this quilt for me. It is still light as far as quilting goes, but it also feels secure and doesn't detract from any of the blocks. I actually used masking tape to mark each diagonal and then figure out where to line up my walking foot so that it would hit where I needed it to.

It came out a smaller queen size and is already happily residing on my bed. I think before I washed it, it was about 84"x93" so there is not a huge amount of overhang on the sides, but I think it will work perfectly just the same. Once I get my double wedding ring quilt done for the bed, this one will probably move to the couch, but I am totally okay with that. I am beginning to think that in order to have a quilt on my favorites list, all I have to do is back it in voile, so I'll have to remember that!  This quilt was a long time coming, but I have to say that it was worth the wait!

Penny Sampler: the finale

I finally did it. I finally sat down and finished up my penny sampler quilt. I don't know why I kept putting it off. The top has been done since November and I have had the backing since before the holidays. I really have no excuse, but I do think I fell a bit out of love with it once it was done. Somehow it is much brighter than I imagined and while I like it, I am just not as in love with the whole as I was with the individual blocks.

Anyway, you may {vaguely} remember that this was a class that Rachel at Stitched in Color held. It started in August and finished up in November, doing a few blocks per week. Considering I had a baby days before it started, I kept up surprisingly well. It was easy to just do a few blocks and kept me at least sewing something.

I had this grand idea that I was going to quilt the dogwood pattern on this quilt, but I think that was another reason I kept putting it off. It would have looked awesome, but on a quilt this size, it just felt like it would take forever. And I'm just going to be honest here, I stink at free motion quilting. I am working on it and I will keep working on it, but I just suspect this is something I will never be very good at. I am not a good doodler either and I suspect this might be related. I ended up with some nice...what would you call them...loops? And as easy a pattern as it is, it has an awful lot of mistakes and....sad loops. It was also really difficult to quilt over some of the thicker applique, and there are more than a few puckers if you inspect it closely. Still, it is a nice overall pattern and it turned out pretty well.

The back is a dottie quilt backing in tonal steel which I love a little. The binding is mostly gray with dots (I totally forget what it is right now but I think it's from bella) with a splash of pink in the corner which I would love to call intentional but I was actually just short that much ha.

So there it is. And now that it is finished I do love it. And I will be perfectly happy snuggling under it...if someone else doesn't claim it as their own first :) Woohoo for finished quilts! In other news, if my blocking attempt goes well, I will be returning soon with my finished shawl!

A wedding quilt

I am finally going to share this wedding quilt that I made a couple weeks ago. It is simple, came together quickly, and I might as well tell you, I barely got any pictures of it before I wrapped it up and sent it off. Hopefully it has arrived already at it's new home.

This was one of those things where it was hard to figure out what kind of quilt this couple might like. I don't know them very well; in fact one is my husband's cousin who lives across the country and I've met a couple times and the other I have never met. Still, I went off the impression I got and decided that low key and not so 'quilty' was the way to go. I ended up with this large gingham pattern made from 3 kona solids: charcoal, ash, and white. I saw it initially here and it was easy enough to figure out. I went with 5" squares to start with and the quilt finishes somewhere around 63x72 which should be perfect for snuggles. I backed it with a really cute little farm flannel that I found and bound it in kona curry.  These are the few pictures I snapped on my way to wash it and sadly that is all I got.

I am so in love with how this came out, it was hard to send it away. I really hope they like it and will get a lot of use out of it. Sometimes it is so hard to give a quilty gift!

the final quilt finish of 2013

Ya know, at some point you just have such a pile of stuff that you don't know where to start. It seems impossible to get going and figure out what to do, but eventually you just pick a place and start. (or in my recent life, you pick 3 places and start ha!). I have been all over the place this week but I have a quilt top finished, a big pile of fabric for an overly ambitious project, and some templates cut. It is probably the first time I have had so many things going at once and at this particular moment in time, it suits me. I like being able to pick and choose what I am in the mood for, which seems to be changing by the minute. I have a feeling this is going to be the year of the never ending projects. There are just too many big, long term things going on. Or almost going on I guess.

I also had to just pick a place to start sharing my recent makes and decided that my most recent quilt finish was the way to go. I am happy to say that the quilt I made for my neighbor is all finished and gifted; I even managed to eek out two pillow shams as well to complete the ensemble! Does anyone remember this stack of fabric? I am ashamed to say I have had this stack of fabric sitting and waiting since the very beginning of May.

It is an original design. She told me she wanted it to look random but structured so I sat down with my graph paper and came up with this using a 3" grid.

I went back and forth for a while on whether to get rid of the y-seams since there are quite a few, but in the end I decided that changing that would ultimately hurt the design and the beautiful random simplicity. They really weren't that bad to sew either! I was pleasantly surprised. And once I got down to it, I think it only took me two days from cutting the fabric to a basted queen sized quilt.

I used a sheet that I found on clearance at Kohl's for the back and stuck in a random strip of leftovers to make it big enough and I love it. I quilted it in organic straight lines and bound it in kona sand I think. Or was it stone? I don't know, but it was a nice neutral solid that frames it nicely.

I was cutting it pretty close on the pillow shams and almost didn't have enough fabric. In the end, I made it work and went with a quilted front and bound edges and a nice envelope back. It gets awfully hard to wing it and make it look intentional in situations like this where you have so little to work with. I would say that if I added up all that I have left it would be less than a fat quarter from like 23 cuts of fabric and a twin sheet set.

I'll be honest, this is so far from a style that I usually work in, I am almost surprised how much I have ended up loving it. Probably because it is just so very 'them' and it looks exactly like what she wanted. It was gifted this past weekend and received with excitement and love. Within an hour of their departure I got this picture of it all settled on their bed :)

So there. Now I've chosen my place and begun. Theoretically it will now be easier to continue which means I plan to be back with more soon!

Finished: Dogwood Blossom

Don't die of shock or anything, but I actually did finish two quilts recently and I am posting about them :) I finally gave up waiting for the sun though since, no lie, it has been almost a week without more than a glimpse of the sun, so the pictures are not my favorite, but oh well. I am thinking of sending this off to be loved by a sweet new baby, so I need it taken care of.

This is the dogwood blossom pattern from the penny sampler class. I did already talk about the top what feels like ages ago, but it was my first sketch stitch applique project, using two different methods to turn under the raw edges. I am still not very good at either of them, but I think sketch stitching and I will be good friends.

Anyway, I got it in my head that it needed to be backed in minky, so I found some of that and went to put it together and realized that it was showing through some of the lighter fabrics on the front. So, after much consideration, I decided to just put a layer of white flannel between them. Part of the reason I didn't want batting (aside from how ridiculously thick that would have been) was that I wanted pretty sparse quilting. I only stitched on either side of each seam line, so it is super, super snuggly.

I did zig-zag the edges before I put the binding on to stop the shedding of the fabric and make it easier, which it did. The binding is whatever pink/brown binding scraps I had lying around that I could make work, so it isn't ideal, but I think I like it. It is just lovely now that it is all finished, all soft and wonderful. I kinda want to keep it, but I think it would be much better for a northern baby. Perfect for making a soft place to lay on the floor or snuggling in a stroller I would say. Hopefully I will get it on it's way soon.

In other news, I am caught up on my penny sampler blocks for a few minutes, so I am going to try and get some pictures of those soon as well.

Big girl!

Well would you look at that, I came back as promised to share the big girl quilt! Two posts in one week! And I am aiming for the same next week! I clearly need to lay off the exclamation points haha. Amidst complete diet change (at least for now, hello whole30), visitors, an impending move (just a few streets over, but still), a newborn and a needy toddler, the fun never stops around here. Still, it is good and I am sneaking in my sewing time when I can.

This big girl quilt is definitely the biggest quilt I have made in ages. I kept it simple and it still felt like it took forever. Thankfully I finished it in time for the big girl bed to be up and running as planned. I used almost entirely scraps, which determined the strip sizes I used. All the strips were cut between 2-3.5" and the columns are 12", 18", and 8". I think it finished at something like 70"x85" after washing and everything, which seems to be a pretty good twin size.

I used some of my favorite fabrics and fussy cut a lot of cute ones I had been saving for her. It was so much fun, and it turned out I cut an extra column's worth, so I am planning a baby quilt too. My favorites include the guy in the boat fishing, whales, owls, foxes, deer, birds....okay lots of them!

The back started with the animal print I had been saving. It was actually going to be a duffle bag or something until I realized a white background would be a mistake for something like that. Anyway, I pulled colors to go with it and made it work. I love it, even if it is a little random. It felt great to use up so much that I have had sitting around for ages, waiting for just the right thing.

I quilted just doing organic lines every couple of inches across. It keeps it soft which is perfect. Binding is a pink pindot, chosen by the lady herself. I wasn't sure how it would go, but it's perfect with her bed frame. I did machine sew the binding, because on her last bed quilt it started coming off on the back where I had hand sewn. I don't know if it was me since I has never happened before, or just the roughness of a toddler, but I decided to take no chances on this one. It is not my favorite look, but it will work. I chose to sew it down on the front since I haven't mastered making it invisible/catching it all from the other side.

She has been using her big girl bed for a week now and seems to love it! The blue bed frame that we got off craigs list and painted really makes it, I think. And I love sitting and looking at all the different fabric from so many different projects over the years.

It will look even better once we are away from the green walls I think. Not a color I would have chosen, but ah well. With any luck, I will get some pictures and be able to show you my finished dogwood blossom quilt early next week and maybe finish some panties and catch up on some penny sampler blocks. Dream big! Have a lovely weekend everyone!