Bow-Tie Block - A Baby Quilt

Not just another baby quilt. This one is for a BOY,  and I'm not related to him. 

He belongs to a couple from church and when they told me they were expecting 

of course I jumped at another chance to make a baby-sized quilt.

This quilt is also special because I didn't use quilting cottons. 

The fabrics for this quilt are entirely 100% cotton shirts that I thrifted and washed and sliced up. 

There are lots of progress pics on my instagram so I'm just posting the finished photos on the blog.

I also designed this quilt myself. Winging it means I designed it right?

I got the idea after seeing this Quilty; This Is My Quilt episode on Youtube a long time ago and have been waiting for an opportunity to co-opt the idea of using recycled cotton shirts. Baby quilts are the perfect size to experiment with new ideas. Instead of copying the inspiration quilt's design, I used a basic bow-tie block and arranged them in an "X's and O's" design. I had enough fabric left over to piece a patchwork backing (and plenty more fabric for another scrappier quilt!)

I hand quilted this one using the big stitch quilting technique and DMC perl cotton thread.

I love it! 

Flying Geese - Cotton and Steel - A Friendship Quilt

This quilt was made for a friend this past winter/spring. 

She was furnishing a new apartment and I know a good excuse when I see one.  

Sofa sized.

The fabric is from a kit I bought on craftsy, although the pattern can be acquired for free on the Cotton and Steel website. 

The original layout

I changed the design a lot because with the limited palette I thought the design was a bit boring.

I'm starting to see that I like the limitations of a kit but like to change up the design.

I am very proud of my points. 

The obligatory wrap myself in awesomeness 

Quilted as usual by the lovely Linda Lovett. 

More pictures on her blog. 

Wee Wander Disappearing Nine Patch - A Baby Quilt

Another one of my cousins had a baby! Last fall. Oops. Bad blogger.

In my defense, I sent this quilt to them right about exactly the time the lovely Lena made her entrance into the world. I just haven't had the blogging mojo to brag about it.

Anyhoo. This is the quilt.

Hubs makes an adorable model. 

The Back

I had to give up on the idea of there being a "right side up", although this is technically sideways.

Focus! The label says "stitched with love" and was given to me by my friend who eventually got her own quilt

These are the details:

Pattern: Disappearing Nine Patch; some variation I made up after a bit of googling. I'm sure I got the idea from one of the Missouri Star Quilt Company YouTube videos.

Fabric: Wee Wanderer Twilight Palette by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller. It was a fat quarter bundle and I got some extra yardage from City Quilter. I also used some scraps from Ali's quilt on the back. 

Quilting: I love this pantograph! It's called Spiral Braid and was quilted by the lovely and wonderful Linda Lovett who has more photos on her blog of the quilting process. Linda is fantastic to work with; I highly recommend her. 

A Bright and Rosy Baby Quilt

I'm usually a selfish seamstress, but I think I might be a generous quilter.

This cheerful quilt was just mailed off to it's new home and should arrive the day before this post goes up.

Not the final label

As soon as I heard that my cousin and his wife are expecting their first child (a girl!) I knew I had to make them a baby quilt. I had 2 charm packs of Heather Ross' Briar Rose in my stash just waiting for a baby to pop up on the horizon. I couldn't be more thrilled at this chance to use this sweet fabric.

Even though I don't have space for a design wall there was a placement plan for the pinwheel blocks, at first.

After much obsessing, the colors were evenly dispersed and there were no same fabrics in too close proximity. That all went to heck the first row stitched together. I futzed with every row thereafter in reaction to the chaos, and eventually accepted that I really had no control over the outcome. 

Luckily, it turned out darling, and even thought there is an area that swings more concentrated a white contrast, I am pleased with the overall movement and color placement. This is a happy quilt.

I hand stitched all the quilting lines with 2 strands of variegated DMC embroidery floss. It was what I had lying around and I was happy to use stash materials. The colors are not consistent across the entire quilt, but they are all complementary to the color scheme.

Congratulations Nate and Amanda!

An Anniversary Quilt

Once upon a time my Hetero-Life-Mate (awesome roommate) told me about a handmade quilt that had sadly been lost to her through circumstance. Understanding the importance of a cherished quilt, I was sympathetic and filed away in my brain the knowledge that she was definitely "quilt-worthy". 

Fast forward to last year; my HLM and her fiance got married in Asheville (I was a bridesmaid!)  At the time, I didn't have a wedding gift ready for them because, well, I suck at gift giving and hadn't found anything that felt meaningful, or special, or fun enough and I was way pressed for time. 

After the weddings, I had a lot of fun working on the pinwheel quilt and quickly realized that I wanted to make them a quilt too. I could easily picture either of them snuggled up on the sofa with a kitty or two under a colorful quilt, or spread out under a shady tree reading. 

Committed to the idea, then came the question of design/fabric. I knew the quilt should be colorful and bright and beautiful... something that reflected my friend's personality and our friendship.  Eventually, I settled on a mystery quilt kit from Craftsy.com called Blooming Garden for Amy Butler's new egypt inspired fabric line.  The pattern design went together very easily and in spite of a few hiccups, the quilt top was done very quickly.

Now, I'm a bit of a quilting newb, but this quilt had to be special, so I decided that having it professionally long-armed was going to be the best choice for finishing. After googling "long arm quilting service" I found Linda Lovett's fantastic website.  She uses state of the art technology with her quilting machine, blogs the progress of each quilt, and is also located in the same state my friends were married.  I sent her some photos of the finished top and we traded emails, chatted on the phone, and within a few days I sent the top and the pieced backing to her. 

via Linda Lovett

Apparently I did a good job prepping the top and Linda's generously sent my quilt to the top of her queue. (Thank you Linda for helping to make this gift extra special!)

The pantograph I chose is a feather pattern that I felt complimented the grey sparrow backing fabric and has nice movement. In less than a week the quilt sandwich was on its way back to me for the binding.

via Linda Lovett

Back in my hands, I quickly trimmed the quilt sandwich and stitched on the binding. Then I hand stitched the binding closed on the back side and made a label to sew on. 

I love my labels. I also love not doing my homework in favor of hand binding quilts.

And here she is.

It's the biggest quilt I've made thus far!

***Shortly after starting this project I got the terrible news that my friend's beloved dad passed away very unexpectedly. It's a strange and terrible feeling to know someone you love is suffering a profound loss and there is nothing you can say or do to lessen their sadness.  All I could do was try to get the quilt done as soon as possible and send it to her. ***

****HUGS****.

Even though I raced to finish the quilt as fast as possible, I enjoyed the process and am extremely proud of the results. While working on it I took the opportunity to meditate on friendship and family. I think this quilt is beautiful and a worthy gift for my dear friend and her true life-mate. I'm happy to finally send it to them and I hope they enjoy it for many years,

Want to see more pictures?

PS. All the finished pics were taken by my buddy Sara!

Pinspiration; a Pinwheel Quilt

I should totally being doing my homework right now, but I'd rather share my latest FO.

So, sometime last summer I decided I needed a sewing project that would be the opposite of the wedding dress project. Something using 100% cotton, straight lines only, no fitting issues. A nice, pleasant project... I decided to make a quilt.

I took to pinterest with vigor and was taken by this simple charmer:

There was no link with the picture so I just used it as inspiration.

I bought a couple of charm-packs (2wenty Thr3e by Julie Comstock for Moda Fabrics) and got to work. 

I finished the top last fall and then put it away while school and work took over. 

Recently, I've become more interested in quilt making and with more quilts planned I decided to get this one finished in whatever stolen moments I could find. Here is the result:

The inspiration quilt placed the blocks "on-point" but mine are square 

and I left off the outer borders. A nice little lap quilt meant for snuggling up on the sofa under, or draping over your shoulders for a photo shoot. I'm hoping this quilt sees lots of picnics and beaches.

The backing fabric is from a different line that I picked out at The City Quilter on the day that I tested out Bernina Sewing Computers. I ended up buying a Bernina 350 PE and I'm totally in love with the free hand system and the patchwork foot. I see a lot more top sewing in my future, but I digress. 

The batting is 100% cotton and I machine quilted it with my Bernina walking foot which has a handy ditch stitch foot that I used in the ditches of the squares, block seams and diagonals. Quilting was kind of a pain so I think I'll send my next quilt out to be long-armed (but where?) instead. If I had more time I would totally hand quilt my next one, but I'm anxious to have that one finished for a variety of reasons so I think it's a job for the professionals. 

The binding is one of the other fabrics in the line; it's grey with white vintage cameras. I hand stitched the back of the binding to the quilt. The handmade label is a stamp I got at Michaels. 

It's definitely a charming quilt and I am quite pleased with myself. 

I'm certain there will be another quilt finished in my near future, but for now... homework.