Lady B's Quilt

Another finish! I actually got this one done the same weekend as the Dino Quilts, but wanted to wait until the package arrived at Lady B's house. Lady B is the affectionate name the baby's parents have given her while they wait. And because Lady B is taking her time, the quilt arrived before she did (send good thoughts to her momma who is now officially overdue).

The colors were really hard to capture on this one and all of the pictures feel a little off. Trust me that it all worked together! Michael Miller's jewel tones never fail. :)



After seeing this Baby Life Quilt over on Moda Bake Shop, I knew that I wanted to use those words on a baby quilt. Lady B's nursery has a lot of words and phrases so I figured she would be the lucky gal! I appliqued them using the starch method (basically douse the applique pieces with spray starch and use spray baste to temporarily tack it to the background while you machine applique the edge). I LOVED it. The words were easy to applique and the quilt is soft as can be after washing.



The quilting is wavy lines. Two of the squares are horizontal and two are vertical.







I also included a little moleskin notebook for Mom and Dad to record the hilarious things their two and a half year old son is saying these days. I'm sure he'll have lots to say about Lady B. :)



Here's hoping everything goes smoothly with Lady B's entrance into the world. I can't wait to meet her!

Lollypop Wallflowers

Another finish! This time something cheery to keep me smiling through the winter.

A while back, Sparrow requested simple flowers for a quilting bee I was in so I made this block.


I liked it so much, I really wanted to make more. Well, I finally did and made them into wall hangings by putting them over painter's cavases (tutorial here). I found all the fabric in my scrap bin and a lot of it was little bits and pieces left over from quilting bees.
















The flowers are machine appliqued using fusible web and the stems are embroidered with a simple back-stitch.

Now, where to hang them?

Sewing with Glee

Happiness is spending an afternoon having my own Glee marathon and sewing without a pattern.


For Blocks of a Feather, the ever talented Lucinda (aka LucyEllen06) asked for blocks with spikes and/or circles. Here is the first block I came up with and my wheels are still turning for the second block. The spikes are free-pieced and I machine appliqued the circles. It's 12.5" square.


She also asked that we make free-pieced mini versions of our selves for the back of the quilt. This was such a great idea and I had a ton of fun rummaging through my scraps for something I would want to wear. The hair is embroidered with 2 strands or yellow and 2 strands of brown since neither seemed to be an appropriate color. It's a little block, only 6"x7".

Wrapping up June

Where did June go??

Here are the blocks I did for Nannette (aka Nanotchka). For Blocks of a Feather, we do two blocks but have two months to work on them. This time I really dragged my feet because she sent awesome fabric (the Oz line from Momo) and said to do "our specialty."



I didn't really know what my specialty was, but in the end settled on a modern abstract 9 patch and a block with circles since I love them so much.



I'm curious... Is there something that comes to your mind that would be my specialty? Do you have something that might be called your specialty?

Retracing my steps

This month is the last month for Snip.Sew.Send. and Anne (from Film & Thread) asked for blocks of maps or inspired by maps. She sent this fabric to guide the color palette.



I thought it'd be fun for this one to retrace my steps around the country. I grew up in Minnesota and if you follow the arrows around, you can see that I moved to California for college and during college spent time living in New York City and then outside Philadelphia. After returning to California, I moved back to Minnesota and then to upstate New York where I am now.





It's kind of crazy to see where I've lived on a map like this. I hope Anne likes how it came together.



To share a little of the process, here's the map I printed out in order to trace the states and figure out the arrow paths. I machine appliqued the states and then I embroidered the blue outline and the all of the arrows.

May Quilting Bee Round Up

I'm getting caught up. Here are the blocks I made for a couple of wonderful ladies.

First, for Traveling Threads, Sparrow wanted simple lollypop flowers or trees. I absolutely loved doing these. I think they might be my favorite block ever. Wouldn't they make great little wall hangings? Since I made them with fusible web and embellished them with embroidery, they would be easy for me to do in the car on some road trips I have coming up.





Then, for Snip.Sew.Send., Rebecca asked us to make blocks that had a pinwheel in the center of a log cabin. She sent each of us a set of monochromatic prints and I got orange. I'm really looking forward to seeing this one come together since her vision seems like it'll be great!



I'm a person who presses seams open or to the side depending on the project, but I was so glad to have pressed them open on those pinwheels. It took a little more time, but it reduced the bulk so much that it was completely worth it. I just hope Rebecca doesn't mind... isn't it funny the things we worry about when someone else is going to see the back?

I did it!

I actually got some sewing done... hurray! Life has been pretty hectic for me lately so I'm a little late with my March blocks (a first for me), but I also started my April blocks so hopefully it won't happen again.

For Traveling Threads (for March!), Mari (aka midland-design) wanted blocks that remind us of a summer garden so she can have a bright quilt to snuggle under during Norwegian winters. I had a lot of fun doing raw edge applique and embroidery on this one. Aren't the frogs cute?



For snip.sew.send in March, Tina (of Little Blue Cottage) is making a pink quilt for her daughter and wanted a block full of squares. I ran out of fabric to finish the last square, but I figure she probably has more pink at home.


For snip.sew.send for April, Heather (of Quiltin' Like Crazy) sent yellow fabrics with really specific instructions that were easy to follow. An episode of "This American Life" later, I had this block:


I have another block or two I'm hoping to do this weekend and also get caught up on some research related work that I'd really like to finish. Hope you all are having a great weekend... anyone else loving the warm weather???

Zoe's Jungle Quilt

Jon and I are really excited about how the jungle quilt turned out! We love the faces and there are more great patterns in the book we used (Quilts, Bibs, Blankies...Oh My!) Thank you so much for all of your input on my last post. After much back and forth, we agreed with most of you about the orange binding, but Jon wanted to go with a green thread after we decided to quilt with a leaf pattern (This blog has been inspiring me to quilt different designs).



If I had to pick again, I think I would've gone with a blue or orange thread. The green worked well with the motif, but does clash a little bit with the lighter blue and the pink.



The backing is Alexander Henry's 2D Zoo which is such a great print! The final size is 36"x36" which is the same size as the quilt I made for Little B. It's a little on the small side, but with how much use Little B's parents have been getting from theirs, I think it works!



Jon and I are going to meet Zoe this week when we head down to Philly for Thanksgiving and I can't wait! Her parents don't know we've been working on this and I'm not sure they are even aware that I sew as much as I do.

As I mentioned, we decided to go with a meandering leaf design for the quilting. I also quilted around the outer edges of the animals in the same colors I did the satin stitch applique. After a bunch of doodling, I figured out a fairly straight forward way to do the leaves. I'm still really new to free motion quilting but I didn't find the leaves much harder than a stippling. Since it's hard to see on the quilt, here's what the practice swatch looked like:



Since it took me a little while of doodling to figure out how to make this shape, I figured I'd share how I did it.

As a side note, I did want to mention that I heard concerns about using invisible thread for a baby quilt. Since the nylon thread doesn't break like natural fibers, it could get caught around a small finger. I tried getting more information about this but I couldn't find a good source, but it is something to keep in mind when picking threads.

Team Project

I need some advice.

 

The asking for help part is towards the bottom of the post, but here's some back story. Jon and I have been busy this weekend working together on a quilt for his new niece, Zoe. She was born October 14th, but we're going to meet her for the first time at Thanksgiving. We've been planning this quilt for a while (wow, was that post really in June??) and of course a deadline will get anything finished!

We picked out the fabric together last weekend, which was fun since I don't think we've ever done that before. He's had a lot of fun tracing and cutting the appliques and figuring out the placement of the fabrics.

I also had him sew all the nine-patches since straight lines aren't too bad. He's used the sewing machine once before to make pillows and I think the nine patches came out pretty well considering he's never done it before. I did the appliques, but he cut most of the shapes which was really helpful.

What do I do now?

Orange Da Dot binding (right) or Blue Prints Charming (left)?

What color thread do I use for quilting since there are so many colors? I have no idea how to pick thread colors, so any advice on how you do it is much appreciated.

How should I quilt it? I don't think I want to quilt over the faces (I don't need to, do I?), but I'm pretty open about what to do with the rest of it.

I could stipple, but I was also thinking about swirls and/or leaves or something... any ideas? It's not very big (only about 35" x 35") so I'm willing to be adventurous. Let me know what you think!

More October Flowers

For Traveling Threads this month, I made these flowers for Jill (aka Spinster Sister). She wanted something fun and loves layering. I'm hoping it didn't end up too busy but I'm in love with the flowers.



Edited to Add: I made these flowers in the same way that log cabin blocks are made. I randomly cut a center shape and then added strips one at time on each edge going around. If there's interest, I'll be happy to do a tutorial about it.

They're raw edge appliqued on with Steam-A-Steam Lite (a lightweight fusible web). I ironed them on (following the Seam-A-Steam instructions) and straight-stitched around the edges.

DQS7

Although things have been a little crazy in my neck of the woods recently, I managed to get my Doll Quilt Swap quilt all done by the deadline. I'm stamping a few cards to include with it tonight and I'll send to my unsuspecting partner tomorrow and I hope that he/she likes it!


I'm in love with the Neptune fabric I used and I'm already plotting a little mini quilt for myself using the other charm pack I bought. I hope my partner doesn't think it's too busy. I was going to use a solid background but then I laid out these strips and fell in love.


I stippled for the first time and I think it went pretty well. My partner will be able to see that it's not close to perfect and I had some tension issues in a couple spots, but overall I'm quite pleased with it. I didn't quilt over the bubbles and I love the way they pop off the quilt.


I even made my labels bubbles on the back. I hand sewed all the bubbles using Cheryl at Naptime Quilter's great tutorial. It measures about 12" x 24"

Update: It arrived safely and my partner, Norma (aka Petit Debutant) loves it! She even had it beautifully displayed on her dining room table. Check it out!

Deja Vu

Since my first set of birds were lost in the mail and I loved them so much, I made Marilyn from the Traveling Threads quilting bee (aka Spiced Coffee) a new set this weekend.



She sent slightly different fabric, so they turned out a little different, but I think I might like them even better. I had even meant for this little bird to end up on top of the inner square but made a mistake the last time so I couldn't do it.



I'm hoping to get to some more crafting soon, but the beginning of the semester has been a bit hectic. I'm co-teaching my first undergraduate course and there's a lot of prep work, but I did have a great weekend and even went to the New York State Festival of Balloons, which was pretty darn cool! I have more pictures on flickr if you want to check them out.

August Swaps Round-up

Since I'm going to be out of town for 10 days at the end of the month, I've been working hard to get my swaps taken care of early.

For Traveling Threads, Marilyn (aka Spiced Coffee) sent some really beautiful, soft colored fabric and hoped for a few birds. I went with something simple since the fabric seemed so calm, I didn't want anything too busy. I'm really happy with how the block turned out. It's 12.5" square.



For snip.sew.send., Zonnah (of Zonnah's Addictions) wanted us to do 7.5" curve/circle blocks. I've been loving the circles lately and was really inspired by this quilt. I pieced the circle and then used the fusible interfacing method to applique the circle. I figured that would be easier with all the seams around the edge. I also cut the back open to reduce the bulk and so I could re-press the seams.




and last, but certainly not least, I wrapped up my witches for Jane's Spooktacular Swap. It turns out that as much as I love the paper pieced witch pattern, I just can't make 12 of them. So, I made 4 of those, 4 witch faces and 4 sets of witch shoes. I think they're all fun in their own way, but I picked one of the sets of shoes to be returned to me. I can't wait to see what I end up with from the other ladies in my group!