Baby Quilt for Shane Alan

This quilt is for my dear 2nd cousin's baby boy who's due in a few weeks. I did the front in 6 inch squares from two different baby flannels and the back is also made from two flannels. I did a quilting patterns that's new to me, but that I think may become a staple. It's two lines an inch apart, then two inches space before another two lines an inch apart. This has been really fast because I'm placing the blue masking tape, then sewing up one side, pivoting, and coming back down the other side without cutting the threads and repositioning. It's also done a nice job of making the quilting really even and the fabric not bunching up. I'm going to finish it by doing the same thing vertically.

I'm way behind on quilts for the year, as I've moved to working on them only on Saturday mornings. It's a much more leisurely pace, but I don't think I'll finish the 7 quilts on my list this way.

Trouble with Bobbin

Quilt update

Going pretty slowly, I have to say, but it's coming along nicely. The seams are not lining up exactly perfect, but not terrible either. I think it gives the quilt some character. Hoping to finish piecing it tomorrow, though that could be a bit of a lofty goal. We'll see.

Also, beginning to think about how to quilt this. I'd like to begin by quilting the shape of the soccer field so that it show up on that way on the back of the quilt (which will be black). But it will need more quilting than just that, so I'm considering having this be my first attempt at free form quilting. We'll see.

Quilts for little girls

So this year I have a pretty broad plan for quilts I'd like to make. I definitely got into sewing because I thought I'd make clothes, but I've really taken to quilting. This year I'm planning to make quilts for:

Elliott - He's now 5 months old and I owe him a quilt. I'm thinking large 6 inch squares cut from some really fun flannel snuggle fabrics I got at a great discount on black friday.

Baby Orme - My co-worker in the next cube is having her first baby in May, also a boy. I've got a lot of great boy fabrics and will want to put this together pretty quickly. I'm hoping to have this quilt be my first quilt in a weekend.

Sarah & Erik - Sarah is a dear friend of mine from high school and she's getting married in August. I'd like to do a large quilt for them as a wedding gift. This couple is really into sustainability, the green movement, and organic farming. I want to learn about green fabrics and use as much natural materials as possible.

I've also taken on the project of making 4 roughly twin sized quilts for my "nieces". This family is about to start building a new home, targeting a move in June. While I was home for the holidays, I took the girls shopping at Joann's for fabrics. They all had a really great time putting together color and texture combinations. Alexa, who is 8, has always had an eye for design and was really at home around all the fabrics. She gave her quilt a lot of thought but was able to come to a quick decision on what she wanted.

After the fabric store, everyone sat down and drew out what they wanted their quilts to look like. I was surprised and impressed that everyone was able to understand the concept really quickly and they came up with some awesome designs.

Lydia (who turned 10 yesterday): She picked out two soccer themed fabrics. Two flannels and one cotton. She wants her quilt to resemble a soccer field, which is perfect because two of her fabrics are green. She drew the whole thing out and it looks great on paper. It uses very large pieces and required minimal cutting, so I started this quilt first. I added in some dark green flannel from my stash to help break up the "field" part of the soccer field. Here's some early photos:

Clarissa: She's the youngest of the four and chose a lovely medly of pink and blue polka dots as well as a flannel pink stripe. I plan to supliment with another pink stripe from my collection to round things out. She chose a simple design that also requires little cutting. I think I could probably piece her design in a day.

Makayla: The old of the four, Makayla is really into music, so she chose some black and white music note patterns and we paired it with a dark purple to give the quilt some pop. She let Alexa chose a design for her. It's a beautiful pattern that alternates piecing squares together against larger solid squares. Will definitely be a challenge.

Alexa: Lex went with blue and brown based fabrics all in cotton. She drew a perfect quilt pattern for me, which will definitely call on me to take my skills to the next level. It's a brick pattern where the large brick have small square centers done in an opposite fabric. Rather than chosing a pattern for how the bricks and squares pair up, she decided to assign them randomly, which I think will make the quilt really interesting to look at.

I hope to have all of these quilts done by June, except the wedding quilt. It's possible that I've really over done it, but I now have enough fabric to keep me out of Joann's for the entire year.

Christmas Quilt 2009

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Finished!

So I finally finished the Christmas Quilt on Christmas Eve. Piecing the back was pretty straight forward, but I did run into two problems. First, I didn't measure well and so the back and the front did not come out the same size. I ended up having to cut an inch from the red border and I had to add a small sliver of fabric to one of the corners on the back just so that I'd have something to sew. It's small and you don't really see it unless you're looking for it, but it's a mistake. I also didn't attach the back border well in one place so I ended up having to whip stitch it together. It did come together ok even with the way that I stitched the batting together. I even had a pretty easy time with the binding. My decision to start on the back, finish on the front, was brilliant because it looks a lot better with that big square in the back. I'm glad to have it completed, and it was a big hit. I'll post some video of giving it to my mom.