Christmas Finishes, Part Deux

Happy February, everyone! How did that happen so quickly? I should be posting things that have to do with Valentine's Day, not Christmas, but oh, well, so it goes :)

My last Christmas finish to share is the quilt I made for my hubby. I thought that I had kept it a secret from him, but somehow he figured it out when I started asking him (nonchalantly, I thought) what his favorite colors were... :)

I used the Botanics line by Carolyn Friedlander, which fit him perfectly because of his occupation and the colors in the line. He wanted something bright and cheerful, not the dark colors that are usually found in masculine quilts.

This quilt whipped up pretty fast, and I was actually able to get it done before December, which was a huge weight off my shoulders, as I had this quilt to finish up in record time!

My hubby's favorite color is purple, so I backed it in the softest royal purple minky ever! The binding is a solid charcoal grey, which I feel frames the quilt while not taking away from the other colors in the quilt.

Another finish that I haven't shared yet is a baby quilt that I made from the leftovers of this quilt. All I had to do was order some extra fabric for the backing and binding, and I had a ready-made baby quilt!

The colors are so soothing, but cheerful, and the original quilt is my favorite couch quilt.

I quilted it in a curvy line stitch that my machine has and I love how easy it was! I want to quilt everything this way, which is why my hubby's quilt is quilted the same way :)

The binding is same as the backing and is machine-stitched front and back for durability.

Also, to show that I am not completely behind, here's a sneak-peak of a Valentine's Day project I'm working on...

Linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts!






 Have a happy day!
 

Christmas Finishes, Part 1

Hi there! I hope your holiday season was as fun as mine was! However, by the end of it, I was more than ready to go back to the "normal" routine :)

This year, my mom and I jointly made a quilt for my uncle; she pieced the top and I quilted it. We surprised him with it on Christmas. Can you believe she just started quilting a little over a year ago? We used a Batik jellyroll (I think it was called "Blueberry Crisp") and used this pattern - changing the size to have a complete row of the spinny part at the bottom, rather than half like the original pattern has. My mom also rotated the blocks for a different look than the pattern, and to be honest, I like this version better (I might be partial, too!).

I quilted it in an all-over stipple, with loops/figure-eights in the borders, with a nifty little corner accent.

The backing is not a batik, but I don't know what it was, only that it was pretty colors and super-soft :)

A major accomplishment on this quilt is that I finally got the bobbin tension just about right - I've had so many problems that I almost gave up on free-motion quilting...but I'm a little too stubborn to do that!

I'll post soon with another quilt made for Christmas (once I get some decent pictures of it) and hopefully another project that's been calling my name...until then, take care!

~Michelle

Fandango stars

This is going to be more a contemplative post, rather than the bubbly ones that I normally post, but for good reason. This post does include a finished quilt, though, so stay with me :)

To make a very long story short, a neighbor of mine recently lost her husband. The means of the passing I don't know, nor do I think I should, but the end result is that a woman, married a little more than a month, lost her husband and was left to raise two kids and pick up the pieces of her life by herself. Not only that, but her past is not an easy one and includes huge loss in it as well.

My heart was broken for her. I cannot even conceive the enormity of that loss, and to be honest, it scares me to dwell on it, because it could happen to anyone, at any time, and in such a life-altering way. It may sound weird, but I found that I had to work through my grief, too, and I searched for ways to help her. We don't really have much of a relationship to begin with, and understandably, she kept to herself.

What could I do to help her that wouldn't turn out to be awkward and weird, too? I thought and thought and one night, while I was snuggled under my couch-cuddle quilt, I thought, a quilt, that's what she needs, a quilt to snuggle on the couch with in case she didn't want to sleep in her bed.

What I had was my Fandango quilt that was partially quilted and was patiently waiting for some tender loving quilting. I spent about four hours one day and three more hours spread out over a couple more days finishing the quilting and binding and nervously packing it in gift bag for her. I put it on her doorstep, with a note tucked inside.

I don't know if it was well-received or not, and to be honest, I don't care if it was or not. It helped me to make something with my own hands to give to her with the offer of comfort if she wanted it, and part of me believes that is what quilting is all about: offering comfort from something made with time, love, and fabulous fabric :)

And so, I present, "Fandango Stars" (of course I took pictures before I delivered it!)

The top row and the bottom row are echo-quilted in the star toward the center of the star, while the middle two rows are echo-quilted from the star out toward the edges of the block. All the sashing and borders are quilted in the ditch.

I was a little sad to see it go, but that's balanced by the fact that it was made with love for someone in need.

Let's do this again!

Ready for round three of baby blankets? Or round four? Or five? I have seriously lost count of how many baby blankets I've already made this year, but I think the end is in sight!

This one is for a former co-worker of mine who loves the outdoors and is having a boy. The fabric is from the fat quarter set that I bought at a local craft store and split up to make another baby quilt in the same pattern; that quilt used the green and white and brown fabrics to be gender-neutral. I love the teals and browns in this quilt and the flannel fabric is sooo soft!

I did a simple four-patch pattern and quilted it from corner to corner through each square, which resulted in a soft and cozy finish.

The binding is a brown dot (same as the other flannel baby quilt) and is backed in a turquoise gingham print that I fell in love with at the store.

I also finished making the bags for the new big sister. I used a fairy print that I have had in my stash for a couple of years, so I don't even know what designer or whatnot it is, but I love it so much!

I made three bags, two for the big sister and one for me, but since I have already wrapped the other two, I just have mine to show you. The other two were made with the purple fairy print, a brown with small white polka dots, and the brown and white fabric you see on mine.

I adore these bags! They came together fast and the pattern was easy enough to follow; they might pop up again in different fabrics for Christmas presents.... :)

Busy bees

Spring is the time of year when everything starts getting busy: the flowers are busy blooming, the bees are busy collecting pollen and women are showing the signs of getting busy in the fall (if you know what I mean), so needless to say, that finds me busy making baby quilts!


 

I finally got some free time (thanks hubster!) to do some serious sewing, so without further ado, I present my second (or third, but really, who's counting?) baby blanket this year!

I picked up a 12-piece flannel fat quarter set (so soft!) at a local craft store, so I'm not sure what lines these fabrics are from, but they sure are cute! This pattern uses six fat quarters, so I split up the fat quarter set into two different colorways and am working on a second quilt in the same pattern, to be finished sometime in the future.

This quilt was supposed to be gender-neutral because the couple it is intended for is not finding out what they are having, but since the mom will be induced tomorrow, three weeks ahead of schedule, I guess that's a moot point now!

Of course, I had to take a picture of the section that has crooked quilting lines...

The new baby has an older sister, so I will make her a couple of drawstring bags, probably using this tutorial, as a big sister gift. Or consolation prize, depending on who you talk to :) I will post those once they are done.

Hope you have a great week!

Round and round finished!

Yay! My second finished quilt of the year! Man, I am on a roll!

I have so many WIPs floating around, that sometimes I feel like a butterfly flying here, working on this for a little bit, flying there, working on that for a little bit, and somehow I manage to come up with even more things to do while I'm fluttering around. So, last month, I decided I needed to finish something and get it off of my to-do list, and what better thing to finish than something that has been on my list for over a year (maybe a little more).

 This quilt is for Boy #1. It feels so good to know that he is going to have something handmade by his mommy. Even if he never uses it (he's pretty attached to some other blankets), at least he has it :)

I quilted the circles with swirls. In the beginning, I tried to keep the lines uniformly apart, but then some squiggles happened and since I have a no-unpicking policy (unless I royally screwed up the piecing part of it), they stayed, along with the hundred other squiggles that happened.

I stitched in the ditch around each square/block and did a loopy-loop on the borders. I really enjoyed doing the loopy-loops because they were super fast and perfect for borders.

He hasn't received the quilt yet, because I am still on the fence about whether he should receive it as a birthday present (which is still a few months away) or as a just-because present, but I think he will be receiving it in the near-future, just because :)

Also, I might be borrowing it to snuggle with after he goes to bed...maybe.

Jack-Jack's Quilt

It's a lovely day in the neighborhood today! I'm deluding myself that spring is just around the corner and pretty soon it will be all bright and sunshiny outside again! Whatever it takes to get through the day, right?

This weekend I finished my quilt for my coworker, which makes it my first completed quilt of 2014!!! I actually started and finished a quilt in the first month of the new year - pretty awesome-sauce if you ask me! We'll overlook the fact that it was a baby quilt and a pretty easy pattern at that :)

I'm calling this one "Jack-Jack's Quilt" because 1) the baby's name will be Jack and 2) I love the little baby from The Incredibles named Jack-Jack and 3) I'm not feeling clever enough to come up with a really creative name.

    




I ended up pulling the stitches from the top row and resewing the top row on the other side of the block and that fixed the problem that I was having. It might've taken help from my super-smart hubster to figure that out, but it worked like a charm! I was ready to throw in the towel and consider it done.

I quilted it in straight lines running from corner to corner. I had intended to then go the other way to end up with a grid, but by the time I got done with the first set of lines, I fell out of love with that idea.

I love the texture that all those lines produces!! The only concern I had was bunching; I'm not sure if I didn't baste well enough or if it was the shot cottons that I used, but I ended up with some bunches in between the lines. It added to the whole look of the quilt, and feels super-neat, but I'm not sure if that is normal or if something was off on my end of things.

Anyway, the end result is that I was able to finish it the day before my coworker left; I feel so accomplished and I kind of wanted to keep the quilt for myself - maybe I'll keep the next one I work on instead!