Man Quilt v. 2

When I cut out the first man quilt (tutorial here) I also cut extras so I could make one for my husband. I had even cut the binding pieces, all scrappy. And like most stuff I cut, those pieces sat there for a while (over a year).

But I sewed them together in November, sent it to my favorite quilter Emily - of Emerson Quilting - and asked her to quilt it with the lyrics from the Beatles' song "I Will". One of the best songs ever, seriously. If you don't know the words, or the song, you should go listen to it now.

Of course I love it! It turned out SO awesome! I will definitely use cursive quilting again in the future.

One little detail she added at the end. Love it.

Granny Square Quilt Finished!

So I actually started and finished this quilt all in the same year! It's a quilting miracle. I absolutely love everything about it. I would make another one, I think it's so great.

Process wise, this quilt was fun to make. I cut tons of squares out of my scrap bin right off the bat. That made it a lot easier when I laid out the blocks to sew them together. I made 4 blocks at a time when I could work on them. I think it took me a few months to get them all done.

Mine is twin sized, which ended up being 48 blocks. Six block across, 8 down. I used the same dimensions for sashing, but just made my borders a bit wider (4.5 inches cut).

The original tutorial for the granny squares is here - on Blue Elephant Stitches. I actually used this tutorial to cut the edge triangles exactly the right size.

The quilting was done by my lovely and talented sister in law, Emily, of Emerson Quilting. I'd seen this pattern on flickr and asked her to recreate it. She did an excellent job, as always. I LOVE it so much!

I love this print I used for the binding. It's one of my favorite prints ever. I fussy cut it so that the it would look the same along all the edges and pieced it so the pattern would continue. It ended up meeting exactly in the right spot when I pieced the last seam to finish it.

And the backing, which I found on super sale somewhere. I pieced a little piece of that Heather Bailey print in there, but mostly it's the safety pins.

Hello Betty Quilt Finished

I've been working on this quilt for at least 2 years. And I've had the fabric for a few years before that. I'm so glad it's done! And I also love how it turned out!

I used this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew. Except I ended up buying a 6 inch square ruler, marking it on the diagonal, and using it instead of the paper template she suggests. (If you'd like me to do a little tutorial on how I did it, let me know and I may post one.)

These blocks were somewhat time consuming and rather small. I do love how they look all together, but I'm not sure I'll be making another quilt like this anytime soon.

Emily also did the quilting on this one. A kind of ripply water quilting. I like it! Thanks Emily!

etsy shop sale

I'm having a sale in my etsy shop! Here are the details:

 

20% off everything with coupon code holiday20

 

goes through Friday, November 30

 



WIP - Japanese Cheater Print

This was a print I saw on flickr a few (maybe 3?) years ago. A friend had some and I HAD to have it, so I got enough to just do a baby quilt.

I started hand quilting it because at the time my walking foot wasn't working well. I'm pretty sure I haven't worked on it for a few years (2?). I just need to finish the hand quilting and then put a binding on and it's done. Maybe it should be my new (old) hand project while watching TV.

WIP - Heather Ross Flannel

Apparently I like to cut things up with my rotary cutter, but not sew them together. I bet I've got 5 quilts cut that have no stitching in them at all.

Maybe it was sometime last Christmas that I cut up all the flannel pj fabric I had that was designed by Heather Ross. I was thinking of a winter quilt that would be nice and cozy. I've got a bunch of squares, rectangles, and smaller squares that I am just going to fit together. It would be helpful to have a design wall for this one. I think it also needs a bit more color, maybe some solid blues and greens. And I don't think I have enough for the size I'd like. We shall see.

WIP - baby owl quilt

I started making this quilt while I was pregnant with my last baby. He's almost 2 now. After starting it I changed my mind and made a simpler one for him. But I do still like it.

I was trying to copy Nettie's Morgan quilt here. I guess it isn't going to be just like it, now that I'm looking back at that one. And that's okay. I would like to finish it. Sometime.

Summer Quilts - Soft Orange Squares

This quilt is my favorite of all the quilts I made in this batch. I'm not sure what it is, but I just love the soft colors and the cute fabrics. (I am not sure of the name of this fabric, although I believe it is an Alexander Henry print. I bought it within the last year.)

I started with 2 fat quarters just like with the Hello Betty Matryoshka quilt. I meant to cut them all 6.5 inches, but messed one of the cuts up and ended up with 4 blocks of 3 different sizes. I added borders to make the blocks 12.5 inches unfinished. The sashing and borders are 2.5 inches cut.

To quilt this one I used my walking foot and did straight, random lines vertically along the quilt. They aren't perfectly straight, but not really wavy either. I LOVE how it turned out and I will definitely use this quilting again. I know it's really basic, but I haven't done much straight line quilting because the walking foot that came with my machine was horrible. Once I realized that was the problem I bought another one (generic brand) and it works great!

Summer Quilts - Weiner Dog

This quilt is also from Boo Davis' book Dare to Be Square. I made it a tad bigger than in the book (by adding the brown border and lengthening the bottom blue strip). And I love how it turned out. I will be making another one of these for my middle boy.

I quilted this with a simple loop and it turned out pretty well. I was also able to find the perfect backing at JoAnn. I think it turned out great.

Summer Quilts - Robot

This quilt is from Boo Davis' book - Dare to Be Square. I didn't make it full size - hers is much bigger. Also, I didn't line up the background fabrics to make a zig zag like she did in her book. But other than that, it's mostly the same.

I love those background colors so much that I think I need a quilt for me in just those colors.

I tried a new quilting pattern for this one, which I'm not sure I love. It's kind of an oval with a line through it.
Meh. I'm pretty sure my nephew loves it, and 2 of my kids want their own now too.

Summer Quilts - Simple Strip Quilt

Well - I had a slightly different idea for a quilt in my head before I started this. But it didn't quite work out as planned. I'd wanted to make it a scrappy herringbone quilt with different widths of strips and only a small amount of yellow. But I cut all the pieces wrong at first and had to just do this instead. I think it still worked out okay. And I'm pretty sure my niece loved it. And that's really all that matters.

I had been hoarding 2 + yards of this orchid colored Matryoshka fabric designed by Heather Ross. I found that there were 2 prints from Weekends by Erin McMorris that went perfectly. Also - that Echo by Lotta Jansdotter print that is the exact same color. They all went together so well. And then that touch of yellow to break it all up.

Once I sewed everything together I didn't like it. It seemed so busy and there was a lot more yellow than I'd originally wanted. I think if I were to do it again I'd add in some purple solids or white to break it up even more. I'd also cut the strips bigger and only have a few small ones.

I quilted this on my machine with just a simple loop. I like the loop when there's a line to follow. It was a bit difficult on this one because I didn't really follow a line.

The back is my favorite. I kind of wish it were the front and that I'd just backed it with a solid. Maybe next time I'll do that.

Summer Quilts - simple squares

This was a very quick top to put together, and truthfully, I'd sewn the top up in the early spring. I just didn't get around to quilting it until July.


I believe the blocks were 6.5 inches cut (6 inches finished). There are 7 blocks across and 9 blocks down. Which would make the dimensions of this quilt about 42 x 54.

For the quilting I used my walking foot. I made a small circle - about 1/2 inch - and then spiraled away from it about 1 inch away. I think spacing became further and further apart as I got closer to the outside and I think next time I'd try to space it at almost 2 inches.

I really love how it turned out even though it's not exactly perfect. Also - this batting was quite thick, which made the quilting really show up.

Summer Quilts - Hello Betty Matryoshka

Hello to anyone who still reads this blog. It seems like the summer flew by, didn't it? I did get some quilting in, but I think I burned myself out making 6 quilts in July, all for nieces and nephews. I haven't done much since.

I'm going to write about them all in their own posts.

First up - the Hello Betty Matryoshka.

I started with 2 fat quarters of this cute Kokka Folklore Matryoshka fabric, which I think you can still get online (it also comes in other colors). I cut those fat quarters into 12 6.5 inch squares (finishing at 6 inches).

Then I bordered each square with white strips cut at 1.5 inches (finishing at 1 inch).

Luckily I had some leftover Hello Betty fabric that was just the right colors. I cut several 2.5 inch strips to border the white-bordered matryoshka squares (ending up 2 inches finished).

Then I sashed everything with 2.5 inch cut strips (2 inches finished) and added a 2.5 inch cut (2 inches finished) border.

 

The quilting was just a straight, diagonal stitch. Which was really easy because I just followed the lines of the backing fabric (which I got at JoAnn). I did have to buy the backing and the binding, but everything else was used from my stash.

The final dimensions for this quilt are 44 inches x 58 inches. Thanks for reading :)

100 quilts for kids

Hi everyone. Today I'm part of Katie's 100 Quilts for Kids Blog Hop. Thanks so much for having me, Katie!

Today I'm sharing a couple of quilts that have just been sitting here for a few years. I had been planning to give them to a charity, but had no deadline and so they just sat. Then Katie asked me if I'd be part of the blog hop and I knew exactly what I'd do. I'd finish up these two quilts.

I have a hard time throwing scraps away and I also have a hard time using them again in quilts for my house. So they end up being perfect for charity quilts.

First up is my Hello Betty Scrap Quilt. The original quilt top is done, but I still haven't quilted it and the only photo I have is in this post. I used this tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew and I had all these little double half square triangles left over. If they had all gone the same direction, I could have had a double pinwheel going on, but I didn't think of that while I was cutting and so this is what I came up with.

After the center part was done, I added a few borders (I especially love the outer border), quilted it, and bound it, washed it, and now it is all ready to give away. I'm not sure which charity I'll give it to, but I'd like it to stay local.

I happened to find this perfect zig zag for the backing at JoAnn. Quite the find!

This next quilt was made from scraps from this quilt. I this flickr photo as inspiration. It was a quick quilt to make and used up some tiny scraps as well as some bigger ones.

Both of these quilts ended up being about 42 inches square. I think that's a good size for a baby or kid quilt. Hopefully someone will be able to get some use out of them.

There is also another post I'd done about these tops that has a few more photos in it, if you're interested in seeing how the blocks fit together.

Thanks again for stopping by!

rainbow chevron - finished!

Well, I've finished my rainbow chevron quilt. My sister-in-law Emily was here a few weeks ago and brought it back with her to quilt. I asked her for Denyse Shmidt loops (is there another name for this?) because that's my favorite and I can't do it at home (or I'm horrible at it at home.)

 I love everything about this quilt! It's one of my faves for sure. I originally got the idea for the back from Crazy Mom Quilts (this quilt). I didn't quite leave as much white as I wanted on the left side or the bottom, but it turned out great anyway.

Here's another good close up of the quilting. If you're looking for a good quilter Emily is very meticulous and is great at this pattern. (I think this is the 3rd quilt she's done for me with this pattern.) Go check her out at Emerson Quilting.

For the binding I used Alexander Henry Heath in gunmetal. I really love that Heath print - I wish it came in every color!

And there you have it - I do finish things sometimes :)

And don't forget that I've got a tutorial for this quilt here. Thanks for stopping by!

WIP: Bee Tweet quilt

Last year I joined my very first quilting bee - Bee Tweet. It was a great experience! I loved making new blocks each month, some I'd never tried before. I loved making new friends and getting fun packages in the mail. When it was my month, somehow I never blogged about it.

This was the fabric I sent out.

The blocks I picked were based on Nettie's quilt that I had pinned.  These are my test blocks, below.

As of the beginning of March - here are the blocks I had gotten back. I'm loving it! Today I am only waiting for 1 more block, but I still have a lot of blocks to make. I think I'll make this twin size - my usually go-to size (that way, if any bed is missing a quilt, there's one all ready for it).