Rocky Field: A Finished Quilt

To keep up my recent trend of baby quilt after baby quilt, today's Friday finish is a sweet little green and grey baby quilt made for a co-worker expecting her first child, a little boy, this March. I used a pattern from Quilty to make this sweet little quilt, the same pattern I used for Hoot earlier this year. It looks quite different with this colour scheme, a very subdued palette for a new baby boy. These are the colours of the nursery.

Here is Rocky Field, named for the stone greys and the grassy and mossy greens:

It is a relatively small quilt which is perfect when you're churning out a lot of baby quilts like I have been! Notice the Denyse Schmidt, the Quatrefoil, the Cotton+Steel? Also there is an Alison Glass print in there and some olive dots that I picked up ages ago and can't remember what line or company made it.

All of the fabrics came from my stash which is helping me keep on track to use my fabric instead of buying more.

I used a totally delightful Tim and Beck print on the back from their Bungle Jungle line. It is a bit unexpected as the front has all these non-traditional "kid" prints and then the back is bright and fun!

Because I was working from my stash I didn't have enough of the one print so I pieced a strip of Kona Artichoke along the top. I like the blocked effect.

I used straight-line quilting with white Aurafil and my walking foot. I quilted lines horizontally through each section and then a few vertical lines through the sashing only.

I can't wait to gift this to the expectant mom!

I'm quite sure the mom will love it and I'm so pleased to have made something lovely for her. She is a wonderful, kind woman and I know she will be a great mom. 

Lynn
Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts

Kona Love for the Win!

Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge and I both love Kona and both complain about bundles that others put together so we decided to challenge you to curate your own Kona bundle of four (or more) colours using a photograph as inspiration.

The entries were fantastic and I was inspired by many of the bundles. Jenn selected one winner to receive a prize and I did too! The True Random Number Generator chose two, which turned out to be Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirl. I think I was drawn to her cactus colour palette the most, but all of her combos were fabulous!

This delicious bundle will be heading her way:

These are from my own precious Kona stash. From the top down, Kona Steel, Melon, Stratosphere, Pacific and Ocean.

I have been getting a little bit of sewing done, but not as much as I'd like. After all, I've had many Friday finishes up until this week! I have been working on an HST quilt for a friend expecting a little girl in March. The cutting, pressing and trimming is a bit tedious so I'm not loving this step.

I did, however, have a burst of inspiration (and it helped break up the tedium of all those HSTs) when a woman at work who is expecting a baby in April was talking to me about how after two ultrasounds the technician could not identify the sex of the baby. We had a good laugh, but then I was thinking in my head about what I would do for a gender neutral quilt. I think a rainbow patchwork suits any occasion!

The vast majority of these were already cut into 5" squares because as I cut for other quilts I will often cut some charm squares at the same time. I didn't have enough of the black and white, the yellow or the orange and red so I dove into my scrap boxes for all of these. The only actual stash (rather than scrap) fabric I needed to cut was one of the black and white ones. 

Going through your stash and scrap bins to create a rainbow sure reveals what your favourites are! I have a zillion blues and turquoises and almost no yellows or reds. 

I found this so fun to pull together and I look forward to putting it all together...once I finish the last two March baby quilts I have to get done! (I sure hope those babies don't arrive early!)

Lynn

Do you LOVE Kona?

After complaining about the Kona solids bundles that Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge and I were receiving, we decided to challenge you to curate your own Kona solids bundle to share in our love of solids.

Be sure to head over TODAY to A Quarter Inch from the Edge to join the linkup and put in your bundle. You can use a photograph for inspiration and pull from your stash. You can use another fabric and pull out solids to match them, as I've done here:

I used Rashida Coleman-Hale's Washi print and paired it with (left to right): Kona Turquoise, Kona Bright Pink, Kona Mango and Kona Daffodil.

Here I used this gorgeous Cotton+Steel print, Persistance Prevails by Sarah Watts from her August collection, to pull the following solids from left to right: Kona Glacier, Kona Seafoam, Kona Coral, Kona Sunflower and Kona Nautical.

Or you can use Play Crafts' Palette Builder and make lovely little images like this:

Though to warn you, that software is very addictive.

Make sure you enter by next Thursday so you can be eligible for a prize from either Jenn or from me. 

Show us your Kona love on this cold, snowy Valentine's Day. (We are expecting a low of -24 degrees Celsius here today where I live in Ontario, and near Halifax, Nova Scotia where Jenn lives they are expecting a low of -12 degrees Celsius. Brrrrrr.) Head on over to A Quarter Inch from the Edge and post your bundle!

Lynn 

Sunset in the Woods: A Finished Quilt

One of my many baby quilts is finished. This was made for a lovely friend who welcomed her second daughter earlier than expected. As a result I got to deliver the quilt to the wee babe when I met her for the first time at three weeks old. She is precious and beautiful and this quilt suits her perfectly.

I decided to use some of my Brambleberry Ridge fabric, a line which I totally love and have been sort of hoarding. I knew this was the right project for it, but it was still hard to say goodbye to some of those prints!

My favourite part is all the gold that is throughout the various fabrics. 

Here is Sunset in the Woods:

The pattern is simple and highlights the beautiful Violet Craft fabric. I altered the pattern a bit by adding the white border to make it a better size for baby.

This was my favourite print and the one I'll miss the most. As you can see, I straight-line quilted through all the blocks diagonally (right to left) and did less dense quilting diagonally (left to right) to catch every block at least once.

See here with some snow, I used Chocolate Pearl Bracelets on the back. The mom LOVED the backing.

I pieced the back(with no attention to matching it up) to make the most out of the fabric I had.

I used the coral/pink fabric that I've had in my stash for four years with no plan for it. I think it worked perfectly for the binding!

The mom totally loved the quilt (so did her husband and her mom) and I was so thrilled to get to cuddle with the tiny baby girl whom this quilt was made for!

By the way, have you been thinking about your entry to the Curate Your Own Bundle contest, hosted as a linkup over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge? Find an inspiration photograph and then either using software or your stash, curate a bundle of Konas to match! There are two giveaways, one from me and one from Jenn, so get your entry in there!

If you don't have a huge Kona stash this software is addictive so try one of these instead. Here is one that Never Just Jennifer made:

Make sure you link up to A Quarter Inch from the Edge TOMORROW, Valentine's Day, and show your Kona love!

Lynn
Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Jungle Flame: A Finished Quilt

Sometimes when you ask expectant parents for the theme or colour choices of the nursery it is helpful. Sometimes the answer leaves you puzzled and causes you to sort through piles and piles of fabric in your stash before you settle on some colours and patterns.

Friends are expecting a baby in March. This is their second and, as with their first, they have chosen not to find out the sex of the baby. Though that is nice for them, it is not nice for me as a quilter. People might say they like gender neutral, but let's be honest- once that baby is born he or she will somehow end up in "gender specific" colours. So when they told me that their colours and theme is orange and beige ju'ngle, I was stumped. I do like orange, and had quite a bit in my stash. I had ONE beige fabric. One. I hate beige. And then jungle on top of that? Heaven help me.

I selected a pattern from Love Quilting & Patchwork magazine (Issue 11, "Bee Sweet") by Bijou Lovely and I just went for it, incorporating the one beige fabric I had, some beautiful oranges, a giraffe print and a jungle print.

Here is the end result. Jungle Flame:

Front of the quilt. Note the very scrappy binding. I used off cuts from the backing when I trimmed it to size to make a scrappy, awesome orange binding (with a tiny hint of green, bottom right in this picture).

 My husband says he likes all the white. He said it was "spartan." Not exactly what I had hoped for. And my best friend looked at it silently and then said "I'm used to your quilts being more cohesive." Ouch. I quite like it, even though the colour choices are not my thing. I think I made it work! But maybe not?

I did straight(ish) line quilting using my walking foot at different distances in both directions (horizontal and vertical). I absolutely love the quilting on this as there is at least one line of quilting through each tiny patch.

 As a result of being determined to, as much as possible, shop my stash, I pieced together a CRAZY backing. I was very nervous that this would look hideous, I'm not going to lie. And my husband HATES pieced backings so he was no help. Once it was done, though? I really love it! It is saturated and crazy and beautiful. That one green giraffe print really pops out, so I might not have included that next time, but I think I would opt for the back showing more than the front if I was mom and dad! (Maybe because there is only a tiny bit of beige?)

Wild backing. I used up most of the scraps from the front and some tone-on-tone Pearl Bracelets I had in my stash. I also added a half yard of what I think is Kona Flame, but I could be making that up (there was no label).

 I think the quilting looks really great on the back, too. You can see the lines at different widths and I think it adds dimension and interest.

Straight line quilting pops on the back.

I used up every last scrap I could, including taking the trimmed off fabric from squaring up the quilt after I quilted it to make a long roll of scrappy binding. I really quite love it.

Scrappy binding.

Though I love the end result, I really struggled with naming this quilt. After thinking and playing for a bit, I discovered that there is a flower named Jungle Flame that is bright and bold and very similar to the quilt. Isn't that a perfect name?

Jungle Flame. Source: Garfield Park Conservation Authority

What matters in the end is if the parents love this quilt, and I think they will. I definitely won't be adding any beige into my stash anytime soon, and I think I need an orange break for awhile, but I am happy with having it finished nice and early for when baby arrives in early March!

Lynn

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.
I'm also linking up to Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday with a link up at A Quarter Inch from the Edge!

Kona Solids: You Be the Curator CHALLENGE

Jenn at At Quarter Inch from the Edge and I often chat back and forth via email about what we're up to with our quilting. We both love Kona solids and we both have (or had as is now the case) a subscription to a monthly Kona club. I have been vocal lately about not loving their choices and Jenn and I both lamented that we should be guest curators.

Then she came up with the awesome idea of doing a challenge with a link up for people who follow us to put together Kona bundles using an inspiration photograph. You can do so by pulling out Kona from your stash, if you have one (how could you not? Mine takes up two bins!) and take a picture of the selections with the photograph. If you don't have a stash to draw from, she even found this genius program called Palette Builder 2.1 by Play Crafts that allows you to upload a photograph (try using CC Search to ensure you are not violating copyright- stealing from photographers is not cool) and then it matches it with Kona solids. Brilliant!

Here is my first attempt (and I'm now addicted to this site, thanks Jenn). I chose a night skyline shot of Toronto (close to where I live). I'm loving how these blues and that one bright pink work together!

Submit your photograph to Jenn's link up on February 14th. She has even put together a Kona prize for one winner. I am also going to cough up a Kona surprise, randomly choosing an additional winner from the submissions on Jenn's blog! Be sure to enter and show some Kona solid love! Neither of us are in any way sponsored by Kona, we just love to work with them!

So? Are you in?

Lynn