Irons in the Fire

As someone who rarely has more than 2 or 3 quilts in progress at once, I have been absolutely all over the place in 2017 with many quilts on the go.

I'm doing a little check in of just some of the quilts I'm working on.

I am working on a quilt using the Diamond Tread pattern for my daughter's teacher's end of year gift. I made the centre panel and then attached one of the sides and discovered that I had accidently mixed up my Kona Shadow and Kona Silver. Yikes. It had to be pulled off (the border) and I went to make new borders (they are huge: 12" wide and 26" wide) and discovered I was short 1 yard of Kona Shadow, the colour I actually need. Sigh. I've placed an order and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

On the left: Kona Silver. On the right (in the HSTs): Kona Shadow.

Here is the Silver and Shadow side by side. You can see why I made the mistake under overhead lights!

I've also been working on a Corn Rows quilt for my goddaughter. Her mom picked the fabric. I had 98 HSTs to trim, so I spent a Friday night watching Netflix and carefully trimming.

The pattern called for quite over-sized HSTs so the trimmings were also quite large.

Also had lots of pressing to do...

And chain piecing.

 I also am making three baby quilts at the same time, two with the same fabrics and one with totally different fabric. This is one of the quilts, laid out and ready for sashing. This one is for a woman at work expecting her first baby, a little boy, this August (but I need to have it done soon because she may be leaving to work in another building soon!).

These snails, snakes and bugs in jars are super cute!

And so I jump around from project to project and I still have more that haven't been mentioned here on the go. To be honest, part of this approach is a result of me having to steal time when I can as a mom with two little kids, plus working full time. And I think as long as I can get the WIP situation under control by summer, I'll be satisfied I'm back on track!

Gruff: A Finished Quilt

I have a whole new set of colleagues this year thanks to a change in my job, and one of these new friends/co-workers has three little boys, the youngest of which is almost one. The dad and I have formed a friendship and since the dad is an artsy sort of guy who expressed once his appreciation for fibre arts, I knew I wanted to make his little guy a quilt.

This Burly Beavers print that is making the rounds on Instagram seemed like the perfect fit for this rather hipster family. I pulled out some Carolyn Friendlander to go with it as it has that architectural quality, as well as some Cotton+ Steel. Simple 5" squares was the way to go for a straight-forward baby quilt that I know the family will enjoy.

The photo session for this quilt was particularly challenging because my usual quilt holder (my husband) is away for a week, so I had to enlist my eight-year-old. And it was a very windy day which is always awful for pictures. So this is an interesting bunch of photos! (Plus a bonus outtake photo of my helper).

Here is Gruff:

This was the best photo I could get, and it was on my phone instead of the camera. The jumping off point is those delightful beavers, but you can see some Friedlander, Jansdotter and C+S in there too.

The backing is more of that C+S print in silver (so it is metallic and slightly shiny) with some grey or the other from my stash to beef it up to the right size. You can really see the quilting in the photo. I straight line quilted on either side of each seam.

My cat was excited when I put the quilt on the floor to try to take photos. This one shows off the prints much more clearly. You know, under the cat.

And here is the full quilt, laying flat. With cat for scale.

And my helpful kid who complained her arms were hurting from holding up the quilt. "Now I know why Daddy always complains" she told me.

I am quite sure the dad to whom I am gifting this will be surprised and will love it. Can't wait to give it to him for his little guy to start enjoying it!

Sweet Peach: A Finished Quilt

The reality seems to be that the only time I can eek out to blog is when I have a finished quilt. I will try to blog a bit more progress. For now, however, here is Sweet Peach, a sweet baby quilt for a brand new baby girl born to our lovely neighbours just last week.

I had a whole bunch of this peach owl fabric from the Les Amis line that I found on a discount table during a shop hop some time ago and this seemed like the perfect use for it. I also pulled out some coordinating fabrics from the brand new Pond line from Elizabeth Hartman. These were probably my least favourite colour-way from Pond and yet they worked so perfectly with these owls. It was made to be! 

The quilt is very simple in that these are 4" squares with alternating Kona White. I love the impact such a simple pattern has and it seems perfect for a baby quilt.

 I did simple straight line quilting echoing each seam line which creates a nice grid and isn't too fussy.

Those polkadots are a chocolate brown colour and those storks are the same colour but on a simple peachy-pink background. I also inserted some coral Art Gallery triangles that I picked up to win a bet with my friend C who said I only ever buy blues and greys. A Kona solid- I would have to check my colour card for the exact colour-rounded out the colour prints.

The backing is more of this owl fabric. Aren't they sweet?

I used more owl fabric for the binding which is very unlike me but finding a colour that worked was difficult so I went with simple.

The parents loved the quilt and hopefully the baby will get lots of use out of it!