Crawlers: A Finished Quilt

A co-worker is expecting her first child this August and she knows she's having a little boy. While combing through my stash I came across some hoarded Backyard Baby fabric and decided to use it, in combination with a few other prints, to make a quilt for this new baby boy.

Here is Crawlers:

It is hard to see with this picture but those are bugs in jars, and ants in ant mazes, and snails, and birch trees, and a collection of creepy crawlers. 

 

Perhaps easier to see the prints in this shot.

The back is mostly this woodgrain fabric from Joel Dewberry plus what was left of the birch trees and the bugs in jars. The binding is a mix of solid grey and a grey-on-grey I've had for ages and I have no ideas from where.

I gifted it to the mom today and she said she thought it was beautiful. I hope her baby boy loves it too!

Thank You Brenda: A Finished Quilt

My eldest is finishing grade three at the end of June. Her teacher is also retiring after twenty-five years of teaching. There were some times early in the school year when I wasn't sure about this teacher, but by the end I knew my daughter lucked out. The teacher's experience and patience helped my daughter grow and focus on her strengths at the same time.

Every June I make a quilt for her teacher (and this will become much harder the school year after next when I have two daughters in school!). This one is using the pattern Diamond Tread by Freshly Pieced and a bunch of fabrics I picked up quite some time ago by Elizabeth Olwen (and a bit of Denyse Schmidt I had no idea what to do with).

Here is Thank You Brenda:

The strip of pattern to the left with so much empty space reads as very modern to me.

In reality there are just a lot of HSTs arranged in a clever way.

It creates this great secondary pattern of the twirling ninja star in the middle. I straight line quilted this having (*gasp*) marked lines with a marking pen. Honestly I hated trying to press out the ink afterwards so I will avoid it if I can!

The back is a single fabric (unlike me but I think more to the teacher's taste). I didn't try to match up any seams because there was just enough of it and because, well, it is the back.

The pattern on the backing fabric is kind of cool.

I used that Dot Leaf mustard fabric for the binding and I think it really pops against the navy.

My daughter also wrote a thank you note on the label, another tradition since kindergarten and always the teachers' favourite part!

In a couple of weeks time this will be taken and gifted with love. I hope that the teacher loves it but also that she has it for a long time as a memory of her last year of teaching!

Jack's Universe: A Finished Quilt

I work with a wonderful woman who recently became a grandmother for the first time. She is quick to pull out photos of her beautiful little grandson and frequently tells everyone that Jack is the centre of her universe now that he has arrived.

If that doesn't sound like a motivation to create a quilt, I don't know what does!

I have had two charm packs of Riley Blake Rocket Age for quite some time and this sounded to me like they were destined for this little boy!

My original plan did not work out as I hated the burnt orange and cream colours in the layout. I paired it down to blues and reds and alternated white squares and it came together beautifully!

Here is Jack's Universe:

I did a simple patchwork pattern with 5" squares but alternated with Kona White squares to create this checkerboard effect.

Most of the prints are from Riley Blake but there are few others thrown in. The stars/universe theme is throughout.

I did straight line quilting on the diagonal using my walking foot to create this "X" effect which I think works well for this quilt.

The back is actually a flannelette that I have had in my stash for ages and just looked so sweet. Plus a win for shopping my stash!

This is a close up of the backing. It is so soft.

The grandmother was over the moon (pardon the pun) about the quilt. She declared that she loves me forever and insisted on photographing it like crazy right there on the spot and sending it to her daughter to show Jack. I love when people appreciate the depth of love in a gift like a quilt!