Joy: A Finished Quilt

I love Lizzy House. When I was cutting out the fabric for my Lizzy House Snail quilt I also cut a 5" square from almost every fabric I own of hers. Then this summer I finally put them all together into a simple patchwork in rainbow order.

There is no reason for the quilt other than it makes me ridiculously happy every time I see it. It is a small lap size and it is so delightful.

For the back I went back into my Lizzy Stash and cut some rectangles to do another stripe of colour. The main backing fabric is an orange stripe from her Castle Peeps line that is soooooooo old and OOP. It is so cheerful with the rainbow!

So nice to make a quilt just because it is a happy thing to make!

Spunky Stack: A Finished Quilt

My younger daughter was in Junior Kindergarten this year and had an ECE (Early Childhood Educator) in her classroom along with her classroom teacher. My daughter has no idea which teacher has which role just that she loves them both and they encourage her and love her. So OF COURSE I needed to make a quilt not only for her teacher but also for Ms. S, her ECE.

I really liked the Stack Quilt pattern by Modern Handcraft and thought this would be a great opportunity to try it out. Then once I did my fabric pull...oh man, I was jazzed (I even cut two because I think I want to make another one with the same fabrics!)

And thank goodness that Cyrus also did a fabric inspection. Look at that Alison Glass! And the Tula! And the Lizzy House! And the Sarah Watts! 

The pattern is really well written and comes together quite quickly. I then added lots of white space at the top and did some simple straight line quilting. Here is Spunky Stack:

The backing is Lizzy House mini Pearl Bracelets (can you tell that I both love Lizzy House AND that Sew Sisters had this fabric on for $10.99/m??). I think this is the Aqua colour.

Ms. S LOVED her quilt and I hope she gets lots of love out of it. My daughter wrote the label for this one, too. Giving quilts to teachers seems super satisfying!

Brilliant Banners: A Finished Quilt

I really wanted to make a Banner Year Quilt by Andrea Tsang-Jackson of 3rd Story Workshop since I saw her pictures of it on Instagram. I figured a year end teacher quilt was a perfect reason to put one together!

I also thought that this pattern screamed out to be made out of scraps and I always have an abundance of blues so I dumped out my bins and paired a whole bunch of solids with patterns so that each banner would have both. 

I did mess up the placement of one of the banners which caused another banner to be in the wrong place but I take this to be an artistic choice instead of a mistake. Are you with me?

Here is Brilliant Banners:

The lap size was slightly smaller than I expected but now I know for next time.

There ended up being a range of blues AND greens to create some interest (and use up more scraps).

The back is more trusty Lizzy House mini Pearl Bracelets in Dragonfly. There is a handwritten label (by my 5-year-old) in the corner which makes it even more special IMO.

This quilt went to my Junior Kindergarten's teacher, Ms. M. My JK LOVED school this year and absolutely thrived under Ms. M's care and so I was delighted to gift her this quilt and that she was totally surprised! (Honestly I thought that by now the teachers at that school would compare who had my kids since I always make a quilt! Ha!)

Meadowland QAL

I have wanted to make a Meadowland Quilt ever since Then Came June released her pattern. I bought the pattern but assumed it would sit, as many patterns have, waiting to be made. Then it was announced there would be a Quilt Along and I figured that was my push to actually get one done!

Not to be reasonable, I decided to try to make TWO Meadowland quilts at the same time. One for my daughter with a bundle I curated close to two years ago and one with a bundle to make a quilt as a gift that is for secret sewing.

These are the two bundles I curated. Secret sewing on the left, quilt for my daughter (who is 10) on the right.

A closer look at the bundle for my daughter's quilt.

The piles to make the blocks seemed huge.

Mixing and matching them was interesting having never done it before. I learned afterwards that I prefer more monochromatic blocks.

First five done.

Look how cute one block looks!

The finished quilt top didn't come out quite how I intended (I decided I like a bit more restraint in colour to make this pattern pop) but I will finish it this summer and move on to the next one (that I need to get done for a September gift!)

Summer Sewing

Despite having a busy summer I did find time to sew. I have several that are nearing finishes but I thought I would track a bit of what I have been up to!

My Aviatrix Medallion is almost done! I just need to get the binding on it and then it is going right on my bed!

I had it quilted because I was worried that I would mess it up. I chose an edge to edge pattern and Quilting by Design quilted it for me.

The binding is ready to go on. It is the same fabric as the backing, an Alison Glass fabric from my favourite of her lines, Ex Libris.

I have also been hard at work on my Polaroid quilt. The top is actually all finished and I just need to get the backing made. I even have the batting ready to go!

I also have been enjoying Summer Sampler 2018. You receive a new travel-inspired block pattern every Monday. This coming Monday, September 10, will be the last of the blocks. I have managed to make every block on time! I challenged myself to do them in neutrals (blacks, white, grey) and with scraps. It has been such a good exercise for my creative brain! Here are the first blocks!

I will have to decide how I want to finish this one up.

I also did LOTS and LOTS of fabric purchasing this summer. I mean, that is not unusual but I am definitely ready for a fast. From September 1 to January 1 I will not buy any fabric with the following rules: 
1) I can preorder Lizzy House Constellations. She is THE designer for me and she is not even designing fabric anymore so I absolutely need her to add to my giant stash of LH.
2) My guild has a shop hop on October 20. I will try to be modest but to not be able to buy anything will make it much less fun.
3) I can buy materials that are required to finish a project. Batting, more of a solid that I need, zippers, fusible, etc. If it is for a specific project that can't be completed without that then I can buy it.
4) Spending gift cards doesn't count.

I think the just because buying will be shut down with this fast but note that I have many preorders arriving in the next few weeks because of preorders so I will still be showing lots of pretty on my Instagram account!

Hope everyone else has been getting lots of sewing done!

Rainbow Radiance: A Finished Quilt

When my scrap buckets were overflowing I decided to make several colour-block slabs and then make one gigantic scrappy quilt using those blocks. They were a blast to make and when I found myself lacking in some of the colours (beige and lavender in particular) my quilty friends jumped into action. If you check the lavender block there is some very precious Tula Pink Parisville from my friend C. That's friendship, people.

The plan because of the size and shape was to make the quilt an outdoor quilt, designed for the many picnics and play events my eldest daughter engages in all summer long. I chose a colourful and inexpensive thicker weight (and looser weave) fabric from Ikea as the backing and used (mostly) polyester thread to make the quilting stronger. I also did machine binding instead of hand binding (which I hate because it doesn't look as good as hand binding but it would make it much more secure for heavy play).

For the binding I used up bits of leftover binding from other quilts and it worked out perfectly!

Here is Rainbow Radiance:

I am tempted to take an individual picture of each block so you could revel in the gems in each and every colour block. It is a delight for me to remember each fabric and point out "There's Lotta! There's Lizzy House!"

This is the backing. I was worried about the brown that was in this print but I find this picture reassuring because you really don't notice the brown.

This shows you the binding a little bit more. It is colourful and perfect.

Doesn't it look perfect for a summer picnic?

Here is the thicker weave that is the backing fabric.

I opted to not use batting for the first time ever. The backing is thick and heavy already so I wanted it to not get too heavy and I thought it would dry more easily when it gets damp in the grass. I feel mixed about the end result. It is already VERY heavy as a quilt but the batting would have prevented the colour of the backing from being seen through the lighter colours. It also would have kept the stitches more even.

I also opted to quilt each block with a different pattern, some free motion and some with the walking foot. The size and weight of this quilt made that a giant pain many times but I powered through. I'm happier with some blocks than others in terms of quilting. It adds an interesting texture to the quilt for sure.

I am also glad that I have another WIP off my list!