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!

Alpine Company: A Finished Quilt

A man at work is expecting his second child, a little boy, this coming July. I have no idea what the nursery colours are and didn't have a lot of time so I went with my go-to baby quilt pattern. I started with these adorable black bears on a cream background and then built a white, black, grey and gold quilt around them. I have to tell you, I LOVE this quilt, so if the new owner isn't a fan I will gladly keep it for myself!

Here is Alpine Company:

The polka dot binding makes me giggle. I had a bit of the Nummer fabric from Ikea left in my stash and decided this was a great, modern choice for this modern quilt.

The overall impact is so cute.

Those black and white mountains had me giggling in delight. I don't even remember how or when they ended up in my stash!

A strip of bears brought the backing up to size.

This will be gifted to my co-worker next week. I hope his new bundle of joy enjoys it!

Pineapples: A Finished Quilt

I finished a quilt for my mother-in-law using the pattern Pineapple Farm by Elizabeth Hartman. I showed her the pattern before I checked out complicated it would be and...guys, don't do that. Check how much you're committing to before it is too late! It was complex and time consuming but my mother-in-law is worth it so I persevered.  

The end result is pretty awesome, and she definitely loves the quilt, but I can't pretty much promise I will never make another one of these ones!

Here is Pineapples:

There was a fresh layer of (spring) snow when I took the pictures which worked out for me because quilts look great on the white background!

I did a crosshatch quilting at varying widths.

My little helper was very useful holding up the quilt. This is the quilt in totality. Warm, mostly red colours as per my MIL's request.

I LOVE this backing I found on extreme clearance at Sew Sisters (I think it was $4.99/m!). I used the backing fabric for the binding as well. It reminds me of the inside of a pineapple.

She sure added cuteness to the photo shoot.

I'm really happy with the end results and I am glad my MIL is too. It will be appreciated and loved which makes all the hours of work worth it!

Linking to Finish it Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Kitties: A Finished Quilt

A former co-worker recently had a baby boy. When I asked about the colours of his nursery she let me know that she was keeping the same colours her daughter had, teal and grey. The daughter received Meow Mix from me when she was born, and so I jumped on making another teal and grey kitty quilt (they love cats at their house!)

I also had the perfect fabric on hand- a fat eighth bundle of Sarah Watt's line Cat Lady she did for Cotton + Steel. 

I used some Alison Glass feathers and some other neutrals from my stash to even out the colours, and I love this pattern for baby quilts. I think this might be my sixth (?) quilt using this pattern. 

I love this cat twisted to lick himself. So typically cat.

The back is a bunch of a Cat Lady print I had in my stash plus some other leftover bits. Love using up little pieces on the back!!

I will be sending this to the parents (and a gift for big sister too!) and I hope they find it charming. 

Hooking up with Finish It Up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Triangle Terrace: A Finished Quilt

While on a girls getaway weekend with a lifelong friend, my friend C picked up a bunch of fabrics from the quilt stores we visited(even though she doesn't sew or quilt). There was one fabric in particular that got her excited and then she built a bundle from there. She chose a pattern and I promised to make it for my goddaughter, my friend's daughter.

The pattern is called Corn Rows by Atkinson Designs. I used Kona White (obviously) for the solid. Corn Rows is cleverly designed. It looks complicated but the construction is actually straight forward. I was making a double quilt for a big girl bed but this pattern's idea of double is wildly out of wack and indeed the quilt fits on a queen bed with ample hang-over on each side. My friend's reaction was "then I guess I should buy her a queen bed instead." That, people, is why I agreed to make a quilt for this person. She truly appreciates the time, expense and skill that goes into a quilt and she will ensure her daughter treasures it as well.

Here is Triangle Terrace, all finished:

The quilt is so large that my husband had to hang it over our second floor deck and have me take a picture from below!

The fabrics are soft colours; the purples in particular are really soft and muted and very difficult to match.

The backing is all one fabric, the one that my friend first fell in love with. Honestly, the fabric is not something I would gravitate to, but the end result is soft and beautiful and my friend (and my goddaughter!) love the result.

I straight line quilted on either side of each diagonal seam AND I straight line quilted on either side of the vertical seams. This seemed to be just enough quilting for this quilt to keep it soft but stable with how many bits are in the piecing.

The quilt label is a black cat. My goddaughter's dad requested a black cat be incorporated into the quilt somehow to honour their late black cat, Fonz. He was a sweet, dumb kitty with lots of health issues and he was loved fiercely. It was lovely to add him to the quilt.

My friend LOVES the end result and my goddaughter, who received in on the day of her fourth birthday party, loves it so much she insisted on sleeping under it that night...despite still being in a small toddler bed! (New bed is coming).

Accidental Giraffe: A Finished Quilt

When your husband is in charge of finding out if the baby you want to make a quilt for is a boy or girl (or nursery colours, which is even better!) then you better be prepared for mistakes. Like my husband telling me our mutual (though not close) friend was expecting a girl. Except. Yeah, no. They had a boy. Sigh.

But I had already pulled this stack and started cutting it and so I decided to go ahead with it anyway because I thought it was just too cute to resist.

This is Accidental Giraffe:

The starting fabric was that giraffe print I have had for ages. Then I added in a ton of prints from the recent collection Pond by Elizabeth Hartman and that adorable kitty print that is bright pink but reading in these pictures as red.

 For the first time ever I decided to be brave and try minky on the back. I was cautioned by many but I basted it well and took the (straight line) quilting slowly and I had no issues! It is so soft and so nubbly and so worth it!

I went with a bold solid dark turquoise colour for the binding. It pops against the pink and doesn't make this colour too dainty, IMO.

Nubbly!

This is the first time I can remember making a quilt that didn't have a pre-destined owner. I'm sure someone will turn up pregnant with a little girl in my new future!

Shop Hop with Friends

My awesome quilty friends C and A and I had the idea that we should do a self-designed shop hop this summer. They were very accommodating because I am the only one with children and since my husband would need to take the day off to watch the kids it worked best for us to do a Friday to Saturday, and for one of them to drive. "No problem!" they said, and so plans were hatched. A arranged the entire schedule and C and I just went with the flow.

We went to a lot of stores, all in Ontario (since the dollar in the United States is so terrible right now). Some of the stores I had been to before and some I had not. I didn't end up taking a picture at every store, but a lot of them!

We started the day at Len's Mill in Guelph. It is a bizarre low-scale K-mart at the front and then there are rows and rows and rows of fabric in the back.

It is in a shifty looking sort of plaza, too.

 Len's Mill is a great place to find very strange fabric. Like this charming Hawaiian cat print. It made me laugh.

 What I actually bought was this:

This Lecien fabric from Japan, with a slightly rougher feel than normal quilting cotton, is perfect for fussy cutting.

We then went to Triangle Sewing, also in Guelph, for some notions. C bought a new 6" square ruler since she always manages to cut the edges of hers. Does anyone else have this issue? I've done it to one of mine, too!

 We also made our way to Quilter's Nine Patch which is a lovely store that sometimes has lots of gems and sometimes has very little.

They had some 40% off fabric and I scooped up these two prints:

When we hit up Creative Sisters it had been awhile since I had last been there, but C and A told me the selection had improved and they were right.

I did find some fabrics here as well, including a fat quarter of this Elizabeth Hartman fabric that I had used up for another quilt and was missing already:

Those pink fat quarters are from Pond which is a line I ordered a fat eighth bundle of and have since used up all the pale pink. Nice pale pinks are hard to find.

A found Spool & Spindle online and we weren't sure what we were going to get. It was tiny, and up a flight of stairs, but some awesome modern stuff and lots of different substrates for garment sewing. Their prices were very high, though, and so none of us bought anything here. I ended up regretting that since there was one print I wanted that I thought I could get at a later store but they didn't actually have it.

Our next stop was Quilting By Design. I had encountered them at Quilt Canada last year and since then C has had quilts quilted by them for a really excellent price. I was delighted by the set up and the selection in this store and bought a few things. I would definitely go out of my way to come back here.

Here is what I bought at Quilting by Design:

That navy C+S print may be is use sooner rather than later for a friend who is expecting this November.

Interestingly, A really racked up a huge bill at this store because she had called ahead and had them make her some quarter kits of Ocean, the new pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. 

We also went to this store, E&E's Fabrics, which was in a charming (and tiny!!) town. The quilt store is also the post office! Hah! The fabrics, however, were more representative of the conservative Mennonite locals than anything we would be interested in.

You had to walk past the post office counter and some rows of shelves with basic groceries to get to the fabric at the back.

C and I did have some success here, though, because they had the new Olfa blades that are supposed to last a long time and they were a good price!

We each bought one to try.

We made our way to Waterford for this quilt store, which is right next to the river. The wind was blowing gently and the sun was shining and if we had stopped and just sat on the porch for an hour I would have been perfectly happy!

I did actually buy some fabrics from here though the selection generally leans towards the more traditional:

I walked past that bundle of five Jingle fabrics at least three times before I gave into temptation. I think I will use them for reusable bags for Christmas gifts. I think the chicks in skates sold me in the end!

We spent the night in Stratford, Ontario, in a nice hotel that was on the edge of town. We had a great walk around town, visiting book stores, toy stores and the Indigenous Art store down there, as well as picking up some chocolate. We went out to dinner at a Thai place which was exciting because A had NEVER had Thai food before. What? She had her first ever pad thai and said she liked it and would have it again!

The next day we started with the quilt store in Stratford, Ye Olde Fabric Shoppe, which is terribly ugly from the outside and next to a 7-11 gas station. Inside it is PACKED with fabrics of all sorts, and it was here that I did the most damage of the shop hop:

Those whimsical children's prints were just too sweet.

It was here I picked up 8 yards of backing for my goddaughter's quilt (paid for by her mother). That is the print on the bottom, which is by Lewis and Irene. 

We planned to head down to Bee Modern Quilts in Niagara on the Lake next but the traffic on the highway was absolutely ridiculous. We decided to back out of that and headed to Needlework in Hamilton instead. This ended up working out beautifully because we had more time, got to eat at a favourite restaurant of ours (The Burnt Tongue) and spent less time overall driving.

Crappy picture because I was rushing. Oops.

Here was what I snagged at Needlework:

Those owls! I couldn't resist.

The embroidery kit and cross stitch kit were not actually for me but for my husband. He has decided he would like to try both of them to see which one appeals to him more so as to pick up a new "in front of the TV" hobby. So far he has started the cross stitch and is enjoying it but made a major mistake and has to start from scratch. He isn't deterred, though!

We also went to a place called European Textiles. Obviously my memory was starting to go with all the stores because I didn't take pictures there either. C bought quite a lot here (including some of their incredibly well priced and high quality pillow forms) and I did find some gems:

The Rifle Paper Co. Alice in Wonderland stuff is for fussy cutting. That Ann Kelle print will be a starting print for some baby quilt one day!

As we were about to head home, C suggested we round out our trip with a visit to Len's Mill Hamilton. Start and finish at a Len's Mill! A was pretty tired at this point but she is always easy going and a good sport, and I am always up for another fabric store, so we were in!

And, of course, as a result of peer pressure mostly, I ended up with fabric from here as well!

They still had FIVE BOLTS of Caste Peeps by Lizzy House. That is INSANE. I was tempted to buy all five bolts in their entirety and resell it as fat quarters on Etsy! I also loved this Riley Blake arrow print.

In total I picked up a LOT of fabric. Here was my collection laid out on the floor when I got home:

(You may notice some C+S and Tula in the middle- that was purchased from Quilt Canada by A for me and she gave it to me the day we left on the trip so I threw it in to the picture)

And the stack photo is pretty impressive:

It was a great trip. Travelling with A and C is a breeze because everyone is easy going. We are always willing to accommodate the others (such as A being amazing and letting me sit in the front seat the entire time in the car since I get very car sick). We laughed a lot and encouraged each other to buy lots of fabric and had a great trip overall. And, for maybe the first time ever in the history of shop hops with these two ladies, A was actually the winner of the most money spent! She is usually the most cautious and the least likely to buy something "just because." Hooray for A!

Oceans: A Finished Quilt

I used to work with a lovely man in my last position at my job, and this same man then started playing ultimate frisbee in a league with my husband. We both adore this guy and so when he and his wife had a new baby I knew I wanted to make him a quilt. Now, counting on my husband, I was informed they had a new baby girl. Perfect! I pulled some fabrics and got to work. While the quilt was in progress, I happened to come across a post on Facebook by the dad with the first pictures of their...baby boy.

Ooops.

So I dug back into my stash and started with a whale print I have had floating around for some time. Then I added in a whole bunch of navy and ocean-themed prints and put together this simple patchwork baby quilt.

Here is Oceans:

Simple patchwork with this mix of navys looks so nice, IMO.

This gives you a better sense of how dark the blues are (the top picture is in bright sunshine so the blues are more washed out). I echo-quilted on either side of each seam.

And I used up the last of the Lizzy House Mini Pearl Bracelets in blue that I have had since my shopping trip in Ann Arbour last year. I had to fill in the edges with some bits of other prints since I didn't have quite enough.

This will be delivered to our friend and his SON sometime soon. I hope everyone loves it!