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.

Festive Forest: A Finished Quilt

I am not one for seasonal quilts (I think they should be able to be used year round) and I am not one for traditional Christmas colours (our colours are dark blue, turquoise and silver) but when I saw that Violet Craft was releasing a green, red, white and gold version of Brambleberry Ridge it just spoke to me. I used a tutorial that was free (see my previous blog entry on the process). I ended up being quite delighted with the end result and my daughters were using it before I even finished the binding. Maybe it can spend the non-Christmas season in the basement?

I didn't finish until after Christmas (because who has time to sew down some binding in the middle of the chaos that is multiple Christmas events?) but it was still within the time my Christmas tree was up so I consider that a win!

Here is Festive Forest:

It sure looks pretty against the white snow! There are two blocks that are actually made up of four mini trees. I love the variation it adds.

My husband hates the wonky nature of the improv trees, but what does he know? ;)

I didn't have quite enough of this pretty red print from Brambleberry Ridge (I guessed on the yardage when I bought it which is typical me) so I put in a pit of this Laurie Wisbrun red fabric that I had in my stash.

I used this loopy pattern to quilt it because it was quite fast and because my initial plan did NOT work out. I just went with it. I quite like it!

And there is my first finish of 2018! Hopefully many more to go!

Linking up to 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).

Roar: A Finished Quilt

Close friends of ours introduced us to their real estate agent/friend when we were moving a couple of years ago and we ended up becoming friends with the agent and his wife. They are lovely people and I made their first daughter a quilt. They are expecting their second at the end of the month, another little girl, and so I put together a little tumbler quilt for baby #2.

Here is Roar:

I loved these pink tigers mixed with an otherwise very sophisticated combination of fabrics. The soft pink also adds some nice movement.

I straight-line quilted along the seam lines, pausing to turn at each turn of the tumbler block. It creates a cool effect on the back of the quilt.

Hopefully the parents enjoy this gift for their new little one!

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!

Glisten: A Finished Quilt

A co-worker is expecting her first child this coming December and she is very excited. They are having a baby girl and when I inquired about the colours of the nursery Mom still hadn't decided, but all options involved grey. This lovely woman has endured many health challenges to get to this point and I'm so thrilled for her. Obviously Baby Girl needs a quilt!

I pulled the turquoise colourway of the last of my Violet Craft Brambleberry Ridge out of my stash and then hunted around for some additional prints. The gold in this fabric is subtle and classy (like the mom!) so I knew it was a good fit but I wasn't sure if anything would go with it. Ultimately I added in a sweet Lizzy House Diamond print, a Denise Schmidt print from ages ago and then two unusual greys that also have gold from Carolyn Friedlander's Carkai line that was recently released. I also pulled out a half yard of Katarina Rochelle's Imprint fabric for Art Gallery Fabrics. After a consult (Thanks C and A!) I decided that it provided that visual break that I would normally use Kona White for, so I went for it.

Here is Glisten, named because the mix of soft blues and gold remind me of a pond glistening in the early morning light with a bit of early morning fog softening everything:

Simple patchwork seemed to make sense for this project, and I'm glad I didn't overthink it.

 There is one Brambleberry Ridge print that has just a hint of pink from some roses. I think it adds a little bit of interest. I echoed that by having a mostly grey and turquoise binding with a hint of pink in the corner! (Can you see it?)

I echo straightline quilted it on the sides of each seam.

 The back was a long-ago acquired Art Gallery print that never had just the right purpose until this quilt. It was just a tiny bit too short so I added a strip of that sweet grey low volume swirl (I think it is very old Rashida Coleman Hale? Pre-Cotton+Steel?)

Feminine but not too baby-ish.

Though baby isn't due until December I knew this quilt had to be made this summer because my September-June promises to be really busy!

I hope she really loves this quilt and that the long desired and already cherished baby girl spends some tummy time enjoying Glisten!

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

Sweet Pepper Jelly: A Finished Quilt

Way back in 2013 I subscribed to the Sugar Block Club with Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock. I was still relatively new to quilting and thought it would be a good skill builder. And it was! I used a blogger bundle of fabric from Rita of Red Pepper Quilts (at the time she was one of my favourite bloggers; as of late my taste has diverged significantly though I still admire her skill!) as well as a few prints from my own stash (that I might not even buy today!).

It was my first attempt at paper piecing (I believe four of twelve blocks require paper piecing) and I was not so great at it. And all my blocks ended up slightly different sizes ranging from 10.5" to 12". I saw no way out, at the time, to putting it together into a quilt top. And so it languished.

I would say it was my first ever true WIP, and I am not someone to let things go unfinished. It has been nagging at me for years to finish it. This was the summer!

I put away my reservations, embraced "Finished is better than perfect" and got to work.

And here is Sweet Pepper Jelly, a quilt with many imperfections (and that includes the quilting) but which is DONE and will now be our "out and about" quilt that stays in the car for picnics, chilly mornings or general quilt needs.

A sampler quilt, in an odd mix of fabrics, but DONE!

I did loopy swirls in all the borders and tried something different with each block, to varying degrees of success.

The back is this infamous IKEA print, picked up and stored for the last three years with this exact quilt in mind. It is much lighter weight than quilt shop quilting cotton but it sure packs some visual punch! This was my first scrappy binding, made in 2013 and not attached until mid-2016. I love how it works for this quilt.

You get a bit of a sense of the different quilting looking at the back like this.

It feels so good to have this quilt DONE. Only one more WIP sits languishing in my closet now...my Aviatrix Medallion which I am not prepared to tackle again right now!

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Thank You Stephanie: A Finished Quilt

My elder daughter has finished her grade two school year, and as has been tradition since she started Junior Kindergarten, I made her teacher a quilt. To be honest, the way I decided on this particular colour scheme and pattern was my overflowing "cool" scraps bin. I chopped up 3.5" squares from every blue scrap that seemed appropriate (not so much with the sharks, for example). I then went through my white scraps and found a big stack of white-on-white 3.5" squares from I don't even know what project. Meant to be! They formed the middle white squares of these nine patches. The only stash (instead of scrap) I needed to use for the quilt top was some Kona White for the sashing.

I love how all the light-to-dark blues results in so much movement in the quilt.

I did a free motion meandering stipple, despite my recent FMQ practice, because I needed it to be FAST.

 To be honest, if I was redoing this quilt I would do straight line quilting to be more in line with the boxy nature of the nine patches. I used a very light blue Aurafil and it worked out pretty well (good thing, since I was out of white) but the quilting is my least favourite part of the quilt.

Despite not being pieced so well, this particular block has my favourite combination of scraps. I kind want a whole quilt in navy now!

The backing involved this slightly minty print that I've had for ages but couldn't figure out when I would ever use it (or why I bought it!), some leftover Architectures by Carolyn Friedlander from the back of my Tranquility quilt, and some other blue that I had in my scraps.

That mint print is an odd one. What was I thinking? But it worked well for this quilt!

My daughter made the label for the quilt, just as she did last year. 

The teacher absolutely LOVED the quilt. Apparently she kept calling people over to open it up and show it to them. My daughter assures me that this was because she was so excited about the quilt. She sent a lovely thank you note home. As a teacher I know that gifts are always appreciated but not always fitting for the recipient (The flying dove sculpture I received from a student one year still stands out in my mind). I hope that her teacher really does love this gift. 

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts' Finish it Up Friday!

Quilt of Belonging: A Finished Quilt

It is finished! After collaborating with a lovely group of grade 2 students (mostly 7-year-olds), we have a finished Quilt of Belonging. Each block was created by an individual student to represent who he or she is. Then I added the colourful frames and black sashing to mimic the original quilt.

Finished!

 The kids were beyond thrilled to see it, wanting to touch their blocks and oooo and awwww over others' blocks. One kid said to me "My favourite colour is green and you put mine in green!" with a grin from ear to ear.

The teaching assistant used her embroidery machine to do this block.

 The back shows how I did each block with a different free motion quilting style. Some were more successful than others but the overall effect is pretty cool.

This is half navy and half black with that rainbow stripe made of scraps from the front. Then I had to piece in that other navy print because I wanted to use what I had and not spend any more money. The rainbow idea came from quilty friend C- thanks!

The quilt will hand permanently in the school. I am just working on the QR code that will accompany it, taking people on a journey through our journey!

I'm happy I finished it...and on time for the school opening!

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

Little Eye: A Finished Quilt

Be warned: this is a very picture-heavy post!

For years I have wanted to make a modern I-Spy quilt, influenced mostly by this quilt by From the Blue Chair.

I finally made that wish come true with this quilt, Little Eye (as in, I spy with my little eye...) for my youngest daughter. It was meant to be a second birthday present (she has a January birthday) but it was not meant to be.

None the less, here is Little Eye, all finished (and already in very heavy rotation):

I really liked the mix of colours and totally random sizing and placement of the fussy cut pieces in the inspiration quilt. I think I was able to capture that pretty well.

The sashing is Kona White (obviously) but the other Konas (I am listing these especially for Jenn at A Quarter Inch from the Edge) are: Pomegranate, Cypress, Kumquat, Celestial, Punch, Black, Wasabi, Jade Green, Kale, Salmon, School Bus, Capri, Magenta, Tulip, Ash, Shale, Ultra Marine, Willow, Prussian, Berry, Windsor and Glacier. There is also an Art Gallery solid in there (Yarrow?) and two colours I'm not sure about but could check now that I have a brand new 303 colour card!

The back is a Heather Ross print from her Tiger Lily line that I adore and pre-ordered as soon as I saw it. My daughter loves cats (her first word was kitty) and these are kitten and a Mama cat playing and walking around.

Here's where the post is going to get a bit nuts...I wanted to take a picture of each block so I have a record of each fussy cut fabric. Feel free to stop reading now. :)

Castle Peeps by Lizzy House

Penguins by Kokka

Far Far Away by Heather Ross

The Lovely Hunt by Lizzy House

Hedgehogs from the OOP Outfoxed line by Lizzy House

Natural History by Lizzy House

Kitten fabric from Tiger Lily by Heather Ross

 Not only is my daughter loving it (we play actual I-Spy with it...she calls it "Play quilt") by my cats are on it whenever it is out.

Thanks, Marlowe.

Honeymoon from Cotton+Steel

Whale fabric- anyone know what line or designer this is? Also, you can see my daughter's name in FMQ in this block. I did this in three different blocks, in different directions, to add some personalization to the quilting.

Wee Wander

This pig fabric is from Andover, but not sure of the line.

This handsome llama is from Laurie Wisbrun's etsy shop Scarlet Fig.

Photo bomb: Marlowe. Fabric: Brambleberry Ridge by Violet Craft

I know this is Sarah Jane as the designer, for Michael Miller, but I'm not sure which line.

Matryoshkas by Riley Blake

Nursery Versery by Heather Ross

Zephr I think? Cotton+Steel

More Wee Wander

One wee Cotton+Steel tiger

These delightful clouds are from the Zephr line for C+S

This is a Spoonflower print I bought in the first few months I started sewing.

This block is special. It is not a fabric; this is embroidery from a pillowcase that was made by my grandmother, whom I never met. The pillowcase was aged and no longer usable but the embroidery held up beautifully so I rescued it to put it in this quilt.

Ballerina from Tiger Lily by Heather Ross. Paw is by Marlowe.

Fox and the Houndstooth

Rare OOP Heather Ross fish fabric. I special ordered a little scrap bag of Heather Ross prints particularly because I love this one print so much.

Lizzy House Natural History

A charming sloth from the Honeymoon line of fabric by Sarah Watts for Cotton+Steel

Another rare OOP Heather Ross

Wee Wander

This is from the Tokyo Train Ride line by C+S

I think that is all of them!

I did a meandering stipple throughout using white Aurafil. The binding is Kona Steel with a strip of Ultra Marine for fun.

I'm so glad I made a quilt that is actually staying at our house and that my youngest already adores!

Which is your favourite block?

Linking Up with Crazy Mom Quilts Finish It Up Friday!