A girl and her quilts

You probably think that The Middle is my favorite child because she's featured on my blog so much. While I do love her more than I can say, truth is, she's so enthusiastic about sewing that I want to continue to foster her love for it for as long as she'll let me - those teenage years will come all too quickly.

Several months ago, she asked if she could make a quilt for one of her babies. I pulled out a box of scraps and told her to look through them and pick what she wanted. She did such a great job coordinating her fabrics! We got her a little sewing machine for Christmas so we pulled it out and I showed her what to do. Then she pieced the entire doll quilt top by herself. Seriously, she's better at improv piecing than I am! (We'll have to spend a bit more time on consistent seam allowances though.)



She helped me quilt it and then I attached the binding.

Also some time earlier in the year, I did a demo on machine binding at one of our Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild meetings. I didn't have a quilt ready to bind at the time. I didn't want the binding to be for nothing so I put together a little doll sleeping bag/bed thing that The Middle can put a doll or two in at bedtime.

She picked the fabrics out for me.

I wish I could bottle up her energy and sweetness. We didn't make this blanket, but she takes it out of a quiet book my mom helped me make before I had any kids and she carries it around with some of her stuffed animals. She wanted a picture of her holding it like the others. Dang, she's cute!

Finished Fandango Charm Toddler Quilt

I started this simple patchwork quilt back in May in between all the traveling I was doing. I used about two and a half charm packs of Kate Spain's Fandango line that I've had forever.

I initially intended for this quilt to be for one of my nieces for Christmas, but when my four-year-old saw it, she asked if she could have it. She said, "Mom, it's so cute! It has pink!" (She's pretty much set with anything pink.) The size was too small for a lap quilt, but it's a perfect toddler size and covers her body if she's laying down under it. And since I *still* haven't finished the quilt for her bed, I figured I should let her have this one, especially because she was so excited about it.



This photo makes me happy because it includes so many handmade things in it: the quilt, The Middle's dress, and my skirt. Handmade makes me happy!

For the backing, I used this Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush print that goes well with the colors in Fandango. It wasn't quite wide enough, so I included a strip of this Joel Dewberry print. The binding is more of the AMH print and includes some Heather Bailey Bijoux dots. I usually prefer to cut my binding strips at three inches, but this one I used two-and-a-half-inch strips. It works with the smaller quilt, but it was kind of a beast to attach. I think I'll stick with my three inch strips.

Finished Granny Squares Quilt

I started in on the Granny Squares craze early last year, but decided it could be one of those projects that I work on here and there as I was in the mood. As I've been on a mission to finish my WIPs this year, I knew I had to get this one done. The down side was that I didn't love how my blocks were looking in the traditional layout. So, I changed it up and pieced them on point - basically I made one huge Granny Square block out of my individual blocks. I then added a thin blue border (Dear Stella's Yard Sale in Sky) and a wider green border (Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane Hop Dot in Olive) to get a good size quilt (I think it's about 65 inches square).



For the backing, I used this blue flannel print that I picked up at Joann's a while back. I used Lizzy House's Pearl Bracelets in purple and Patty Young's Textured Basics Papaya Diamond for the binding strips. I quilted it in meandering loops. I thought I'd keep this quilt, but when I finished it, I kept thinking about one of my sisters. I haven't made her a quilt yet and her birthday was this month so I thought it'd be the perfect time to gift her this.

Finished Modern Yardage Quick Curve Ruler Star Block Quilt

At the end of June, I posted about a new quilt I had started featuring some Modern Yardage fabric called Personality by Emilie Daly.

I set to work cutting the fabric and trying out my new Quick Curve Ruler (blogged about here and here) to make these star blocks. The blocks themselves used almost exactly the two yards of fabric that I received from Modern Yardage - talk about a happy accident since I didn't plan that! I pieced the blocks together and then added a border to make it a bit bigger. Here's how it turned out.

For the backing and binding, I pulled colors that I had on-hand in my stash that went with the Carefree colorway of the Personality fabric.

I wanted to try out my echo quilting foot so I free-form followed the shape in the negative space between the blocks. It was a bit tricky getting the hang of using the echo foot. By the time I hit the center of each section, my lines were more curved rather than boxy so I'll definitely need to practice more. I love the texture it created though.

Starting a "My Precious" Quilt and a 4th of July Skirt

For my birthday this year, my mother-in-law got me the Quick Curve Ruler by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful. I've heard a lot of great things about this ruler and was excited to give it a try. For our June quilt guild meeting, we had a pillow cover swap. I thought it would be the perfect time to try out this ruler using some Katie Jump Rope and Flea Market Fancy squares that I already had precut. I loosely used the tutorial here to make this block (I started with larger squares for my four-patch and added a border to make the block approximately 19 inches finished).



I didn't end up making the pillow for our guild's swap because I liked how it turned out so much that I decided to make more blocks and turn it into a quilt. Sorry guild ladies!

I also used this ruler for my Modern Yardage star quilt, which I shared a bit about here.

***

As I'm sure any of you regular readers know, The Middle loves wearing skirts and dresses. Some days it bugs me (wear something else, kid!), but other days I'm glad that I can whip up quick and easy skirts for her. I had this Dress Up Days zig zag print on hand that I thought would make a fun 4^th of July skirt. I added a bit of ric rac trim to the bottom. The skirt is a little on the long side, but it’ll work for this summer AND next.

For those of you in the states, have a safe and happy July 4th holiday tomorrow!

Quilt Tops a Long Time in the Works

In 2012, I jumped on the Granny Squares bandwagon. I love the quilts that came out of that craze and didn't have the self control to not start my own. I pulled out my scraps and cut squares for several blocks. But, like a lot of things on my sewing plate, I let this one sit for a while. Once I pieced all the blocks, I didn't like the traditional layout, I think because of the scraps I had used. I played around with them and decided to mimic the Granny Square block itself.



I plan to add another white border to make it bigger so it's more useful for us, but thought I'd post about it since it's been in the works for so long. I have eight more blocks that I'll be piecing into a simple baby quilt too.

This next quilt top is one that I started way back when The Middle was two and I was pregnant with the baby. Now she's almost five. She picked the fabrics (Rainy Days and Mondays by Melimba and Beccabury for Riley Blake) and wanted the "flowers" (dresdens) so this is the design I came up with. I combined Elizabeth Hartman's Mixtape pattern with the fat cat dresden plates and sashed the blocks in a medium gray. Since this quilt top is intended for her bed, I'll probably just buy a flat sheet (in pink per The Middle's request) for the backing, and be done with it.