Finished Horsey HST Baby Quilt

My coworker's wife had a baby in December. Our department was planning on going in on a minkee blanket for his baby girl, but then another coworker said, "I have this friend who makes quilts..." (wink, Brooke, wink), so I ended up making a baby quilt.

I bought this adorable Ann Kelle horse (or is it a donkey?) print for my youngest because she loves horses, but when I started looking through my stash, I thought this print would look so cute in a baby quilt, especially because I could pull in non-girl colors and it'd work out great.

I enlarged the block that I made for Angela in the Sew Beautiful Bee back in 2011. I then added a white border and grabbed a bunch of pieces of leftover binding from other projects.



I backed it in minkee so it'd be cuddly soft for baby Maxine. This was the first time I've used minkee in a quilt back and it was SO MUCH EASIER than I thought it'd be.

I quilted organic straight lines on each side of the squares with my free-motion foot. I prefer using this foot because the walking foot takes longer and I like the flawed straight line better with the free-motion foot than the flawed straight line I get with my walking foot. =)

The quilt measures about 38" square. And, this is the first quilt that I've made start to finish in a day--about 4 hours. (This includes selecting the fabric, calculating the measurements to enlarge the block, cutting the fabric, piecing the individual blocks, piecing the top, basting the quilt, quilting the quilt, and binding the quilt.)

Cuckoo Divided Basket

I like to make handmade gifts for people, especially those that I know appreciate the time and effort that go into making something myself. My sister is one of those people. I couldn't come up with an idea for her for Christmas, but then she rearranged her bedroom and needed a better way to organize some of the stuff she keeps by the side of her bed. Enter the divided basket pattern by Anna at Noodlehead. I had bought the pattern a little while before, but hadn't yet tried it out. So, I gathered the needed supplies and went to work.



I picked this cuckoo clock print as my focal fabric and then pulled some other prints from my stash.

I decided not to cover the webbing with fabric to eliminate an extra step, but I do think that the baskets I've seen that have fabric covered handles are super cute.

I also think that the center divider needs something a little stiffer. It definitely serves its purpose by separating the items in the basket, but I think I'll switch it up a little bit next time. I also want to play around with adding more dividers. My mom asked for a basket like this and that she can insert into her ginormous purse that can help organize the contents a little better. I'll have to fiddle with the pattern a bit to get it to work the way I want.

I'm really pleased with how the basket turned out and plan to make a bunch more. I can see a lot of fun color combos playing well in this basket. I think it would be fun too to leave out the divider and have a nice big basket for storing some of my little one's toys in downstairs in the living room.

Finished Nordika Scrappy Trip Quilt

A couple days before Christmas, I wrote about some of my 2014 goals. The first item on my list was a scrappy trip quilt using Nordika by Jeni Baker. I really loved my first scrappy trip quilt that I made for my nephew. When I bought some Nordika and coordinating solids and oval elements from Art Gallery, I knew I wanted to make another scrappy trip quilt for me. After Christmas, I got the itch to start this quilt, and I finished it a couple days after the new year. Not bad for accomplishing my first goal of 2014 so soon into the new year.

I initially planned to use the same layout as my first scrappy trip quilt, but after piecing a couple rows together, I changed my mind and used this layout instead.

It's funny that my favorite block, which is made up of blue, gray, black, and berry, really jumps out at me in this quilt (fourth row from the left, fourth block down).

For the backing, I used a variety of solid flannel strips that coordinated with the colors on the front.

The binding is the yellow bias plaid print from Nordika, which ended up being the perfect fit! I stipple quilted on the sides and then I quilted the rest in meandering loops.

The quilt measures about 72 inches square and it's been in constant use at my house for the past two months--my favorite!

Finished Odds and Ends Trinkets Strip Quilt

A friend of the family spends Christmas at my folks' house every year. Sometimes it's hard to come up with gift ideas for her. She always spoils my kids, so I like to return the favor. This year, I made her a quilt. She likes vintagey things so when I saw this Trinkets Odds and Ends print of these girl clothing patterns, I thought it'd be perfect for this friend. I was under a bit of a time crunch, so I went for a simple strip quilt using various prints that went with the focal fabric. I separated the varying width strips with Kona snow.



The fabric I used for the backing was a large cut of blue fabric (no clue what kind) that I got from the mister's grandmother. She'd had it for years so I thought it fit well with the vintage feel I was going for. I opted to lightly quilt in the separating strips. I quilted a variety of meandering designs.



I was limited on the size of the backing so the quilt is actually longer than I think it should be, but if I had eliminated some of the rows, I don't think it would have been big enough for a suitable lap quilt. So, the quilt measures approximately 55" by 70".