Finished Nordika Tumbler Baby Quilt

After I finished my Nordika Scrappytrip quilt, I had a lot of leftover fabric strips, enough to make this baby quilt as well as a few Dresden wedges that I'll get around to showing one of these days.

One of my friends is having her third baby and this time, it's a girl so I thought this would be a great set of fabrics for her little one. I played around with cutting the pieces and settled on tumblers. Thus, the Nordika tumbler baby quilt:



I used a strip of the tumblers on the back along with some oval elements and one of my favorite Nordika prints.



Back in April, I did a little demo at the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild meeting on how I free-motion quilt. I then let anyone who wanted to try sit down with this quilt. So this one has a variety of quilting, including these cute little flowers.



I showed how I like to incorporate words into my quilting occasionally. This one has the words "love" and "family" FMQed into the edge of the quilt.



For the binding, I used the red floral print that dominates the quilt as well as the tartan plaid and a solid light gray.



My friend's baby is due in June so I'll be wrapping this one up and sending it her way soon.

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.)

Baby Quilts and a Fun Photo Shoot

In May, I committed to a craft fair with my sisters so I made a few baby quilts. My girls had fun helping me take photos Sunday afternoon. (My son was too busy playing legos.)

The Middle did a great job holding these quilts for me. This one is a whole cloth baby quilt featuring Liz Frenette's Kona Modern Quilts.

Then the baby wanted in on the action.

"I can hold the quilt too, Mom."

"See?!"

"Oh, wait! There's a camera over there!"

This baby quilt is made of coordinating solid charms in the Pacific colorway from Liz Frenette's Kona Modern Quilts line.

I used the dot print on the back and one of the wonky stripe prints for the binding.

This patchwork quilt uses charms from Kate Spain's Central Park line. I straight-line quilted on either side of each seam.

I used this animal print for the back, as well as two other prints from the line for the binding. I added a touch of pink and blue for a little pop as well in the top right corner.

Here's the last quilt. I had a bunch of random solid charms so I just put them all together into this little boy baby quilt.

The backing is Dear Stella's Yard Sale in Cantaloupe. I made another scrappy binding out of blue, aqua, and lime, with a touch of orange for good measure.

First Finished Baby Quilt of 2013

My sweet nephew was born at the end of November. Since I started quilting, I’ve enjoyed making quilts for the new babies who’ve joined our family. I typically try to get the quilt made by the time each baby is born, but since Micah’s mom and dad wanted to be surprised by his gender at birth, I didn’t get this quilt finished before he was born. In fact, after he was born, Christmas gift sewing was in full swing so sweet little Micah had to wait a couple months before getting his quilt.

My sister-in-law told me she likes chevrons right now. So I decided to follow Leigh’s tutorial for making chevron blocks out of flying geese. After playing around with the layout a bit, I decided I wanted something a little different. Here’s what I came up with.



I used a variety of prints from several fabric lines. I used the two Riley Blake Wheels prints that I had leftover from these two quilts as my focus fabric and then pulled other prints that I think go well with Wheels. I used Kona Coal for the background fabric.

On the back, I used my last piece of the Wheels collection along with some Alphabet Soup, Hope Valley, Blush, and that orange print. (I’m not sure what line it’s from. It was one of the fat quarters that came in the Pink Castle Fabrics’ Stash Stack Club.) The binding is Ovals in aqua from Half Moon Modern.



I quilted loops in the gray background only, which was fun and really helps the colors pop.



This baby quilt measures about 36 inches square and will be gifted to Micah on Sunday.

WIP Wednesday 1/23/2013

This is my first WIP Wednesday post of 2013. I thought it'd be a good time to check in and post a bit of my finish it 2013 progress. I've neglected my camera lately, so these photos are courtesy of Instagram (@pitterputterstitch).

Last year, I pieced a few quilt tops and then set them aside while I worked on other projects. My first order of business for 2013 was to get those quilt tops quilted. They were all bee quilts so I chose to send them off for quilting.

Kayli quilted my Sew Beautiful Bee quilt top from 2011, Circle of Circle of Circle of Flying Geese. She did such a great job! I've cut the binding strips for this and just need to finish making the binding so I can cross this quilt off my list.

Barbie quilted my SLMQG bee quilt from 2011, my 1001 Peeps Supernova quilt (photo courtesy of Barbie). I love the wavy line quilting she did! The binding strips are cut and ready to turn into binding for this one too.

The last quilt top I sent off for quilting is my Gradated Mod Mosaic quilt top, my 2012 Sew Beautiful Bee quilt. I haven't gotten this one back yet, but I'm really excited for it!

Next up on my WIP list is my Madrona Road Challenge quilt. I initially wanted to make a quilt with a lot of Lynne's ET Phone Home blocks,

but then I changed course and went with Anna Maria Horner's Spinning Stars pattern instead. I've been wanting to make a quilt like this so I figured I may as well kill two birds with one stone.

I hope to finish this one up next week in time for the Modern Quilt Guild's deadline.

I also finished a quilt top for my new nephew.

I plan to baste this one when I baste my Madrona Road quilt. Then I need to get back to this baby, my Castle Peeps Lucky Square quilt. The mister is really looking forward to having a quilt of his own. This pattern is by Jessica Kelly and is for sale here.

Linking up to Lee's:

Breeding Like Rabbits: Two Finished Baby Quilts

It seems like everyone I know is pregnant right now. Or just had a baby. It also feels like I've made more baby quilts this year than in the two previous years that I've been quilting.

First up is a quilt for my friend and neighbor, Amy. She is due to have a little girl in a week and a half. Some people who are expecting girls are in one of two campgrounds: "I love pink" or "I hate pink." She's in the "I love pink" camp (hot pink to be exact). I just so happened to have the perfect girly hot pink fabric waiting to be made into a simple patchwork baby quilt.



I received a fat quarter bundle of Joel Dewberry's Heirloom in the Sapphire colorway for Christmas last year. I love the colors, but tend to shy away from making overly girly quilts for myself/my home because I want all the quilts I make to be equally loved by my family. Since there are two boys in the house, I wasn't sure a quilt with this fabric would be loved as much. So, I was really happy to cut some of it up for this quilt. And, I still have plenty of fabric left over for some more girly projects, maybe a couple patchwork skirts for my girls.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a hot pink bed sheet on hand, which I used for the backing. (I know I'm lazy when it comes to making backings, but that's something I'm going to try to work on in 2013.) I used the sheet for the binding too, but added a few small pops of Heirloom. I straight-line quilted on both sides of each seam. It measures about 36 inches square.



Next up is a baby quilt for another friend who's having a boy mid-December. I made a quilt for her daughter when she was born as well. This time I used a couple charm packs of Riley Blake's Super Star. I forget sometimes that the amount of fabric in precuts varies by manufacturer, so I added a border to make this quilt a bit bigger. It measures about 34x39 inches.



I used this dusty blue solid (Kona, but I'm not sure what color) for the backing and binding, adding a few more pops of Super Star for fun. The quilting is organic straight-lines on both sides of each seam.



For those of you in the states, I hope you have a safe Thanksgiving weekend! I'm trying to decide if I want to brave the crowds and pick up some Pellon batting (major sale) at Joann's today.

Finished Out to Sea Quilt for Baby Annie

My sister-in-law had a baby girl last week on my mother-in-law's birthday - how cool is that?! I made this quilt for her and, fortunately, gave it to her the Sunday before. Talk about good timing!



I had been going back and forth trying to decide what fabrics to use for baby Annie's quilt for quite some time. Then, when I saw Sarah Jane's Out to Sea collection, I knew I had to have it. See, my sister-in-law is a huge fan of Sarah Jane. The colors in the deep sea jewel colorway were perfect too!

I thought it would be fun to do equilateral triangles. I cut 6" strips of fabric and then sub-cut the triangles by rotating my ruler, using the 60 degree mark.

For the back, I used some of the leftover triangles as well as the pirate girls print.



I did straight-line quilting on each side of the seam lines on the diagonal, giving it a diamond look on the back.

For the binding, I used the Water Chevron print in Bloom from the same colorway.

The quilt measures approximately 42"x48".

Welcome, baby Annie! We're so glad you've come to join our family!

A few random sewing projects, part 2

Tuesday was my anniversary. The mister had to work late, so I thought I'd start a new EPP (English paper piecing) project just for me. I pulled out Katy's Spring Carnival printout and templates and set to work. I'm using some Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow fabric that I've been saving for a while to make a pillow or two for my new couch. Since taking this pic, I've changed my mind on the brown print. I'll be using white for those triangle sections.

Katy's teaching a class on this design at The Sewing Summit in the fall. I'm crossing my fingers that I can take it while I'm there.



I have also been brainstorming some ideas for baby quilts. Two of my sisters-in-law are having babies in the next couple months. One of my good friends is in the hospital right now on bed rest and as a precaution due to placenta previa. I'm thinking I'll make a giant granny squares quilt for her soon-to-be-born little girl using some charms from Kate Spain's Central Park line.



I bought a couple more quilting books as well. I really enjoyed flipping through these books. I've been a fan of Jacquie Gehring since I started quilting and I love how she and Katie Pedersen teach the techniques behind the quilts they show in the book, rather than just the pattern for the design. I think this approach is generally more helpful when you're trying to develop skills and a greater understanding of quilt construction.



I'm a new fan of Angela Walters. I've never loved the quilting part of making quilts, but I think Angela has done such a great job of illustrating how to go about expanding your quilting skills. I'm excited to try more techniques from her book.



And here's a little sneak peek of the quilt I finished last week. I was inspired by Angela's book and tried out a few new quilting designs. They certainly aren't perfect, especially when my nose was an inch away from the quilt, as Angela puts it. But, when you stand back and look at the overall quilt, you can see how I actually put some thought into the quilting.



I'll share more of this quilt next time. I'm off to celebrate my anniversary with the mister. Have a good weekend!

Finished Twin Quilts Round Two

Some of our good friends are expecting twin boys next month. These will be their first children and we couldn't be happier for them! I bought a bunch of this Wheels line thinking I would make a quilt for my son since he loves cars and trucks. But, the fabrics just sat there in my drawer, waiting. So I pulled them out, cut them into 5 1/2" squares, and set to work making two baby quilts.

The first, I laid out as a plus quilt.

I even pieced the back,

The other is a simple patchwork quilt.

With a more skiwampus pieced back. Oops.

I used prints from Riley Blake's Wheels line and added some extra fabrics, including Kona sage, Barbara Jones' Hip Holidays (the blue diagonal stripe), and Heather Bailey's Bijou Mod Beads.

I quilted the plus quilt with straight lines 1/4" on either side of each seam. For the patchwork quilt, I quilted three wavy lines per 5" square.

With my first set of twin quits, I opted to use similar designs with different fabrics. This time, I chose to use the same fabrics, but with different design layouts. I must say that I like this version better.

Each quilt measures approximately 35"x40".

Holy WIP Wednesday Batman!

Hooray for Wednesdays! They give me a good kick in the pants to evaluate what I've been working on and make sure I'm on track to get the things done that I need to. This week, I feel like I've gotten a lot done. So let's get to it.

Granny Squares

I caught the Granny Squares bug (read more here).

I-Spy Swap

I cut up a couple I-Spy fat quarters into five-inch charms for a swap. I'll be getting back 48 unique charms I can use in an I-Spy quilt. It'll be fun to have another option for my kids to use on the couch so they don't fight over The Lorax quilt I'll be making soon.

Fabrics are:
Red Letter Day White Ducks on Pink in Feather by Lizzy House
Outfoxed Hedgehogs in Navy by Lizzy House
Metro Cafe Toasters Toast in Spring Blue by Monaluna
Going Coastal Crab Walk in Gray by Emily Herrick

Twin Quilts

My nephew and his wife had twins a couple months ago, actually about two months after I had my baby. (It sounds pretty crazy to say that I'm a great aunt, especially after just having a baby, but I'm only five years older than my nephew.) I've been meaning to make quilts for these adorable babies for a while now. They live in Chile so I think I've used the excuse of them not being close to put these quilts on the back burner. But, after seeing Jessica's super cute Baby Blocks quilt, I decided to finally get started and set to work cutting the fabric. In no time, I had two quilt tops done.

Sew Beautiful Bee Prep

April is my month in the Sew Beautiful Bee. I'm having the girls make Mod Mosaic blocks using Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial. I'll share more on this later this week as I get the fabric shipped out, but for now I'll share my test block.

So, there you have it folks. I feel like I put a good dent in my never-ending to-do list.

This Week's Stats:
Finished: 0
In Progress: 10+
New: 4