Finished Blue Plus Quilt

The third quilt I finished for Christmas is this blue plus quilt for my brother-in-law. While my sister-in-law had been quick to respond to my request for favorite colors, my BIL didn't say a word (so typical...just teasing J!). Since blue is my favorite color and I have at least two times as much blue fabric in my stash than any other color, I figured it'd be a good, manly choice for my BIL's quilt.

I made a plus quilt for a friend's baby in 2012 and I really loved how it turned out. (Funny how such a simple pattern can be just what the doctor ordered.) I decided to use that pattern for my BIL's quilt too. So, I pulled out a variety of blue prints ranging from light blue to royal blue to navy to teal and cut them up into five-inch charm squares.



One of my goals at the beginning of 2013 was to make more pieced quilt backs, which is not something I like doing. For this quilt, though, I used up some larger blue and green cuts of fabric to make a simple back, nothing fancy.



I quilted straight lines on each of the seams and bound the quilt in a variety of blue prints. The quilt measures about 67 inches square.

Finished Pixelated American Football Quilt

I finally got my computer back so now I can share this quilt finish with you.

One of my nephews is a huge football fan. He played all growing up and in high school and now he's in college. In trying to personalize a quilt for him, I used his favorite colors (orange, green, and purple) to put together this pixelated football quilt.



I used the orange for the football, of course, and probably should have only used green in the background so it'd look like grass, but I didn't think of that until I had already pieced the top.

















I used an orange sheet for the backing that I picked up at Target or Walmart.



To frame the quilt, I chose an orange binding from the Chicopee collection by Denyse Schmidt.



I quilted a meandering stipple on the entire quilt. I've been trying to practice, but I think perhaps I should practice on small quilt sandwiches until I get a better handle on it. It's not terrible, but I don't think it looks great yet.



Quilt Stats:
Approximately 67x67 inches
4.5 inch finished squares
Variety of orange, green, and purple prints and solids
Orange Chicopee, machine-sewn binding
Meandering stipple quilting

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.

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.

Finished Pixelated Heart Quilt

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In my WIP tracking post, I briefly mentioned this pixelated heart quilt and that I was making it before I knew what I was doing. You see, I had seen Amanda’s version of Jolene’s heart quilt a couple weeks ago and I just absolutely fell in love with it. Then I saw my friend Kara’s version on Instagram and wanted to make my own that much more. I’m not much of a fan of hearts, but I really loved Amanda’s quilt top. I loved it so much that I couldn’t stop thinking about it that Friday. (Do you ever do that?) When I got home from work, I pulled fabrics and then started cutting squares that night.

I didn’t think I would have enough low volume prints to use as the background, so I opted to reverse the design. After cutting all my charms, though, I saw that I easily would have had plenty of low volume prints to do it the original way. Oh well. I guess I made it my own.



This is not my typical color scheme at all. It has a deep, jewel-tone feel to me and usually I’m drawn to brights. So this was a fun step-outside-my-comfort-zone project that I actually really ended up liking when it was all finished.

For the back, I used several fat quarters of Michael Miller cotton couture solids in purples and pinks that I won in the Fall for Solids Challenge. This was the perfect use for them as I rarely use pink and purple in my quilts. I threw in a few more pink fat quarters and other scraps as well to fill in the holes.



I made a scrappy binding out of some red, purple, and pink Free Spirit blenders that were also in the Fall for Solids prize pack.

As for the quilting, I think there are four different thread colors in this one: red, burgundy, purple, and white. I used the reds and purple in the background and white in the heart. I quilted the quilt in meandering loops.

The quilt measures about 66 inches square and has been a nice couch quilt that we’ve been enjoying this past week.

My Turn in the Sew Beautiful Bee

A few months ago I participated in some of Kati's color wheel charm swaps. After two rounds, I had all these five-inch charm squares and no plans for what to do with them.

Fast forward to the end of January/first of February. I started brainstorming about what I'd like the girls in the Sew Beautiful Bee to make during my month. I toyed with a few scrap quilt ideas (using confetti blocks like this and wonky triangle blocks like the one in Block Party). Ultimately, I settled on mod mosaic blocks using Elizabeth's tutorial.

I thought this would be a great way to use the charms, so I set out organizing single-color packs of fabric

and planning this layout.

My plan is for each block to gradually move from color to color. For example, for those making the green blocks, they'll place the green-yellow fabrics in the upper left corner, the green fabrics diagonally in the middle (bottom left to top right), and the green-blue fabrics in the lower right corner.

I'll be making all the yellow and blue blocks while the rest of the girls in the bee make the other blocks for me.

I really hope this idea works. I think the end product has the potential to be pretty awesome!