Finished Garden Fence Quilt

A few years back, I gave my mom a bundle of fabric for Christmas. I had finished my dad's quilt, but hadn't gotten far (or done anything really) on my mom's quilt. Several years have passed and I finally got around to finishing up and gifting her the quilt.

I used Lost and Found by My Mind's Eye for Riley Blake and the original Garden Fence tutorial from Hyacinth Quilt Designs. (I used the revised Garden Fence block for my dad's quilt.) This quilt uses 35 blocks that finish at 12 inches. I then added to narrow borders in a red Moda grunge fabric and then added an ivory border to make the quilt a bit bigger.



The backing is a gray flat sheet from Target. I used a gray bias plaid binding.

My friend, Kayli, did the quilting for me. She used various floral motifs from the prints on the front.

I especially like the double flowers she free-handed.

In the thin red border, she quilted these swirls.

And the outer border is made up of piano key quilting. You can also see a bit of the binding in this pic.

In addition to the quilt, I made a few pillowcases using this awesome tutorial, which is my go-to for pillowcase-making.

It felt so good to finally finish this project. And I think my mom was happy to have something new to go in her newly remodeled bedroom.

In Hyper-Drive Elf Mode

Christmas is right around the corner. It's been a bit quiet on the blog front as I've been racing to finish projects for Christmas. I have one last quilt to bind today or tomorrow and then a couple pillows to finish by Christmas Eve. I had high hopes to get some zipper pouches done for my coworkers for Christmas and to celebrate my 10-year anniversary with my company, but those will have to wait and be New Year's gifts instead.

I've been a busy little elf, but I can't show you most of the projects I've been working on since the recipients read this here blog. But, I did make a few pillowcases for my family, and since some of them have been gifted, I think it's pretty safe to share them.

I used Kerri's magic pillowcase tutorial to make these, and let me just say that it really is magical!

I made this Crafty Chloe pillowcase for The Middle's 4th birthday back in October.



I cut the fabric wrong for these next three pillowcases - oops - but I think they'll still work fine.







And I made these last two right before Sewing Summit. The colors blend really well with my FFA2 bed quilt. The mister claimed the second one for himself. (It's my favorite too, so sometimes I steal it.)





Speaking of pillowcases, if any of you locals are heading to the SLMQG social tonight, I have a few extra yards of fabric donated by Riley Blake if you'd like to make some pillowcases to donate to Sandy Hook Elementary, which is being organized by Quilter's Corner, a local CT quilt shop (details here). Thanks to Barbie for hooking us up!

And one last random item. Whether or not you've been following along in the Ruby Star Wrap-Along, I wanted to make sure you're aware that Sew, Mama, Sew! is hosting a contest on their blog in conjunction with the wrap-along. If you've made a project from the Ruby Star Wrapping book, you can enter it in their contest to win some pretty amazing prizes. Melody Miller and Sukie will be judging, which is even cooler!

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll be back after the holiday to share the projects I've been working like mad to finish!

Finished Rocket Me to the Moon

During my time off work last week, I finished the quilt for my son's bed, Rocket Me to the Moon.

I knew I wanted to quilt this one with something other than all-over loops, but it took a little while to decide exactly what I wanted to do. I started by outlining each square with a stitch about 1/4" inside the square on all sides. Then I was going to quilt the blue sashing only. But, then I thought it would be more fun to free-hand stars, planets, moon rocks, and an alien robot within each square instead.

Here are some moon rocks (free-motion pebbles).


Here are some stars.


The planet Saturn on the front.


And how it looks on the back.


And finally, a little alien robot on the front.


And back.


When I finished quilting all the squares, I almost left it at that, but then felt like the sashing was missing something. So, I quilted some wiggly lines vertically and horizontally along every sashing line. I like how it gives each square its own frame.


I bound the quilt in the same rocket wave fabric as the large squares on the quilt top and the waves make nice wavy stripes on the binding.


While the quilt was washing and drying, I made a matching pillowcase with the last of the rocket waves fabric. It was lacking a little something on the end so I appliquéd the same rockets that are on the back of the quilt and on the curtains in my son's room.


I wanted to get a picture of the entire quilt, but the grass was wet this morning and I don't have any helpers today to help me hold the quilt up. Oh well. You get the idea.


Be sure to check out Fabric Tuesdays today.

Finished Spring Quilt

I finally finished my spring quilt and accompanying accessories (I started it January 20). I learned a lot of things that I plan to do differently the next go around, but I'm pleased with the end results.

Here is the bed all put together. I made the quilt, pillowcases, and smaller pillow covers for the orange pillows. The mister painted the wall.




I wanted to do something a little less common for the curtains, but couldn't find a tutorial online that I liked or that would work. I like to sleep in the dark (like pitch black dark) so I needed curtains to cover the entire window. Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to line this fabric so it's not pitch black, but still dark enough for me to sleep comfortably.


I made the binding out of the blue and teal matching fabrics and alternated it around the quilt. I thought binding a quilt would be the worst part, but it wasn't bad at all.



I'm excited to get started on my next project, but I think I need a few days off first. Also, I need to do the first block in the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along, but that can wait a few days too.

After watching me do all this quilting, the mister told me that he wants to try making one too. Woohoo!

Spring quilt

Here are some photos of the quilt I'm in the process of making for my room. The mister and I wanted to mix things up a bit from what we've had in our room for the past ~five years. Since spring is on its way, we thought these colors would really brighten up the space.

The quilt top. I was inspired by Simply Authentic by Natalia from Piece N Quilt, but I altered it to fit the fabrics I wanted.



One of three throw/accent pillows I'll be making out of orange fabric to tie the bedding in with the orange wall.


The backing. I wanted the quilt to be reversible without having to piece as much as the front.


I finished piecing the backing yesterday. Next few steps? Baste, quilt, and bind. It's going to be a long process, but I'll be so pleased when it's complete.

Simple pillowcases

This is a silly thing to get excited about, but I made my first ever pillowcases yesterday. As part of the quilt I'm making for my bedroom, I wanted to make pillowcases to match that would be easier than shams that we wouldn't sleep on. I had read this post a few days ago and figured it was easy enough for me. I didn't even have to refer to it when I stitched the cases yesterday. Go me!