Finished Rectangle Squared Quilt for My Sister

A long time ago, say two years or so, I started a quilt for one of my sisters. She picked the design then I bought the fabric, made a few blocks, and gave her those blocks for her birthday. Unfortunately, I've learned that without deadlines sometimes I don't finish what I've started unless I have a little bit of...um...encouragement.

A couple months before Christmas, my sister started talking more and more about the quilt on her bed (I think she was dropping hints that she wanted me to finish the quilt I'd started for her). Then my mom, not so discreetly, told me that my sister wanted a new quilt for her bed. So, I kicked it in high gear and finished the quilt. And, it ended up being my favorite Christmas quilt finish!

I used the rectangle squared block tutorial by Ashley over at Film in the Fridge.

I used a variety of gray and black print fabrics with Kona red and Kona white for the blocks and sashing. For the border and most of the backing, I used a damask print from some Halloween fabric line that was on sale at my LQS last year. I used the rest of the blocks and actually pieced a back (gasp!) and I kind of love how the whole thing turned out.

My friend, Barbie, quilted this water ripple design for me and I think she did such a great job!

The finished quilt measures just under 70" x 90".

Quilt Tops Become Finished Quilts

A few months ago as I was preparing for my baby's arrival, I was really getting annoyed with all the projects in my sewing space that were in various stages of incompletion. I think it was part of my nesting phase. So, once the baby was born, I set out to turn all the quilt tops I had laying around into finished quilts. I finally finished the last one just before Christmas (which was sitting around without binding for several weeks).

First up is the zigzag quilt I made for one of my sisters. I started it some time in 2010, finished the top in July, and finished the quilt in November (?) so I could finally give it to her for Christmas. I used a charm pack of Blush by Basic Grey, a charm pack of Bella snow, and some Blush fat quarters. I densely quilted the white zigzags with free motion meandering loops, regular loops in the first border, and then large meandering loops in the outer border.



As I was trying to a) finish these quilts as fast as possible and b) use fabric from my stash, I used a single print from the Panache line (can't remember the designer). It was a hair too small to cover the whole back so I added a little strip of some green solid. The back doesn't look as nice as I would have preferred, but it works.



Next up is the quilt that I started way back in 2007 (my first quilt block ever!). I finished this top sometime in July too and decided to finish it up to give to one of my nieces for Christmas. With the exception of the solid blue (a Kona cotton), all the fabrics came from Hancocks and Joanns. I bought them all several years ago when I didn't think fabric quality mattered. You can really feel the difference when you compare this quilt to another made from quilt-shop quality fabrics.



I alternated between straight lines one-inch apart and meandering loops for the quilting on this one.



This one didn't get finished before my baby was born like I wanted it to, but we've been able to get good use out of it since I finished it. It makes me happy to see my sweet baby with it.



I quilted loops in the white sections and then flowers, swirls, and snails in the Freebird sections. I used a brown and cream dot from the Freebird line for the binding.



My first quilt-along, in 2010, was for a jellyroll sampler. The mister's aunt is like another grandma to my kids so I wanted to finish this quilt up so I could give it to her for Christmas. It was well-received as she now considers herself part of the family. =)



I quilted meandering loops in a red thread for this one and really like the contrast it adds to the quilt. The binding is smaller than what I normally do, so I struggled a bit with it. But, I wanted to use the leftover jellyroll strips, which are 2.5 inches. My usual binding width is 3.25, which I'm much more comfortable working with.



Next up is my final quilt of 2011. I love it so much that I almost had a hard time giving it away. Good thing I love my dad so much.

2011 Sewing: Year in Review

The year is nearly over and I can't believe how much I got done despite being pregnant for three-fourths of it! As I looked back over the year, I was surprised to see that nine of the fourteen quilts I made I finished in the last four months!



In addition to fourteen quilts, here are some of the other things I made:



These are the blocks I made for the girls in the Sew Beautiful Bee.



And here are the swap items I received during the year plus the blocks I made for both the 4x5 Bee and the La Beeda Loca Bee.



I looked over the list of goals I set for myself for 2011 as well and found that I met about half of them:

1. Cathedral Windows Quilt - Nope
2. Sew Beautiful Bee Quilt - Blocks received, but not pieced into a top yet
3. Goldfish Quilt - Done!
4. New quilt for my bed - Done, but not photographed yet
5. & 6. Quilts for two of my sisters - I finished one, but still need to work on the other
7. Quilt for my parents' bed - Halfway done on this one
8. Colorbrick Quilt - Nope
9. Car and Truck Quilt - Nope
10. Figgy Pudding Christmas Quilt - I bought the Swoon pattern and plan to make this quilt for next Christmas.
11. Finish quilt tops - Done!
12. Swaps - Done!

I'm still mulling over my sewing goals for 2012, so stay tuned!

Finished Color Beads Quilt

I finished this quilt last week. I used my Accuquilt GO! baby fabric cutter and thought I'd show you how I did it. The good news is that you can make this quilt even if you don't have a GO! baby because I used my 5-inch square die.



This necklace served as the inspiration for the quilt.



I've been wanting to play around with the color wheel for a while, so I took out one of my fabric drawers and my scrap bin and tried to find fabric that would work for every color. (I was low on purple, but I think I found a fabric that worked well enough as it had red and blue dots.)



Here are some of the fabrics I pulled.



I wanted the quilt to be simple so the color would be the focus. I pulled out my GO! baby and my 5-inch square die and went to work.



With the help of my two oldest kiddos, we had 28 charms cut in no time.



I arranged the squares and then pieced them into two rows of six and two rows of seven.



I then measured the rows of six charms and cut a piece of Kona white that was that dimension squared. In this case, it was about 27 inches. After piecing the charms to the white center square, I added 15-inch borders to all sides of the quilt, making it about 65 inches square.



For the binding, I used a black and white striped fabric from the Dr. Seuss line that I had on hand. I was about a strip short so I added a couple strips from a fat quarter with the primary colors on it.



I went with a solid Kona yellow for the backing. Note to self: make sure to position the label far enough into the backing so you don't cut it off when you square up your quilt. At least only one line of the label got chopped when I removed the excess backing and batting, and it wasn't really important for the quilt anyway.

I quilted it with wavy straight lines, like on this quilt, but about 2-3 inches apart.



I was happy that all this fabric came from my stash, except the Kona yellow. It feels good to use what I have. I think I'll do it more often.

Finished Monopoly Mixtape Quilt

I finished this Monopoly Mixtape quilt a couple days ago. I used Elizabeth Hartman's Mixtape Quilts II pattern (for purchase here). I initially planned on making the Favorite Songs layout for a 47x47 quilt. Since I decided to make the quilt at 9 at night, I opted to leave out the sashing and just sew the 6-inch blocks into rows and columns. That way, I had a finished quilt top by the time I went to bed. Omitting the sashing left me with a 36x36 quilt.



As this is for a new little baby-to-be, I wanted to try quilting with a flannel backing to make it softer. I thought it would be really shifty, but it was surprisingly the same as with a cotton backing.



I like how the quilting adds another type of texture to the flannel.



I still need to work on getting a consistent stitch length as I'm quilting. For some reason, I just want to move the quilt fast and I have a hard time slowing down.

To save time, I trimmed the backing to about an inch and a half and then turned the edge over and then over again to self-bind the quilt. I did this a few weeks ago on a quilt my brother-in-law asked me to bind for his wife for a surprise Christmas gift. The corners didn't turn out as well as I would have liked on that one and I wanted to see if I could figure out how to miter them properly. I think it worked well this time. It certainly helped that the flannel I used wasn't shifty.



I think the quilt came together nicely and I think my friend will like it. She's having a girl, and since it's her first, she's really excited for all things pink. I'm not a huge fan of "baby pink" so I thought I'd add a little brighter pink to her nursery.

The only unfortunate part of this quilt is that I finished it before making my practice dresden plate. I think that flower would have looked so cute sewn onto the back of the quilt.

Finished Weihnachtsstollen Quilt

I started this quilt back in the summer, but then put it away to work on other projects. I wish I hadn't because then I had to scramble last week to finish it. It was a Christmas present for my mom and I wanted it ready for her to have out the entire month of December. We set up her Christmas decorations yesterday.

This was my first try at a disappearing nine-patch pattern. I like how the design worked out and the colors are great for my mom.



For the quilting, I straight-line quilted 1/4" on each side of the sashing strips, then I quilted concentric squares within each set of blocks. I love the design it created on the back.



It was a nice surprise for my mom Thanksgiving morning. My dad told me yesterday that my mom stops to look at it on her way to the bathroom, which is saying something since she usually doesn't stop for anything when she's gotta go.

Finished Coins for Clara Quilt

I had another quilt-related marathon this weekend. I finished the Coins for Clara quilt. I wanted to try straight-line quilting on a larger scale - since I've only done a little bit on one quilt and a nametag - and I love how it turned out. I thought it would take way more time than it did (I think it was only about an hour and a half's worth of work).


I upped the stitch length to 7 and I think the longer stitches are the look I've been trying to get when I've attempted this in the past. I sewed two seams down each white sashing strips, about 3/4" apart, then turned the quilt and made a grid pattern that mostly outlined each coin section. I then added a few more lines to the middle sections.


I didn't worry about marking the quilt at all. I just let my lines be as straight as they wanted to be. It's a bit organic-looking and I love the non-rigidity of the not-perfectly-straight lines.


The quilting really accents the stacked coin design. Although I want to improve my free-motion skills, it's nice to have a quilt with quilting that looks decent.


In lieu of a separate label that I attached to the quilt back, I opted to write directly on the backing. But then I accidentally stitched right through my name. Oops.


I had some solid green in my stash and it happened to match the fabric collection perfectly so I used it with the brown print for the backing.


I tried a new binding method this time. (I've done the binding differently on every quilt I've made.) I've settled on the width that I like (3 inch strips), but haven't decided on the attaching method. This time, I tried Red Pepper Quilt's machine method. It made the front look pretty good, but I didn't catch the binding underneath a couple times so it looks a little funny. I guess if I had pinned the binding down I wouldn't have had that problem.

So far, I think the binding method I like the best is to attach the first part of the binding to the back of the quilt, then I fold it over to the front and topstitch it down. I've gotten pretty good results with even/straight stitches the last couple times I've used it so I think I'll stick with that method. I want to try hand stitching sometime, but my problem is that I'm too impatient. Even though I think hand stitching looks great, the thought of spending hours doing something by hand that I can do much quicker by machine makes me a little crazy. I'm making a doll quilt for my quilt group's color challenge so maybe I'll try hand sewing the binding on that small quilt.


The quilt measures about 43 inches square, before washing. My washing machine decided to go kaput this weekend and not spin the water out of the clothes. The new washer won't arrive until Friday. I love the washed look so I'm antsy for Friday to get here.

Do you wash your quilts after you've finished them, but before gifting them? There's a good discussion here that I'm totally on the same page with.

Make sure to check out Sew and Tell this week.

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.