Sneak Peek

Look what I've been working on.... I'm really in love with it.  It is going to be hard to give away. :)

The Striped Giraffe Quilt (Ellie's Quilt)

My first finish of 2014 was actually started in 2014.  

My favorite kind of quilt to make is a baby quilt.  They are fun and bright, the fabrics for babies are adorable, they come together so quickly, I can easily quilt them, and they are less expensive.  Lucky for me, I have a ton of baby quilts to make in the next few months.  It seems like everyone I know is pregnant right now. This quilt is the first of at least 5 that I will be making.

My mom's childhood friend's son, Chase and his wife Amy, are expecting their first, a little girl they will name Ellie.

 

A local quilt shoppe went out of business, so I was able to find this cute bright giraffe fabric.  The reason this fabric originally caught my eye was because it had giraffes.  I like giraffe fabric because it matches my new hobby, arigami.

I am totally addicted to making these.  I have also learned to make other animals which will be given with the other quilts I am working on.

 Back to the quilt.  I used a pattern called Back to School by Cluck Cluck Sew.  I love the look of the pattern and quilt, but this was not my favorite pattern to make.  I decided to use minky for the inlaid squares...BAD idea.  Minky stretches, moves and just doesn't stay put.  It made my rows kind of squirmy and hard to get strait and even.  With it all finished and quilted I like it, but if you asked me halfway through, I hated this quilt ;).  The great thing about the quilt though, is that all the fabrics came from my stash!  (Yeah! Because that is one of my goals for 2014: use fabrics from my stash.)

Stats:
40" x 50"
Started: January 2014
Finished: January 2014
Machine quilted by me.
For: Chase Gardner's Baby, Ellie

Polka Dot Starburst Quilt

 Last Spring I fell in love with a fabric.  (I know, surprise, surprise.)  But the fun thing was, it had corresponding colors in polka dots!  I was in a polka dot faze.  Then only a week later one of my favorite bloggers released this design.  The freaky thing was she used the same colors that I already had picked out for this quilt.  It was like she read my mind and created a design just for me. :)

What a fun quilt to make!  I really enjoyed the process.  And loved how it turned out.

Originally I was going to quilt it similarly to how Megan quilted her's.  I even quilted 3 blocks like she did.  But I just wasn't feeling it.  It looked cool, but it wasn't giving the quilt the effect that I wanted.  I think the close together stait-line quilting I was doing at first didn't make the quilt very soft and snuggly looking.So I did what any rational quilter would do...I brought out my unpicker. :0)  Now this was no sit down and watch a movie process. It took my about 3 movies to unpick it. (No not consecutive, I have kids for heavens sake.)

I decided to quilt 1/4" away from the outside star and the inside star.  Nailed it! That was the effect I wanted.

 Stats:
40" x 50"
Started: 2013
 Finished: October 2013
Machine quilted by me.
For:?? Do you want to buy it??

Topsy Turvey Turtles

I have had this turtle fabric for a couple of years knowing that I would create an original design for a baby quilt.  Then this summer, my husband's friend from work announced that they were having a baby boy.  I was so excited to get to work designing this quilt.

Originally I had wanted to to a lot of the circles into turtles.  But adding the tiny turtle head, legs, and tail was not very fun nor easy... So I ended up with only two turtles on the whole quilt.  But I really like it that way.

The turtles are so cute!

I quilted 1/4" away from the circles going vertically with an indent on each horizontal row.

Stats:
40" x 50"
Started: Summer 2013
 Finished: October 2013
Machine quilted by me.
For: Kort's baby boy

UFO #5: Light House Baby Quilt

 Many, many years ago I found this light house fabric at Joanns.  I fell in love.  I quickly created the quilt top.  This was before I knew the correct way to paper pieces, so I was still doing it the hard way.  This was also at a time when I was learning how to do applique (the turn under kind).  (Since then I have decided the only way to applique is raw-edge.  I like the look of it better, it always turns out perfect, and it is soooo much easier.)

The reason this quilt has never been finished is because it had a large blank area.  Originally I was going to appliqué a star there.  Remember that I was doing the turn under kind of appliqué.  Have you ever tried doing a star that way? It is near impossible.  So I gave up.  Then I had the brilliant idea to applique the baby's name there.  But I had no one to give this quilt to.  So it sat for years.

Recently our renters had a baby.  A boy.  And his mom LOVES light houses.  PERFECT!

I was so excited and the best part, I love the name.  It was the name I had wanted to name my little boy only my husband claimed at the time that "It wasn't a real name."  Funny because we named our son Tayo. (Don't tell my husband, but it's not a real name. :0)  Now when I told him our renters named their baby Even, my husband said, "That's a cute name."  (Where was that comment 2 years ago?)

Anyway, I am excited to be able to cross off another UFO.

 My favorite part of this quilt though is the quilted clouds.  Don't you love them.  I think it really added a great finishing touch.

 Stats:
40" x 50"
Started: 2009
 Finished: October 2013
Machine quilted by me.
For: Even and Mary Beth his mom (our renters)

Meghan's Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt

Last spring my mom fell in love with one of Moda's fabric lines called Mama Said Sew.  We decided to put together a quilt for my brother's wife since black and red is her favorite color combination. 

We were on a disappearing nine patch kick (still one of our favorite blocks to do).  They are so simple and come together so quickly.  My mom did one charm pack and I did another.  Then I put them all together to make the quilt top middle. 

If you have been following my blog long you know that boarders are my least favorite part so my mom did that (which she doesn't mind).  I pieced the back (something that terrifies my mom).

 

Then I took the quilt over to a neighbors house were we basted it together.  I taught her how to baste a quilt a while back and we did it on her ping-pong table.  Did you know that basting on a ping-pong table is great.  I want one just for basting.  I don't think her ping-pong table has been used for it's original purpose since. :0)

I then stipple quilted the whole quilt.  This was the biggest quilt I have stipple so far.  And...it really was not that bad.  I think I'm getting the hang of it.

My mom finished it by adding the binding as she is the "Binding Queen".  My mom and I really should do more quilts together as we like to do different parts of the quilt.  We may be able to finish them more often.:0)

Stats:
Started: Spring 2013
Finished: October 2013

65" x 70"
Made by Dorene and Britney for Meghan
Warm and Natural batting
Machine quilted in stipple by me

Twins' Quilts

 A lady that I visit teach recently had twin girls.  I thought this would be a fun opportunity to use the "Lucy's Crab Shack" charm pack that I have been hording saving. I wanted the quilts to be the same, but with different boarder/binding fabrics.

 

I found the pattern and I made one of the quilt fronts and my wonderfully talented mother made the other.  Then it was my job to put the boarders on.  I had the large floral print that I purchased when I bought the charm packs.  When I went in search of the boarder and binding material I knew it would be impossible to find the exact coordinating fabric to go with it since this line came out over a year ago. (That's what I get for hording saving fabrics too long :)  But when I went to my local quilt shop they had the pink dots in the Crab Shack line! Then I found a green dot that fit marvelously.

I put minky on the back in the opposite colors of the boarder.  Then I finished it off with an all over stippling quilting.  I love how they turned out.

 Now they are off to snuggle some brand new babies.

Stats:
Started: April 2013
Finished: May 2013

42" x 42"
Warm and Natural batting
Machine quilted in stipple by me