Whale of a Tale baby quilt top

This past weekend I had an itch to make a quilt.  It's been entirely too long, and with two friends just having babies in the past month, it was good timing!  I wanted something simple that I could put together in one or two naptimes, so I took to pinterest for inspiration, and came across this quilt and knew it was just perfect.  I for one believe you can never have too much chevron or herringbone in  your life so  this quilt fit the bill.



I did a little stash shopping, and dug out this Ann Kelle whale print, one of my favorite kiddie prints.  I picked out a few other blues, greens and yellows that coordinated, and got to cutting!



A naptime and a half later this quilt top was born.  I just love it to pieces, and if I ever have a boy myself, I think this is the inspiration for his one day nursery.  So bright and bold, and FUN!





I'm hoping to get this basted and quilted this weekend, so it can be off to its new home for lots of baby snuggles!

Completed Quilt: Fairy Tale Frames Baby Quilt

Now that this quilt is safely in its new home, enjoying lots of snuggles with baby A, I can share here with you all!  A very good friend of mine recently had her third baby - a baby girl after having two boys!  Naturally baby girl needed her own quilt, and it needed to be extra girly, as I'm sure baby A's big brothers will do their best to teach her all about Tonka trucks and John Deere Tractors.



Big brothers J and T of course have their own quilts so baby A's quilt now makes three in their household!  You can read about J's Jungle quilt here and T's quilt-in-a-day here.





My friend and her husband have waited until delivery day to find out the gender of all three of their kiddos (more power to them!) so from the minute we got the "It's a girl" message, I knew I wanted to cut into my Far Far Away fabric for this special little lady's quilt.  I fussy cut the block centers, and paired them with soft pinks, purples, oranges and yellows from my stash to finish this delicious baby girl quilt.





I couldn't find a backing fabric that worked with the quilt top from my stash, and really wanted to work from my stash, so I pieced together a back from left over scraps from the quilt top.  It always feels so satisfying to create a quilt from start to finish from stash fabrics!



For the binding I found this pretty pinky-purple print that I believe is a Moda print, and that's about all I can tell you about it!  I know its been sitting in my stash for quite some time and felt great to put it to use!

Quilt Stats:

Name: Fairy Tale Frames 

Pattern:  None - Fussy cut centers with contrasting fabric frames

Size: 44" x 44"

Fabrics:  Fussy cut centers:  Far Far Away reprint, coordinating prints from stash

Quilting:  All over FMQ loops 

First quilt top of 2015!

I'm proud to say my first quilt top of 2015 is completed!  And January isn't even over yet, I'm giving myself a big pat on the back here.  And more so, the actual quilt is even complete, I'm just waiting on some decent weather to get back outside and snap a few pictures!  We luckily missed the brunt of the blizzard of 2015, being in Pittsburgh, we got about 6 inches or so yesterday and that was it.  I know I'm probably crazy, but I sort of like getting those huge snowstorms!  Yes, call me nuts, but I'll never be sad about a free snow day :-)



There is absolutely nothing that I don't 1000% love about this quilt, its just so pretty and girly, and reminds me of warmer temps and summer.  I mean if its not going to snow enough to get me out of work, then I'd rather it be 80 degrees and summer.  #amiright???



This quilt is destined for a very good friend who just had her third baby, and after two boys, now has a baby girl to dress in pink and wear pretty dresses and headbands!  I wanted this quilt to be almost too sweet, as I'm sure little baby A will have PLENTY of Tonka trucks and Matchbox cars in her life, with those two older brothers of hers.



I cut into my Far Far Away bundle and fussy cut a few of my favorite prints, including the unicorns, Princess and the Pea prints as well as a few frogs and snails, and paired them with pretty oranges, yellows and pinks from my stash to put together this super sweet baby quilt.





I'm also playing around with my new camera lens Santa brought for Christmas, a 50 mm f/1.8 prime lens, I think I'm getting the hang of it, at least for stationary objects like quilts, but having a trickier time with moving subjects, like miss Nora who is on the go 100% of the time, usually climbing on something or other, so if anyone has any great tutorials they've come across or resources, I'd love to hear about it!



As soon as I have a good day to snap some pics, I'll be back with the finished quilt, and can finally get this quilt off to Miss A so it can be properly snuggled with all that baby goodness.  

Completed Quilt: Woodwinked baby quilt

Who can believe it!  I'm blogging...about a quilt!  I feel like its been forever that I've finished a real quilt, and probably that's because its been far too long since I have.  This has actually been finished for a few weeks, but I've been waiting for a good day to get outside and take some pictures!  This whole winter thing with its crazy early sunsets is cramping my quilt photographing style.  

Anyways, back to the quilt.  I made this for my soon to be nephew, who is due to join this world later this month!  My sister in law is looking ready to have that baby any day, so maybe baby G won't make his mama wait 11 days past her due date, like another little lady I know.  

My sister in law is doing a woodland creatures sort of theme to the nursery, so of course this Woodwinked fabric bundle I picked up at Rose Room Quilts was just the ticket.  I absolutely love that this little boy quilt has zero blue in it!  Its just such a knee jerk reaction that when I pull fabrics for a boy baby quilt, blue is the first color to be included.  This is a nice reminder that blue doesn't have to be the starring color every time.  Although, I will say when I showed my husband, his first comment was "there's no blue."  Seriously hubby, leave the quilt making to the professionals :-)

 

I found this super soft minky-like fabric at Joanns, and it is just perfect for the back, because not only does it leave the quilt incredibly soft and snuggle worthy, but follows along with the woodland creatures theme.  Like the cheater quilt I recently finished, I chose to omit the batting, quilting together just the quilt top and backing print.  Because the backing has such a heavy weight to it, this quilt still has a nice weight to it, without being overly bulky and heavy.  I also applique'd baby's first initial using my cricut, like I did with baby N's quilt.



The binding is a quilters linen cotton in straw from Robert Kaufman.  I have had this in my stash forever, like before I discovered my love of grey as a neutral, so it felt great to use it up!  As for the quilt top construction, you can read more about the size of triangles and assembly method I used in this post about the quilt top.



We'll be waiting to see if baby G makes it here for Christmas this year, or if he'd rather be a New Years baby instead, but either way, we can't wait to meet him!

Quilt Stats:

Name: Woodwinked baby quilt

Pattern: Equilateral triangles

Size:  appx 38" x 45"

Binding: Robert Kaufman quilters linen in straw

Backing: minky-like fabric from Joann's

Quilting:   FMQ all over loopy meandering done by me on home machine 

Snazzed up cheater quilt

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My signature welcome baby gift to friends and acquaintances and even friends of friends and family is now almost exclusively a baby quilt.  Shocking I know.  Now that I've been at this quilting thing for a few years, I love hearing how these quilts seem to be used and loved for years and years by their recipients, and that just makes my heart happy.




So when I found out that an old college friend had her baby, and it was a girl I went into immediate baby quilt gift mode and tried to think of something I could put together quickly to get to the new mommy and her bundle of joy.  Usually I plan ahead, but they didn't find out the gender, and I've found its much more fun to wait until baby is here and make a quilt more tailored to a boy or girl.

So, as I was thinking of what I could make quickly, I remembered those cheater prints I purchased from Dragon Fly Fabrics a month or so ago.  It was absolutely perfect for what I had in mind.  I quickly ironed my fabric and basted it to a piece of grey fleece and was ready to get quilting!

I have never not used batting when making a quilt before, but I am loving the weight and drape that this quilt has with a little less bulk.  The fleece backing makes it super snuggly still, but this feels more like a blanket than a full on quilt.  I will definitely be incorporating this technique more often!




I followed the faux patchwork seam lines quilting 1/4" on either side of every other square, so approximately 4" apart.  I think from start to finish this took me about an hour.  While it was beautiful as is, I felt I needed to add something a little extra to make up for my lack of actual quilt making.




Enter my Cricut Explore.  Of course second to my trusty sewing machine, this is by far my favorite new crafting toy.  I've been using it quite a bit lately making paper and vinyl projects, so when I read about how nicely it cut fabric, I decided to give it a try.  I planned out a circle scallop and text "n" for baby girl's name, applied some steam a seam and got to cutting.  It worked beautifully and just as I had imagined.  I used a zig zag stitch to complete the applique and just love this quilt to pieces.




 I seriously had to talk myself out of keeping this for myself because, you know, I also have a baby girl who's name starts with N!  You can bet I will be using my Cricut to personalize baby quilts more often (like every time) and showing them to you here on the blog.

This quilt will be going in the mail this week so it can begin getting it's baby love soon!

For the record: Cricut does not know me from Adam, I purchased the machine on my own and am passing along its rave reviews to you!

baby Leon's baby quilt

A friend of mine asked if I would make a baby quilt for a friend of hers who was expecting a little boy.  I've been quite picky with commissioned projects, as I'm pretty limited in sewing time these days, and only want to spend it working on projects I really love.  This friend is always pretty open to whatever design I pick and lets me do most of the choosing, so I rarely have an issue making quilts as gifts for her!

Her only request was that I take a look through the mommy-to-be's baby registry to make something that went with the colors in the nursery.  I do this anyways, so it certainly wasn't a problem.  When I peeked at her registry, everything was brown and cream and void of just about any color, let alone the bright saturated colors I tend to gravitate towards.  Hmm.  This certainly made me pause, as brown and cream are not colors I use often or have much of in my stash.



After getting a sense of this mama-to-be's style, she seems to like things very classic, clean, simple and neutral.  I took a few days to think the quilt top over, both design and color wise, and decided to just head to Joann's and see what I came up with.  I picked out a few brown prints and a 3 Kona shades of cream, and ultimately decided to add in a few prints in a dusty baby blue, as I couldn't bear to make a quilt that consisted of only brown and cream.  After much debate, I went with my gut and pieced together a simple strip quilt consisting of strips of various widths.

  Even though this strip quilt fits the "classic, clean, simple and neutral" bill, after piecing the top I thought it was just too plain and needed "something".  Mom ended up going into labor and delivering the baby just as I was basting the quilt, so we were able to find out the brand new baby's name.  I applique'd baby Leon's name to his quilt and think it adds just the "something else" this rather straight forward strip quilt needed.



As for the applique, I found a font I liked and typed out baby Leon's name in an absurdly large size in Word, and printed out each letter, then used light weight fusible web to adhere the text to the quilt.  I just used a straight stitch about 1/8" in from the letter edge, and applied fray check to the raw edges to prevent as much fraying as possible when washing.  I can happily report after the first washing, there was little to no fraying, so the applique should hold up to all the love and washings a baby quilt is bound to receive.



I backed this quilt in a brown Minky dot I picked up at Joann's and I must say I think I'm a Minky convert. I don't know that I will ever back a baby quilt in anything other than Minky from this point forward.  I was a little scared off when I used a "furry" minky on the back on Nora's Raspberry Orange Chevron quilt, I had a really hard time quilting it, which I attributed to just using Minky, but I think it was more because the nap was so thick, not that it was Minky in general, as I had little to no problems quilting this quilt.



As for the quilting, I stuck with my "classic, clean, simple and neutral" mantra and straight line quilted at about a 45 degree angle about 1 1/2" apart from one another.  I have to say even though this quilt is a beyond simple design, it really is one of my favorites.

We have a few close friends that are having babies, and I'm thinking they all need a quilt like this for their little ones.   Because it comes together so quickly, its an easy one to make once the baby is born and the name is known!  I'm even thinking of making of few of these without batting so it feels more just like a blanket, but is extra cuddly with the Minky.  Maybe I'll give it a try and make Nora one.  Because she definitely needs another quilt/blanket ;-)

Completed Quilt: Blueberry Pluses

I can't believe it is March and I am just getting around to posting my first finished quilt of 2014!  In all fairness, I have actually had this one finished up for a few weeks now and was just waiting for good weather and a free moment to snap some pictures.



A moment was about all I had, because it seems our dear Nora has this uncanny ability to be completely passed out in her crib snoozing away until the moment I decide to start something, and then she is wide awake and done with her nap.  Of course the first few times it happened I chalked it up to coincidence, but I am now convinced since its happened about a bajillion-ty times (yes that's an actual amount) that it is her secret power.  I'm sure one day this power will come in handy for her, but at least now, for me, it means that nothing gets done to completion.



This quilt has since been given to its new home, and hopefully is getting lots of baby boy snuggles.  It was incredibly difficult to part with this quilt, because I love just about everything about it.  From the colors- what's not to love about all that pretty aqua, to the fun prints- every baby boy needs a quilt with fun green chairs on it, to the geometric yet subtle  design, and of course my favorite quilt back of all time, my mom may have had to pry this one from my hands.



I went with my favorite "fancy" straight line quilting using the decorative serpentine stitch on my machine for a quick and simple quilting session.  I held my breath a little when quilting this, as when I did find some time to baste this quilt together, I realized I had just run out of my trusty basting spray!  I dug out my basting pins and got to work, holding my breath the entire time, as I always end up with ugly wrinkles on the back when I pin baste.  Luckily everything worked out fine and the quilt back is wrinkle/pucker free!

And with that, my first quilt of 2014 is in the books!  Hopefully it won't take me another 3 months to finish the next!!

Quilt Stats

Quilt Name:  Baby Boy Blueberry Pluses

Quilt Size: 50" x 50"

Quilt Pattern:  Plus quilt design using my tutorial

Fabrics Used:  Assorted aqua, lime and grey prints from my stash

Backing:  Ikea number fabric

Binding:  Aneela Hooey Little Apples Sweater Check print

something quilty

Someone alert the media!  Something crazy has been going on in my sewing room, to the tune of finishing a quilt top!  I think my machine was in shock, as I'm sure it has been feeling neglected over the past few months, but it certainly felt great to get behind the wheel and stitch away.

I'm still learning how to fit everything into the day, it's certainly been an adjustment to find a balance between baby, home life, work life and finding time for recreational activities like sewing.  I had been used to having huge chunks of time to sit at the sewing machine and stitch to my hearts content, and that's just not the case anymore.  Instead its more like maybe 15 minutes here and there.  I find myself often avoiding working on a project knowing that I only have those couple of minutes, but I need to learn to take advantage of any time I can, and be okay with the fact that a quilt top may take 2 weeks to put together now instead of 2 days and thats ok.  Oh that pesky learning curve.



Anyways, during naptime yesterday I was able to stitch the last few seams and sneak outside for a hot second to snap some pictures, and good thing I did as we are in the midst of what seems like the gazillionth snow storm of the year!  Although I guess I shouldn't complain, as the eastern part of the state is getting 10 times what we have gotten today!



My mom asked if I could make a quilt for a work friend of hers expecting a little boy.  She gave me free reign on the design and only requested I use blues, greens and grey.  As those colors are huge chunk of my stash, it was fun digging out my favorite aqua, lime and grey prints for this baby quilt.  I really love how the lower volume grey/white prints sort of blend together with the lighter aqua and lime prints and let the bolder prints sort of pop off the background.



This plus layout as been on my "quilts to try" list for sometime now, and I'm happy to report I only needed to unpick one seam for sewing a row together backwards!  This pattern really is timeless, and would look great in any sort of color scheme, so I'll have to keep this in mind for future baby quilts.



If this craptastic weather keeps up and were kept inside, Nora does make a great sewing buddy while Bella makes a great "baby sitter," so perhaps we'll find some time to hole up downstairs and get this quilt finished!

 
of course Bella (the dog) is 100% supervised when near the baby, but she sure does love her "little sister"!

Watermelon Seeds: Completed Quilt

Just popping in (still pregnant!) with one more quilty finish before the little lady makes her appearance!  I'm not sure how many more finishes I have in me before d-day, the basting kills me!  After basting this little guy on the kitchen floor I felt like I'd just finished an hour long workout in the pre-preggo days.  I'm hoping to squeeze in one more finish for the babe herself before she is here, but I may have to enlist the hubby's help to baste that puppy.



This is a super special quilt that needed to be finished, as its for a dear friend who is also expecting a little girl.  She's been my pregnancy buddy and the go to for when weird things are happening that only another expectant mom would not be grossed out by understand.  She just passed her due date this past Friday, so I'm counting on her to go first and tell me the good, the bad and the ugly first hand...although maybe going in with no expectations is the way to go.



Anyways, back to the quilt.  Her little lady's nursery has lots of bright pinks and greens, so when pulling fabric for this quilt, these prints just sort of made a stack all on their own.  These prints remind me of happiness, sunshine and summer, which describes my friend to a T.  I don't think I've ever seen her without a smile on her face, so I'm expecting her daughter to naturally be the same.



I've had this simple rail fence zig zag quilt on my "to try" list for sometime now, and it certainly didn't disappoint.  The quilt top came together so quickly, as in just a few hours on a Saturday while the hubs was working, thanks to strip piecing the prints/white fabric, and then cutting squares from there.  I sort of just figured it out as I went, but I found this pdf tutorial after the fact explaining the process.  I cut my strips at 2.5" wide, so this exact quilt would be even easier if you had an extra Jelly Roll laying around with precut strips!



This quilt is off for a good tumble through the washer and dryer for a proper crinkling, and then it will wait for my friend's little miss to make her appearance!

Quilt Stats

Name:  Watermelon Seeds baby quilt

Pattern: Zig Zag Rail Fence on point (kind of like this tutorial)

Size:  41" x 43"

Fabrics Used: Various fuscia/grass green prints from stash and Kona White

Backing: Amy Butler Love print and leftover strips from the quilt front

Binding: Random pink dot fabric found in my stash

Quilting:  All over loopy FMQ