Two Baby Quilts

Both of these baby quilts have been finished for quite awhile, but I haven't posted about them yet! They are both made of 5" patchwork with a 4" border; they are quilted on my simple Brother with a walking foot about 1/4" from each seam.

 Low Volume Vintage Sheets 

The patchwork was a giveaway win and then I used my own stash for the border and binding. I found the perfect backing at a rummage sale or a thrift store - I had just enough for the back!

 This quilt was quite girly and because we didn't find out Peanut's gender before she arrived, I kept telling myself that I'd donate it if Peanut wasn't a girl. I was happy when I was able to use it ;)

Seaside!

 I still can't believe I let myself buy Seaside (October Afternoon for Riley Blake). I couldn't help myself - it was just too cute! And then two months after the purchase, I found out I was pregnant and I knew exactly what I'd make with the two charm packs and the two half-yards! This was gender neutral enough that I knew it would be used no matter what. The backing is a JoAnns' flannel that I purchased on Black Friday two years ago.

I have since purchased Sasparilla (again...October Afternoon for Riley Blake) with a gift certificate from a giveaway win)... you know, just in case Peanut ever gets a sibling, I wanted to have another cute, gender neutral quilt all ready ;)

Linking up with Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday and Link-a-Finish Friday.

Hand-Pieced Quilt Along... Finally Finished

Way back in January 2012 (yikes), I started Erin's Hand-Pieced Quilt Along. I loved it! It gave me something to look forward to each Friday when she posted the next block. Well, I had the top pieced together last summer, and this summer, I finally decided to get it quilted and bound. This WIP is finally finished.

Here it is!

 It will hang in my sewing/craft room someday, and I hope Peanut asks about it. Then I can talk to her about...

• loving what you do
• doing what you love
• not everything will come out perfect
• even if it's not perfect, you can still be proud of it

You see, there is no way I'm ever going to wash this wall quilt. I'm pretty sure it would fall apart. I'm not kidding. Sorry there are no close-ups... it's wavy, some triangle points are completely cut off, and the stitches are totally uneven.

 BUT, I still love it and I will be proud to hang it up. I started something and I finished it. And I'm OK with it being perfectly unperfect :)

PS: The scrappy binding is definitely my favorite. It took awhile to hand-sew the scraps together, but I managed to use scraps of each of the fabrics I used in the blocks to create the binding. I love it!

Linking up with Connie's Linky Tuesday and Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday and a new one that I've found called Link a Finish Friday over at Richard and Tanya Quilts... Links are on my sidebar!

September Goal

It's about that time to make my September goal! 

It's another small one due to our upcoming move, but I want to take these fabrics (JoAnns) and make this with it...

A Bright Corner's Holly Jolly Tree Skirt pattern 

... it will be a wedding present for a lovely friend! I'll only be able to get the top pieced and the binding cut, but I hope to have that done by the end of the month. I'll quilt it and finish it up after our move sometime!


Thanks again to Melissa and Shanna for hosting such a wonderful series... "A Lovely Year of Finishes."

 

August Goal Reached

My August Goal (of piecing the blocks together into this quilt top) is finished and photographed! 

I have been working on piecing this top all summer, and I think I will add a border or two to it once my fabric stash and I are reunited this fall after our big move.

In my head, the neutral diagonals were going to pop more. However, I wanted to use all the colorful and neutral scraps that my mother-in-law gave me, so some of the softer pinks blend in a bit with the neutrals. Overall, though, I think it's a scrappy success!

I've always loved the idea of using nine-patches to create diagonal lines, so I made up this quilt to do just that. The blocks are 6.5" so the nine-patches are made from 2.5" squares.

A big thanks out to Grizz for entertaining Peanut while I took the pictures... afterwards we went on a short family run and then got 50¢ ice cream cones :)

Linking up...

Hand-Pieced Block Pillow

Once upon a time...

 ...I participated in a hand-pieced quilt-along hosted by Erin @ Why Not Sew? (quilt-along info here)...

...and I had an "oopsie" block that came out too big...

... and so it has become a pillow :) 

It matches the quilt with a little bit of a black border with the larger black-spotted space (some of the blocks in my quilt needed a black border just to make them the 6 1/2" they were supposed to be! My hand-stitching wasn't always the most accurate!).

I quilted it with gold thread to match my left-over binding from another project. It has an easy envelope backing. Next time, I'll make the pillow covering a tad bit bigger as this one came out quite plump once I added the pillow form!

I'm still working on finishing this thing. It needs to be basted, quilted and bound... but then it will be ready to hang in my sewing room!

If you're bored and interested in seeing my progress on the quilt-along click here!

(Just a quick glance at my planning for this pillow... I love Grizz's engineering paper!)

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July Goals Finished

I did it! I finished them the weekend before the wedding. I still can't believe I did it, especially since it was my first time hand-quilting! It feels good to follow through with a plan, even with a little one in the house... it can be done! 

(Thank goodness for naps and Daddy-time!).

 Easter. 

My favorite part is the tone-on-tone white crosses. 

 Christmas.

My favorite part is the singing Santa (Dear Mr. Claus from Moda).

Fourth of July.

My favorite part is the wonky star of course - first time ever sewing one of those!

St. Patrick's Day.

My favorite part is the reverse applique (I found some helpful hints here and here).

Goal Setting Post

Almost Finished Post

Thank you Melissa and Shanna for hosting "A Lovely Year of Finishes;" it definitely helps to have a little extra motivation!

I also have loved the Summer Series at Clover & Violet - so many fun project ideas for when you are on the go and you can't bring the sewing machine with you! I've linked up two of these table runners with them (the Christmas one and the St. Patrick's Day one)... go check out what everyone else has hand-crafted!

Also linking up with...

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July Goal!

Finally, I feel like I can join "A Lovely Year of Finishes" with Melissa and Shanna! I have four table runners/toppers that I started in June, but I really need to finish them by July 20 (or maybe a few days afterwards!). 

My usual wedding present for friends/family is a patchwork Christmas Tree Skirt - the pictures above show a few that I've made, including the one I made for myself (it's so fun to see the skirts in use!). This tradition started because it has always been Mom's go-to-gift. Plus, most of my friends don't have a lot of holiday decorations to start their new life with, so a tree skirt helps them get started in that department!

Well, the friend who is getting married on this month knows how to sew (I helped re-introduce her to this amazing hobby last year), and I think she would have more fun making her own tree skirt. Thus, she gets table toppers/runners instead (still holiday inspired, of course!).

I pulled fabric and I started planning. You can see my scratchings above. Grizz's engineering paper is perfect for quilt planning - it's just glorified graph paper, but it makes me feel official :) The plans originally included embroidered borders, but having never embroidered words before, I decided that trying one new thing (hand-quilting) was enough for this project's deadline!

I kept my fabric choices limited to my stash. Other than the Christmas Fabric (Dear Mr. Claus by Moda), all fabrics are either JoAnns or thrift store purchases. Thankfully I kept some holiday fabrics when I sent most of my stash home with my parents when they visited after Peanut was born. Why did I send fabric home? We have tentative plans of moving back to SD this fall!! Whoop whoop! 

Anyways, enough chatter... the details:

St. Patrick's Day.
Reverse Applique (first time skill!).
Hand Quilted with Embroidery Floss.
Left to do? Binding.

Easter/Spring.
Easy Patchwork.
Hand-quilting started with DMC Floss.
Overcame some early cutting/measuring difficulties.
Left to do? Finish quilting and attach binding.

Fourth Of July
Wonky Star (first time try!).
Left to do? Take out the safety pins and re-baste it... I experimented and tried to pin-baste it without taping down the back fabric - yikes! Since then, Grizz has bought me more masking tape and I can try again! I'm still deciding if I want to hand-quilt this one or machine quilt it... I also need to cut the scrappy binding and attach it!

Christmas.
Neighbor (Bride-to-Be) loved this fabric, so I cut into my fat-quarter bundle just for her :)
Machine-Appliqued the Santa and gift tags.
Left to Do? Baste, Quilt (Embroidery Floss) and Bind.



So, I have a lot left to do, but I have three weeks of nap time and daddy-time-with-Peanut to do it! Wish me luck :)

Also linking up with Fabric Tuesday and WIP Wednesday...

Sewing Time... Finally!

Peanut is slowly allowing me some sewing time... aka, I don't always have to hold her for her naps anymore! In appreciation, I'm sewing her a twin-sized quilt... yeah, yeah, yeah, I know she's only 2 months old, but I believe in using time wisely. I don't know if I'll have time to sew her a quilt for her big-girl bed when the time comes, so I might as well sew it now! Plus, I need to get rid of fabric :)

Cutting... the fabric is all from Grizz's mom... fabric that she didn't want anymore!

 Piles for nine-patches...

 Pinning the nine-patches...

And sewing the nine-patches! I still have lots more nine-patches to sew, followed by squaring them up and finally adding in the solid squares to sew the quilt top!

Progress!

Until next time... aka, next nap time ;)

Linking up with Freshly Pieced on WIP Wednesday

Grizz's Cousins' Baby Gifts!

 Grizz's cousins are expecting any day now (I know, I know, it's been a busy summer for babies, right?!), so I whipped up a gift for them before heading home for a two-week break from Big Sky Country. This cousin farms with Grizz's dad and uncle, so while spending time at Grizz's parent's house we headed over to their house to give them their gifts.

The only fabric I bought specifically for the quilt top was the cute International boy fabric from JoAnns. I made sure to check with Grizz before putting another other than Green-John-Deere into the quilt, but he assured me that there's a red, vintage tractor or two lying around the family farms :) The other fabrics were from my stash (remnants, thrift stores or rummage sale finds) - I was trying to get the old-farming-feel of having to use old clothing for quilts... so I added plaids, striped shirtings, corduroy and seersucker :) 

 To offset the red tractors on the front, I bought some John Deere flannel (JoAnns) for the back and some cotton (Fabric.com) for the binding. I can just see a little farmer boy having tummy time on either side of this quilt!

 Just look at that cute kiddo - and that puppy! Love it!

 This tan fabric gave me so much trouble! Whatever I had left after this project went in the trash. It was so slippery... it must have been polyester. I'm a little worried that it might slip out of it's seams, but I added some fabric glue and I warned the mommy-to-be that if it happens to let me know, and I will put a patch over it or something :)

 The finish off the gift, I folded it up, and along with this bundle of two burp rags (a strip of flannel sewn to fabric diapers), put it into a matching bag!

 If they already have a baby bag, I figured this could be used to hold toys or even dirty clothes in the baby room :)

The patchwork is all farm and western related scraps. I used denim along the outside and more of that same John Deere Flannel from the quilt back for the lining. I guessed on all the measurements for the bag and just kind of winged it as I made it... I look forward to trying different sizes/shapes in the future, as I do love the idea of making a bag to give baby quilts away in!

(Pretty sure I loved taking pictures at my parents' place - so many background options!)

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday and Linky Party Tuesdays - check them out by clicking on the buttons on my sidebar!