Mama & Baby Pips

It's finish it up Friday and I have 2 quilts to show you today.  These quilts started when Abby suggested a quilt along over on Instagram following Camille's Jelly Filled Quilt Pattern.  Since this was at the start of my Sewing with Camille challenge I was excited to have some friends to sew along with on one of the patterns.  The blocks for this quilt come together super quick and I found that it was fairly easy to chain piece 3-4 at a time.  For some reason I have a hard time doing much more than that although I'm sure there are many of you who could probably chain piece all of the blocks in one sitting.

 

As I was making this quilt I started to fall in love with it and I really wanted to keep it for myself but I decided that with all the pink and the cute little puppies my SIL would probably enjoy it for the new baby.  That idea morphed into matching quilt when I went to visit my mom and she gave me her jelly roll of sherbet pips.  I had enough at that point to make the first quilt larger but knew I would have some left over unless I made a huge quilt.  My SIL is expecting her second child in just a few weeks so the idea to make a matching quilt for little sister (my brother is having a very hard time agreeing to a name for the baby-so we call her little sister) came about.

Abby also happened to over a sale on long arm services for any holiday pattern in July.  I posted my quilt top and a few selections on Instagram asking for help picking a quilt pattern.  In my mind I wanted something that looked like wind because the quilt scream girly fall to me.  However, some of the snowflake patterns had caught my eye and I was tempted to go in that direction.  After posting my picks Abby sent me a private message with a pattern she hadn't had the chance to add to her boards yet but knew would be the perfect fit for these quilts.

Both of the quilts are backed in the cream scoot fabric (the same as the boarders on the baby quilt) and bound with a white and pink square polka dot.  I just washed and dried these last night so they are ready for gifting as soon as I have a chance to see my SIL.  I hope she will love them as much as I do.

Swoon (Finish It Up Friday)

My favorite block

My Swoon quilt is finally finished.  I haven't even had a chance to take good pictures of it yet but I just couldn't wait to share it with you guys.  My parents bought me the quilt kit such a long time ago and I waiting a long time to get started.  I finally finished piecing the top last year and took it to the long arm to be quilted around October of last year.

Should have known it wasn't big enough.

My long arm quilter started having problems with her machine and needed to have it serviced so she wasn't able to quilt this beauty.  So I picked it back up and later dropped it off with a new long arm quilter to work some magic.  I had envisioned using this quilt in the summer on my bed.  I don't like having a big comforter on the bed in the summer because I get too hot.  Unfortunately this one isn't big enough now to use on it's own.

Swoon Cuddles

I typically use warm and white batting but this one has heirloom in it-it's a long story about some lost batting and confusion.  Turns out the two quilts I had quilted by the new long arm both ended up with this batting.  It a lot more plush than warm and white and it also shrunk a lot more.  I'm still in love with this quilt and I'm so glad to add it to my collection but the quest for the perfect summer quilt continues.

The fabric on this one is all Ruby by Bonnie & Camille.  The pattern is Swoon by Camille.  It is quilted in large baptist fans.

I promise better pictures once it isn't so wet and yucky outside.

Sunkissed Trails

I have been calling this quilt Sunny Trails from the beginning because that was the name Corey used when she made it for Moda Bake Shop and since I was using the Sunkissed line by Sweetwater it worked.  But as I was sewing on the binding I decided Sunkissed Trails was just as appropriate of a name and I just liked it a little better.  So I have now dubbed this one Sunkissed Trails.

So much prettier than my typical laundry

Finished front of quilt

Overall this quilt was fairly easy to put together because Corey has a great pattern written.  One thing I will say is if you are using directional prints make sure you pay attention before you sew all your blocks together. You actually end up rotating every other one.  I tried to be really careful to have all my words running the same way but in the end I still ended up with a few rouge pieces.

Binding going on-back fabric

I used the great polka dot line for the backing on this one.  I have to say I love this line as much now as I did when I started this quilt back in 2011.  It has one of the softest hands of any Moda fabric I have ever sewn with.  And it is just so bright and sunny and happy.  I had this one quilted by a longarmer with a pattern called Daisy's Galore in a soft yellow thread.  I think that's just the right touch.

Close up of the daisy quilting

If you want to read more about the journey of this quilt you can find previous post here, here, and here.

Authentic Piece of Cake (Finish It Up Friday)

I actually finished this quilt the week of Christmas but since it is done and I haven't blogged specifically about it yet and it's done I thought it would be a great first Finish It Up Friday post.

I named this one Authentic Piece of Cake because it is a combination of the name of the fabric line and the pattern.  Authentic by Sweetwater and the Piece of Cake pattern from Camille's first Craftsy class.  I knew I wanted to make a quilt for my stepbrother in law and his wife because they are two of the most wonderful people you will ever meet.  They recently took orders to Boston and I knew they needed something extra warm to snuggle under.  She was an environment science major and rocks the cutest dreadlocks you will ever see so I knew I wanted to stick with neutral colors to suite them both.

I actually cut the pieces for this quilt over the summer while we were on our family vacation at the lake.  Call it sentimental but since they couldn't be there this year I wanted them to know I worked on it in a special place.

I didn't get a lot of great pictures of this one-completely ran out of time to snap a photo of the finished quilt but this one is sans binding and shows the quilting pretty well.  I was so lucky to find something that echoed the backing fabric so well.  That backing fabric and binding were also lucky finds.  The binding was the very last piece I could find on etsy.

So that's it for me but be sure to head over to Amanda Jean's and see what everyone else has finished up this week.

Finish it up Friday (Posh Enigma)

Is it still Friday?  I was just about to run out of light to take pictures today as I finished sewing the last stitches of hand binding on my Posh Enigma quilt.  I still can't believe I started this quilt over 4 years ago.  I knew it wasn't my style any more after leaving it sitting in my closet unfinished for so long.  When I first bought the fabric to make the backing for this quilt I didn't get enough.  So it sat and sat then one day I had it out of the closet and just happen to see a piece of leftover Bliss from the back of a baby quilt I had made and I knew it would work perfect on the back of this quilt.  So I pieced the back and took it to the quilter.

Posh Enigma

Front and Back 

Close up of quilting

It's finished now and thanks to the help of some readers during WIP Wednesday I have some choices now of ways to send it to benefit those impacted by the explosion in West, TX.  So I feel great having another finish under my belt and even better knowing that this quilt that I no longer love won't languish unused for much longer and hopefully will find its way to someone who will love it for a long time.  And hopefully they will know every time they see it that there are people out there thinking about them and praying for them in their time of need and long after.

Pillow Talk (Finish it up Friday)

I love it when I get to share something on WIP Wednesday and by Finish it up Friday it's done.  That doesn't happen very much with quilts so maybe I should tackle some more of these smaller projects.  My modern quilt guild is hosting a pillow cover exchange on Saturday as part of our meeting.  Anyone who wanted to participate put their name and the colors they like on a piece of paper and entered it into a hat.  Then we randomly drew names.  Needless to say I don't know much about my partner and with no flickr or blog to stalk I was flying blind.  The only thing I knew was that she wanted something in the Quiltcon color scheme.

Quilting close up

I decided to go with the carpenter star after seeing this picture over on flickr.  I thought it was a pretty great concept that I could easily make into a pillow.  I had thought about doing a lot of quilting on this but in the end I decided to go minimal.  I quilting  in a spiral from the outside in of the four large diamonds.  I have never had a quilted pillow and I wasn't sure if my partner would want one or not.  I know it would be trickier to add more quilting once the pillow is done but figured if she wanted more quilting I could offer to do that.  After all that is way easier than taking out a bunch of quilting.

This really is straight I promise.  Not sure why it looks wonky here.

In the back I wasn't sure if I would have enough of the gray fabric so I added in a strip of the same lime green from the front.  I think it gives it a nice pop of color and is a playful little detail.  The Quiltcon colors don't match anything in my house and that is probably a very good thing since I need LOVE this pillow.

In other news if you haven't heard yet there are some amazing groups collecting items for Boston to share the LOVE.  The Boston Modern Quilt Guild is collecting blocks to turn into quilts for those hurting after last weeks bombing.  It doesn't feel like much to me to make a quilt block or two but having people I love in Boston makes me want to do something, anything.  No matter how small it may seem I know it will be a good way of letting them know we are praying for them and sharing our love.

You can find out more by checking out the Boston Modern Quilt Guild blog.

I'm A Hoot For You

I'm so excited to have a finished project again in time for Finish it up Friday.  When my aunt asked me to make a quilt for my cousin I have to admit I freaked out a little bit.  I was excited to do it and the opportunity came at a moment when I needed a good confidence boost but at the same time I was scared to death to think someone would actually be paying me to make a quilt.  What if it isn't good enough, what if she sees something completely different than I do, what if, what if.  That was what was going through my head.  Then I sent her some pattern ideas and fabric ideas and she told me a little about what she liked.  I asked more questions and my aunt just told me not to worry about it and to just go for it that I was the quilter and she trusted me.  Talk about pressure.  In the end I made this sweet little quilt and I really hope that both my aunt and my cousin will love it as much as I do.

I typically quilt my own baby quilts but this time I chose to have it quilted on the long arm.  I had no idea how I was going to have it done but I was thinking some sweet flowers, after all it is a little girls quilt.  When I went in to pick out the quilting pattern Ellen (my long arm quilter) had the perfect design.  It is owls and flowers.  How sweet!  Here is a close up of one of the owls.  It is a little hard to see them in the patchwork part of the quilt but she did a great job lining it up so there are three owls across the top boarder that appear to be peaking out of the patchwork.

I think it's a little easier to see in this black and white photo

So what did you finish this week?  Head over to Amanda Jean's to see what everyone else is up to.

Twisted Fandango

I have my first finished quilt for 2013 and it feels good to have a finish under my belt.  I set some pretty lofty goals last year of making 12 quilts in 2012 and then life got in the way and I only managed to finish up 5 quilts.  So having a finish this early in the year has me doing a little jig.

I started Twisted Fandango way back in February 2011.  Wow that's even longer than I thought.  You can read earlier post about the quilt here, here, here, and here.  After I got the main part of the quilt together I really stalled with the borders.  I couldn't make the little pin wheels work out the way I wanted them to look and then nothing seemed to fit just right.  Then when one of my good friends announced she was moving I really wanted to send her off with a quilt.  I knew I didn't have time to start something from scratch and I knew she would like the colors in the Twisted Fandango quilt so out of the closet it came.  Needless to say she moved a while ago and I didn't get this quilt done in time to give it to her.  I am debating sending it to her now but there are a lot of things about this quilt I'm just not sure about now.

I started this quilt when I was a fairly new quilter.  I was still learning.  I rarely used more than one fabric line in a quilt unless I was going for a scrappy quilt.  So while I think this quilt is pretty and I love the fabric line as much now as I did back then there are some things I would do differently if I was making this quilt today.  I'm not a huge fan of the white in this quilt.  I'm pretty sure its just your basic Kona White although it feels a little stiff so I'm not sure now that it's actually Kona.  I'm thinking it might be the Joanne's brand of Kona.  Same name much different quality of fabric.  I'm also not a huge fan of the borders.  I thought when I was making them that adding in some of the charm squares I had left would give it a little something but now it just looks like an afterthought to me.  It's also a little small to me, I think it measures roughly 65 by 65.  I like my quilts to be nice and big for snuggling on the couch.  They have to be able to cover my shoulders and toes at the same time.  This one is a little small for that.  What do you think, is that a deal breaker?  I know not everyone likes blankets to cover that much and that some people prefer lap blankets that just cover their lap and feet.

The back, oh the back of this quilt is perhaps my favorite part of the whole quilt.  I love the little line of baby twisters marching down the back off centered.  And the fabric that makes up the rest of the back and the binding is one of my favorites from this line.

 I know my friend and I know she would appreciate the thought and love that goes into every quilt and that she would love this little quilt despite what I see as flaws.  So tell me, what do you think?  I know that sometimes I am my own worse critic.  Quilting is like everything else, the more you make the more you learn and the more you improve.  So would you share a quilt with someone you love despite its flaws or would you start over?  And if you start over with your skill set being what it is now in 5 years will you regret giving a quilt you made 5 years ago?

And since I finally have a finish to show on a Friday I am linking up with Amanda's Finish It Up Friday.  I have no crazy thoughts that I will have a finish every Friday but this is a start.