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.

Snow Day Sewing

I live on the Southeast tip of Virginia and it rarely snows here.  Of course that means we have no equipment to deal with such events.  That's bad news if you need to go somewhere but great news if you have a super nice boss who closes the office early and lets you go home.  So Friday I got to go home at 1 pm and while I was cozy in my sewing room I was reading on Facebook about all my friends stuck in traffic for 2-3 hours to make their less than 10 mile commute.  I was so thankful not to be one of those people.  Hard to believe that  it will be almost 70 by midweek.  Even better, the gift of time that I would not normally have meant I was able to get some sewing done on the baby quilt.

This quilt top actually went together pretty quickly.  I ended up making just a few 4 patches in place of some of those larger squares.  I originally sewed some two patches to replace the rectangles but it just didn't look right.  The bright colors of my solids seemed to overwhelm the quilt so I reduced the number of large squares in solid and added in a few more tree prints.  Overall I am happy with the look and think the multiple shades of pink leave no doubt that this is a quilt for a baby girl while the bright colors still make it more my style.  Hopefully mu aunt will be happy with it and my cousin will love using it for her little girl.



PS-Does anyone happen to know what the heart fabric is?  I received it on a swap and didn't have the selvage with the name and designer.

WIP Wednesday

I am still slowly getting settled into the apartment so sewing is slow going but I have been trying to fit in a little time here and there.  The trouble is I seem to have left my mojo somewhere.  Several things I've tried just don't seem to be working out.

 I ordered fabrics for the baby quilt last week.  In full disclosure I must have been rushing to try and get fabric ordered in time to have it to sew over the long weekend.  Monday being a holiday here in the states meant and extra day off with some time to finally sew.  At least there would have been if there had been fabric and not an unexpected trip to the vet.  At any rate when my fabrics came yesterday I opened the bag from Hawthorne Threads first and was excited at the colors in the stripe and the multi colored houndstooth.

Oops that won't work

But then I opened the bag from fabric.com and the first thing my hand touched was the rough thick fabric.  I immediately thought there was something in my bag that wasn't suppose to be.  But then when I pulled the stack of goodness out I found that no in fact it was exactly what I ordered.  In my haste to get just the right balance of colors I accidentally order three fabrics that were a medium weight non quilting fabric.  So those have been scrapped from the pile.

I added in a few pieces from my very limited stash and I think I am almost there.  I also forgot to order the multicolor polka dots that I had planned to use for binding.  So I'll have to place another order but that won't be hard since I know now that I have to add some of that stripe and houndstooth to my stash.  They are the perfect shades of bright.

Too many blocks or not enough blocks

So while I was waiting for these fabrics to come I thought I would work on my Farmer's Wife Quilt.  Since I have every intention of making a second one I decided I no longer felt the need to make all 111 blocks for this one.  I thought I could easily make something between the throw size and the twin size with the blocks I had.  But with that missing mojo I couldn't figure it out.  I have something like 69 blocks made and honestly I just don't want to make a lot more.  I didn't want to discard 19 blocks to make the throw size in the book and I didn't want to make 14 more blocks to get the number necessary for the twin size.

This could work

Eventually I settled on arranging the blocks in rows instead of on point and removing just two blocks.  It was fine because the weren't the strongest blocks I made and I figured I could always use them in the quilt back somehow.  I had picked up brown sashing fabric last week and I a light mint green for the setting triangles.  I wanted something a little less expected and thought going with the mint green would do that.  But the more I looked at it the more I thought about mint chocolate chip ice cream.  And now of course that is all I can see. With the new layout I don't need the mint green but once I started sewing the brown strips I'm not sure I really like it either.  So now I think I am just going to put this one away for a little while and think about what to do next.

Just not sure about the brown

Be sure to check out what everyone else is up to over at Lee's.

WIP Wednesday

I got my Twisted Fandango quilt back from quilter and I am working on sewing on binding so I can send it off to someone special.  It's a gift for a friend and even though I intended for it to be a farewell quilt when she moved it has turned into a quilt for so many more occasions than that but I know she will still love it.  I promise to show you photos when it's done.

In the mean time my aunt has commissioned me to make a baby quilt for my second cousin who is expecting her first child.  So I thought I would share a little bit of my planing process with you guys.  And I'll admit I am scared to death of this quilt for a lot of reasons.  The biggest one being I have never made a commissioned quilt before and the pressure of knowing someone is requesting this special gift and paying for it has me breaking out in hives.  While I am confident in my abilities I am also my own worse critic.

Dena Happi

I started with this photo of bedding that is on my cousins registry.  I wanted something that would coordinate but not be super matchy.  The first fabric I picked was the Michael Miller Forest Life in Watermelon which features some very cute owls and other wild life.  From there I built my fabrics around the colors.  I am still planning to add in a few more but I'm starting with these.  It is so hard to match fabrics online that I want to see how these look and then decide what else I am going to need.

For the pattern I sent my aunt several photos of baby quilts that I thought she might like and we ended up choosing this one as the starting point.  I am considering changing it up some by replacing some of the large squares with 4 patches and possibly changing out some of the rectangles into stacked squares just to add a little more depth and interest.  I had even considered going with a scalloped border but since the owls will be the backing I think it might look funny from the back and think I might skip the scalloped border but I am still considering rounded corners.  Have any of you used rounded corners?  What do you think?  I'd love any feedback you guys have because this one needs to be perfect.

This baby quilt was made by Christine @ Punkin Handmades

Be sure to head over to Lee's to see what everyone else is up to this week as well.