Project: Rainbow Quilt

I got a request to make an amazing hexagon quilt, but sadly my skill set is not quite to that level yet. Then, this rainbow chevron quilt was highly favored because it is reminiscent of Rainbow Bright (Anyone else remember that character?).

I had this charm pack laying around from Missouri Star Quilt Company and I thought this would be a perfect fit! *The paisley print was taken out per her request.*

Plus, I decided that there weren't enough colors to represent the rainbow, so I took from my stash to get the final colors:

And here's the sketch:

(Although, I did change which color would be in which row...)

I did this the same way as the herringbone with the 5" squares and turning them into half square triangles:

Draw a line down the middle (diagonally) and then sew 1/4" seam on each side of the line.

You press the seam towards the dark color. Next, I started laying each color out into a chevron pattern to see which prints should be mixed and matched:

Then I sewed them into each row and pressed to one side and then the next towards the other side so that when I put two rows together, you can just line up the opposing seams so they fit perfectly together. 

(The only thing that is a little more difficult for the chevron as opposed to the herringbone is that you have to do your best to line up the points because you don't have the fabric seams opposing each other but no big deal).

And here I sewed each color strip together (2 rows together):

I then pressed each color row and laid them out on the floor to figure out what color order I wanted them in (Actually, I had Penny figure it out for me ;) ). 

*One day I will have a design board to pin them up instead of using the floor.*

Next, I sewed pink and green together, aqua and blue together and left purple hanging. I then put the pink/green and aqua/blue together and then added the purple. I had the recipient pick what kind of quilting she wanted on the quilt- she picked this butterfly stippling pattern.

Pretty fun, I think :) So, then it was on to the backing. I showed her my whole collection to choose from and she really liked these fat quarters. I needed 6 fat quarters total (although, it would be two across and 2.5 down). First, I went ahead and squared the fat quarters to make them true fat quarters (18"x21") before sewing them together. 

*These are folded in half long ways and half width ways*.

 I then sewed one yellow to one orange and then the three sections together (making it yellow-orange, orange-yellow, yellow-orange). I had the seams pressed to the orange side so they would fit together nicely when I was sewing the three rows together but then pressed the middle seams open.

Then, I took about 5 1/2" off the top row and bottom row of the backing to make it even and so that the middle section would be centered. I then basted all three layers together (backing, batting, quilt top) and started stenciling.

All done stenciling and ready for quilting!

Just a beautiful distraction of a rainbow from a Tuesday early evening.

Back to the quilt....

All quilted (if you're able to zoom in):

And on to the binding!

All bound and ready for the washer/drier!

I was (again) surprised at how ALL the crayola washable

 marker came out with no bleeding or anything.

(No more marker :) )

Back view:

Again, another enjoyable quilt-making day for a great mission friend.

Project: Herringbone Baby Girl Quilt

So many inspirations on Pinterest, so little time. Am I right? 

So here it goes: ANOTHER baby quilt! This is the design I was working with:

But instead of "boy" colors 

(I love those colors but this is a baby girl we're doing it for), 

the mom-to-be and I picked out these three pinks:

So, I cut 41 white squares (5" squares) and 41 of the pink (5" squares again, TOTAL, not of each print) and marked a line in the middle of the white ones as a point of reference for sewing my quarter inch seam on each side of it, giving me 2 blocks. I know there are ways to make the herringbone pattern without doing half square triangles but I didn't want to try something too new on a baby quilt leaving me. Maybe next time (when I have more time and confidence to be brave). 

So, here they are all lined up and ready for sewing.

Chain piecing is ALWAYS going to be your best friend on these. Once again, with half square triangles, you sew your 1/4" seam on both sides of the line and then cut down the middle. After you cut them, press to the dark side (so the seam is under the dark fabric, not the light).  *These half square triangles, once sewn into rows, will end up being 4" squares and you will have 2 halves (1 white triangle and 1 pink triangle) as extra.*

Once that is done, my favorite part begins: LAYOUT!!

I know- this is already sewn together. What I did was sew each block into rows and then sewed row 1 and 2 together, 3 and 4, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, and left 9 hanging for a minute. Then you sew the 1-2 and the 3-4 combo rows together and 5-6 and 7-8 together with 9 still alone.. Then you sew 1-2-3-4 with 5-6-7-8 and add 9 on the end. Ta-da! Magic.

Here is the backing I picked out:

The first idea behind the quilting; 

I wasn't sure if I was going to outline just the white blocks or if I should do all of them:

I decided to outline both white and pink blocks:

I used my regular presser foot and used the width of it as the width of how far from the seam line I was going to quilt. The best part about quilting this quilt was not having to mark it up with a stencil. It made this a lot quicker. I know one day I'll be able to do much more quilting without marking a stencil but this is as far as my confidence goes right now.

All quilted and excess trimmed:

Final color choice for the binding:

Front view before wash:

Back view before wash:

Set out nice and pretty after the wash:

Front view after the wash:

Back view after wash:

Close up of the back (it almost looks like a cool tree branch):

I didn't realize how soon my friend was having her baby until I saw the picture of the baby online... Thankfully, I had all the pieces cut and ready to go (as I actually have 5 quilts in motion at this point). I was able to get all the piecing and quilting done within 2 days (which doesn't mean quality went down because I think this looks pretty dang good). I hope mom and baby enjoy this quilt. 

You can wait for the next post of a herringbone in different colors in just a few weeks or so to help inspire you perhaps.

Project: A Special Baby Girl Quilt

So, I know a TON of pregnant women in my life right now. 

This quilt is for a friend that I made when I first moved out here.

She is having a baby girl (obviously, by the post title). 

I messaged her with options and this is what we liked the best.

Final color choices:

 (you don't even WANT to know how many changes I made during the day)

I decided for fun to lay the fabrics out after I cut them to get an idea how this quilt is going to look:

And then this is half the quilt laid out on the table- NOT SEWN YET.

Thankfully, this pattern was a free download so I didn't have to do much to figure it out (although the original pattern's size would've been a finished 48.5" x 60.5" and I cut mine down making it a final size of 38.5"x 50.5"). All I did to make it the size I wanted was took 1" off each side measurement and presto! You can go to this website for the directions for how to put it together:

http://camelotfabrics.com/pdf/Q-006_MC.pdf

Pretty straight forward and REALLY fast to put together. It only took me 3 hours (with a lot of interruptions) to piece this together to get the final product of this:

*Side note if you want to make this quilt*: This particular company that does these patterns has you cut the pieces slightly larger than you need so every time I put two pieces together and then built on it, I had to trim the excess off. It only starts as a little but then by the last piece needs trimming, you're looking at some pieces that make you sad that got wasted.

So, you have to look at it as 4 blocks and two borders. Here's how the process looked-

One "block" done:

Two "blocks" done and sewn together:

All 4 "blocks" done and sewn together:

Pretty fast, right? I did keep the original picture out so I could double check my work as I pieced the blocks together. I decided that for the quilting, I would do a cool flower stippling. Here's a picture of the stencil (I got from JoAnn's):

I think this looks pretty awesome and this was a great quilt to try this on.

For the backing, I decided to keep it similar to the last quilt back (see my previous post) where it had 3 colors blocked.  I put this together with some quick advice:

And here it is all basted together:

I had to make sure that the light grey seam and the middle seam didn't line up (that's a big NO-NO in backing and quilting). So, the light grey is about 1/2" above the middle of the quilt. So close…. 

After basting this bad boy together, I went ahead and started tracing the stencil. I tried out using washable markers (in the kids' art section of the store) because the two colors I have in markers for quilting (blue and purple) wouldn't show up very well on the DARK border and dark middle colors. My mother (in all her wisdom) told me that yellow (and I found orange as well) show up fairly well (or rather, well enough to see under a light when quilting). Once it was all stenciled up, it was fairly easy to quilt (I had to go REALLY SLOW when I was on the dark colors to try to see the marker).

Back partly done:

Another view of the back: 

Front view, focused on a flower:

I decided (with much help) to use green for the binding- we really liked how it pulled from the green flower on the outer border and that the pattern on it wasn't competing with the other colors or patterns.

Being auditioned (again, you don't want to know how many colors we went through to get this):

 (See why I don't take front shots until after it's been washed- I can totally see the orange marker...)

So, I then stuck it in the washer. 

Here is the color catcher after the wash :

It was fun explaining to Penny why it turned orange. 

And best of all, ALL THE MARKER CAME OUT 

*after 2 washes- there was a little in a couple places but the second wash took it all out*!! 

(*It was my first time using the washable markers that weren't the quilting markers*)

Front:

Back:

Closer look at the back:

Front folded over:

 Folded over again:

 All folded up:

I'm delivering this quilt by Sunday to the mother-to-be. 

I hope everyone is able to zoom in on this quilting- it was fun to try something new.