Project: K's Baby Boy Quilt

I have had the chance to get to know an amazing woman who is about to embark into motherhood for the first time. It's fun to see how a first time parent acts (mostly because I've forgotten what it was like). She is blessed to be having a baby boy towards the end of June. There was no way I could let this chance pass by to make another quilt. This mom-to-be has gone to the fabric store with me before (so I could help her get fabric for a rag quilt) and she said herself that she's a little indecisive when it comes to fabrics and things like that (which is perfectly fine- I have my days too where I don't know what I want to do or what fabrics to pick). I was fortunate to come across this beautiful charm pack on the Missouri Star Quilt Company's daily deal and I couldn't pass it up (they were practically giving it away… What was I to do?). Here's the pallet:

How beautiful is this? She described her color pallet of choice would be warm pastels. I thought this fit the bill quite nicely. Then, it was on to choosing a pattern to make these into. She narrowed it down to three for me to pick from and so I ended up picking this one:

Try to look past the cute little baby on this quilt..

I sketched this out (not knowing what size the finished blocks would be off the top of my head). It ended up being 5 blocks by 5 blocks. Using the 5" squares from the charm pack, you need 3 squares of each color for one block and 25 5"squares to become the half square triangles. In the end, the half square triangles became 4.5" blocks. I trimmed up the 2 5" squares of each color to 4.5" to line up with the finished half square triangle blocks.

But first, the half square triangles: I drew a line down the center of one block and then you sew 1/4" on each side of the center line and then cut on the line to make 2 half square triangles from one block. 

I then sewed the 4.5" square next to it. It really helps to lay out the block to make sure you're sewing the correct sides together. I then put the whole block together, which is basically a four patch, with two of the squares being half square triangles. Once the block were made, I had the joy of laying out all the blocks to figure out how they should go. I decided on dark (brown) and then light (blue/green) and switch line a checkered pattern. It took me quite a while to make sure there weren't too many florals in a row. This is what we finally came up with (between Penny, Chris, and a couple friends):

I then sewed the blocks into rows and then the rows together (putting the first two rows together then the third and fourth together, sewing those two together and then the fifth row at the end *I hope that made sense*).

Here it is all completed. 

* Small note of making sure you are pressing your 

seams to one side so they come together beautifully.*

I ended up picking this for the backing (sorry the lighting is off):

All basted together:

I chose quilting around the inside outline of the dark colors and then adding in a special. I was thinking, what could I possible add in the middle of these blocks because it seems like some wasted space:

My creative juices started to flow and I had narrowed it down to teddy bears/stars/duckies or cars/planes/trucks. I asked a mutual friend which she thought (so I could make this a surprise) and she picked the cars/trucks/planes. As I was thinking of these "stencil ideas" and googling all I could for images, it occurred to me that I had bought a 100+ cookie cutter set (that some of the cutters are MASSIVE) and found these:

It worked out that there were 5 for the "trucks, cars, plane" cookie cutters so I laid them out and started marking up the quilt:

It went fairly quick to trace them on. Then, the fun began- the quilting!! Here's a view of just one of the squared fully done: (it's a train)

After all the quilting was done, the harder part started- picking a binding fabric. It's fun to pick the fabrics, don't get me wrong but I usually need some input. I already knew I wanted to do a darker kind of fabric for the binding so here were my choices:

I ended up going with the middle greenish one.

Binding before Chris got home from work:

All done and washed (front view):

Back view (again, bad lighting):

Up close back:

 Close up front view:

In the box, ready to go:

The final dimensions ended up being ~ 40"x 40".  Ironically, she won't be getting this quilt until her baby shower BUT she's not on Facebook so I can show off the finished work without ruining her surprise! And on to the next one...

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.