Project: Surprise Quilt

This sweet woman wanted to have me build her a quilt. So, naturally, I obliged but I didn't tell her when it would done or that I was just going to give it to her. It started out with this pattern:

She wanted it in yellow and blue (Swedish colors) so we picked these two out together and I came up with this block (I used the same tube method as L's baby quilt so I could make the block on point).

I did press the seams open in the middle (for the whites) and then to the dark sides for the other parts. I ended up using 110 blocks (they ended up being a finished size of  ~5.5" to 6". 

It was fairly simple to lay the blocks out in this simple pattern

And of course, child labor was free.... 

(giving her an opportunity to practice her learning with patterns and colors)

Here's it all laid out :)

I decided on a regular stippling pattern 

(it ironically covered four blocks at a time so it was pretty easy to trace out).

I also chose a blue for the backing and the same blue that on the quilt for the binding.

After the wash:

A little close up:

And here it is with it's new owner- so happy to have this quilt:

I was able to finish this quilt in under a week. 

The finished size was approximately 55" X 60" (give or take a little).

I am so happy to have this quilt in the life of this sweet woman 

and getting the enjoyment from this quilt. 

I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Project: Appliqué Baby Quilt

I'm blessed to know some good people. I have wanted to do this quilt for a while (and didn't want to pay for the pattern but alas, I wanted it enough) and my friend liked it too.

The pattern is called "Talk of the Town". SO BEAUTIFUL! I was so happy someone requested this quilt. Plus, it's finished size is *supposed to be* 40" x 40", PERFECT for a baby. 

So, the pattern calls for 94 pedals... Simple enough.

So off I went tracing the pedals onto wonder under fusible webbing paper:

Then, I cut them into the "groups" (light, medium, medium dark, dark) and here are the colors I chose:

Next, I ironed on the pedals to the paper- trying to use WOF as much as possible to make left over yardage to be a good amount.

I then cut the pedals out from the fabric.

I was thinking ahead and got some baggies labeled as to which 

"color" they were and how many pedals are in the bag. 

I recommend doing this (especially if you have more than one project going on at a time):

All bagged and labeled:

The backing (white) fabric is cut to 40.5" square. 

I decided to lay one group of pedals out to make me smile.

I then followed the directions, trying to lay all the pedals out, 

making sure none of them overlapped each other. The hard part then was moving it to the ironing board. I used my water-soluble marker to mark the tips of the middle pedals so I could find the starting point and began to iron.

I ironed the purples on first on all 3, then moved outwards to be sure that by the time I got to yellow there would be no overlapping.

I stenciled (or rather, made some extra cut outs from freezer paper) out a few more flower pedals as fillers so the quilt would stay together better (also, it just looked cool...).

I just did a regular stitch around the cut outs.

Then, when I quilted, I did a zig-zag stitch around the pedals 

starting with the purples and working my way out on each flower. 

 I used the green color as the binding on this quilt.

I think this turned out really lovely. There are some new tricks that I've learned with appliqué since doing this quilt. I hope I can show them off in another baby quilt this coming month.

Project: Herringbone Baby Girl Quilt 2.0

ANOTHER ONE!! This is just a very popular quilt right now. This particular one was requested to be done with grey as the backing (along with a couple others because of fabric quantity) with yellow and white as the herringbone front. Pretty modern colors and they look beautiful together. These are easy to piece together (mostly because I do them as half square triangles) and super easy to lay out once the blocks are made.

You do the EXACT same thing as the previous herringbone quilt- sew a line down both 1/4" from the middle line so that you get 2 half square triangles and lay them out. This is a much easier layout than the other one because I was only dealing with one contrast color in.

I sewed my 1/4" on each side of the line:

Then, using a rotary cutter, I cut on the line making each square into two:

Then pressed open to the "dark" side:

And laid the blocks out on the floor to see how the pattern should go:

I stack my rows together but not before I take a photo as a plan to look at while I sew. I then sewed the blocks into rows and then sewed rows together (pressing each row before I sewed them together to the yellow side so they mesh together nicely when putting the rows together):

And then I pressed the rows all going the same direction

Then I got cracking at the backing. I didn't have enough of the piece I had of the grey she liked to used it as a solid back so I went the direction of this design:

I really like how the back turned out:

All basted and ready to go (I tried to center the back as much as possible):

And off I went quilting (same as the first herringbone):

Progress being made:

Trimmed off the edges and a preview of the binding:

I did a zig zag stitch around the binding:

All done (front view):

Back view:

Folded over to see it all together:

This was fun and fast to make. I had it all prepped before I went on a 2 week hiatus so when I got back, I just had to start sewing the squares. "Started" on a Monday (not including prepping the fabric, which took a day) and "finished" on a Thursday. I think it went quicker than the first because I knew what I wanted to do (the same as the other) and so I could just go-go-go. 

On to my next adventure!

Project: Pink Dress

So, my lovely little girl keeps growing like a crazy little kid so she picked this pattern out and a bright pink fabric to use:

All in all, this dress wasn't too bad/difficult. The only "hard" part for me was the zipper. I'm a big fan of knits/pull overs. But off I went to do another zippered pattern. (How can I deny that cute little girl?) The directions were pretty straight forward. Although she is measuring about a size 4 on the pattern (mostly), we cut the length to a 6 so that she has length to grow. I did the lining for the sleeves but not the bodice because I was using a cotton that I felt didn't need the extra lining. Here's me working on a sleeve on my sister's machine:

I thought I'd get fancy and do a small top stitch around the sleeve after the lining was on and pressed so that it wouldn't pop up and out during wear.

Trying it on before I hem up the bottom to see how the fit was. It's a little loose but honestly, I'd rather it a little loose than too tight and not fit her:

*please note that in the directions, it does say to hem it way before this step but we've been having length issues (as she keeps growing like a weed!) so I wanted her to try it on so I would know for sure where it would hit. Getting ready to hem and giving me a pouty look:

All done (I want to apologize for the messy hair!). I took the hem up to about 1" below her knee. It's loose around the bodice but at one point we were nervous that once the zipper went in that it would be too tight to sit or move around.

Posing once again:

Aunt Mindy made her laugh:

Zipper in (I put the hook and eye in once I got home):

Front:

Back:

It takes one STRONG personality to wear this BRIGHT PINK dress. 

I'll be making another pink dress, same pattern, for her that will be a little more muted than this. My sister got a new zipper presser foot that is AMAZING where you sew the zipper in and the fabric is on top when you sew it in. It was great! Now that I'm back home, I'll be working on a few more quilts ;)