Project: A's Baby Girl Quilt

This is a ribbon quilt. I used this design and pattern and then modified it to be a 40" baby quilt:

Link to the original pattern:

http://145578867.r.lightningbase-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/RibbonBoxQuilt1.pdf

So, this is my sketch with the modifications (Sorry, it's not 100% to scale but it give a general idea):

This is the final color choice (plus the white background fabric):

I just followed the patern's directions (with the modifications of fewer ribbons and shorter ribbons). Here's how the quilt top looks all done:

I decided to go a little crazy with the quilting by making each ribbon a different quilted design. I found that I grew my quilting skills with this quilt and I was so excited to try some new things.

I did a floral border stencil on the floral fabric, a chevron type design on the orangey pink, and a checkered design on the light pink:

On the hot pink, I tried my hand a pebble quilting:

The solid pink has a heart stencil, the redish pink one has straight lines, and the pink with floral has a wave design, and on the white, I used a flower stencil (with a total of 14 on the whole quilt):

I used my regular presser foot for the ones with straight lines, checkered pattern, and the chevron:

It took a while to do all the pebbling. I drew them out first so that I could just follow along instead of completely free motioning them on:

Here's the floral stencil on the floral pattern:

Once all the quilting was done, I decided on this lime green (actually called "wasabi") as the binding:

I used hot pink thread on the ribbon quilting and white thread on the background quilting.

And I used the hot pink for the binding thread:

Finished, front view:

Finished, back view:

Close up on a chair (sorry for the mess behind it):

This quilt was well received. She is past her due date but handling it pretty well. Her husband came up to me today and was just in SHOCK at the quilting - and how AMAZING it was. I felt love and appreciation for this quilt. I hope now that she has the quilt, her baby will come!

Family Photos 2015

I apologize for not being in the best shape for these pictures 

but here are the photos that I thought were the best:

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 (Although I think this is the same one as the first one ;) )

Thanks to the AMAZING Amanda Allen Photography for squeezing us in before her big move!

Project: Growing Boy Quilt

Yet another quilt has inspired a friend of mine to ask me to create this for her. Her little guy is already one so making a crib quilt seemed to be silly so we decided on a lap sized quilt (around 60" square quilt- think hello kitty quilt I did for my daughter). I introduced her to a new pandora box of pinterest and she found this quilt I had pinned which is fairly simple in design and quilting but very clean and modern as well:

Here's the link to the pattern I used 

(I made my a 7x7 instead of a 5x5 to make it the size I wanted):

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/wall-quilts/bolts-blue

It's a pretty straight forward kind of quilt.

I gave her the option of buying her own fabric or having me do it and she opted to try her hand at coordinating fabric. I think she did an AMAZING job! Here they are cut to the 2" strips needed:

I sewed the strips into the patterned block of color solid color solid color 

and cut them into 7.5" squares 

(I know in the pattern I linked it says 8" squares but somehow 

my 1/4" presser foot was off so I did the best I could with what happened).

Here's how it looked when I laid out all the blocks and sashings before it became a quilt top:

(note: the border isn't in the picture yet)

Before I sewed them into rows, I had my engineer husband look at where each color block was to make sure they didn't seem to close or anything like that. Ah, the upside of marrying a left brain :)

Quilt top without border before pressing it:

I decided to go with how the original picture with regards to the quilting 

(which is similar to the last baby quilt I did).

 The quilting is only on the cream color and outlines the rectangles. 

Here it is started:

And then adding the binding:

All laid out before I washed and dried it:

All clean! (Please ignore the mess on the side.)

And a fantastic back view of the quilting:

I am so happy to have tried this quilt out. I did have some learning curve in it (but I feel I learn something new from each quilt). Finished size is about 63"/64" square. 

This beautiful quilt will grow with this little guy for years to come.

With all the things that have been going on in my life right now, 

I was happy to have this completed in about 10 days (not consecutive).

Project: V's Baby Surprise

Well, this quilt is for a dear, sweet friend who has gone through a lot. I feel so blessed to know her. She always waits to find out the gender of her babies until they are coming out. So, we picked this gender neutral baby quilt. I've been DYING to do this kind of black and white quilt so I was excited.

And here is the fabric I chose... (can you tell I've been WAITING to do this one?)

And this as the backing:

Pieces all cut- So, I looked at the photo from my pinterest account and figured the aqua squares were about 1/3 the length of the black/white blocks. I made the aqua blocks 2"x2" and the black/white blocks 6"x6" and the white sashings were 2"x6".

I laid it all out on the floor. I tried so many different ways and came up with this. If I tried to scatter them so the same colors would never touch, it never worked so I decided that if the same colors were going to touch, I might as well make them in rows. I hope she likes it....

I chain pieced this into a quilt top quite quickly. I sewed each row of blocks into a whole row and then pressed seams. I then sewed each row of sashings to a row of black/white row. I always keep it laid out on the floor as I go to make sure I don't sew the wrong rows together. I alway sew 2 rows together until the end and then each set of 2 rows together and then into one big quilt top (I hope that make sense).

We decided to keep the quilting in a clean, modern touch by doing straight lines. First, I quilted on the inside of the sashing rows all the way down (about the width of my presser foot), starting in the middle and working my way out to each side vertically and then did the same thing for the horizontal rows:

I then quilted around the inside of each black/white block (again about the width of the presser foot):

For the binding, I went ahead and cut 2.5" strips of the black/white fabrics that I used and did that as my sashing. I think it turned out well:

Front view (before washing):

Back view (before washing):

Front (after washing):

Close view after washing/drying:

I think it turned out beautifully. It took longer than I thought but mostly because last week we had a MAJOR heat wave (of over 90 degrees and with no a/c it was TOO uncomfortable to quilt or do much of anything for that matter and many dr appointments for me and my family). I started it around June 23rd and worked on it for about 5 days (not consecutively). I hope the new baby enjoys it (although we wont know if it's a boy or girl until October). 

Oh, the finished size was near a 40"x40" square. :)