Baby Quilt

A few months back I found this wonderful, whimsical, and colorful fabric.  I knew immediately that I wanted to use it as a quilt back:

There is so much to love here!

For the front, I decided to pull out the beautiful colors in the back and create a simple rainbow.  Two charm packs later, I was happy.  Plus, it was quick and painless.  I.love.quick.

I have a list of tasks miles long, but this weekend I was able to chain stitch away for this quilt and last night I basted it.  This has been the world’s longest week, and sometimes you just need a few minutes of fabric therapy.  Who knows when I’ll get around to quilting it, but the basting is done!

Why do I have so much to do?  All I want to do is quilt, quilt, quilt!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

The quilt may be delivered, but the baby is not.  How’s that for meeting a deadline, folks?  Possibly the only time I’ll make a deadline ever.  What started as a pillow idea, turned into a beautiful baby girl quilt that I hope my sweet cousin will love using with her daughter.  This will be the first baby of the next generation in our family and I am so excited to have some new life at get-togethers.  Babies make everything more fun.  Also, I get paid in baby snuggles, so I can’t wait to meet this little one.

Finished Quilt:

Thanks to everyone for the suggestion on quilting the X – LOVE how it turned out!

The quilt back (I need yards of this fabric!):

The fabrics are “Keep It Cool Raspberry” and “Linen Raspberry”.  Spring House by Stephanie Ryan.

Here’s some more of this quilting: Proud Momma right HERE!

And finally, my new favorite part of quilting:  The binding!

Fabric:  “Floral Woven Pink” Spring House by Stephanie Ryan.

Quilt Stats:

• 39 inches x 39 inches
• All fabrics:  Spring House line by Stephanie Ryan
• Quilted by ME on my Bernina 215

There really is nothing like shipping off a quilt and knowing it’s going to someone you love.  Today I’m linking up to quite a few fun linky parties you should check out:  WiP Wednesday, Needle and Thread Thursday, and Finish it Up Friday!

Now I’m off to Los Cabos, Mexico to celebrate 3 years of marriage to this guy:

Our Wedding Song: Grow Old With Me by John Lennon

  Happy quilting, y’all, and see ya in a week!

WiP Wednesday

Wednesday is here.  The final Wednesday before summer vacation.  Can I get an amen?! I spent yesterday like this celebrating the end of the year.  These kiddos completely wore me out… and I may have lost my voice.  Stage mom apparently translates to sideline loony, too!

By the time I got home I was completely exhausted, and yet, I managed to finish quilting my baby quilt.  Like I said on Monday, I am so thrilled that I asked for advice on how to quilt this sucker.  You guys completely saved the day, kept it within my abilities, and made this quilt way better than it would have been if I had stayed with my original plan.

Without further ado, the baby quilt.  Because let’s be serious, you’re not here for my awesome iPhone photos.  (Guys, it was raining AGAIN.  I do what I can.)

This is my favorite stage in the quilting process.  I love when the quilt is quilted and folded.  It just feels so snuggly and almost done.  A quilt, but not quite a quilt that’s leaving you.

I just love looking over and seeing a quilt!

Up next:  Binding.

And, serious quilting joy this week.  Baby Bear received his quilt yesterday and I got the best love!  His dad posted a picture to my Facebook, and mom sent me a video “thank you” from Bear.  Like, can’t even handle how happy I was.  I sat there like an idiot laughing, crying, and clapping.  (I’m only sharing because I know you’ve done this, right?)  I loved quilting before, but let me just say, that sent me over the top.  I might have showed the hubs the video more than once.  Needless to say, I’m officially hooked on sending these suckers off.

Happy WiP Wednesday, friends.  I hope you’ve had a wonderfully quilty week, too!

Let’s Get Acquainted Monday!

There’s been very little sewing this weekend.  With the arrival of warmer weather, my husband’s good friend from college came up from the weekend.  He’s always been a personal favorite of mine, which was only solidified this weekend when he complimented my quilting and made the guest bed.  I knew he was one of the good ones.

We spent Saturday down the shore (check out my Jersey lingo coming out!)

Reading, people watching, and eating seafood.

I did manage to squeeze in some quilting, though.  After Wednesday’s post I was so thankful that I asked for quilting advice from y’all on my newest baby quilt!  There were so many suggestions and I decided that Adrianne was a genius for seeing an X where I just saw a granny square.  So I’ve quilted two of the quadrants and started on the other 2.  It’s kind of hard to see at this point, but trust me, I can’t stop petting it.

Of course, this weeks blogging advice is on photography from Tessa, and here I am sharing crappy indoor iPhone photos.  I apologize for my general failure today!

To get the quilting lines straight past the outside squares, I took Laura’s advice and used blue painters tape.  (And again, completely failed.  Didn’t take one photo.  What is wrong with me?)  I will say that while it got the job done, and my quilting would be much wonkier without it, I think next time I’ll use masking tape.  The painters tape wasn’t quuuuiiiittttteeee sticky enough.

So, you get the point!

I have the binding fabric in hand, and I promise, come hell or high water this week I will take a proper outdoor photo of this beaut.  My goal is to finish it up by Thursday so I can take it to my Guild Meeting.  Since, you know, prior to this month’s meeting I was just taking them quilt tops for show and tell.

Happy Monday to ya, friends, and I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Thank you for all of your encouragement on this quilt – I’m so glad you shared!

Today I’m linking up with Lucy over at Charm About You for Plum and June’s Let’s Get Acquainted Link Up!

Sunday Sewing

Welcome to June, y’all.  I may or may not have been sewing in my sports bra today.  New Jersey definitely skipped right over Spring and landed squarely in desert.  This weekend has been extremely productive and I’m excited to show some semi-completed projects.  While the walking foot is still out there making it’s journey home to me, I am determined to get as many quilt tops ready to go before it’s arrival.  I want to make sure it feels right at home when it meets me!

First up, I ironed all of those Hey, Honey, Honey rows that I have been procrastinating forever.  Having this quilt top done is such a relief!  I can’t wait to finish this just in time for the Kate Spain blog hop over at Blossom Hearts Quilts.

Have I mentioned how much I love Kate Spain?

A little while back, I thought this quilt top was finished.  However, this weekend, I decided to step it up and add a border to finish it off.  It’s going to my best friend who recently moved to another country with her husband who is in the military, and the border just reminds me of a hug.  Basically, she should think I am hugging her at all times when she’s under it.  Which won’t make her claustrophobic at all…

The hubs and I were acting a bit ridiculous in public taking these pictures.  Reason #4,567 I love him.  This quilt, Charming Chevrons, is based on Christa’s Quilts tutorial and quilt along.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, her tutorial is awesome!  Make this quilt – she has so many variations and it comes together easily!

I also put together the quilt back and I am in love.  Seriously.  In love.  It’s the Totem print by Anna Maria Horner in Grapefruit with some Love dots by Amy Butler.  I mean, what’s not to love about those two designers.  In fact, now I kind of want to keep this quilt…. good thing she’s my best friend and I’ll get to see it again!

So now I’m ready for a basting party over at my friend Melanie’s house on Thursday!    How awesome to have quilty friends who help you out when you can’t baste anything larger than a baby quilt in your own home.  Blasted carpets and beds.  Everything is ready to go, folded, and packed in my quilting bag.  For Thursday.  Can you tell I’m excited?!

Just wait until you see the binding.  This quilt just screams happiness, right?

So, with all this productivity in the sewing room this weekend, my house is a disaster.  The dishwasher is unloaded, but I haven’t reloaded dishes, my laundry isn’t done, the living room is a hot mess, and I’m completely ill-prepared for tomorrow.

Good thing I found this:

What a gem.

I’m linking up with Let’s Get Acquainted Monday over at Life’s Rich Pattern.  I’m also super stoked to be participating in the New Blogger Blog Hop this week  hosted by Beth at Plum and June!- I’ve already started brainstorming my post!

Name of the Game: Baby Quilts

When the quilting bug first bit, I decided to start with this quilt as my starter quilt.  Ha.  While the quilt top is finished, I quickly realized that there was no way I was going to be able to successful quilt a quilt that large without practicing first.  Practicing a lot.  Since then, I’ve made many smaller quilt tops, and finished one – heeeeey!  Now I’ve finally purchased my walking foot and it’s on its way as we speak, so I wanted to make sure I had a few baby quilts to work on when it arrives.  I. am. so. excited.  About the walking foot, and the upcoming babies!

Last night I finally finished the over-sized granny square quilt top that I made a while back.  When I was making this quilt top, I had a recipient in mind, but she hadn’t found out the gender of her baby yet.  Thank God it’s a baby girl!  It’s the perfect quilt for her and she’s my cousin, so I’m ecstatic that one of my first quilts will go to family. 

Here’s a sneak peak at the back:

Here’s the finished quilt top, covered in basting pins:

I’m really happy with how this quilt top turned out, and I promise I have a plan for quilting this baby.  There is a rhyme and reason to all of those pins.  

Then I spent the rest of my night ripping out the stitches from my previous failed attempt at quilting.  Let me tell you.  This sucks. 

I ripped through the entire movie and only ripped out 2.5 lines.  What in the world.  So defeating.  However, this baby quilt is on it’s way to a growing baby boy, so I’m super motivated to finally finish this one.  Hopefully I’ll be adding a few more finished quilts to my list in the coming weeks – as soon as my walking foot arrives to save the day.  I do not want to spend any more time with the seam ripper!

Today I’m linking up with Beth’s Let’s Get Acquainted link up hosted by Melissa.   Be sure to check out the other projects – I always find them so inspiring!

Sunday Sewing

Well, New Jersey still has not gotten the memo that it is Spring, going on Summer.  I’m seriously over my North Face and close-toed shoes.  Of course, that also means I need to get a pedicure if I’m ready to get serious about sandals… However, the hubs and I did get a head start on our anniversary vacation by purchasing matching hats and new sunglasses because we are determined to bring on Summer anyway we can.  And if that means pretending in our car with the heat on, by god, we will do it!

Can you tell we are counting down the days?

I might have also started packing… 6 weeks early.

In between packing and buying dresses, I managed to finish the rest of the pieces to the Honey, Honey quilt.  Now I just need to piece all the rows together.

I’m just hoping that all of the seams line up once it’s together.  I also clearly need a larger design wall if I plan on making full sized quilts… the painters tape on the left is not going to cut it.  You might be a quilter if….

Most importantly, tomorrow night is quilt class: on binding.  Eeeeek.  The last class.  By tomorrow I will have a finished quilt.  I am so stinkin excited.  Today I managed to make the binding, which actually wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.  Thank you guys for all the tutorials that you shared!  To all my newbie friends, I found this tutorial by Crazy Mom Quilts to be really helpful.  In fact, all of her tutorials are really helpful!

Here’s the deal, though.  How do you guys get those super cute tight rolls once you’re done?  Mine kept bunching and I was afraid my hard work with ironing was going to go down the drain.  And we all know I’m not ironing again.

I love this binding.  Love it.  I was inspired by the leaves in the original print and when I saw this fabric I knew it would work.  Today I was even more excited to see it all together – I can’t wait to finish it tomorrow…

While out shopping I spotted this gem for the guest room:

I walked away because it took away from my fabric budget.

You might be a quilter if…

I have a serious problem.  I’ve just found another fabric that I need.  And, yes, I mean need.  I know exactly who the quilt would be for.  Plus, what are you supposed to do – fabrics stop getting printed.  And then I would cry. Of course my friend Jenni said that the quilter who dies with the most fabric wins, so I’m going with that…

Genius.

Next time I post, I’ll actually be a quilting blogger who has finished a quilt (other than my 6th grade sampler). Imagine that.  I know you guys will be so proud!

I’m linking up with Let’s Get Acquainted Monday hosted over at The Sewing Chick today.

WiP Wednesday

Quilting Alert!  Quilting Alert!

I have now officially machine quilted – successfully.  The mod patchwork baby quilt from my Quilting 101 class taught by Melanie is now quilted!  I am beyond ecstatic!  So, from my previous disaster with machine quilting to now, I can say that a walking foot is a god-send, and that it helps to keep the weight of the quilt on my upper body.  It was also more than helpful to have Melanie there to tell me that every thing was A-OK.

For this quilt we practiced straight line quilting a quarter inch from each seam.  I love how this looks on the front:

My husband loved how it looked on the back.  I thought, great, could have just used this fabric on both sides – it would have been a whole lot easier!  Haha.

I just love the little boxes that form in the corners:

Now that it’s quilted, I have a confession.

I was afraid of quilting.

But, I’m really afraid of binding.

I’ve bought the fabric and I’ll make the binding this weekend.

We’ll see how this goes…

On a brighter note, I can start quilting some of the tops I’ve made!  However, I have this sick addiction to buying fabric and making quilt tops.  We’ll see if I can overcome!

Happy WiP Wednesday, y’all.  I can’t wait to see what you’re up to…

Hey, Honey, Honey!

Since I made my granny square quilt top, (which I just realized I never took a “finished” picture of this quilt top… guess I get to be the crazy lady stopping traffic again this weekend) I have been itching to use Kate Spain’s Honey Honey line again.  Seriously, I love her designs.  I loved making a quilt with her Cuzco line so much, that I decided I needed one with Honey Honey as well.  I’ve post my design plan in a previous post, but I finally have actual fabric up on the design wall!

For this quilt, I’ve used two charm packs of Honey Honey and some strips from a jelly roll of Moda White.  Basically, I hate cutting, so this cut down on a lot of prep work.  (No pun intended…)  Plus, I was able to use the whole fabric line, which I love – because there was no way I could pick a favorite fabric.  Plus, I like more chaotic designs.

I cut the charm squares in half, paired them with a strip of jelly roll that was cut to 2.5 x 5 inches long, chain pieced for day, and then ironed them.  (Grrrrr.  I hate ironing, too.)  Then I squared them up to 4.5 x 4.5 inches.  All of them.  But, really, that’s pretty low prep for a quilt top, so I’m not complaining.  It did help that the supplies were already basically ready.

Here’s the progress I made this weekend:

I just love these Spring-y fabrics.  Even if New Jersey forgot about Spring this year, I’m determined to bring some Spring into my life with this quilt.  I’ve yet to name it, and it hasn’t decided who its owner is yet.  I’m thinking that this one will be pretty easy to quilt because I can easily follow the white sections with some straight line quilting and “follow the pattern”.

I have all of the other pieces ready to go, and I hope to have it all ready to piece together this weekend.  I might need to slow down on how many quilt tops I have in the wings to quilt this summer…  I see no rest for this weary teacher…

This weekend I may have also cut my hair shorter and bought a dress in preparation for our upcoming anniversary trip in June.

I bought some bathing suits, too, but I’ll spare you! 🙂

That’s what I’m sewing these days, and tonight I’m off to quilt class to actually quilt something!  So get excited to see some real live quilting here soon.

Today I’m linking up with Let’s Get Acquainted Monday and I can’t wait to see everyone’s projects!  Happy Monday to ya!

WiP Wednesday

Whew, today I just have to say that I’m a work in progress.

After 5 months of working with my machine, I just figured out how to make it back stitch.

Better later than never, right?

Monday night, I had week 2 of my quilting class at RPS with Melanie.  After holding off for an entire week, and not doing anything with the squares we cut from last week, I finally got to piece everything together!  I have to say, small brag coming, my piecing is getting so. much. better.  A few seams are still off, but overall I’m so happy with this quilt top!

Last night, my goal was to get this puppy basted.  So round and round I went…

…until I had a zero-calorie quilt sandwich, friends!

Sorry for the lighting, but it was already dark outside and my hair was a sopping wet mess.

This will have to do:

The back is a large piece of the printed fabric from the patchwork.

(Which I may have bought 2 more yards of this week…)

In other exciting news, this book also came in the mail!

I’ve been so inspired by Cath’s paper pieced stars over at one of my favorite quilting blogs, that I decided to buy the book for future reference. (The linked post has many of her stars together, but click on the category for Paper Piecing to see all of the stars she’s made!  Do it.  Inspiring.) The two paper pieced star blocks I’ve made my for Scraps for Me quilt have been so much fun, but I’m hoping to start a larger project at some point.  A point in the far future, after I finish my fabric diet.

Now that this quilt is basted and ready for class next Monday, (Mom, where was this motivation in High School?!) I’m ready to start on this quilt! The white fabric came in the mail today, so I hope to have some progress soon 🙂

Happy WiP Wednesday friends – be sure to check out the other projects!

(Have I mentioned that I love Wednesday?)