Mom's Christmas quilt

I made this full size quilt for mom as a Christmas gift. She saw this Moda Origins fabric at my house one day and casually mentioned that if she was to get a quilt, she'd want it in these colors. That was over a year ago and I finally got it done. For her birthday in early December I gave her two 16-inch quilted pillows with a granny square (this block pattern) on each, and then gave her the quilt a couple weeks later at Christmas.

 

 

 It's hard to take a picture of a quilt when the wind is blowing!

 

 

Circle quilting by Diane Selman in Buda

Not about a quilt

Pete and I were married on September 22, 2012. The photographer took so many wonderful photos and I thought I'd share a few of them here. What a wonderful day of celebration with family and friends!

 With Jenn and Isabella

 Jessica, Ju, me and Jenn

 Brother Ronnie walking me down the aisle

 Robin and Pete - just married!

 My main man, Duncan

Gorgeous and delicious

Fall baby

Another coworker of mine is having a baby so I decided to make a baby quilt for him. This is his and his wife's first child -- and it's a girl! The baby will be bornNovember 15. I had lots of green, red, pink and teal scraps from quilts I made for grandma, Cerys, and the Christmas quilt I'm making for myself. I bought approx one yard of fabric to finish this 50x50" baby blanket:

Some works in progress

Since I haven't posted on my blog in a while, and I may not have anything completed in October, I want to share some things I'm working on now.

I've had this Moda Origins fabric sitting around for a very long time. I am finally going to make something for my mom as a combined Christmas and birthday gift in December. The Granny Square blocks are strip-pieced using the tutorial on the I'm a Ginger Monkey blog - they are going together quickly and easily. Instead of using 2.5" strips, I am using 3.5" and my finished blocks will be 12.5".

I have taken the Houston Quilt Festival Pet Project Postcard Pledge! I am making 4x6" pet postcards to donate and be sold at the Houston Quilt FEstival. Money raised will benefit Friends for Life, a no-kill shelter in Houston. I'm going to finish a sixth block and quilt these tonight, sew on the binding tonight and hand bind while on a roadtrip this weekend. I'll start a new batch of postcards next week!

I pieced together this baby quilt top this past weekend using scraps of teal, red and green [mostly] Moda fabrics from earlier projects. It was nice to make a baby quilt without having to buy more fabric. I am really try to not hold onto a fabric stash, but rather buy new fabric only when I have a project in mind for it.

Gifts for bridal shower hostesses

This past Saturday my lovely family and friends hosted a bridal shower in my honor. The shower was wonderful, super fun, beautiful, fabulous, delicioius... the adjectives could go on and on. I made some quilted table toppers, napkins and quilted Kindle/Nook cases for the hostesses.

 Kindle case on the left for Jenn, and a Nook case on the right for Jessica -

the floral pins are removable so you can pin them on your blouse or purse!

 Table topper and four napkins for my sister Judith

 Table topper and four napkins for my sister-in-law Mauri

Thank you to these talented and generous ladies.

They mean so much to me and I'm lucky to have them in my life.

Modern Wedding Ring

My sister Judith married James on July 8 so I made a Modern Wedding Ring quilt for them using a  free pattern by McCall's Quilting.  I used a Moda Prayer Flag jellyroll and an off-white fabric for the background. This quilt fits a queen size bed and is the largest quilt I've made to date.

Grandpa turns 90!

Jessica and I teamed up again to make a quilt for our grandpa who turned 90 years old on July 7. Jessica's side is made of batik fabrics in tans, greens and browns. I made a rainbow spectrum quilt using 2" finished half square triangles.

Jessica's side of the quilt

My side

 Grandpa and Jessica

Grandpa and me

And because I am particularly proud of this quilt, here are a ton of pictures. And yes, our work landed us in a local newspaper again (disregard the caption, grandpa's a tad over 50).



Badass quilt for a badass brother

Jessica and I took on the task of making a new quilt for my brother Ron while he was in Afghanistan this year. On one of his previous deployments, maybe in Somalia, his quilt from my grandma was actually stolen while on his naval ship! My grandma makes a quilt for each of her grandchildren when they graduate from high school. Grandma made Ron's Milky Way pattern quilt in shades of blue, including navy, since he planned to enlist in the Navy. Here is a picture of Ron, mom and the quilt in 1997:

Jessica and I decided to take a more modern approach to the new quilt while also incorporating the friendship stars and some of the colors of Ron's original quilt. Jessica found a great way to lay out the stars at Fresh Lemon Quilts. We chose two batik black fabrics, a blue batik, solid gray and small scraps of Alexander Henry Regent Skull fabric left over from when she made Ivan's quilt.

Laying out the quilt was tricky and blocks couldn't easily be pieced ahead of time. Jessica and I pulled an all-nighter the Friday before our quilting appt and finished the quilt. Jessica sewed all of the tiny pieces together while I pieced the back with a couple patches of stars. Some progress photos:

Horizontal quilting is owning me right now - I love it so much! It turned out to be perfect for this quilt.

 Jessican and me with the finished quilt