WIPs

A few Works in Progress from this weekend...

 Pieced a baby quilt

 

 Began a quilted Union Jack tea cozy for mum-in-law

 

Binding Pete's St. Louis 16-patch

 

Another shot of his quilt, before it was quilted



Baby Logan

I made this baby quilt for a friend of my sister's who is having her first baby (a boy!) in mid May. I used Moda Little Apples and Moda solid steel for the background.

 

 

Duncan "helping" me baste the quilt



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

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.

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.

Springtime quilt

This is a quilt I made for Pete's toddler niece Cerys. I gave this to Cerys this past Christmas while she was probably buried in snow at her home in Minnesota. Hopefully the Moda Just Wing It! butterfly fabrics made her look foward to spring! This is a fun quilt pattern by Brenda Henning called Stir Crazy. I love using pre-cut 2.5" strips (jelly rolls) - they are so convenient.

A 30th birthday gift

First, happy 30th birthday to my cousin Jessica of there is a splendid calm. For her birthday, I put together an X's & O's design table topper using Moda's Circa 1934 fabric. I love this fabric line and cannot wait to use it to make something for myself.

Happy 82nd Birthday, Grandma!

I don't usually post this many pictures of my quilts but I feel particularly proud of the quilt my cousin Jessica Pierre'auguste and I made for our grandma for her 82nd birthday. Her birthday is December 26, and we gave it to her on Christmas Eve.  

Jessica and I decided we would make a double-sided quilt and that we would each make one side of it. The catch - we had no idea what the other was making. We did not discuss ideas, colors or patterns. I made my side a little larger so it would work on the longarm.

I mixed Moda collections Ruby, Just Wing It and Fa La La with Kona white to make my Bento Box pattern side of the quilt. Jessica used beautiful blue, green, pink and purple batiks on hers.

Moda's Ruby, Just Wing It and Fa La La collections

 

Laying out the Bento Boxes

I am also very proud of how Jessica and I overcame a few major issues with this project. First, we used a longarm quilting machine that we had never used before. Turned out it was a lot different than the one we were used to and the quilting was not our best work. We quilted the entire thing anyway, then spent two weeks ripping it all out and replacing a couple of torn spots, and then requilting it. Second, my quilt side, which acted as the backing, was placed on the longarm just slightly crooked. When we squared up the quilt, the borders on the top and bottom were not quite right. See the "oops" photo below. I suggested cutting out some border fabric and appliqueing it to the crooked borders in an effort to make it appear perfect. Jessica took it a step further and hand sewed the pieces down using a blind stitch. You cannot even tell there was ever an issue! Finally, we wanted to wash the quilt so the tiny holes from the previous quilting would dissappear. I washed it with three color catchers but one of the red Moda fabrics bled onto the white in a couple spots anyway. I used a bleach stick on the spots and rewashed it. Most of the bleeding came out and when it's dry you cannot see it.

Oops

Thank you to Jessica for taking these pictures. See additional pictures on her blog about the quilt at Splendid Calm Textiles:

 My side of the quilt

 Jessica's side

 Me (l) and Jessica (r)

Me, Grandma, Grandpa and Jessica

Sonoma Valley quilt

Pete's nephew Jonathan lives near beautiful San Francisco. I had the pleasure of spending time with Jon in Florida a few summers ago. We played at the beach, ate yummy seafood and spent time relaxing at the grandparents' coastal home.

I made this simple strip quilt using Moda Oddysea and Moda marbles 2.5" strips. I love the blues and eggplant colors of this fabric, and of course, I love the underwater theme. I was able to embroider his name and the year on the quilt while visiting my cousin Jessica's family a few months ago.

Sewing and quilting firsts

While looking through old photographs I found pictures of some of my very first sewing and quilting projects. The first picture is of my little brothers and sister around 1992, making me 15 years old at the time. I made this floral dress for my sister Judith and I made our Easter outfits each year until she decided she no longer wanted to wear dresses. I also have a photo of Judith in a nightgown I made for her. Unfortunately I'm also in the picture so I will not be posting that one!

Aaron, Judith and Jacob

The second photo is of the very first quilt I made. My cousin Jessica of Splendid Calm Textiles taught me how to quilt and with her constant and much appreciated guidance, I made this simple 9-patch baby quilt.  I made this for my friend Julia's baby, Tyler, who was born September 10, 2010.