Traditional Baby Quilt

Now that my most recent quilt has reached its owner, I can share it here. It's a little more traditional than I usually go, but it's still slightly modern thanks to lots of solids and some fun, subtle stripes. I stuck with my new favorite all-over free motion quilting. 

On the back, I used the same fabric as I put on the back of Elliott's quilt. I'm hoping Sir E's happy vibes will flow to the new sweet baby boy who's going to be snuggling this quilt.

I love that my dear friend is going to be a mama and that this quilt will be along for the ride. Can't wait till this baby boy arrives! XO

Modern Hexagon Quilt for Miss L

My most recent quilt was made with lots of love for my bestie's little girl. It was my first quilt incorporating hexagons (done by machine!) and one of the rare quilts where I had the vision in my mind and went about creating it without ever drawing out the details of the quilt.

I love the juxtaposition of the modern pattern (hexes, mostly solid fabric, and lots of negative space) with the antique feel of the "crunch" from the overall stipple quilting. It's a little bigger than crib size to make a more comfortable toddler bed quilt.

I backed it in fabric that I bought in New Zealand (and then spotted in my local fabric shop - doh!). The backing fabric was the inspiration for the fabric I used on the front.

Sweet Louisa, I hope that you and your family love and enjoy your quilt for years to come!

Madeleine's 52-Week Quilt

Well, hello.

I've been off living life and not blogging, but I decided to stop by to document a couple of things. As I recently finished a quilt, I realized that I never shared Madeleine's 52-week quilt, so named because I used fabric from her 52-week photo project. In doing so, I'll share a bit of her new room. Oh yeah, we moved. :-)

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw the process of making half square triangles, working out the design, and eventually only using a small fraction of the pieces I'd originally cut/sewn. In the end, I'm really happy with the quilt, which was my first using half square triangles and my first free motion quilting, done on my domestic machine. I have fallen for free motion quilting in a big way.

The quilt is pretty much reversible because I backed it with this fabric that I picked up ages ago in Kaui. Madeleine calls it the Hawaii side. It was a challenge to get the pattern to match up at the necessary seam, but I love the fabric - so bright and bold. Both sides go with her newly painted walls (Benjamin Moore Antiguan Sky).

As much as this quilt makes me swell with pride, I feel like it wasn't really living up to its potential until I added the bunting to the walls, which was the inspiration for the pattern in the first place.

Sweet Madeleine regularly thanks me for her quilt, so I'm going to call it a big success.

Bright Baby Girl Quilt

This past weekend, I got to hand off my newest quilt to its new owner. She is bright, confident, feisty, feminine, and unapologetic. I mean all of those things in the nicest possible way, and she is going to be a wonderful mother to her sweet Adelina.

In that spirit, I tried to make a quilt that embodied the same character and ended up with this:

The quilt top came together remarkably quickly thanks to strip piecing and a few cutting shortcuts. 

For the quilting, I wanted to try something different. I attempted to recreate the pattern from the backing fabric. It's imperfect (isn't that the true beauty of quilts?), but I'm pleased with how it turned out. 

Thank You Gingham Quilt

I'm excited to finally share my most recent quilt, which is a greatly belated thank you gift. I'd been looking for the right pattern when I ran across this one, which I thought would be perfect for our friends who love picnicking. What says picnic more than gingham?!

Yep, our grass is that brown. That drought is no joke.

Whether I can convince them to haul it into the great outdoors or it keeps them cozy in their home, I hope that the new owners of the quilt enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it for them!

A World of Support for Charlotte: A Modern Around the World Quilt

My most recent quilt is now in the hands of a little girl who I've never met. Her name is Charlotte, and she is the niece of my dear friend, Misha. She also happens to be waging an incredibly brave battle against liver cancer that started when she was all of 15 months old. I've been following her story here and haven't been able to get her and her family off of my mind. So I made Charlotte a quilt to give her comfort during her treatments and a place to have a picnic when she's not.

I chose to do a modern take on the traditional around the world pattern (inspired by this quilt) to represent all of the support around the world for Charlotte and her family. I went with bright rainbow solids and a fun Japanese kitty print for the back.

Keep fighting, sweet Charlotte!

Christmas Squared: A Modern Christmas Log Cabin Quilt

A month or two ago, I decided that I wanted to make a Christmas quilt to kick off my goal of making one seasonal quilt per year. I thought it would be fun to have a special throw to get out just for the month of December each year, a comfy place for us to curl up and establish some great memories. 

I settled on a pretty simple design that would allow me to use strip piecing. I tried to choose fabric that would be timeless and grow with us as a family. Every quilt that I make teaches me a lesson, and this one taught me to follow my fabric instincts. I'm so glad that I did! 

The size of the quilt is a fair bit larger than intended. I wanted a generous throw size and ended up with one that is longer and just slightly narrower than a standard twin bed quilt. (It's pictured resting on a queen bed.) This is about twice as big as any other quilt I've made to date. About a week before I started, I got a new sewing machine (merry Christmas to me!), and there is no way that I could have done it without my new machine's 11-inch neck! 

Enough quilting mumbo-jumbo - here are some photos: 

The quilting on this beast is rather simple and quite imperfect. As I was quilting, I debated whether I should go back and fix the mistakes to make it a little closer to perfect, but I decided against it. Here's the thing: like a piece of writing, a quilt should be tailored to its audience and purpose. This is meant to be a background for family memories, not a show piece. I'm currently in the season of my life where perfection is a thing of the past and good enough is the motto of the year decade. Hopefully I'll one day treasure those untouched mistakes as I curl up in the quilt while I wait for our teenagers to come home or wait for the grandkids to arrive.

For now, I'll treasure being able to lay down our first year of memories with this quilt.

And with that, goodbye 2014. 

A Mini For My Mini

Madeleine is such a little mommy. She loves taking care of her dolls, which includes giving them heaps of cuddles, reading and singing to them, putting them down to bed (laying them face down and covering them with blankets so that no body parts are showing), feeding them, changing their diapers, taking their clothes on and off (mostly off), and taking them for rides in her doll stroller.

When I saw that I had some squares left over from baby brother's quilt, I knew I had to make Madeleine (another!) quilt for her babies. This is a little one - just about 22" square - and super simple, but I hope that she is pleased with receiving a new doll quilt when her baby brother arrives.

How do you use quilting leftovers?

Baby Boy's Houndstooth Quilt

I've (finally) gotten started on some crafting for Baby Boy's nursery, and I have the first final product to show you. Just the day after mentioning to a friend that I hadn't seen any quilts that were inspiring me, I ran across this houndstooth one. It caught my eye, and I ended up making my very first quilt according to a pattern.

We're slowly making progress through the nursery to-do list, so keep an eye out for more nursery projects coming soon!

Gender Neutral Baby Quilt

Now that my most recent quilt has met its new owner, you get to meet it.

This quilt is directly copied from inspired by this quilt. As soon as I saw it, I knew I'd model Baby L's quilt after it because it provided a way to bring a lot of colors into a quilt while keeping it simple, modern, and not too juvenile. I stretched my comfort zone a bit by quilting in a square pattern from the center to the edges.

I don't have specific fabric information for the solids. The backing is Windham Fabrics Wallflowers Vine in grey, designed by Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew.

I can already picture Baby L enjoying tummy time on his/her quilt! Enjoy, Misha and Aaron!

Modern Traditional Patchwork Ombre Quilt

I am so excited to share my most recent quilt, which is going to live in Dallas with Denaye and David's son. Denaye and David like both modern and traditional elements, so I tried to incorporate both into this quilt. Denaye asked me to try to do something ombre, and this nursery rug inspired the palette.

I used a traditional patchwork pattern but all solid fabric and straight line quilting for modern touches. 

Check out that post-laundry crinkle! 

All those solids made the front a little serious, so I lightened up the back with this cute puppy print.

I can't wait to see the little guy having tummy time on his quilt! 

Little Plus Quilt

It's been a while since the 52-week photo/fabric project concluded, and you might be wondering what I'm doing with 52 yards of fabric. Before the project concluded, I cut into the fabric stash to make a little quilt to give Madeleine for her first birthday. The quilt was meant to go with the doll we gave her, Stella.

I wanted to wait until after the birthday to share it, and, in doing so, I've nearly forgotten to share it with you. So, here is Stella's little plus quilt in all its crinkly, busy goodness:

Madeleine loves to lay on it, wrap it around her, and use it to play peek-a-boo. Hopefully she'll use it to keep Stella warm one day down the road.

Valentine Color Block Quilt

I am so excited to share my most recent quilt. I wanted to incorporate a lot of grey and also bring in color for a special baby whose gender is unknown; I think I succeeded.

Its new owner is due to be born next month, and I can't wait to meet him or her. His/Her mom and I played together with our dolls on a regular basis for most of our childhoods, so it's very special for both of us to have real, live dolls born within a year of each other.

Do you like to create handmade gifts for new babies?