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.

November 2015 Recap

November feels like it was a lifetime ago, but here is the recap nonetheless. 

During a particularly rough week, Madeleine requested matching jammies and a photo. Done!

After many months of health problems, a lot of pain, and many appointments later, a trip to the ER finally pointed me in the direction of a real diagnosis.

Madeleine is working on cutting bananas...in real life...

...and in Fruit Ninja. 

Turns out that both of our kids share my love for sesame dumplings at Din Tai Fung, which means they have good taste and create competition for me! 

I made a ton of progress on Madeleine's quilt (follow along here).

Look who is getting so tall and has mastered tip toes!

On "student teaching night" at Madeleine's school, she showed us around her classroom and demonstrated her favorite works. We're a big fan of her coffee grinding work, too, because it results in a baggy of fresh grounds each Friday. Score! 

This kid and his cars...

I feel lucky to have captured that rare moment where the winter sun was streaming in the (dirty) windows and Madeleine was "reading" a book to Elliott. 

On Thanksgiving, I was thankful to feel well enough to run a 5k and then lead Madeleine on her second race, a 1k.

It was a very cold morning, and she struggled to stay motivated until she realized that she could make her shadow run! If only they'd told us that the finishing medals would be chocolate...

Sub-freezing temperatures were no match for this smile!

Just hanging out one evening...

I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season and not getting too swept up in the hustle and bustle.  Cheers!

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.