Thursday, June 28, 2018

Scrappy Patchwork Lap Quilt

54" x 67.5" 

This fabric line is from Moda and is called Sunday Supper. I love the silverware prints in this line. There are also some prints with words on them which I don't get to use very often. Word prints are so awesome! This is one of my go to patterns because of the pieced border. It's a nice upgrade to a plain patchwork quilt, and an upgrade to a plain border. Win, win!


I found a nice backing fabric at the store the other day. Most times I forget to plan this out in advance and it can be hard to find something that matches some of the colors in the moda lines. This navy blue is not like any of the navy blues in my stash.  I got smart this time and ordered binding fabric from the Sunday Supper line before it runs out.


You can find Scrappy Patchwork pattern here. It comes in two sizes - baby and lap.  It's a great pattern in you are a beginner or you want a patchwork quilt with a modern feel.

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Scrappy Patchwork Baby Quilt

 36 x 40.5

Here is a simple baby quilt is some nice colors. I love the aqua with the coral and tans especially for a baby quilt. There are even little foxes and birds on the fabric to make it oh so cute!



I found just enough of this aqua fabric in my stash for the back of this quilt. Although, I'm glad I was forced to add the leftover from the front because it just adds so much. I've been getting quite lazy lately and not piecing my backs. Let me just say that it's a quick way to build up the scrap pile, but not in a good way!


The pattern is called Scrappy Patchwork and comes in 2 sizes - baby and lap.

Friday, June 22, 2018

Hydrangea Quilt


52" x 68"

This quilt is full of hydrangea prints from Benartex. I had a customer send me the blue center fabric with the butterflies and a backing fabric. We worked out the rest of the fabric placement before I placed the order for the rest of the prints.   

I had enough of the main print to fussy cut the hydrangeas. I didn't fussy cut the dark centers though, the hydrangeas on that print were too big. The green tonal print softly outlines the main print blocks. And the dark inner border ties in with the small dark centers of the other block.  Turned out wonderfully! 


I think the missing comment issue has been fixed on my blog. So hopefully if you leave a comment, I'll be responding with an email again!  It was a pretty easy fix. Just read this post here from Just Let Me Quilt.


linking with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Monday, June 18, 2018

Pattern Sale!


I'm having a pattern sale this week in my Etsy Shop. Now is a great time to get that pattern you've had your eye on!  Find my shop here

Sunday, June 17, 2018

The Second Sew Along with Roseanne

Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us is hosting another Sew Along. 

It starts July 1 and I'm ready to get started!
 I will be making option #1 which is Up From Here.
This free tutorial can be found on Sew Mama Sew.


I chose these citrus colors for my quilt.  I decided to make my blocks smaller at 12" instead of 24". I will be doing a 5 x 6 block setting and using all scraps to make my quilt. I am going to try to use the larger pieces on the left for my back. Hopefully I can come up with a creative way to piece it all together. 

If you're not into this pattern, there are a couple more choices for the sew along. I hope you'll pick one of them and join us. This is a no pressure, no timeline sew along. If you don't know Roseanne, now is a prefect time to meet her. I would say there isn't a quilter she doesn't like. Pop on over and say hello!

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Jean Quilt #1

 55 x 67

This quilt turned out so much better than I was expecting! Like I said earlier this week, this quilt top was put away last year (along with it's brother) because  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. But someone kindly asked me about them and wanted to know how it sewed up. Being the accommodating person that I am, I decided it was time to finish at least one of these jeans quilts completely so I could answer all of the questions.


I like the sashing because the seams are all ironed toward the sashing which makes the top feel completely flat. No thick seams. I sewed it with my regular needle on my sewing machine and had no trouble at all.


I loaded it on my longarm and did some custom quilting since it's for the kids. It was an awesome practice quilt since they don't care if I mess up. And I did mess up several times. I only unpicked once because it was really bothering me.  I used the same needle I always use for the permacore thread. I think it's a size 18. 

The back is really black soft and cuddle fabric (just like minky) and not gray. I was going to edit the photos, but you can see the quilting better this way. I almost bought the minky dot, but I think I like this smooth version better. It's just as soft and the quilting shows, but no thread shows.


Each size square got a different motif. I used the ruler to do the diagonal, horizontal, and vertical lines, and the X's I put in the little squares. The rest was all freehand. It was my first time doing the watery meander. Not sure I didn't it correctly because I kept getting stuck on the sides or I would end up being too close to loop back and forth. All in all, it turned out okay. I'd love to try it on a whole quilt doing a bigger design.


The two large blocks were quilted with small loops and the word love. It's subtle, but you can still see it. A sweet touch for the child who will get this one without being too girly.


Now the question you all want answered...is it heavy?  Yes, and no. I didn't want to use batting because that would make it very heavy. The cuddle fabric on the back makes it feel like it has batting. The texture is so awesome. I keep rubbing my hand over the designs. I think it's a bit too heavy for a summer quilt, but it will be perfect for winter when the house is colder.  I am even thinking of making one for our bed. It would be for winter when I use 2 quilts (I could just use one if it was this jeans quilt).  I think the weight of it would be lovely to sleep under. It is heavier than a regular quilt, but not so heavy that you wouldn't want to use it.

Some of my quilt holders on standby...



I tried very hard not to stretch the backing fabric as I quilted it. It is just a tad wavy, but it's not as wavy as the first picture makes it look. Here it is laid on flat on the floor.



And just one more so you can see the back is indeed black!


I don't know if I'll quilt the other one next week or not. I think there may be some piecing of a quilt top that needs to be done. We'll see what I'm in the mood for when we get there.

Linking with Needle and Thread and Busy Hands Quilts

*Please note - Due to the changes made by Blogger dealing with new comment notification, I will be replying directly to your comments on the blog until another solution is found. 

Sunday, June 10, 2018

Jean Quilt Tops

Roseanne posted something last week about making a quilt from her pile of jeans and I kindly suggested she make one like this. I told her that I had a couple tops ready to be quilted, but I had not finished them yet and put them away until I could figure out what to do with them. She demanded that I post about them IMMEDIATELY!  No, I'm just kidding! She asked very kindly if I would share what I knew about my quilt tops. 

I don't usually have any UFOs, but these two have been sitting in my attic for a about a year I think. At that time, I had a huge pile of old jeans and several kids willing to take the scissors to them on my behalf. I had been thinking of what quilt pattern I wanted to use with all those jeans and found this one by Lucy Quilts.  <==  PATTERN HERE   It's a pattern well worth it's money!


I made mine larger by adding an additional row to the pattern. It's been a while so I don't remember which one I added. But the process is simple to enlarge it as it is sewn in sections. The only downfall that I found with this pattern is the two large squares are so big, I had to go to the Goodwill to find a very large pair of men's pants because mine just aren't big enough (and I'm the biggest one in my house). Well there is another possible downfall, well not really, this quilt just takes a long time to make and you have to have room to layout an entire section if you want to control color placement. (I'm a bit of a control freak when it comes to color placement!)


After I made the first on with 1/2" finished sashing, I decided I needed to try a different pattern. Would you believe I still have a huge pile of jeans? (I guess that happens when you have 8 kids wearing them out!) Anyway, here is the one I saw on Pinterest.


It is made from only 1 block and the sashing was 1" finished so this one was so much easier to make. I don't remember if I drew it out on graph paper or found a pattern. It doesn't really matter what size blocks you make. You could even make rectangle blocks and line those up vertically. Anything works when it comes to jeans quilts.


I went to Joann's this weekend and they had soft and comfy fabrics (minky) on sale for 5.99 a yard! So I bought some black and some dark blue to get these two tops finished. One is loaded as we speak and I hope to have it done this week. I am planning on doing some different quilting in the different sized blocks. I hope that it turns out well. The plan is to give each of my kids one of these quilts at some point before they move out. So if I mess up, they won't be too upset. I can always make another!

Thanks, Roseanne, for the gentle push to get these finished. I like to think I don't have any UFOs. And I'll be able to say that again soon!

*Please note - Due to the changes made by Blogger dealing with new comment notification, I will be replying directly to your comments on the blog until another solution is found. 

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Lindsay Lou - A New Pattern

 50' x 66"

This is my new pattern called Lindsay Lou. I named it after my oldest daughter. As you might have guessed, her name is Lindsay. When she was little I used to call her Lindsay Lou. Her middle name is not Lou, but it just sounds so playful and sweet.

This is an easy beginner quilt that is perfect for summer! It comes in 5 sizes from Baby to King and is made from a layer cake. I used the Nest fabric line from Moda to make the lap size quilt.


I found a soft blue floral print for the back to keep the quilt light and airy. Lately it seems I have not been piecing my backs, so I decided to add some fun to this quilt. I found a pink fabric in my stash that goes perfectly and breaks up the blue of the backing fabric.


Myra from Busy Hands Quilts  made a baby size with a beautiful aqua background. She chose bolder fabrics in navy and red for the triangles. I just love this combo!



Hope you like my new pattern, it's a different style than the others. Thanks for stopping by! You can find Lindsay Lou here.

Linking with Busy Hands Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.


*Please note - Due to the changes made by Blogger dealing with new comment notification, I will be replying directly to your comments on the blog until another solution is found. 

Throwback Thursday - Veggie Tales

For my first Throwback Thursday I've picked two Veggie Tales Quilts. This first one I Made in 2010 and it was one of the first quilts I ever made. I bought a panel with two different blocks - Larry the Tomato shown on this quilt and Bob the Cucumber which I used on the second quilt.

Now keep in mind that I am completely new to sewing and quilting at this point, with only the internet and quilting blogs to help me. I had an old sewing machine my mom bought for me and it did't do much but sew a straight line! I am good at math however, so I got out some graph paper and drew up how I could use the fabric I bought. I probably only had a half hard of a few prints to work with. 

I came up with this design using the border print on top and bottom. The back is all black as I hadn't started piecing backs yet. I quilted straight lines a quarter inch away from the ditch on all the sashing on my sewing machine.


Five years later in 2015 I decided to use the other panel to make us a matching quilt. I dug out all the remaining fabric, did a bunch more designing on graph paper and came up with this. You might guess that I didn't have enough of the panel print to get all the way across the quilt, so I had to break it up with the sashing.


There were two prints I didn't want to use on the front left over so I used them on the back.  I quilted it the same way, but this time on my longarm. All the left over pieces went into I-Spy kits I made in that year too.


We still have both of these quilts on the couches in the front room. They are well loved by the kids. I love them too. They remind me why quilting is so much fun. You get to play with color and fabric, do some math, and sometimes you even get to put a puzzle together and make it beautiful. Yes, I do love math!

Linking with MMM for Throwback Thursday.

Friday, June 1, 2018

Another Purple Cross

 80" x 90"

I had a request for a purple cross quilt in my shop. This one is a full sized quilt. Purple must be a lot of peoples favorite color as I've made 3 purple cross quilts. I used over 20 different fabrics to give this such a scrappy look. 


Here is my first attempt on the design wall. It was looking a little too pink purple so I took out the offending print. You can see on the cross where it's gone now.


Normally I would use a solid on the back of a bed quilt, but she is giving this quilt to be used on a couch and she wanted it to be big.  It is definitely big!  I found this beautiful purple print at Marshall's Dry Goods. I love their prices and the wide backings are pretty nice.


Here's a close up of the backing fabric. I actually ordered 3 different purple prints so I could choose the right color. I like this print and will use it again, hopefully in a different color.


Linking with Busy Hands Quilts and Crazy Mom Quilts.