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Lucy Elizabeth

January 28, 2010 in Finished Objects | 17 comments

My first finish of 2010 is for a good friend and her brand new baby girl, Lucy.

It was no secret I would be making a quilt for her, and I just waved goodbye to it on the mail truck. I was going to wait a couple of days to post about it, but someone decided she wanted to see pictures…

Lucy Elizabeth

Once I found out this baby was to be a girl, I ordered a charm pack and a jelly roll of Hushabye.  I went through various thoughts on what I’d actually do with it, and eventually settled on this.  5″ (cut) centers, 2.5″ borders.  The solid is Kona Cotton in Bone, which wasn’t quite so stark as plain white.

Lucy Elizabeth

The back is the bunny damask print from the same line, with a strip of squares.

Lucy Elizabeth

Quilting is diagonal lines in pink thread. Binding is also from the same line. Yes, I said I was going to try to do fewer quilts using all fabrics from the same line, I know. But I bought this fabric last October, so I think I get a pass. And sometimes it just looks so nice, you can’t pass it up.

Anyways, it’s in the hands of the postal service, on its way to Manhattan.  I hope Lucy likes it! (And her mom, too, I suppose…)

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Headed South for the Winter

December 10, 2009 in Finished Objects | 12 comments

No, not me. Sadly.  Staying up in the chilly Northeast.

But this quilt is headed to El Salvador, which sounds absolutely delightful right about now.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

A good friend of mine had me make this one as a gift for a family friend who lives in El Salvador.  I actually had it finished over a week ago, but was waiting for word on the new baby’s arrival so I could put the initials on the back.  I had a bit of fun using the Odyssea line from Moda.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

Thanks to all for suggestions on how to quilt it. I went with Angela’s plan to do diagonal lines.  The blue border was a suggestion from, of all people, my husband. And I love it! It’s Kona Cotton in Cadet, sort of a lighter navy blue.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

The double hourglass blocks, as I mentioned before, are from the tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.  You must try it if you haven’t.  Not hard, and awesome results!  This one started with 2″ strips.  The whole quilt was about 30×36 before washing.

Odyssea Double Hourglass

As an aside, I am NOT a fan of taking pictures of quilts indoors! Hard to get a good angle, hard to get back far enough with my fixed 50mm lens, hard to get the colors to come out right. Blech! Stupid winter… think I can stowaway with my friend and this quilt?

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Performance Anxiety

July 16, 2009 in Binding, Piecing, Quilt-Along | 5 comments

Because I’m a glutton for punishment and having five projects on my to-do list, I decided to add two three more. Gah!  As it is, I finally have all of the fabrics I needed for Mary’s daughter’s quilt, and have started putting the blocks together. Mary, hope you like the little preview!

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As for new stuff, I couldn’t resist joining the next project that has grown out of the Old Red Barn Co quilt-along: zig-zags! I’ve done a zig-zag before, of course (the baby for whom it was destined arrived yesterday, welcome to the world, Marcella!). And I have another one on my to-do list (a “commissioned” quilt for my husband’s aunt). But the ORBCo version will actually be done with half-square triangles. Plus, I’ve got a fat quarter bundle of Neptune just begging to be used.  I think I’m going to do two small (40″ square) quilts, one a little more girly and one a little more boyish.  Yes, I have boy/girl twins and a thing for fairness and symmetry, why do you ask?  Thankfully, though, these have no particular deadline, so they can get bumped down in the priority list if they need to be.

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And finally, I’ve joined my very first swap!  I’m doing the DQS7, and I’m both excited and totally nervous. What if the person I get is actually a REALLY good quilter and I send my lame beginner stuff and they’re really disappointed?  Gah!  But I’m looking forward to having an excuse to try something new and send it to someone who will hopefully enjoy it.  We’ll get our “assignments” next week, so I look forward to trying to figure out what my partner likes and figuring out what swaps are all about.

In the meantime, I’ve got two nearly-finished items on the pile for the trip to Chicago.  Binding attached, all it needs is the hand-sewing on the back.  It’s the nine-patch quilt and a cute little sock monkey baby quilt for my friend’s second son, due to arrive in the next week or two.

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I’ve got (theoretically) 12 more sewing days until we leave… we’ll see how much more can get added to that pile! I’m hoping for at least one more, but who knows what life will throw my way in the meantime.

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9-Patch Quilt-Along, Week 5

May 27, 2009 in Fabric, Piecing, Quilt-Along | 2 comments

This was a week of starts and stops on the nine-patches.  Rather than the easy, methodical one-per-day, I found myself neglecting them completely and then chain-piecing four or five at a time.  Ah well, the result is the same, right?

9-Patch Week 5

I added some more bright colors this week, and apparently also had a bit of a thing for stripes.  It all evens out in the end.

Now that we’re nearing the halfway point (31 of 70 done), I’m grateful for the fact that this is a group endeavor.  If I had simply decided to do this on my own, I think I’d be letting it fall by the wayside in favor of newer, shinier projects.  Not that I’ll be publicly flogged if I decide not to finish, but sometimes a mob mentality can be a helpful thing.

And to add a bit of color to a rainy, gray day, I am delighted to report that the FedEx man finally got around to delivering my Neptune fat quarter bundle.  10 total yards of vaguely nautical goodness.  Oh, I am so excited.  No idea what I’m going to do with it, of course.  For the moment I’ll just, you know, stroke it lovingly and whisper sweet nothings into the folds.

Neptune Fat Quarter Bundle

And, though I’m sure the three people who read this blog are already on top of this news, don’t forget to hit up Sew, Mama, Sew for the ridiculous amount of giveaways this weekend!

Happy crafting, all!

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Summer Fun

May 17, 2009 in Finished Objects | 9 comments

I finished the stacked coins quilt for my brother’s niece, and I have to say, I’m pretty happy with it.

Stacked Coins Quilt

Truth be told, I actually wasn’t thrilled when I gave him the choice of several different Moda charm packs and he selected the Summer Fun line.  For whatever reason, it’s just not my style. Not sure if it’s the prints in particular or if I’m just not digging the primary colors, but I didn’t love it.  It also doesn’t really say “baby girl” to me, but hey, it’s his quilt.

Stacked Coins Quilt

Once it started coming together, though, it grew on me.  The white sashing (a bleached muslin from Joann’s) helps give the colors some breathing room.  They still give a very summery, picnic-y vibe, but it’s maybe a little less kitchy.

Stacked Coins Quilt

And I really started to love it when the backing and binding came together.  I love the playful, swirly-ness of the backing (and the fact that it’s kind of busy and hides some of my quilting sins), and there’s something about the red binding with tiny polka dots that just makes me happy.

Stacked Coins Quilt

All that remains is to sew on a label and stick it in the mail.  The envelope is ready and the postage is printed.  Off it goes tomorrow.

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Weekend Work

May 11, 2009 in Piecing | 2 comments

What was the best Mother’s Day present?  That my husband got up with the kids and let me hide upstairs for much of the morning and sew. :-)   In all honesty, actually, it turned out to be a lovely day.  Nice weather, played outside with happy kids. And, yes, some sewing.

I’m making a stacked coins quilt for my brother’s niece, and the requisite charm packs arrived in the mail on Friday.  (Summer Fun by Moda, my brother’s choice.) I started cutting and piecing the stacks on Friday night.

Stacked Coin Quilt in progress

May I take a moment to pause and thank the quilter who taught me the joys of chain piecing?  Holy moly, what a life saver that was.  Before I learned that trick, I would have sewn and pressed each one of those blocks, one by one.  All 144 of them.  Instead, I zoomed through six at a time.

Stacked Coin Quilt in progress

Anyways, I spent much of Friday and Saturday evening piecing the stacks. I threw all of the coins into a plastic bag and picked pretty randomly from it. I retained veto power, but mostly trusted the judgment of the bag.  When I was down to only about five left (per stack), I did take them out and sort them to make sure I didn’t end up with about 15 blues in a row, but otherwise it was random.

Stacked Coin Quilt in progress

Got the sashing on last night, and today I embroidered the new baby’s birthdate (french knots in red thread).  I’m pushing to finish as quickly as I can, in part because I know my brother is kind of chomping at the bit, in part because I have plenty of other projects on my to-do list, and also because my sewing time will be cut into this week with visitors and other plans.  Not a bad thing, to have a life outside of my sewing machine, but still…

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