Ayla’s quilt

Posted on September 9, 2012 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

Ayla is my newest grandbaby (number two!) and it’s taken me a while to decide on exactly what kind of quilt to make her. Being born at the end of July really helped ease the pressure to produce a quilt right away too. 😉

I finally decided on Brioche and Baguette but the pattern is mail order and I did not want to wait.

So I winged it.

With the general idea of the pattern in mind (I will buy it later), I used a bunch of charm squares, a fat quarter and a bunch of 2.5″ strips – jelly roll sized. I was also of out white fabric with most of it buried in a storage container miles from here, so I also hassled my mom to see what was in her stash. The fabric is from Riley Blake – Apple of my Eye and mostly Pretty Little Things by Dena Designs for Free Spirit

Progress so far:

The white fabric is actually the support panel from a bedskirt. I got a little cutter-happy and wound up cutting waaaaay too many 2.5″ strips, but given how much I love to use white, I’ll use them elsewhere.

By the time I got the the laying out stage, I realized I really did want wider border on the side. I was going to just use the 2.5″ strips all around but for me, I visually did not want a skinny quilt. Unfortunately, there was barely enough white left. I would have liked to have cut the wider side sashing a full 5″ like the charm squares and the strips of fat quarter in the middle, but it was just a wee bit short. I wound up with 4.5″ strips but overall I don’t think it will too noticeable.

Except to maybe other quilters. 😉

For the center area, I really loved the trees fabric and made sure the pattern was matched up where I cut it. I could have cut the fabric shorter to not make the overall quilt so skinny, but I love the fabric so much! I wanted to show as much as I could.

This is going to bite me when I work on the back, but I’ll cover that next post. I only got the white fabric last weekend, and had made my mind up a couple days before that. Sometimes I don’t sew them up this fast, sometimes I just can’t help it.

The only reason I stopped today was because I had to cook supper and eat it. I hate when that happens.

Kaytlyn’s quilt progress

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Andrea R — 1 Comment

I think I started this quilt back in September maybe. I had made a baby quilt in pink /orange / yellow and of course Kaytlyn being Kaytlyn, she loved it. 😀

But it was baby quilt sized and it sold out of my Etsy shop rather quickly. The up side was I looked at the leftover fabrics from that quilt and realized I could make a whole ‘nother quilt! Some more brain waves, a couple of scrap bag finds later and I introduced purple into the mix.

The only think extra I bought was a fat quarter of a really bright orange batik print. It was mostly orange and yellow but with a faint pink /purple in some spots. Perfect!

I picked the perfect pattern to highlight the fabrics and more importantly use them all up. There are large 6.5″ by 15″ blocks and since I was stretching out the color scheme with some solids too, I knew I had lots of space for creative quilting. The only thing that came to my mind was feathers.

Big, lush, feather quilting.

Which I had never done.

Those following on flickr saw my multiple tests and tractising to get it right. Not only does it lok good, it’s pretty fun to do too. 🙂 And by the time I get all the blocks done on this quilt, I should be pretty good at it.

Here is the quilt on my design wall. Right before Christmas I was still attempting to at least get the top all pieced, but alas. It was not to be.

So last night I really needed a sewing break, so I made sure I worked on this quilt alone. I got pretty far, but I think I mis-pieced the middle row. Good thing I have pictures from earlier to check… except by them I was tired enough I could not find the pic on my camera.

Le sigh.

There was one row I pieced with the long pieced sashing and the horizontal bars were not lining up. So I did take my handy seam ripper and rip out that very long seam and pinned it to line it up in a couple spots and sewed it all over again. Much better.

Not long to go now. Then I will piece all of the leftover fabrics for a pieced back because I really really want to have no leftovers. 😀 I’ve angsted on the back for a while too. The quilt shop has some really cozy fluffy soft fabric, but the colors are dull and muddy. They also had a bright yellow mottled backing fabric (no piecing needed) expect for some reason I think that is too plain.

I also picked out a poly batting to try again with this machine and because it will make it poofy. Kaytlyn also likes heavy quilts so I may find a flannel sheet to put in the middle as well, but I don’t know how difficult that will make it to quilt, with my quilting plans. I may have to skip that bit and make a simpler but heavy quilt for the both of them later.

(which I’m sure would be terrible. Oh the problem of lots of quilts.)

*janitorial notice – I’m going to try and use the built in image galleries a little more, see if I can figure them out and see if I can eventually replace flickr.

** whups – sorry about the not rotated photos

Quilts I made this year

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Andrea R — 1 Comment

1. Isabella’s quilt, 2. all done!, 3. hot pink and yellow and orange quilt, 4. another baby quilt, 5. blue & yellow quilt close up, 6. Emma’s quilt, 7. Paddington quilt, 8. Baby quilt, 9. purple sleepover quilt – front, 10. red blue white baby quilt – front, 11. birthoween quilt front, 12. love you wall hanging

Mind you, this is just the ones I actually *finished*. We all know I made more tops and some of these tops were made the year before. 😉

Let’s see how much more backlog I can clear out in 2012.

Edit: after all that work I just realized I forgot Sarah’s blue & white quilt an I think Izzy’s quilt I gave to her last Christmas….

Clearly I need to keep better track of these things. 😀

Quilts on the go

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

I cut out a whole pile of new quilts recently, so I’d better list the ones in progress.

Jitterbug – 30’s prints from jelly roll book. Currently away as I’m taking a break
Christmas Cross – Ron & I picked it out. Blocks almost done.
Green/pink/brown/blue – jelly roll I finally figured out what to do with. kinda Trip Around the world. Maybe 1/4 done, if that. Lots of tiny squares.
Blue & Yellow bento box – all blocks done. need to lay out & put together.
yellow/pink/orange – yes, this one is really bright. crazy eights pattern, which works up really fast.
green/brown/red – Picture this, large blocks and I cut out enough for a queen sized bed because I am insane and it used up a lot of fabric. still have a lot left tho.

edit: forgot the red/black/brown one – this was a brick pattern, but I pieced the big rectangles in a long strip to cut it up smaller, and like the big pieces too much. the fabric is pretty, so it will be 3 or 4 rows of HUGE rectangles instead of 24 rows of tiny ones.

This doesn’t count all the finished tops waiting for quilting. I need batting.

Paddington quilt

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

I am excited!

Friday afternoon, I went to Sew With Jo, and I *only* took 3 small quilts to quilt. Nothing to piece. Thereby forcing myself to get over the fear of quilting part. My plan was to use my walking foot on all the straight quilting I had to do across all three quilts, then use the other foot to do free motion.

I got all the straight quilting done on the blue Christmas wall hanging that Mom made me, and I got almost every line done on the Yellow, White & Red Paddington baby quilt. I even bought a new blue marking pen while there.

Then I ran out of bobbin thread. Did I bring extra? No. I can’t wind bobbins on the machine I had (long story) and Jo’s machine would not wind my bobbin. the store had no pre-wound bobbins. So I had to tell Ron to come get me. I had two and a half lines left until the quilt was DONE. Pooh.

I did finish it after I got home, and wound up starting supper a half hour late, even tho I left early.

This quilt is one in which I celebrate the mistakes. 🙂 While I was trimming the batting, I accidentally cut part of the backing level with the edge. My plan had been to fold the backing over to the front. So along that one side, I had to add a piece. there was also one block with a tiny chunk out of it that I had meant to put along the edge. It wound up almost in the middle of the quilt and of course I noticed it while quilting it.

I just sewed extra stitching around it.

I also had a couple places where the binding didn’t quite catch and had to re-sew sections. If you look close, no doubt you can see these spots. I celebrated by stitching around my label, all the way through, so you can see a rectangle of stitches on the front.

I used all cotton batting in it, which shrinks enough to make the quilt crinkle after your wash it, so I tossed it in a regular load and threw it in the dryer. Some loose bits showed up after that, and I just stitched them flat.

This quilt? This is one for a new baby boy. I expect it to get loved and used, so hopefully with the imperfections celebrated, the boy and his parents will happily drag it around the house, build couch forts, use as a cape, cuddle it, throw up on it, and generally love it.

Because it’s a quilt made with love. 🙂 And I am heartily in love with the batting and how it affects the finished quilt.

I sewed with Jo

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

Our local quilt store, Christmas Crab Quiltery, has a free sewing afternoon pretty much every other Friday. they have a wonderful large shop with a second room all laid out perfect for classes. It’s HUGE! It is also heavenly to sew in.

it had been snowing all morning, and while it was not stormy (at least by Maritimer standards), it was steady so I got Ron to drive me in. I was the only gal who showed up, which was fine, because that meant I got the BEST table all to myself. I also brought in a few quilts tops that were all finished so I could show them off. Jo & Shelly have a slightly different style than I do, and many of the fabrics in the shop reflect that style – deeper, darker colors, lots of beige, brown, rust navy – great colors, but not always me. 😉 I prefer brighter colors and modern contemporary patterns. even the pattern I bought there I did different than their sample. That’s the awesome part about quilting.

Shelly has a blog here, go read it. She noticed I use a lot of cherry fabric when I can find it, so I joked that she’ll probably call me as soon as they get any fabric in with cherries.

I got a LOT of work done. The central table was large enough for me to spread out the way I like and work best. The iron was all set up, hot and waiting. Company was awesome, and there was even hot chocolate. What more can a gal ask for? I did not even get upset when I discovered I had sewn some quilt blocks in the wrong order and will have to take out three seams. It was no biggie because everything else went that much smoother. Probably not a good idea of me to wear my polar fleece sweater though. I have thread snippets stuck all over me.

No, I did not take pictures, or bring my netbook to check on tweets, or even tweet from my phone. It was a good three and a half hours away from technology, just talking and sharing and sewing, and even quiet times. At one point, I broke the silence by saying, “Wow, I have sewed for more than ten minutes and nobody has interrupted me. Not once.”

I am going to make this a regular habit, as I can see how very useful it will be when I finally get around to quilting some of these tops. At least it will be sooner than it is possible for me to get a new craft room. Kinda like having my cake and eating it too, even if it’s at someone else’s place.

Added bonus: when I run out of things, I am RIGHT THERE in the shop! 😀

My back hurts from being hunched over my machine, and I am really tired & sleepy (plus wound up from the chocolate) but my creative soul is happy. I have half a chapter left to edit, and a pile of screenshots to sort out, but after a good night’s sleep I’ll be refreshed. At least I hope so.

Worked on:
– quilt back for Dandelion Girl Chinese Coins, prepped binding, discussed quilting ideas
– trimmed back for rainbow quilt, cut binding
– 4 or 5 rows for red & yellow Disappearing 9 patch quilt
– 3 half rows for purple & blue New Wave quilt (minus mistakes, ran out of white fabric strips)
This one takes longer to sew, because of the angles, so I spent about half my time on it.