Three green baby quilts

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

A while back, I found a great quilt pattern in a magazine for 3 fast baby quilts from 3 one yard cuts of fabric. You can download the pattern here from Quiltmaker magazine.

I have made this a few times before, and it’s great to make baby quilts when there is a boom or just to have on hand for gifts. The finish up really fast and can get quilted in no time.

Well, in the company I work for we had babies popping out all over, so one day I grabbed three nice co-ordinating fabrics. I’m not sure of the line, since Mom bought them, but they had bunnies and carrots and garden implements. I also couldn’t find the pattern, but figured I could wing it from memory.

WELL.

I cut the fabric wrong.

I did manage to get two quilt tops from it, which technically was what I needed. The inner square wound up smaller than it should have.

On one quilt, I did huge swooping feathers all around, with the baby name stitched in the center.

And of course I can’t find a picture of the second quilt, but it was similar to the one above, just different fabric placement. Edit: found some progress pictures from August 25th 2014!

The recipient of this particular one asked if I used some sort of pattern for the stitching design. He was floored when I said no – it was freehand!

Since I mis-cut fabrics, with the rest I simply cut them all into squares and laid them out with each print on the diagonal.

I know I’m using the same picture as the last entry, but you can see the baby quilt here, folded in half. I just did all over stippling on this one. It is currently without a home and I will likely list it in my Etsy shop.

First Friday finish!

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Andrea R — 1 Comment

I finished the Glimmer table topper last night, hand stitching the binding down.

I cut the binding 2.25″ instead of my usual 2.5″, on the straight grain.

Press, sew to front, fold to back and even pressed to help turn. Hand stitched in white quilting thread that was my grandmother’s. It still in excellent condition.

Then I realized I’d made a lighter mostly red topper and had a matching mostly green topper from the same line of fabrics.

They even stack nice! All ready for next Christmas.

Linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts and her Friday finishes, which are hard for me to post to, since I do the bulk of my sewing on Friday/Saturday – my days off – and I try and spend little time on my computer. So I mostly forget by Sunday/Monday to go back and link up.

Two Runners

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

I finished two table runners this summer, as well. Both use fabrics from the same christmas line – Jingle All the Way and some Bernartex basics that co-ordinated.

Both runners were from the same pattern, Little Charmers 2. I love her patterns, I want them all.

I separated the dark greens, blues and the yellows for the starry runner. In the background I quilted spirals and in the stars I did straight line, somewhat dot to dot quilting.

For the blocks runner, I used the reds, lighter greens and beiges to build up the design. I messed up the color placement but anyone I showed it to couldn’t tell the difference. I quilted a leafy design following the blocks. Since it is both Christmassy and summery I called it Christmas in Australia.

Both of these runners are available in my Etsy shop.

Christmas table topper and candy quilting

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

Hiya!

I made a small project to help get me back in the swing of things. I was at my local quilt shop and spotted this super cute table topper pattern called “Sticks and Stones” from This & That patterns.

From my stash, I pulled out a charm pack of Jingle All the Way fabric that I had saved up. It’s hard to find now.

Table topper pieced. Okay so it's Christmas fabrics.

For the quilting, I used some free motion tutorials from The Inbox Jaunt.

Ribbon Candy Quilting
Candy Stripes Quilting

Table topper quilted with ribbon candy tutorial from @theinboxjaunt I added my own circle candies in the squares.

I did my own peppermint candies in the larger squares and them some marble-like gum balls in some of the small squares.

And then bound it in the darker green.

And bound. Glad I went with green binding.

Quilting back. Yummy texture!

Free Motion Floral Sampler Quilt

Posted on March 8, 2014 by Andrea R — 3 Comments

A finish! Yay! This might be my first finished quilt of 2014, ugh.

For this quilt, I used the leftover blocks from my Summer Quilt. You can do this with any collection of 10″ squares. I had 25 blocks and some were duplicates.

This would look really awesome in solids or low volume prints or even alternate value prints.

Take your 25 blocks and lay them out on the floor or design wall until you get a pleasing arrangement. Sew two together for each row until you’ve sewn a whole row. Sew all the rows together.

(or grab two at random until you get most of the way through the stack and start sewing those pairs together. Make sure you leave enough single blocks behind to finish each row.)

For the backing, I had fabric that was 54″ wide and used that. Baste well with batting of your choice. Mine needed work.

For the quilting – this is the fun part.

I used my walking foot first and stitched in the ditch for each seam, leaving a nice square sewn for each block.

In each square, I quilted a different free motion design using the Bernina Stitch regulator on some and my free motion foot. I worked my way through Free-Motion Quilting with Angela Walters
and some of Leah Day’s free motion quilting designs as well. Have fun here! I used a white thread in the top and bottom on all fabrics.

For the binding, I trimmed the back so it was 2″ all around and folded it over to the front, then sewed it down. I screwed up trying to trim the corners so I won’t show that bit – just know there’s a gap. Sigh. I really need to work on mitring my binding, especially the “bringing the backing to the front” kind, which I don’t do often.

This quilt I am leaving in my own stash for an example of the kind of quilting I can do. I hope eventually to maybe quilt for customers, so this should give them something to look at to pick quilting styles if wanted. At the very least, it showcases my skills now and I can compare it to another quilt a few years from now.

Appliqued baby name quilt

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

When I heard I was going to be a grandmother for the third time in four years, well of course my first thought was what quilt I was going to make.

Okay, maybe that was my second thought.

After I made this baby quilt, I figured you would love to have this free baby quilt pattern. It was super fast and easy to make.

I had a yard or two of a lovely fabric with dancing bunnies in pretty pastel Easter gowns. It was perfect after we knew we would be expecting another girl. I pulled some somewhat matching tiny prints for the letters for the front of the quilt.

For the front piece of the baby quilt, I used about a yard of a tone on tone off-white print. It’s about 30-36″ by the 42″ width of the fabric. Then I cut the letters freehand from the fat quarters I had chosen to complement the print on the back.

The letters could also be done with a large thick font. My size was about as big as a regular sheet of printer paper, so you could draw them out on paper first and then cut them from the fabric.

It would be smarter as well, to fuse some fusible web to the back of the fabric before cutting out the letters. I didn’t, and it made my work a bit harder.

Also if you have a name with a lot more letters, you will need to make the letters smaller so they all fit. If you’re not sure, do a test with paper letters first.

You can see here how I didn’t like the original fabric for the letter A and swapped it for a yellow instead.

Here’s the quilt on my design board with the letters pinned in place to test placement. You can go vertically in a straight line – mark a guide line if you like – or go all funky and wonky.

Fuse the letters in place. This is mostly to hold them down before appliquéing. I used a blanket stitch that came on my Bernina Aurora 440 Quilter’s Edition. A zig zag will also work perfectly fine.

Baste the top and bottom together with your favourite batting and quilt away! I used an allover paisley design, and went around the letters entirely, adjusting the design to fit. This is great practise for any allover design you want to try. And a baby quilt is a great size to practise on.

I also used a pretty Sulky variegated thread in pink / green / yellow. It matched perfectly.

You can see here how puffy the letters look. The only thing I would do different now is to outline quilt the letters.

I bound the quilt in a jade green dot that was actually from a line of Christmas fabric. It works though!

I always pre-wash my quilt, so after coming out of the washer and dryer, the cotton fabrics and cotton batting crinkled up so nicely. It looks like a family heirloom already.

This is a super easy and fast quilt to through together. Just make sure the parents don’t change the name before birth, if you are making one ahead of time. 😉

Colorblock Quilt top

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Andrea R — 6 Comments

For this quilt, I purchased the PDF Colorblock Quilt pattern from www.bijoulovelydesigns.com. The pattern is really well written and super easy to follow, with loads of clear diagrams. Perfect for beginners, a breeze for more experienced quilters.

I also went to two different Etsy shops to get the right fabric – Mod Tod by Riley Blake, purchased from Fiber Textiles and 44th St Fabric. Both shops were fabulous and extremely helpful, and my orders (to Canada from the US arrived within two weeks and a day apart. I was impressed with both places. So impressed, I now read Bev’s blog from 44th St. Heh. (Hi Bev!)

I had to piece one of my fabric for the long strip, but I did it carefully in the print and you hardly notice. The piecing and cutting was done in maybe 3.5 hours, while I watched episodes of Dr. Who on Netflix. About half the time was ironing, because I did follow the advice the iron seams open. The white I used for sashing is poly cotton, so somewhat sheer and I knew the seams from the darker fabric would show.

The only issue I had is something I consistently have with long strips – running out of strip at the end of the seam. However much I pin, the fabric still shifts. I could have used my walking foot, but it’s so noisy and goes slower. I guess I’ll know for next time.

One short sashing piece wound up just short enough it pulled out of the seam so I do have to make a small repair by removing the strip and sewing it back in.

Overall, I’m really happy with the pattern and the fabric – even if I did wind up getting the blocks reversed. The recipient will never know or care, it’s still a gorgeous quilt!

I’m not sure how I’ll quilt it yet, but I am open to suggestions. I’m thinking of leaving the narrow sashing unquilted. They wind up only 1″ wide. I’ll be using Hobb’s Warm and Natural cotton for the batting.

Linking up to WIP Wednesday.

Meaghan’s gray and purple quilt

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

YAY! I finally finished Meaghan’s quilt this week. Her birthday was Nov 1st. Remember, I also made a quilt for her brother and his birthday was the day before. He got his quilt on time tho.

I used the same pattern for both quilts, except for Meaghan I sized the blocks smaller to 5″ and made the sashing smaller as well. This brought it down to a twin size. She picked purple and grey as her colors.

It sewed up fast enough but both Meg & I hummed and hawed over how to quilt it. Finally we decided to go for diamonds in the sashing areas. When I finished that part, she picked a curved leafy design for the borders. That was not something I want to quilt again any time soon. They are small and detailed.
After another long period of indecision, I went and quilted loop squares in the squares .Those were pretty fun! It worked up fast too, as I just went in a straight line down the side of each square to get to the next one, and went around the quilt in a big circle towards the side. This made nice lines on the back as well.

I bound it in a grey on grey floral she picked out from the Thimbleberries line. Just straight cut, 3″ wide, folder over and sewn down on the front.

She’s happy, so any mistakes are noticed only by me. It crinkled up real nice after washing as well.

There’s a shot in here of the border before and after washing.The denser quilting on the border definitely crinkled up really nice.

Meaghan’s quilt

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

My daughter Meaghan (kid #3) hunted through my stash and gathered up all the green and purple she coudl find. Solids, prints, didn’t matter, as long as it was green or purple. She them arranged them to her liking and sewed them all together.

We did have some fabric cut into strips, which she chose for the borders – a light print for a skinny inner border (the fabric was cut that thin already) and a dark purple for the outer border.

For the back we used a purple sheet, trimmed and folded over to the front for binding. I quilted it in the ditch, nothing fancy.