Giggles quilt finish

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

A while back, I heard that a friend of mine was expecting and told her I’d love to send a quilt. I sent a few pictures of ones I had on hand that were finished and some in progress. She really loved the Giggles quit top I had finished, because of its modern aesthetic.

Thankfully by then it was basted and I was left with the hard part – how to quilt it. I confess I basically did what Angela Walters did on the pattern cover. I have taken a number of Craftsy classes from Angela so I’d like to think I nailed it.

I started out stitching in the ditch, just to divide it up and stabilize it.

Since I deviated from the pattern itself in terms of color placement, I decided to leave the one red portion unquilted. I did use batting that will take up to 10″ unquilted so that should be fine. I also used white thread, top and bottom for white areas, and a navy thread top and bobbin for the blue areas.

After binding in the same blue as the back, I washed it in homemade laundry soap that is scent free and detergent free, then gave it a spin in the dryer without any dryer sheet, so it has no harsh chemicals on it for baby’s skin. I also remembered to add one of my labels!

Best part it also has that crinkled loved in look already! It will soon be on its way to cuddle the new baby, who has since made his appearance.

I would definitely make this again, and maybe do up some sketches on paper to play with different color placements.

Giggles quilt gone minimalist

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Andrea R — Leave a comment

I have a whole pile of quilts I’ve started and finished since the last time I posted, plus some diversions into sewing bags. Like I keep telling others, just start writing.

I finally had a night with no plans and a need for mindless sewing. On a previous occasion, I had cut and bagged a number of planned quilts, so I grabbed the pieces for the Giggles quilt I had all ready to go.

Sometimes I look at stash fabrics I should use and patterns I wish to try and occasionally they line up magically. I had an idea in my head for this quilt to be very minimalist – mostly white and blue, with one single red arrow. I thought it would look striking.

I mostly just glance at patterns and skim directions. In this case I sewed too many diamonds one way. The illustrations made it seem like they were all sewn in one direction, but they are not. I love to batch sew, so I regrouped and set up batches, eventually lining up my rows correctly and making sure the red was going to wind up in the right place.

I didn’t stop to take pictures, I was half watching & listening to Hemlock Grove (of all things) on Netflix while I sewed and pressed, finding my happy place and just relaxing. I figure the piecing took 2 1/2 hours, including mistakes.

I taped it up in the only available place in my sewing cave and took this single shot.

modern solids giggles quilt. #gigglesquilt #quilting.

Afterwards I took a nice long hot soak in the tub. It was glorious.

Still deciding on binding – likely the blue – and the backing, which I can’t decide between the blue (because I have lots) or the white (of which I have enough for many quilts).

The quilting hasn’t yet been figured out. Lines placed 1/4″ from some seams would work but might be too sedate. I don’t quite want to do heavy custom work in each square either.

It will come to me eventually.

This quilt isn’t for anyone in particular, just an exercise in piecing and design. It will likely go up for sale.

Working through it

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Andrea R — 1 Comment

On Friday I got word that a good friend had passed away. The details don’t matter, I guess, but hearing the news as people discovered it was terrible.

Kim & I met online, but she wasn’t just my “online” friend. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t actually met in person until last October. We had a lot in common, and she always said she’d take me on a tour of quilts in Amish country near her home.

She wasn’t a quilter, but she loved my quilts and always encouraged me.

@andrea_r Yep. You do awesome work lady. 🙂

— Kim Parsell (@kimparsell) December 13, 2014

By Saturday, news was still spreading, tears were still flowing, and I was beside myself. I had to do something, but there was nothing helpful I *could* do.

So I quilted.

Because Kim was so encouraging and believed in me, I picked up a quilt I had set aside. It had been basted for a good couple of months, waiting for me to work on it.

The truth was, I was scared.

I had an idea and was unsure if I could execute it, even if it was half formed. But Kim knew I could do it. She’d kick me in the behind too, giving me a push whenever I sent long emails full of angst.

Another good friend of mine says everyone grieves in their own way, and for me, I need to keep busy. So I wound a few bobbins, picked up that quilt, put it under the machine, took a deep breath… and quilted.

The design itself is an explosion of foliage trailing across the quilt top. Some sections are breaking out into the borders. It’s a celebration of life – a life well-lived.

I only have a vague idea of what to quilt in the background, between the leaves and loops and fantastical flowers, but I’ll forge ahead anyway.

I’m not even sure what will happen to this particular quilt when it’s done. I only know that every time I see I’ll think of it as Kim’s Quilt.

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!

Cowboy quilt

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Andrea R — 1 Comment

Or maybe “The Sheriff is in town”. I bought the fabric for this quilt a few years ago in a thrift store. 3 yards of each grey print, just sitting there. I maybe paid a buck a yard, not a thing wrong with it.

Ever since I got the fabric, I had an idea that I would have to do a quilt with bright solid stars, so I drew it up and roughed in some measurements and finally started it this month. Well, February but you knew what I meant. 😉 I did want a bit of a modern spin on it, so that will probably happen with the quilting itself.

I wanted to see how long a typical quilt will take me, so I’m going to try and track my time. I spent 50 mins getting these sashing pieces sewn and pressed today.

Before that, I figure I spent 2 hours planning and drawing, and cutting the pieces. That’s probably a conservative guesstimate there.

Once the sashing strips were done, it only took twenty minutes to do the first row.

uh-oh. I looked at the sashing pieces I had, said “That can’t be right” and realized I mis counted somewhere.

I have a grey stack of strips without the triangles on the corners, but couldn’t remember if I’d cut too many pieces or not. I opent get rotary-happy when cutting and cut out waaayyy too many pieces!

Do you think this would be a good free tutorial to write up? It’s just large enough that the backing can be done with one piece of fabric, and will be a nice baby quilt size.

Edit: I did manage to get half the top pieced today. Hoping to do the rest tonight.