Breast Cancer church group quilt....

We recently got a really sweet quilt submission from Sarah. She is a busy crafty quilter! Head over to  her blog confessions of a fabric addict for inspiration... Here is a sweet quilt she worked on with other's in her church group for a sick friend....

We recently started a quilt ministry at our church, making quilts for people with serious health issues. This is the story of one of the quilts we made.

Our daytime children’s ministry director, Tammy, was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and advised to have a double mastectomy right away. One of the members of the quilt ministry, Cassie, is also a teacher in the daytime children’s ministry, so we wanted to be sure to make something extra special and memorable especially for Tammy.

I had recently been feeling a leading to make a quilt in soft pastels, something definitely out of my comfort zone, and realized that this color palette would be perfect for Tammy. I had a charm pack of Moda’s Kashmir II that I had picked up a while back, so I unearthed it and paired it with some pastel solids from my fabric stash. Using a disappearing nine-patch pattern, I created this simple soft pastel quilt.

While I was working on piecing the top of the quilt, Cassie took the back to the children’s classes. Each child’s hand was traced on the quilt back, with his or her name inscribed inside the outline. This gave us a quilt back that would be very personal and special to Tammy, plus it made the children feel like part of the process too! The assembled quilt sandwich was quilted with straight line quilting on either side of the seam lines - it gives it a simple grid-like pattern that doesn’t detract from the simplicity of the pattern itself.

The completed quilt was given to Tammy at the children’s graduation celebration. I’m pleased to say that Tammy is doing very well and is hopefully on her way to making a complete recovery! Our quilt ministry is as much a blessing to those of us who participate in creating the quilts as we hope it is to the people who receive them. It’s a wonderful thing to be able to do what you love and help others at the same time!

Sarah, good luck to your friend Tammy. What a sweet gift to give to a friend in a scary place in life. Thanks for sharing your story...

Linking at http://www.amylouwho.com/

Twin boys lost, special quilts made...

Sadly often times quilts are made in sadness to bring loved ones comfort. These are my favorite stories. When you can pour all your sadness and love into creating a quilt to bring some peace to those hurting.  This story is from AJ of  AJ's Antics. She made these quilts for a loss of two little boys....thanks for sharing your story AJ. We are sorry for the loss of Samuel and Jack.

These two little quilts came about out of pure sadness.

Today is Jack and Samuel’s due date.

Although being twins they would have been delivered earlier and therefore already in loving arms, instead they are in a different pair of loving arms. Jack and Samuel were born at just 19 weeks and 1 day and sadly passed into God's kingdom shortly after. Although perfect they were just too little to survive.

My cousin and her husband and their small daughter have been burdened with a terrible heartache that will stay with them forever.

I made their big sister a quilt for her birth and after hearing the news of their passing I decided that they still deserved to have some little quilts to honour their births too.

I had been saving this Amy Butler fabric for something special and I couldn't think of anything better to use it for. I decided on two different quilts because although there were twins they were also individuals. The heart blocks I though appropriate as they will always remain in our hearts forever. I was planning on making them a bit smaller but my head wasn't in the right place to be working out measurements and re-sizing the blocks.

I used my machine to stitch their names, birth date and times onto the corner of the front. Although I know it is not something that their mother will ever forget.

These two little boys were and still are so loved. I think of them often and wish that they were here with us right now.

Rest in Peace Jack and Samuel We love you!

Thanks AJ for sharing your sweet story. Bless your family. Everyone be sure to check out her blog. Some fun inspiring stuff happening over there...and she just did her (edited 700th) post!!! Can you imagine???

Jennifer...That girl, That quilt...

Happy Monday! Today we have a super cute quilt feature from Jennifer of that girl that quilt. I just love the color combo on this quilt and love her inspiration! Definitely check out her blog and her "signature block tutorial"  and if you can't get enough from her blog, check out her flickr amazing!

I'm so in love with this quilt and my daughter has claimed it as her "couch quilt" already. It always does my heart good when someone in my home claims a quilt as their own. I tested it out last night and it passed the test as a perfect couch quilt. :)

Here's the story behind it...

I had the colors in mind this spring as my iris bloomed and the color combination caught my eye. Purple + yellow; not the most traditional of color combinations but you just can't argue with nature.

This past spring I also fell in love with vintage linens and found Whimsiedots on Etsy. As I began playing with the different colors and fabrics, I stumbled across this super cool blog and her cross blocks. I made a few and I was hooked. I considered making the blocks completely out of vintage sheets but as my eyes were opened to all the current beautiful purple and yellow fabrics out there, I had knew I had my theme: Old + New.

I went with the liberated style of piecing the blocks and they were a lot of fun to make. I pieced them using long strips so that I could make multiple blocks at one time. It's amazing how fast a quilt comes together like that!

My biggest challenge was the layout of the squares and balancing the colors. Towards the end, I made more blocks in darker hues and it made all the difference. This was also the first quilt I made using different sized blocks - 6" blocks and 12" blocks and I'm thrilled with how that turned out. To me, the different sizes mixed with the light and dark values give the quilt a lot of depth and balance.

My last obstacle was deciding how to quilt. I auditioned straight line quilting, wavy lines, diagonal lines and even a grid-like design. Ultimately, I went with free motion quilting because it seemed to be the only design that flowed well with the entire quilt. While quilting, I had my doubts but I'm very pleased with the results!

I bound it in Patty Young's Ta-Dot in the black and charcoal colorway. I really like how the dark binding frames the quilt and slows down all the movement. I've been using 2.25" wide binding strips on my last few quilts and I'm hooked now. I love how the narrow binding looks. I machine stitched the binding to the front and hand stitched it to the back... I'm still not brave enough to try a completely machine stitched binding.

The quilt finished just shy of 50x60 after washing and drying to get that crinkled look that I love. It's the perfect size for my daughter. Here's the proof that she loves it and it's so much fun that her shoes just happened to match the quilt when we took the pictures!

As she says... "look! A quilt with shoes!"

Thanks so much for ya'lls input and for following along with me in this process! It's been a lot of fun... 
 

Thanks Jennifer. Lovely quilt, lovely blog!

Linking at Amylouwho
 

 

A common place life Round about quilt...

Hi all, before we introduce the winners of the MOD TWEET giveaway, thank you and welcome to all our new followers/subscribers. I have picked 5 comments from Quiltstory, and 5 from Fresh Poppy. If you didn't win here, check there. Also for a really cute girl version of MOD TWEET check out FRESH POPPY as well. CUTE!


The winners are RENE' SHARP, KULLA KHAN, DAWN W, KRISTY, and SEW LINDA ANN.
Email me your addresses and I will get your MOD TWEET pattern shipped out...


On to today's quilt story... Amy from A Commonplacelife has an AMAZING blog. I am sure you have heard of her or are already following her blog. If no, go check her out for sure. So inspiring. Tons of quilts and other craft projectes. Beautiful photos too.  Her roundabout quilt really caught my eye. What I really like about Amy is how she mixes her fabrics. I am way too scared to mix fabrics like this, but I want to give it a try now!  Thanks Amy...

The original Round About quilt...

So, a few weeks ago I was surprised and flattered by the inclusion of this here blog in Quilter’s Home Magazine’s list of ‘55 Rad Blogs’. You could have knocked me over with a feather – I don’t even blog about quilting! Well, not lately anyway.

I had a lot of fun planning this quilt. I used every fabric from Amy Butler’s Love line and a whole bunch of coordinating Kona solids. I had less fun actually sewing the thing. These blocks were definitely easier to sew then the original Roundabout quilt (which didn’t have seam allowances in the template) as there was less pulling and stretching of fabric. But there are more squares in this one (48 in case you’re counting) and frankly, I got bored.

And, wow, when I was looking at each square individually I (more than once) wondered what in the world I had been thinking with my fabric pairings. I tried to remember that they were puzzle pieces and once assembled they would (fingers crossed) work.

And mostly I think they do.


I’m not sure I’ll tackle squeezing this (77″ x 90″) monster quilt into my machine for quilting. I don’t much like to send quilts out (call me crazy) as the quilting is actually my favorite part (after the designing). But this is B.I.G.

For a fun to follow quilt a long,  come visit my site... a common place life

30 and quilting Paintbox Quilt

Hey everyone :)  Sometimes in blogland you come accross somethings that just speak to you...as did this quilt!  I hadn't heard of the paintbox quilts (have you??) so I just spent the last 30 mintues looking through this flickr group!  Anyway, this brings me to Nicole from 30 and Quilting's Paintbox Quilt.  Really, I just adore it.  It is different and modern and fabulous!

I definitely tried to do something out of my comfort zone with this quilt...I used solids, didn't use white sashing, and I even backed it in blue...and normally I would have went for pink. The scariest part was quilting in a lighter thread color so I knew it would have to be spot on or you'd totally notice if I did a $h:tty job stippling.

go ahead just click on it enlarge it, you know you want to swoon over each block

I used 32 different solids for this quilt instead of the 40 Elizabeth wanted us to use because I didn't have enough different colors (especially purples and blues) or I just didn't like the color. So some colors have 3 blocks instead of 2. Almost all of the fabrics came from my scrap bin...and no, it's not any smaller. It is sashed in Kona Charcoal and stippled with a medium gray thread.

and the back...

Halfway through making 80 blocks, that when finished are 6x6, I was almost ready to give up! The pieces were so tiny and making so many blocks began to be tedious and repetitve...but I pushed on through and I'm so glad I did! The finished quilt is fabulous (especially in person) and I love being able to look at all of my beloved Flea Market Fancy scraps in almost all of the blocks! The feedback I've received on Flickr, my blog, and at the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild has been absolutely awesome! Thanks!

Check out her blog for fun projects...just look at her 2009 quilt finishes!  Thanks Nicole for allowing us to feature you.

Also don't forget to comment and become a follower for our pattern giveaway!  Details here.

A new modern boy pattern and a giveaway...!

This is a story of Little Baby Brother Buddy Dude.  Seriously, do you love him? Do you want to bite his cheeks?  From the very bottom of my heart I really didn't think I was missing anything by not having a son. My four daughters filled my heart. I thought a boy would just be for my husband. I knew I would love one, but absolutely did not know how much I would adore him!

He came into our lives 1 year ago. He reminds me of Big Baby on toy story. He is giant. 98% height. Super bald. And pure perfection! Finally getting a boy meant tons of new decorating options...which brings me to this quilt...

I named this quilt "Mod Tweet",  sort of the modern "Sweet Tweet". (My original pattern that has been very good for our little business...)  Anyhow, when I thought to decorate a boys room I didn't want to do the blue and brown thing. I feel like I have done that, and I wanted to different than what was being done in most boy nursery's. So I thought and thought and finally came up with gray and aqua. I LOVE how this quilt turned out. Within a month I will be posting this guys nursery over at our FRESH POPPY blog, and it is darling!

Plus, check the minky backing. Have you seen anything so magnificent? L-O-V-E !

I went back and forth about making it a pattern or keeping it original for my baby. In the end I sold him out for a little extra cash...(that is the kind of person I am...)  So here you have it...

If you buy this pattern, just think of Big Baby Brother Little Baby Buddy Dude. Please. Click here if you are interested in purchasing this pattern.

Last but not least. We are giving this pattern away to 5 different commenters here and on our FRESH POPPY blog.

* Leave a comment and tell us which is your favorite pattern of ours, 1 entry.

* Become a follower or subscribe, 3 entries. 

(Just tell us in a new comment if you are already a follower/subscriber) 

* Hop on over to Fresh Poppy Design and repeat, 4 entries.

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Yours Truly

This quilt is brought to you from Megan of Fresh Poppy Design :)  Okay okay, if you don't know Heather and I (Megan) we do our multi-crafty things on our Fresh Poppy Design blog (also the name of our quilt patterns) and we share quilt stories here! 

Heather and I have sewn for many years, for me personally I think it all started with some pj pants, but we first learned to quilt 3 years ago when we were expecting babies only 1 week apart.  (And they ended up 2 days apart.)  We made our first quilt for our babies, the quilt I am sharing today is the 2nd quilt I ever made.

I used Chocolate Lollipop fabric by the fabulous Anna Maria Horner for Freespirit.  (I think there are some other odds and ends thrown in there.)  We did use a purchased pattern but I cannot find it to credit it for the life of me!

I think this is my favorite block.  The funny thing is that Heather always goes for pinks, and I go for blues...in our fabric choices, decorating, etc..  So we decided that for these quilts we would pick outside our normal ranges...so you guessed it, Heather's (same quilt) is blue.  And we both in the end admitted we liked each others better...and have planned for some time to switch them when we can.

So wouldn't you know it that my favorite block is blue and green :)

Our amazing aunt Wendy who is a fabulous crafter taught us many of our quilting tricks.  Bless her heart she had to put up with some ridiculous questions.  She is also an amazing machine quilter, and she does all of our quilts.

(If you're in the Utah area send us an email and we'll get you her info!)

Here is one thing I learned.  Don't do polka dot binding unless it's very small.  I didn't know to look at it on the bias, which on the bias it is straight dots, and thus doesn't look too great.  My favorite bindings are stripes and ginghams. I also like a bright color for the binding that just pops.

I only ever have two choices for my backing.  I can either pick my very favorite fabric (which I did here) because then I can flip it over and enjoy the solid backing just as much.  And I don't really pay to much attention to how it may relate to the front (although of course I have it match.)  My other backing choice is minky...it is just so much more snuggly and thus more used!

There you have it!  A quilt by yours truly :)  We may throw these ones in here and there...hope you enjoy them!  Linking with AmyLouWho.

ALSO on MONDAY we are premiering a

BRAND NEW BOY QUILT PATTERN

that is so amazingly cute and having a

 QUILT PATTERN GIVEAWAY EXTRAVAGANZA!! 

Check back first thing Monday morning for many many chances to win.

Hand-sewn all it's cracked up to be?

Today we're featuring a quilt from Mary at Pin. Sew. Press. (I so wish I thought of that blog name, CUTE!)  It's a darling charm pack quilt that she made for her daughter, thus it's called Lauren's Quilt.  And I just love the backing fabric she used, perfect for a 2 year old (or a 20 something year old alike :)  Here's Mary:

It's a bit busy for my taste, but Lauren (my 2-year-old) absolutely loves the fabric as has lots of fun pointing out the owls, snails, turtles, trees, flowers and birds.

I used straight line quilting for this, mostly because I'm not brave enough to try free-motion quilting yet! I quilted straight lines 1/2" apart on the sashing, and eyeballed straight-ish lines approximately 1" apart across the blocks.

The fabric is Love U by Deb Strain for Moda, and I think it's perfect for a fun 2-year-old quilt.

I used this tutorial by Elizabeth from Oh, Fransson! for the quilt pattern. Since the tutorial is for a baby quilt, I modified it a bit by adding 1 1/2 more charm squares to the width, and two additional rows to the length. I wanted this to be large enough for Lauren to use at night on her toddler mattress, although she hasn't really gotten the hang of sleeping under covers yet!

I just love those owls!

 

I was also feeling particularly brave yesterday and decided to hand-sew the binding to the back of this quilt. I usually machine sew my binding, and to be honest the result doesn't bother me much. I guess I'm not a "binding snob" . . . yet! But I was intrigued by the romantic notion I seem to hear about from all the other quilters - of curling up on the couch with my husband for several hours, chatting and watching tv while hand sewing binding.

I found this awesome tutorial that finally made sense of the hand sewing process for me. And after a mere five hours, I can finally say that I get it! It really does look pretty good, compared to machine sewing, but it sure did take a LONG time! And it was kind of nice to spend time with my family while sewing, and be a bit more productive while watching tv . . . but did I mention that it took a long time?!?! Well, at least I overcame my fear of hand-sewing, but I can't promise I won't go back to machine sewing binding, at least some of the time!

Well coming from a "binding snob" :)  I can say I absolutely love the finished project!  And binding is my absolute favorite part of the process...looks like a fabulous job!  Thanks for sharing, and make sure to hop on over to Pin. Sew. Press. where she has darling projects and is just a straight-up fun read for any quilter!

Linking with AmyLouWho.

How to support your quilting addiction...

We've got another happy and bright quilt to inspire ya'll!  Danielle from Nacho Mama is sharing one of her many finished quilts with us today.  I love the prints and colors, it just seems so cozy!  She has recently revamped her blog so you must check it out.  She has a great collection of finished projects and quilts to go ga-ga over.  Here's her Mary Englebreit quilt:

Thank you, Heather and Megan, for having me on Quilt Story. The quilt shown does not have a name, nor does it have a label, and neither do any of the quilts I've made the last 17 years, unfortunately, but it does have a story that I'm proud to tell.

I've wanted a long arm forever, and finally, last December, I bought one. The inevitable happened. I found myself buying tons of fabrics for quilts that went together quickly (so that I could play on the long arm). In April, I looked at our family budget so that I could put us on an intense family savings plan (to buy a farm). I looked at our past two bank statements trying to get a gauge on how much I was spending and on what. The short version is that I was spending the equivalent of two car payments a month on fabric, consistently. Then the guilt set in since I felt like I was stealing from our family. At what point do you draw the line between hobby and addiction?

From that point forward, I decided that I must find a way for my hobby to pay for itself. I bought business cards, contacted the LQS about teaching for them, decided to take on machine quilting for other people, etc. Out of the blue, a friend of the family contacted me about a quilt that I had mentioned months before, back when it was just a top. She ended up buying the quilt, which wasn't actually for sale-- my first big sale since deciding to support my own hobby. After this happened, I was consigned to make ten quilts-- from start to finish. Along with all the long arming I'm doing, I'm definitely supporting my own addiction.

This quilt was one that was made using a layer cake (plus fabric for the border) in a mystery class at my LQS. This quilt was simple since it was just half square triangles, and it went together in very little time. The fabric used was Mary Engelbreit's Recipe for Friendship, and the quilting design is just a bunch of loops.

Thank you so much Danielle aka Nacho Mama :)  Linking with AmyLouWho.

Sew Fresh Fabrics adorable house quilts!

We came across Becca from Sew Fresh Fabrics through the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  And when you see these quilts you'll know why we had to ask for a feature!  We've been seeing these house blocks popping up all over the place online and they are just too cute!  Let me emphasize that there are two separate quilts posted below...Becca is part of an couple of online bees and used their blocks and her own to create these funky whimsical quilts!  (Be sure to click on the bee's links and see all their blocks.)

These quilts are the result of two online bees I am in and will soon be living on my 7yr old's bunks. For the first group- Hip To Bee Square- I sent out an assortment of fabrics and asked for blocks any size and any design- sewer's choice.  

For the second group- Bee Addicted 3- I sent out similar fabrics and asked for houses- again any type - any size. The blocks I received back were just amazing!! So bright and fun and amazingly inspired! (Thank you all!). I knew I wanted to mix them together to get 2 quilts out of them - and here they are.

It's a virtual I-Spy of characters and creatures and where they live. There's a mushroom house, a light house and a kooky witch hat house.

The process of putting them together was so like a puzzle- adding strips and blocks where needed to make them work together as a unit. Then I added a cobblestone border and lots of little blocks around that. One is finished, washed, and on the bed. The other still needs the binding sewn to the back and a spin through the washer and dryer for that soft crinkly goodness. I love these and even more so because the blocks were made by many women around the globe!!

Thank you so much for sharing!  Becca and Peg (from Ivy Arts) share this blog together and have an Etsy shop where they sell to die for fabric, check it out!

Also, check out our Fresh Poppy Blog and help me decide which quilt block I should use for my next quilt!  I haven't done a traditionally pieced quilt before so I am trying to decide the block and layout, come help me!

Linking at amylouwho

Live a Colorful Life...

I happened upon Cindy's blog, Live a Colorful Life, about a month ago.  She sells adorable things in Etsy and creates many amazing quilts!  Her quilt, One in Every Color, caught my eye and so I asked if we could feature it, which she kindly agreed!  Here is her story:

Linking at amylouwho

Some quilters love half square triangles, and Rita, who makes phenomenal quilts, highly recommends them for their "therapeutic benefits."

Unlike Crystal, who not only dislikes piecing HSTs, she also dislikes making HSTs. And that's okay, because there are lots of other things she really likes making and her quilts are equally amazing.

I think I fall halfway between the Rita and Crystal. Making this many HSTs can have a tendency to make me really crabby tired, preventing me from calling them therapeutic. In fact, I have occasionally sought temporary solace with a glass of wine. Which in turn makes it really difficult to sew HSTs. So maybe there are other issues to be explored...

Anyway...when they were all done, I was in love with this quilt.

Over a year ago, at quilt camp in 2009, I started making this quilt. It was originally destined to be a baby quilt. Until I realized that each block took nearly a day to make. There are LOTS of HSTs in this quilt.

Jessie was at that quilt camp and threw in her bid as recipient of the HST quilt. Then she added her little happy dance. What else could I do? Her happy dance makes it impossible to say no to her.

I got the pattern from American Patchwork and Quilting in 2009, or late 2008 I think. I actually ordered a kit. The fabric is from an American Jane line.

I changed my mind at the last minute about the binding, and ended up using Pez from the Peas and Carrots line, and doing bias binding. Also not a fan of making bias binding. But in this case it had to be done. And it was worth it.

Saturday was Jessie's bridal shower. I think she is pretty happy with the quilt. It's nearly One in Every Color.

And that made me happy as well.

Thank you Cindy!  Just looking at all the bright colors makes me happy as well!

linking at amylouwho