Lola's Quilt and a Winner!

First and foremost, 1000 followers?!?  This has been such a highlight in our busy schedule.  We can sincerely say THANK YOU!  We appreciate all of you who read daily (or often), who've submitted and let us feature your quilts, who've commented on all the pretty features, who link-up and participate in Fabric Tuesday, THANK YOU!  We are so happy this blog is thriving, it's achieving so much of what we wanted which was to bring quilters together and share the amazing stories behind quilts.

As promised I have a tutorial for you of this quilt:

Finished Quilt Size 30.5" x 40.5"

Let me clarify, I received a Go! Baby fabric cutter from Accuquilt to review, but it doesn't mean I have to give a positive review.  I made this entire quilt using the fabric cutter, but you do not have to have one to make it...just may be faster if you do.  Especially the circles.  If you're using the Go! Baby I used the 2.5" die strip cutter and the circles die, 2", 3" and 5".

Materials needed:

Twenty strips (whichever colors and patterns you choose), 2.5" x 44" (see below)

Six white strips, 2.5" x 40.5"

Three 5" circles (main flower)

Three 3" circles (middle flower)

Three 2" circles (center flower)

2 green fabrics, 3" x 5" (large leaves)

3 green fabrics, 3" x 3" (small leaves)

*I provide a template for circles and leaves in a moment*

Edited to add: Some very smart readers had some good insight.  You DO NOT need 44" in length (I am so used to yardage I didn't consider otherwise!  Ha!)  You only NEED 20.5" in length.  So a few options, you could make two quilts and cut double white strips.  You could use fat quarters.  Or you could take 10 strips 2.5" x 44" sewn together as show below, cut down the middle and sew top to bottom.)

Step 1:

Sew the twenty strips together, top to bottom.  The finished piece should measure 40.5" x 44".

*shown are cut measurements, not sewn or finished measurements

click to enlarge

Step 2:

Now cut this piece into strips, three 2.5" x 40.5" pieces and two 6.5" x 40.5".

*shown are cut measurements, not sewn or finished measurements

click to enlarge

Step 3:

Sewing side to side, alternate strip pieces and white 2.5" x 40.5" pieces as shown below.

*shown are cut measurements, not sewn or finished measurements

click to enlarge

Step 4:

Applique the flowers and leaves.  I used Steam a Seam Lite that I got at Joann.  It worked really well, and didn't gunk up my machine.  I like that it is thin, I haven't washed it yet but I think this will be my new applique method on quilts.  The circle and leaf shapes can be found here.

I have not quilted mine yet, I am waiting until after Market.  I will share it as soon as I do! 

We would love to know if you use this tutorial.  If you see any mistakes or have questions let us know.  Please only use this for personal use and not for re-sale.  Please include a link to us if you mention this tutorial on your site.  Thank you for understanding!

FINISHED QUILT HERE

Little Miss Shabby's Corey

First...I forgot to post the winner of my stash on Friday, my apologies.  Drumroll...

And which follower is this?  Tonya Rhine! I am so excited because by choosing from one of our followers we know that the winner is a reader...so fun.  One other winner is on shown Fresh Poppy Design...

Today we've got Corey from Little Miss Shabby.  Have you checked out her site before?  So cute and creative.  She's got giveaways and cute tutorials...check out this cute strashbuster block.  I saw this quilt of hers and I just really wanted to share it with all of you.  And she said yes :)

I had a bit of a bee in my bonnet a couple weeks ago.  I was just itching to try out an idea that I had and dig into my Dream On charm pack.  Urban Chiks fabrics are just beautiful and this new line is no exception.  I sat down at about 8pm on a Friday evening and pieced the top--I wanted to try a little "raggy windowpane" idea that I just couldn't get out of my head.  The skinny little white strips are all raw edges and will fray just a bit more each time I wash this little quilt.  They are 1/2" strips attached (just down the middle of the strip) after the 4 patch blocks were made.

The Saturday after making the top I made my lovely little quilt sandwich--it was small enough I got away (just barely) with only using temporary spray adhesive to baste the layers.  I quilted using straight lines in a random "plaid" pattern which I marked off before machine quilting.  I haven't done a lot of machine quilting so this was a great opportunity to try it out a bit more. 

The quilt is small--I'm not sure of the dimensions off the top of my head but I only used one charm pack and some solid white yardage--it's about crib sized or so.  I opted to use a Heather Bailey chevron stripe fabric from Pop Garden for the binding.  Since the Dream On yardage wasn't available when I made the quilt. I thought it worked nicely & had the same sort of feel as the rest of the quilt.

I also got to try out my math skills a bit trying to figure out what size squares to cut for the triangles around the outside edge.  If you are ever in this same dilemma here is a wonderful resource for figuring out setting and/or corner triangles when you are setting your quilt on point.  I don't know if I have ever been quite so excited to figure something out--I even had to call my mom and share my news.  For some reason, Ryan, my husband, just wasn't quite as excited. LOL! =)

If you get a chance to pick up some of this delish fabric you won't regret it.  The line is now available to purchase.

Daydreams, Teeny tiny quilts...

If you are at all emotional right come back and read later. This one is really hard for me to post. I have never lost a child. I don't know anything close to that pain. But I do know the love I have for each of my children and just the thought of losing one of them is too much. This is such a sweet and special quilt from Liz of teeny tiny quilts. Liz, I don't know you at all, but the fact that you would take the time to make up this quilt for a little 2 year old you never knew, I just know you are a wonderful person. Thank goodness for people like you!

DAYDREAMS

This quilt is for a little girl named Willa, a girl not much younger than my own nearly-three-year-olds. I don’t actually know her. She lives in Pennsylvania, and her mother is a friend of a friend. This friend of mine pointed me to Willa’s mom’s blog. I read it and I cried and cried and cried. Willa is dying.

In addition to being born with a rare and serious medical condition, they then discovered a tumor. Cancer. Inoperable. I’m not sure she was even two years old at the time.

My heart broke into a million tiny pieces. I wanted so badly to do something to help, but what can I do? Aside from not being a doctor or a creator of miracles, I don’t even live anywhere close to them. I can’t make a batch of cookies or bring over a few nights’ worth of dinner.

But I can sew. I could make Willa a quilt. Is it a particularly practical gift? No, I suppose not. But I have a little girl. She likes to get surprises in the mail, she likes pretty things. All I can hope to do is to send a little smile via Express Mail.

Oh, and the latest blog entry says that the tumor is growing. They’ve stopped treatment and met with hospice. Willa is at home. That’s why I rushed to finish it as fast as I could. I thought there might be more time, but I was so very sadly wrong. So I finished it and sent it Express. Tracking says it arrived last week. I haven’t heard from Willa’s mom, yet. I have no idea if it made it there in time.

As for the practical details of the quilt:

It is my second time doing the Stacked Coins tutorial, which I cannot recommend highly enough. If you have a couple of charm packs lying around and want to make something beautiful and super fast, this is the ticket. It’s the perfect size for a baby/toddler quilt, about 40×50. The charm packs in this case were Moda Daydreams, which is a few years old but I found them last fall in Colorado and was waiting for just the right use.

Backing is Amy Butler Full Moon Dots in Camel and a blue tone-on-tone butterfly print from my stash, which the selvedge said was by Anna Griffin. Binding is Full Moon Dots in Lime. I quilted it in my favorite (and fast, though my machine was acting up and breaking thread a lot) loopy stipple, and the white pretty much disappears into the quilt.

Like I said, I have no idea if it made it there in time for Willa to see it or snuggle with it. I can only hope that it gave her, and her mom, a smile.

UPDATE, JULY 8

I got a beautiful thank you card in the mail from Willa’s mom. Not only did Willa get it and like it, “she hugs it and won’t let anyone take it away.”

UPDATE, JULY 9

Unfortunately, the post-script of the story is that, the day after I got the thank you note from Heather, Willa passed away on July 9, 2010. She was not quite 2 1/2. So sad. But I'm glad the quilt arrived and gave her a smile.

On a happier note, go check out Liz's site.  This woman has some serious quilting inspiration! She is definitely one of those girls that makes you feel like you don't know how to manage time at all if she can crank out all she does. She has her own personal quilting factory with one employee! Seriously! Just looking all she completes makes me tired! Thanks Liz.