Baby Clothes Quilt from Simplify and Quilt

Awesome baby clothes quilt today from Andra who blogs at Simplify and Quilt.  I want to do this with my children's clothing someday.  Such a beautiful way to preserve them!! Except I think my boys would have to share one quilt with all the handing down :)  This quilt is beautifully quilted to boot!  I had fun looking at all the little details.  Stop by Simplify and Quilt to see other great finishes by Andra on her sidebar.  Thanks for sharing!

This quilt was created, for a family friend, with all the baby clothes from their one child.  I received a huge, moving box full of clothes, in the mail.  The mother was having such a hard time thinking about getting rid of her daughter’s precious  clothes that she decided a quilt was in order. 

I tried to preserve all the cute appliques, iron on pictures, embroidery, ruffles and buttons that were the focus of most of the clothing items.  

I also included pockets from little pairs of jeans, some pieces of receiving blankets, and even a bib.  Almost all of the pieces had to be backed with iron on interfacing so that they would not stretch, just as you would use with any T-shirt quilt. 

The quilt went home with its family on July 5^th.  They were very pleased and I have heard that the extended family literally spent hours looking at each block.  The little girl, who is now five, delighted in seeing her old clothes.  I think she specifically liked the frog “princess” in the middle. 

Giant Princess Star Quilt...

I finished my Giant Star Quilt! 

At the Cabin retreat I just attended, Amy from Diary of a Quilter  made one of these Star Quilts. 

Marion from My Quilt Diet and I got jealous and decided we wanted to make one too...

At one of the activities at the retreat, I won this Michael Miller Princess fat quarter bundle!!! I immediately thought of my sweet five year old Sophie. I call her my Pip lately because she is itty bitty, my own pip squeak. She dresses up several times a day. She has been going nuts for this quilt. She keeps kissing it!

I did some new quilting. I bought Natalia Bonner's Beginner's Guide to free motion quilting. I attempted the swirls. I am super proud. It certainly isn't perfect, don't look to close. I am still really happy with it. I started quilting it too densely, but couldn't change my mind later. It took probably 6 hours to quilt it!

The Star quilt pattern tutorial came from In Color Order. She has the whole tutorial. Really easy and fun!

Heather and Marion's quilts at the retreat...

Marion from My Quilt Diet is a funny lady. She is known for being a speed quilter. She has made over 60 quilts in this last year! (No kidding!) I had all my triangles cut and Marion was helping me with my layout.  Marion decided she too wanted to make one and as we were both working we were teasing that is was a race. But let's be serious, I totally thought I would kill her because I had everything cut and laid out before she even started. Guess who won? Marion!!! By about 20 minutes! I still don't know how she did it, I didn't even pin anything!!!  She is a rockstar! Be sure to check out her Star Quilt today too...

Marions finish...

Love her circle quilting!  Fabulous!

Anchors Away and Fabric Tuesday...

Anchors Away

I think it is pretty obvious Megan and I are IN LOVE with this Out to Sea line. Pure cuteness! We are even fighting over each others scraps! Pathetic, we know (as we bow our heads in shame)

Anyhow, I reworked my MOD TWEET pattern with the anchor in the middle. LOVE.

Plus, I threw this together SUPER fast! Faster than I had planned (which never ever happens with quilting, right?)

I LOVE the quilting I did. Super fast and sweet. I did bubbles (or pebble) quilting around the anchor. Then I just did super fast waves across the quilt. I am so happy with how it looks, and it was SO fast!

Here is the back. Don't love how the bubbles look on the navy print, should have planned my layout better. But who cares right?

The quilt will go to this sweet little man for Christmas. Don't you just want to eat his cheeks through the computer? (Or possibly that is just a mom thing?)  :)

I have had a hard time not giving it to him yet. 

Hope you like. Megan and I are gearing up for a hibernation over fall up to Christmas. We are both trying to get patterns out of the way, and even Christmas gifts done super soon. (wish up luck on the Christmas gifts, I will never be sewing at 1:30am Christmas morning EVER again!)

If you love the pattern, you can purchase it here.

What did you create this week?

Fabric Tuesday #101

click here for more info

Fabric Tuesday 100!!! and Dottie!

FABRIC TUESDAY 100!! 

What a milestone!

Once I got my hands on a stash of the new Sarah Jane Out to Sea line, my brain exploded with ideas. I am sure you will see many of my creations, Megan is not the only one playing with this fabric!

I wanted to create a quilt that didn't make you chop up all your fabrics into tiny pieces. Most of these prints you want to keep big and show off! So I came up with this idea, giant polka dots! I love how it showcases each fabulous print.

I love how the pattern created these scattered dots (which i was going to name this pattern)

In the end I went with "Dottie." Cute?

 I had a ton of fun with the quilting, even though it took HOURS! I wanted to create "bubbles," I love them. Then I spiraled inside each dot just for something different. I really love the effect!

As much as I would love to let you all think that this may be my backyard, sadly, it isn't. It is my Mom and Dads. She does this all herself! Everything she ever plants, no matter the soil or climate grows beautifully!

My yard looks a lot like where those giant trucks that come take your garbage away, where they dump their garbage. My yard is a lot closer to that than my Mothers yard. She is so ashamed! (as am I)

The backing. I love the swirls within the dots, looks pretty neat!

Click here to buy the new Dottie pattern

Fabric Tuesday #100

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FABRIC tuesday FUN...

Hello, happy Tuesday! I thought you might want to see something other than Megan's baby girl projects this week. Seriously, she may need a medical intervention, she is going nuts over at her house. She is moving boys clothes out of the closet her 2 sons share to make room for girl clothes. I think it is half girl clothes already! Who knew she wanted a girl so much! Because of how beautiful her boys are, I always wanted Meg to have a girl, she will be gorgeous guaranteed! (and I am not just saying that to be nice to Megan)

Anyhow, here are a few things I finished the last little while, a boy quilt and pillow sham from Sarah Janes fabric line for Michael Miller. LOVE these fabrics. I made this for a lovely lady in Australia.

I also created this pillow sham from Sarah Jane's girl line. I tried pebble quilting. It was way fun, but I sure am glad I did in on a pillow sham and not a full quilt, it took a TON of time!

So I can't wait to see what you all have been up to this week for  Fabric Tuesday, I can't wait to be inspired! 

Sue's half moon modern log cabin...

Look at this amazing quilt from Sue daurio! The quiting is awesome! Sue has tons of finishes, 2011 here, 2010 here, 2012 here...WOW. I think love the colors in this quilt, almost rainbow, and then the quilting reminds me of rainbows. Anyhow, LOVE this quilt...

I learned how to do Baptist fans!!  I have a rainbow quilt for a good friend of mines daughter that I wanted to quilt rainbows on, this quilt was practice for that.  This will be one of my Hands 2 Help quilts.  I've also posted the Eq7 project on the projects tab.  But really you don't need E7 for this.  All you need is a jelly row and some other coordinating fabric.  I started with a 2.5 x 10.5 in strip.  Added 1.5 inch strips all the way around.  Then 2.5 inch strips all the way around, then 1.5, then 2.5....until you are happy with the size.  Easy as can be!!

Oops my slipper is in the picture...really I left that in the middle of the floor?  Yikes don't tell my husband :)

This is my first quilt finished for H2H - check out the button on the side bar, it's not too late to join in. 

Simple stripes boy quilt from Bijou lovely...

Holly from Bijou lovely has a truly great blog of quilting, crafting, sewing, and decorating among other things, but mainly quilting.  A very talented, creative and fun girl she is! Just check out Bijou lovely creative Quilt finishes , be sure to visit these great tutorials, I have pinned a few myself! What a fun baby boy quilt this turned out to be...

Here's the simple stripes quilt I spent most of my time working on this past week.  Our friends Sara and Ryan are having a baby boy in April, and their baby shower was this past Saturday.  Of course I waited until six days before the shower to start making their gift!  Why I procrastinate so much, I'll never understand.  

Yes, this quilt has a mustache on it!  My husband made me do it.  When I told him I was making a quilt for them, he asked if I could add a mustache to the quilt.  This new baby boy has a grandpa that is known for his mustache.  The baby shower even had a mustache theme, so this fit in quite well!

I used lots of basic yellows, grays, blues, reds, and greens in this quilt that were slightly desaturated.  The backing is a Denise Schmidt print from JoAnns.  I bound it in some Kona Medium Gray.  I quilted it with wavy lines (my new favorite!) in a light gray thread.  The wavy line quilting is so fast and gives this quilt a little bit of texture.  I appliqued the mustache on after the quilting was finished.

So there's my first finish of February!  It definitely won't be the last.

Another Amazing Mini from Cut to Pieces

We featured Angela from Cut to Pieces last week...and if you haven't been by her blog yet...WHY!!?  She is sooo talented and inspirational!!  I just love her creative talent, she is unique and amazing!  She made this quilt for a swap (I need to join that swap now!) and also entered it into a fun modern mini quilt challenge at Ellison Lane Quilts.


I'm finished with my most recent mini that I've decided should be entitled "Dream a Little Dream". It all started with an inspirational sketch and post by designer Sarah Jane. This mini is part of a swap over at flickr and my partner doesn't know this is for her yet. So I can't tell you a heck of a lot about her. But I will say that I identified with my partner (and also Sarah Jane) on the need to de-stress this year. Life gets in the way quickly and it is easy to become overwhelmed by our own particular circumstances. So I thought my partner would appreciate the simplicity yet emotional nature of this quilt. And so Dream a Little Dream was begun.

The girl in my mini is completely inspired by Sarah Jane's illustration...but I'm quite pleased with how she turned into fabric and thread. I did this all with raw edge applique, a steady hand, and a lot of thread changes.

Her dreams are made up of all things lovely, sweet, and fantastic. Which just so happens to coincide with my love for Heather Ross fabrics. There's definitely a reason I'm drawn to her designs. You will see that they appear often. And don't mind me when I start waxing poetic and pulling out my love of Disney when I say " A Dream is a wish your Heart makes".

I also did a little stamping on this quilt. My very first time stamping on fabric! I did just a subtle (read: I didn't want to mess up) stamping along the quilt with the title. The free motion quilting is also supposed to be dream like... flowing, relaxing, and wavy.

The details are big in this mini, but I think the overall effect is Simplicity. I worked to keep things a little less overworked and I hope that it "works". 

So, dear partner, I hope that you love this mini as much as I do. She's been peaceful and joyful for me...just what I think you will enjoy about her. I've loved having her finished for a while and getting to her enjoy her on my design wall. I don't always get to spend much time with the items I make for a swap and I feel lucky to have had her for a bit.

1001 Peeps quilt from The elven garden...

I just recently came across The Elven Garden, a modern quilt design blog. Jess from Australia made this fun 1001 peeps (just got some of that fabric myself) quilt for her 1 year old daughter as a Christmas gift. Love it! Here are some darling quilt finishes, she is selling them too! Be sure to visit her blog, cute fun stuff!

1001 Peeps - a finished quilt (yay!!)

I am ridiculously proud of this quilt. I absolutely LOVE Lizzy House's fabrics, and 1001 Peeps is no exception - and it leant itself perfectly to this pattern. The pattern is Fussy Framed Fairytales by Kate Conklin, and it was really fun to make. I love the fact that it wastes virtually NO fabric, and the floating squares border is really cool.

I actually deviated a little from the pattern - I started with 10" squares rather than 10.5" squares, which is why my floating squares aren't quite set in the right spots at the corners - although I think they still look okay. Apart from 1001 peeps, I used Kona solids in blush, hibiscus, petal and PFD. I quilted it all over using an echo shell pattern - time consuming compared to stippling (it took about 10 hours to quilt), but I love the result. And the texture of the quilt is amazing. 

The binding is Kona blush, and it's machine stitched at back and front. Finished size is about 50" x 65" (approximately - haven't measured it properly yet...)

Darling daughter loving on her quilt Christmas day...

Close up of the cute quilting...Thanks,

Jess

City House Studio twin doll quilts...

Check out these darling twin quilts and these twin dolls!  I want to make them! Michelle from City House Studio  made them as a gift. Super darling!  Make sure to check out her blog,  she has fun projects for the home. Loads of quilting and sewing projects, and darling  twins she dresses up!  

Our friends Ella and Zoe are turning 5 next week, and their Rainbow Birthday Party is today!  We met in an Early Childhood/Family Education class when they were 2 and my girls were 3.  Their mom is just about the sweetest person in the world, and it has been such fun to compare notes on being a mom of twin girls.

So I knew I wanted to make something really special for their birthday.

Here is what I came up with!

"Ruby Lou" doll pattern can be found at Sew Much Ado

Twin Rainbow Quilts
My own creation, but was inspired by this quilt I found on flickr.

Close up of the pebble quilting.
Fun to do, and I LOVE how it turned out!

Soft minky dots for the backing.

One skirt just wouldn't be enough, would it?
A girl needs a change of clothing!

These little dolls were a really fun project, and I had lots of help along the way from my twins, complete with planning how they wanted their dolls to look -- I promised to make them each one after these gifts were finished!  It turns out that 5 year old fingers are perfect for stuffing those narrow arms and legs.  And it was really fun to see the amazed look on their faces after I sewed the heads together and then turned them inside out - it was like the dolls came alive!  The only thing that I would change about the pattern is to embroider the faces first -- this seemed much easier, rather than waiting until the end and having to bury the embroidery knots up in the hairline somewhere.  I also lined the face and the body with interfacing prior to doing the embroidery.  And the faces/arms/legs are just a neutral Kona cotton, not muslin as the pattern suggests.