Sweet baby girl quilt from Traceyjay Quilts

I've seen Traceyjay Quilts before, and she does beautiful stuff.  But I recently came across her Chubby Stars Quilt Along and became a follower all over again :)  So darling!!!  She's got great projects, check out her Quilts of 2011, some really creative things!  Today she's sharing a quilt with us for her unborn baby.  She doesn't know what she's having, they're waiting until the birth,  but she's prepared just in case!

Dear baby... if you're a girl...

...then this will be your quilt.

And if you are a girl, I will love watching you work to hold your head up, and look at those stars...

And I will love seeing you snuggle in all its softness.

And drag it all around the house (your big brother is getting a head start - you might have to fight him off).

I loved making this for you little one... if it is yours 

(and if you're a boy, I'm keeping it, because I love it). 

Your daddy is sure you're a boy... just as sure as I was about your brother...

We've made it to the final trimester!  And even though it's still not really real to me that there will actually be another kiddo in our house, you are showing proof of yourself. :)  

(Here's what your brother looked like at week 26)

________________________________

Specs for my bloggy friends - 

Pattern: Swoon by Thimble Blossoms (love this pattern)

Fabric: Modern Meadow with City Weekend, Farmdale with Hideaway, Katie Jump Rope with DS quilts, and Meadowsweet 2 with Sunkissed.  

Binding: DS quilts tile

Quilting (my favorite I've done so far) - a cross hatch at one inch intervals.  I didn't plan it, but it makes an almost perfect grid all over the whole quilt -- evenly dividing the blocks and the quadrants... that was a happy, unplanned coincidence.

Raggedy Owl's quilt for Weston

First let me just say THANK YOU!  You all have been so sweet to me with your birthday wishes and honestly I appreciate each and every one.  It is so touching to see all those comments from people who I've never met in real life.  And I did have a great birthday and topped it off with a weekend craft getaway!!

Remember that Megan's give away of part of her stash to one of our followers runs through this Friday.  Check out this post for more details and to see the fabric!

Okay and now today's feature is Angela from Raggedy Owl.  She's got a really cute site, so fun to browse through.  I especially love these Christmas pillows she just finished.  Well I found this quilt being featured today through her flickr  account and asked her to please share!  I especially {heart} the backing!

This is Weston's quilt. He really wanted bright colors and triangles, so this is what we came up with.

This quilt is full of American Jane (Happy Campers, Wee Play, Recess) and Katie Jump Rope, with a little bit of Amy Butler and Lush thrown in. The backing is from an Ikea duvet cover, and the binding is Lush woodgrain.

It is slightly narrower than a typical twin sized quilt. I made it that way so that it would comfortably fit the boys' bunkbeds without hanging over the edges too much.

And Weston really loves it. :)

And look, she made matching ones for the brothers!!!  How cute is that photo?



Thanks Angela!  Psst Megan posted some of her Christmas decor on Fresh Poppy Design, check it out! :)

HST Quilt Tutorial part 2

First, as we are getting ready for Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, etc. Heather and I would like to feature quilts leading up to each holiday that are the appropriate colors, themes, feeling etc.. If you have a quilt that would fit into these category please send us an email with the link! (myquiltstory[at]gmail[dot]com) Also if you know of  a quilt that should be featured send us a link or picture and we'll get in touch with them.  Thanks!

Remember these HSTs?  I'm ready to share the rest.

HST Quilt Tutorial Part 2

Click here for HST Quilt Tutorial Part 1
Click here for HST Quilt Tutorial Finish

I got those beautiful Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow fabric from Treasure Bay Fabrics.  Really great little etsy shop...I just went over and saw this most darling fabric, don't you think?!?

Want a sneak peek of the quilt?

Don't you love these beautiful flowers? ;)

Down to the nitty gritty.  We left off with 120 HST's.  Here is the first block you will assemble.

Remember to "square up" after each step.  Basically making sure each time you sew then you trim to make sure everything is straight and measuring correctly.

Click on the image to enlarge.

Repeat this block 6 times.

Here is a finished block in fabric.

Now, you could choose to do this block 9 times (or 12 or 16...) and would result in a beautiful square quilt.  I wanted my lap quilt to be rectangular.

Therefore, the remaining HSTs I made into "half" blocks and this is how I constructed them.

Click on photo to enlarge.

And a tip.

Your lucky day.

For those of us who have wee ones, or not a designated craft room, or don't have a design board...basically you can't leave your blocks laid out.  I use masking tap and mark the block with it's location...being careful to mark each block in the same spot (for me, top right corner).

This way every night I could stack them back up again and not feel panicked that I'd forget the order or lose all my work.

I've never left the tape on for more than 24 hours nor has it been in extreme heat/cold.  So just use caution with these beautiful quilts!

Okay do you just want to see the whole quilt top? 

Oh fine :)

Refer to the picture for quilt block layout.

Piecing blocks first by row, and then sewing all rows together.

Finished quilt size 50" x 60"

I've seen this layout around and I really wanted to give it a try.  Some people have called it a geometric squares quilt...but when I hear/see "geometric" I just want to put my fingers in my ears and "la la la la".  For now I'll just call it a HST quilt.

Hope you like the layout and hope you give it a try!

See you tomorrow for another QuiltStory!

Fabric and a Tutorial

Over the next month or so Heather and I are going to be telling you about our new sponsors as well as sharing some fabulous tutorials.  Today we're talking about Treasure Bay Fabrics!

Let me give a little spotlight and then we'll hop right into a tutorial for a HST quilt.  Melissa of Treasure Bay Fabrics has a great little etsy shop and she carries some seriously darling prints (japanese imports, Michael Miller, Alexander Henry, Freespirit, more and more and more...)  I've loved working with her, and that is an absolute must for me!  What makes her shop different?  She loves suggestions on what to carry, she takes custom listing requests and ships internationally daily.  Also Melissa has a great blog where she often has giveaways (including a recent giveaway of Riley Blake fat quarters!) and she also hosts giveaways through facebook.  Make sure to stop by and say hi :)

HST Quilt Tutorial Part 1
Click here for HST Quilt Tutorial Part 2
Click here for HST Quilt Tutorial Finish
edited to add: finished quilt size 50" x 60"

Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow

Would you cry if you got this in the mail?

I almost did. 

PS Yes this fabric has already been cut, I couldn't wait to dig in, not even for a quick photo.

And of course, this fabric is all from Treasure Bay Fabrics.

I am so happy I went with this colorway, originally I was going to go with blues, greens, browns.

Which is fabulous.

Which is so typically me.

So happy I went with the dark blue and not brown.

Materials Needed:

* 1 1/2 yards white fabric

* 1 1/2 yards of various prints (at least 4 different prints, I have 5)

* 2 yards backing fabric

* 57" x 67" batting

* 3/4 yard fabric for binding

* sewing machine, scissors, thread, etc.

First: Cut sixty 6" squares from the white fabric and the various prints, 120 total squares.

Second: Using a white square and a printed square, make half-square triangles.  Repeat 119 times. :)

Would anyone be interested in seeing how I make my HST? Or are we all set in our own ways?  Do we all know how to make one in the first place??

Third: Make sure to square up each and every HST.

ie cut each and every one of them to be perfect 5 1/2" square

That's it for part 1!  Next Thursday we will put together all of our blocks and in no time we'll have a quilt top finished.

Please let me know if any part of this tutorial is confusing or incorrect.

Please let us know if you are making this quilt, first I'd feel really cool, second I'd call my mom and third maybe we could feature you!

I'm really excited for the layout of this quilt and can't wait to share it all with you.  I hope you'll quilt-a-long with me or at least give it a try someday.

See you tomorrow with our Friday QuiltStory.

SewSara's Polka Dot Quilt

Happy Monday!  Today we're featuring one of my favorite crafters, Sara from SewSara.  We featured her once before here on a beautiful quilt she made with her grandmother's vintage sheet as backing.  I will let this crazy cheerful I'm in love with quilt speak for itself, but make sure to head over to her blog.  She makes so many projects crazy fast, and then sometimes she throws those darling projects in her Etsy shop.  Here's Sara:

Hello all you Quilt Story lovers! Isn't this blog the best? I always get excited when I see a new post pop up in my google reader. I'm not sure when my love for polka dots started, but I'm pretty sure it got worse (better?) when my daughter Ruby was born.  Do you realize how many cute polka dot things are out there for little girls?!

Her 1st birthday party was a polka dot party, complete with polka dot tshirts for all the guests. (those were some of my very first appliques!)

(And now she's four!)

But anyway ... back to the quilt! Of course that's why you're here. I was inspired by Allison's January quilt and knew I wanted to make one for myself. But I didn't exactly know what colors I wanted. I started looking through my stash and realized the main common denominator was polka dots!

So that's really all the story behind this quilt... I gathered all my polka dot fabric and started cutting. I'll admit, I did buy a few extra to add to the quilt, but most of this was from my stash.

I believe there are at least 51 different fabrics in this quilt. If you care to count, maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong! :)

I always have a hard time getting just the right angle.



are you glad I went with the multi-colored stripe? I am. The back is a clearance sheet from Target (I know  all love Target). Which means I still have the fitted sheet to use for another quilt. (yay!)



If you'd like to read more about this quilt and all my other projects, please stop by my blog sometime! Oh -- and -- I'm trying to decide what to name this quilt. I haven't ever named my quilts before but I feel like this one needs a name. Any suggestions? Comment here with your idea!   (If I choose your suggestion, I'll send you a surprise of some sort  -- probably fabric). xo! SewSara

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.

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