Modern Baby Boy Quilt

Today is day three that I'm sharing my finished baby quilts!!  Today I'm sharing a modern baby boy quilt.

Mod Boy

36" x 48"

I consider this quilt modern because of the simple layout, color scheme and  prints I used.  It is definitely a little more "wild" than my usual but I think it looks like a super cool baby!!  :)

6" chevron squares and 3" four patches with the cobalt blue.  I started working on this quilt this past summer.  I was essentially stranded in a strangers home with my family and had nothing of my own! Katie (Swim Bike Quilt) lent my her sewing machine and I used the fabrics I had on hand and I sewed at night!

Simple black binding and a black crosshatch backing.  It's so striking!

Remember all my quilts are available in OUR SHOP.

I'm offering 10% off this week with the code MEGSFRIEND.

Thanks for stopping by friends!!!

Beach Cabins Quilt from Chezzetcook

Such a fresh happy feature today from Adrienne of Chezzetcook Modern Quilts. I love it! Modern and oh so pretty.  Great colors, design and pretty photos!!  Chezzetcook Modern Quilts is a sewing/quilting fun blog, she has a great tutorial here on quilting as you go...a method I MUST try, it's been on the list for a while. And for some lovely quilty-eye candy see her finishes. To find our more about Adrienne and her blog name see here.  Thanks for sharing!

The eagle has landed. Beach Cabins reached it's new home in Ottawa and I have heard that her new family loves her :) So now I can share!

This quilt started with a couple of pieces of blue and red gingham that my client gave me. She wanted something "beachy" and then left me to my own devices. After adding some more reds, blues and grays to the Tilted Cabins Pattern (from From The Blue Chair), Beach Cabins was born, and if I do say so myself, I think this quilt fits the "Beachy" bill. So of course I took it to the beach for it's photo shoot. 

This project marked the first time that I used the Quilt As You Go method of quilting, so I talked about it a lot! You can read the previous posts here and here. When this baby came out of the dryer all crinkly and soft I was so happy!  

I am not going to say how long it has been since I had a finish (so embarrassing), but it is all worth it to have one like this!
Adrienne

Previous Posts related to this quilt:
Post 1
Post 2
Post 3

HST Koi Zipper Pouches

Hello hello :)

I love getting lovely stacks of fabric.  I got this gorgeous Don't Be Koi from Honey Be Good.  I love it.  I usually get a stack and it sits for a lot longer than I want it to.  I decided this time I was going to make something straight away! :)

So many lovely prints in this line.

I have a niece who just left to serve an 18 month LDS mission in Georgia.  This means she is packing and moving a lot.  I have three zipper pouches that I use everytime I go anywhere, so I decided to make her some as well.

A while back Heather and I stocked up on colorful zippers and a few zipper pulls.  I do not remember which shop but I know we got them on Etsy.  Seriously best stash purchase ever.  I use them ALL the time.  It is so awesome to have them on hand for projects.

Finished sizes are about 10.5" x 12", 10.5" x 7" and 10.5" x 5".  I decided to add HST's to one of them and I think it turned out really cute!  It's on both sides.

And there you go!  Easy peasy project and I feel so satisfied having used my Don't Be Koi already.  And it is still available at Honey Be Good.

Come back tomorrow!  I have an important post and we really really want feedback from YOU!

Carnaby Street X Plus Quilt!

I am loving today's quilt by Kelly from My Quilt Infatuation! It's gorgeous!  I love the colors against the gray...bottom line I'm really into COLOR!  I also really enjoyed reading about Kelly here especially how she made her first quilt...awesome!  So take a minute to read it.  Also you can see here Kelly's other quilt finishes.  Enjoy! 

Well, my groovy Carnaby Street X Plus quilt is finished!!  I actually dreamed about it last night and woke up at 7:00am so I could work on it and get it finished today.  We're heading to visit family on Wednesday, so I have a million things I should be doing, but quilting is way more fun than laundry and packing, right?

I chose my good old standby for quilting in a light gray thread, and I'm happy that it helps to disguise my unfortunate mismatched plus seams a little bit.  I used the same teal tonal chevron for the binding that I used as a border in the back, and I like how the chevrons point toward the quilt.  That is totally a happy accident!

I placed my label a little too close to the edge on this one...whoops!

I can't decide which side of this quilt I like better!  The back is so much fun with all of the improv piecing, but I think that the front has almost a 3D effect with the Carnaby Street jumping out against the gray background.

This is my second Carnaby Street quilt and I am not sick of the fabric at all.  You can see my first oneHERE.  The colors in this quilt just make me happy (and kind of makes me want to watch Austin Powers)!  I love the fun, groovy vibe.  Which side do you like best?

Modern Batman Quilt from Simply Pieced

As a momma of two boys (who are obsessed with super heroes) I absolutely LOVE this quilt.  Really, seriously.  I may be making one of these very soon.  I'm not just saying that.  Anyway, I love this quilt!!  Made by Janet of Simply Pieced I was so excited to see it linked up to Fabric Tuesday two weeks ago.  Like so many of you she does a great job documenting her quilt finishes, from 2011, 2012 and 2013.  I wish I had mine documented so well!  Make sure to stop by Simply Pieced after checking out her feature!

I hate to play favorites, but this next quilt is probably my favorite quilt that I've made so far.  Don't get me wrong, I love the other quilts.  I don't usually make something that I don't like, but this one took a piece of my heart with it when I gave it to the mom-to-be at her baby shower.  I should have asked for visitation rights, or to quilt-sit when they go out of town...I'm being ridiculous...sort of.

When I found out the mom was pregnant and having a little boy, I contacted the dad through a mutual friend on what they were doing in the nursery.  You see, the dad does all the decorating...ALL the decorating.  He's a very talented graphic designer that has an eye for fashion and color, but he's also a big kid at heart.  When it came to this baby boy's nursery, the dad knew exactly what he wanted to do and was very specific when it came to colors (robin's egg blue, stop sign red and charcoal grey) and theme (classic Batman).  I received these two attachments:



The first is one of the prints used in the room and the second is a diagram of the different batman symbols used since the character's creation.  The dad ended up using this diagram to create an art piece above the crib, which looks awesome.  The diagram was also my inspiration for the quilt.  When I think of Batman, one of the first things that comes to mind is the bat signal.  I liked the cityscape at the bottom of the diagram and wanted to use that design somehow in the quilt.  I ended up drawing up a sketch on graph paper of a simple cityscape with the bat signal in the air.  The idea of recreating the drawing as a quilt was a bit daunting, but I was determined.  

When it came to piecing the front, I decided to machine-piece the buildings separately and then applique them onto the background fabric by hand.  Before the buildings could be attached, I had to put the spotlight and bat signal in the sky.  I ended up picking the bat-signal I associated with Batman as the call-sign.  This took a lot of trial and error to get everything exactly where I wanted it.  Once the bat signal and the buildings were in place, I put windows on the buildings to help bring the buildings to life.  Mixing the red and blue for the windows helps bring in the nursery colors on top of the charcoal grey.  I machine-quilted the quilt with horizontal lines.  I knew I needed to keep the lines fairly close together to help secure the large appliqued pieces of fabric.  I hand appliqued the initial onto the back of the quilt as a finishing touch.

This quilt was so much fun to design and make.  I sincerely hope the baby boy will love his quilt as much as I do.

Broken Diamonds Quilt from Blueberry Patch

Love this quilt today from Cathy at Blueberry Patch, really striking.  I've never done an all solids quilt but I get tempted when I see awesome finishes like this! I've had an idea for one for my husband for a while, maybe I'll finally get around to it in cold DC! :)  Cathy has a lot of great finishes and she shares a lot of fun fabric and sewing projects on Blueberry Patch.  Thanks for sharing today!

I finished this the other day and hung it up on the barn for a few pictures.  This is Inspired Broken Diamonds and I am calling it that because I was inspired to make it after seeing this quilt on Kati's blog From The Blue Chair.  I found her Broken Diamonds quilt mesmerizing and I knew that I had to try it.  It took me awhile to get around to it but I did.  

So what did I do?  Lot of solids cut into strips in a variety of widths.  The strings are paper pieced in matching quarters and then sewn together with other matching quarters.  There are no repeats.  The "diamonds" are all different sizes for the most part.  Then the fun came when I put them together.  That was a bit of a construction project!  I had to sash the blocks in a way that allowed them to fit together.  Once that happened, I filled in the empty space with giant triangles and we were away to the races.  That was until I realized I had goofed with the orientation of the quilt and I had to un-sandwich it and tweak the quilt a bit so I had the blocks in the right orientation.  Long story.  Short story is it makes me happy.  There is one wee diamond in a different orientation.  Can you see it?  That was an oops but it is an okay oops.  The quilt advisor (a.k.a. Husband) thought the diamonds should have their lighter sides to the left as if the sun might be on them.  Do you see what I mean?  All the diamonds are in that orientation except the one little oops.  That one slipped by me somehow!  

The quilting is straight lines about an inch apart, in Aurifil 50 wt in white and I think it looks just great!  The binding is Kona Charcoal and I used some leftover solids on the back with Ikea's Britten Numbers. So much fun!!!!!  I was stitching the binding when I noticed the number forty two on the back!  Forty two is such an auspicious number!  The answer to the secret of the universe, right?  Nothing like a literary reference on a quilt!  (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

  Quilt stats

Name:  Inspired Broken Diamonds

                     Design:  Inspired by Kati's quilt Broken Diamonds

Size:  64" by 74"

Fabric:  Kona Solids and stash fabrics

Binding:  Kona Charcoal

Backing:  Ikea Britten Numbers and Kona Solids

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white

Modern Circuitry Quilt from Don't Call Me Betsy

This isn't our first time featuring Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Betsy, in fact I have no idea how many times we've featured her!! She is an awesome and creative quilter, we love her work!  She's sharing an awesome modern quilt today that was featured at QuiltCon! So cool! :)  Be sure to see Don't Call Me Betsy if you haven't, awesome tutorials (love this Mod 9 patch), classes if you happen to live near her, Quilt-A-Longs...you name it!

Checking Instagram the last day or two has been sheer torture. Photos are flooding in from QuiltCon, and gosh, I wish I were there. I am lucky enough to have a few pieces of me there at QuiltCon, but gosh I wish I could be there to take it all in. The next one will be in 2015, and I definitely plan to be there!

One of my quilts on display at QuiltCon is featured in the Modern Quilts Unlimited booth, #308. Modern Quilts Unlimited is a fantastic new modern quilting magazine, and I was super excited when they selected one of my designs to share at their booth. This quilt is something I designed a while back, while dreaming of rich Art Gallery solids, and it was a lot of fun to finally put it together.

The Art Gallery solids I used for this project are: Crystal Pink, Cabernet, Dark Citron, Light Citron, Cherry Lipstick, Festival Fuschia, Fresh Water, Empire Yellow, Burnt Orange, Tile Blue, Emerald, with Mystic Gray for the background and Caviar for the binding. You can find Art Gallery solids in stock atIntrepid Thread and Stash Modern Fabrics.

This is also the quilt that I used my Clamshell Loop FMQ design on, the one in the tiny sneak peek photo! This was the first larger quilt that I used that FMQ technique on, and it was really fun and easy to do.

I love how this quilt came together, and I am so happy that I got to see a photo of it on display in Austin at QuiltCon. Maybe next time, I can manage to have another quilt on display there and actually get a picture of me with it! Have a great weekend :)

Quilt Stats:

name: Modern Circuitry

size: 48" x 60"

fabrics: Art Gallery Pure Elements solids in Crystal Pink, Cabernet, Dark Citron, Light Citron, Cherry Lipstick, Festival Fuschia, Fresh Water, Empire Yellow, Burnt Orange, Tile Blue, Emerald, with Mystic Gray for the background

pattern: by me for Modern Quilts Unlimited, handed out at QuiltCon

quilting: Clamshell Loop by me in white 50 wt Aurifil thread

binding: Art Gallery Pure Elements solid in Caviar

Yellow and Gray Quilt from My Lift in Binding

Today's feature is a gorgeous quilt from Catherine of My Life in Binding.  You must read her About Me...it made me giggle!!  Catherine is a busy PhD student, I wonder where she finds the time to make such beautiful quilts!!  After reading about her great quilt and feature stop by and say hi, she's new to blogging and quilting so let's make some new friends!!

When my best friend told me her wedding colors were going to be yellow and gray, I had my doubts (and fears—I was petrified I’d have to wear a yellow bridesmaid dress—not a good look for me) about the color scheme. Nevertheless, that’s what M—who is an interior designer by trade, with impeccable and modern taste—wanted. I had only been quilting for a couple of months when I decided I should make her a wedding quilt, so I didn’t have much of a stash to speak of. I spent several months checking out local fabric shops wherever I went, purchasing yellow and gray fabric that looked “M” to me.*

Choosing the pattern was much easier. Before I started quilting for real, I read Diary of a Quilter (like, the entire thing—it was a little crazy, admittedly) and at some point ran across Amy’s “Chain Linked” pattern. You know how you just know when you find something that is perfect for someone? This was perfect for M, so once that was decided, I just had to procure enough interesting scraps in the color scheme for the middle of the blocks.

M’s wedding was at the end of July, and I didn’t get the quilt done by then (ooooooh boy, not even close!) I did manage to make her a large pillow out of scraps from her quilt that I presented to her at her shower (she didn’t know she was getting a quilt, but I think she had her suspicions!)

So I plugged steadily along with the quilt through the fall. I live halfway across the country from M and really wanted to present it in person, which meant that Christmas break was my new deadline. This was the largest quilt I had made, and that presented unique challenges in basting space and quilting.  I ended up basting the quilt in the basement of the building where I work. I wasn’t confident enough to try FMQ, so I chose to trace the white areas of the quilt, which meant a TON of turning! I think it was a pretty good choice for the quilting though. I originally intended to trace inside the gray too, but time and laziness prevented that.

The backing was part of an IKEA duvet cover, with the addition of a row of blocks to make it long enough. The binding was a happy accident—the yellow I was originally saving for the binding just didn’t look right at the end, and I headed to my LQS to try to find something else. I found nothing. Dejected, I was about to settle for a dark gray solid when I spotted some light and dark gray striped fabric. Perfection!

 M and her new husband loved the quilt (even if it was five months late) and I am extremely proud of it! There’s nothing quite like making something that you just know is perfect for its recipient, and it is my favorite quilt I’ve made so far!

Pattern: Chain Linked by Amy Smart

Finished size: 61” x 82”

Fabric: Kona Charcoal and Kona White, with assorted others

  

*Don’t worry, I got to wear a dark gray dress instead. Phew."