The Social {lite}'s 1st quilt!

Okay I'm just gonna say it...there are far too many of you out there that have really great quilts that are your first quilts ever!  What?  Not fair.  Today we're featuring Cindy from The Social {lite}'s very first quilt.  AND she hand quilted it.  I haven't even attempted this.  When I told Heather the other day that I want to hand quilt one she let me know in no uncertain terms that she was not interested in that...at all!  Anyway, check out Cindy's blog for a fun read on what she calls "learn(ing) the ropes of local society life with food stains on my shirt and a "Mom's Taxi" sign on my car."

i've finished my first ever, have never done one of these before, holy crap i can't believe i finished it quilt.

for those of you into this sort of thing, i didn't use any particular pattern for the quilt top (though i did use oh fransson's paintbox quilt as inspiration for the design). all of the fabrics were scraps i had laying around, except for the back and the binding (and i have no idea who the fabrics were made by, sorry!).

i followed the circle patterns on the backing fabric as my quilt pattern (just made sense, ya know?) and since i was hand quilting the entire thing, it took freakin' forever.

six months, give or take.

 

but totally worth it, don't ya think?

and i chose to use this rainbow palette because it's gender neutral (for babies, anyway) so that my daughter  can pass it down to her children someday.

i just love it. and truth be told, i'm so damn glad it's done.

next up? i'm trying my hand at hand tying quilts. i'm using my husband's grandmother(who passed away last september)'s old clothes and housecoats to make memory quilts for all of her great-grandchildren.

 

Thanks again Cindy...really I'm so impressed!  Also we wanted to mention for those of you who haven't heard of it, Katie from Swim, Bike, Quilt and Aunt Spicy have teamed up with a really great holiday idea.  The goal is to donate 100 quilts for Christmas.  Check out their blogs for details and look through all your unfinished projects or homeless quilts and consider donating them!

 

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.