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Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Twin Quilts


Finished girl quilt
     Last week I wrote about a baby quilt that I had made for my daughter-in-law's sister who had her second boy.  This week I am writing about the two quilts I did for her brother and his wife that had twins, a boy and a girl.

     I used the same Pathways - A 3 Yard quilt pattern.  I went to my stash to see if I had anything there that would work.

     I found a jungle print pattern, one that had a blue background and one that had the background in pink.  I had enough of the blue stars to use on both quilts.  The stripes I had to frame the jungle print weren't quite enough.  I had a yard of the yellow but only about 3/4 of a yard of each of the purple and green.  I did like how all the colors went together so I chose to frame the jungle print in two different stripe colors rather than buying something else.
Finished boy quilt


      The two different stripe fabrics make for a different looking quilt pattern.  I may have to try that again some time.  There was enough of the star fabric to also do the binding.

     I bought some flannel at JoAnn Fabrics and washed it in hot water to shrink it.  It also makes it much softer.

     I sent them off to the quilter and then did the labels.  I was able to have them mostly completed by the time the babies were born.  It is nice to sometimes know ahead of time what the baby's gender is.

     Several Hallmark movies later I had them finished.  I am just waiting now for a chance to meet the new members of the extended family so I can give them their quilts.

Block detail

Block detail
Baby info label

Piecer and quilter info label
Baby info label

Piecer and quilter info label
Quilting detail

Quilting detail

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

A Quilt for Conrad


Finished quilt

     Last month three new babies were born in our extended family.  Our daughter-in-law's sister and sister-in-law all had babies.  Since we knew ahead of time what their gender was going to be, I was able to get some quilts made up so when they were born I just needed to add labels.

Quilt block detail

      Kate's sister had a little boy, her second.  I used the same pattern for this quilt as I did for her first.  That pattern is Pathways, A Three Yard Quilt.  This is so easy to buy the fabric for since you need 3 one yard pieces that coordinate with another half yard for the binding.  I usually match the binding to the final border.  I then get flannel for the backing.

Quilting detail

     I like when the thread I choose for the quilting shows the pattern on the back of the quilt.  It makes the back as interesting as the front.

Label with piecer and quilter

     The first label I put on is the info of the piecer, me, and the quilter.  After the baby is born I then can add the label that has their name plus all their birth info.

Baby info label

     This is my way of welcoming new family members.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Honeymoon Quilt

Honeymoon quilt

     For Christmas this year I finally finished this quilt for my daughter and son-in-law.  When they went on their honeymoon/summer driving vacation, they picked up fat quarters of quilting cotton from different places.  They represented different things they saw or did while driving around the east coast.

Pattern used

     We decided on this pattern, Pie Crust Pile-Up , using the larger strips.  We bought some background fabric that would show off the fun prints and coordinate with the little more muted colors.  The navy mini print was a nice frame for all of it.

Block detail

     It was fun putting together the strip sets and trying not to repeat the combinations of prints.  After that, the assembly went quite quickly.

Label one

     Then it was time to choose a backing, and that was when progress stalled.  She couldn't decide exactly what she wanted so I finally chose a navy flannel from JoAnn Fabrics.  I did pre-wash it in hot water and dried it in a hot dryer to shrink it as much as possible.

Label two

     Off it went to the quilter.  We chose this open, watery design to reflect all the water they had seen. I gave them the quilt without the handstitching of the binding done because I couldn't do it without her seeing me working on it and I wanted it to be a surprise.

Quilting detail

     It felt really good to finally get this quilt done for them.

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Aqua and Peach Summer Top

New summer top

     I am thinking ahead to summer as the cold and snow keep coming here.  I bought this fabric while at an ASG conference.  I was planning on making a swing tank top with it to go with some peach shorts and some aqua shorts that I have.

Fabric with snips in the selvedge

     I washed and dried the fabric and then when I was laying it out on the table I found I had to cut small snips in the selvedge edges to get it to lay flat.

Pattern used

     In looking through my patterns, I didn't have enough yardage to make a swing top.  I chose this pattern from McCall's because I liked the different hemline on it.  I made version D (in the picture) but with short sleeves.

Bias stay tape

     The cutting takes a little more time because the front is two different pieces so they need to be cut separately.  I used this fusible bias stay tape to control the shoulder seam.  A fairly quick and fun project to brighten my winter days.