Lanterns {A Finished Quilt}

Some of my friends had the unfortunate gall to get married before we met so I never had the chance to make them a wedding quilt. And sometimes I remedy that situation by making them a just-because quilt. This quilt was started at the Stash Bash in 2014 and finished in October 2015 for Cassie. We have both moved away from Alabama where we met and only see one another once a year or so.

I had been wanting to make a courthouse steps block quilt that has a 2nd lantern pattern to it. Scrappy with lots of different fabrics and colors. The palette was loosely based on one of my favorite fabrics:

Washi by Rashida Coleman Hale

Teal and chartreuse, peachy pink and dark gray, and some cool minty greens all mixed together with low volume texty prints.

Here is a progress shot. This quilt was an exercise in planning. I usually make all the blocks in one go chain piecing for miles. I took a different approach here making one or two blocks at a time and building the color story as I went. And isn't this quaint...my sewing area nice and open with a baby swing nearby. Nowadays I am jailed away behind a gate to keep the tiny people away from the sharp and hot dangers of the sewing nook.


Here is the final result.  I backed it with a teal minky fabric and bound it in dark gray birds from Violet Craft.


Here it is in better lighting. I quilted a simple diagonal grid through the center squares. This quilt was already so heavy with seams, batting and minky back I didn't want to overdo the quilting.

Diver Pinapples {A Finished Bee Quilt}

In 2015 I participated in a secret sister gift exchange with my 2014 Triplet moms group. My secret sister, Victoria, loves diving and going to the beach. I decided to make her a beach themed quilt for the final gift to give it to her for Christmas. I asked my bee group, That Stash Bee, for pineapple blocks based on this color palette:

Here are my example blocks. I used white/cream for the center and triangles and blues and turquoise for the rest.

Here are all the blocks put together:


And here is the final product. I quilted it with figure 8 free motion quilting.


I'm especially proud of the backing which is a representation of the diving flag that I pieced from red and white solids. I bound the quilt in a teal solid to contrast nicely with the back and blend in with the front.

Needless to say, she said it is her favorite bedding and uses it on her bed all the time.

Started in July 2015, finished Dec 2015. 
Size- 60x72

The Family Jewels {A Finished Quilt}

My crafty friends and I have a tradition of making a quilt for each other's weddings. It started with Sarah and this time we did it when Jes got married.

I asked for Arkansas Crossroad blocks in jewel tones with white X's. Cassie, Kim and Sarah all pitched in blocks. I made some blocks and finished the quilt. here is a progress shot of the blocks. I was sewing in the early morning before the boys wake up.

 

Here is the layout. It is so bright and cheery with the contrasting white. I used a red minky fabric for the back to amp up the cuddle factor. 



Sadly I don't have a picture of the finished product and I can't recall how I quilted it. We started in September 2015 and I finished it in time to give it to her for our semi-annual truffle shuffle in December.


Here is a picture of our truffle making efforts. We usually make between 600-700 chocolate truffles with up to 12 different combinations of chocolate, fillings (pretty heavy handed with the booze here) and coatings. I'm hoping we can arrange another shuffle this winter.

Kabletown Wedding Quilt {A Finished Quilt}

Continuing to backlog my quilty finishes from 2015. This is a wedding quilt I made for my mom and step-dad. I started the quilt in May and finished in June. The wedding was early July.



My mom and stepdad love to be outdoors hiking, kayaking, biking etc. They live in a beautiful home overlooking the Appalachian Trail. I wanted to quilt to have a cozy log cabin feel to it.

I double the size of the mountain block and went scrappy as I tend to do. Here are some of the blocks during production:



Really big blocks and simple piecing meant that this project moved quickly. That was exactly what I needed seeing as I gave myself very little time and had 3 8 month old kids competing for my attention at the time.



I used a red plaid flannel for the backing and quilted a diagonal grid on either side of the points to highlight them.It finished at 96 x 108".

I love the feeling of the finished product. It is perfect for snuggles in a mountain retreat. I named it Kabletown because I watched a LOT of 30 Rock while making this quilt only to realize my mom lives off of a Kabletown road. I took this as a sign that I watched too much 30 Rock.

Dots {A Mini Quilt Finish}

This was a mini quilt I made in April of 2015. It was for a fellow triplet mom who had 3 girls. One of her babies was very small and had many medical issues I wanted to support them and offer some comfort while they were going through a long NICU stay.

 

I appliqued circles onto a flora elephant background using my tutorial. The dots are ascending to represent growth. Then I quilted with a 1/2" grid and bound in a solid brown. I don't recall the dimensions on this one.

I am also happy to report that the girls are all doing well and are happy, active, 2 year old kids.

Word Search {A finished Quilt}

I started writing this post in 2015 and then stopped blogging  for 2 years. So here it is!

Today's post is all about this lovely specimen: 

Ain't she a beaut. This quilt was started July 2014 by Kim and I for our friend, C, who not so subtly asked for a quilt.

Kim came to visit so we took a trip to the local quilt shops to get our fabric. This was right around when the indelible fabric line came out and Kim and I really thought the line was perfect for C. We were going to use one of the purple prints as a focal print and then pull complementary fabrics for the rest but the local quilt shops did not have the purple line in stock. So instead we went with the same palette but pulled fabrics from all over including indelible, cotton and steel, art gallery dots, collage.

We went with some really big hexagons and traingles for a quick and easy finish. But the real gem was the quilting. I did an all over loop-de-loop design and snuck in some colorful words into each hexagon. I wonder if she has found them all by now? Aw damn...

For the back I used the last of my beloved Ikea numbers print and we made a fun design out of the leftover prints from the front.

I'm going to fill in the backlog of posts. I realized I crave a way to journal my quilting. Here's hoping the wait between posts is a little shorter in the future.