American Jane Tumbler Baby Quilt Number 2

This isn't the first tumbler quilt I've made with the fabulous American Jane fabrics! And it may not be the last! The super sweet simplicity of tumblers are great with Sandy Klop's sweet fabric. This is the one I finished today: I seem to be adding hand quilting to about every little baby quilt I make these days, and this one is no different :)

I made the binding a little differently this time, inspired by one of my favourite places to be inspired: Instagram! A couple of folks, namely @craft_addict and @patchworkplus, were binding their quilts in this funky way, which was exactly like I had been binding so far (see Heather Bailey's tutorial here). However, when it came to hand-stitching the binding down, instead of using invisible ladder stitches, they were using big, visible hand stitches right on top of the binding!

One lady sewed hers to the front and did these stitches on the back, and the other sewed the binding to the back and hand stitched it to the front. This is what I chose to do, I thought it would be fun to echo the line of hand quilting all around the quilt. I used Auriful thread in 28 wt, which was just the right amount of heft.

Here are the details:

Fabrics: American Jane's line Peas & Carrots. The border is Kona Orange, backing is an orange pezzy print, and binding is from Fox Trails line of fabric by Doohicky Designs
Thread: Aurifil 50 wt in 2000 for piecing and 2150 for machine quilting (a burnt orange, I quilted 1/4 inch from the seams)
Hand quilting: DMC perle cotton in size 8 in yellow (743), colour and Aurifil 28 wt. thread in an orange (1133)
Size: 36" by 44"
Batting: Warm & Natural Completed July 2013

For sale in my Etsy shop!

Kona Club Challenge at Sew Sisters (and a Giveaway!)

I was surprised and pleased (and more than a little nervous!) to be approached this spring by a fabric store here in Canada called Sew Sisters Quilt Shop to contribute a project tutorial to their blog!  They are a fabulous shop (a physical shop in Toronto and an online shop) with a wide array of fabrics from many, many designers.  And competitive prices!  If you are a Canadian quilter, you must check it out.  Who can beat $3.99 shipping for orders under $20, and free shipping if you order more than $100?

My tutorial is a part of their Kona Club Challenge promoting their Kona Club, in which the participants receive a bundle of 4 fat quarters or half yards of coordinating Kona solids per month.  The tutorials on their blog then provide inspiration and ideas for working with these beautiful solids.

Come over to the Sew Sisters blog and take a look at what I came up with using the bundle they sent me.  And while you are there, be sure and enter their giveaway!  You could win a bundle of Kona fat quarters for yourself to play with!  And check out the other tutorials from other Canadian quilting bloggers, too.  There are some great projects.

         

Swoon Along 2013

Quilty people on the internets are still Swooning Along, and so am I. I joined up with FairyFace Designs and her Swoon 2013 Quiltalong to make my second Swoon quilt. (If you haven't seen this very popular pattern yet, it can be found here at the designer's own site.)

Last year there was a very successful quilt-along led by the very persuasive Katy Jones of I'm a Ginger Monkey. I added in my Swoon which had been completed the year before, now in the possession of my father-in-law, but I was still itching to make one in a fresh, modern palette. And I wanted to try scaling down the blocks.

So I started another one in March of this year, and put it on hold when all the shops ran out of the Essex Yarn Dyed Linen I was using for the background! I finally was able to get some from Mad About Patchwork (which I see is sold out again!) and start up again late this Spring when this new Swoon-Along began. Here are my blocks so far:

 

I decided to make mine king size, gulp! (Ask me how that is going in a few months... lap size quilts are nice too!) And since I have scaled down the blocks to 16" that means I can get away with 25 total with a border and all. I have all the fabrics cut out too!  I decided to use up all my Denyse Schmidt fabrics I have from a variety for her lines: Flea Market Fancy (old and new release), Katy Jump Rope, Shelburne Falls, and Hope Valley.

The only issue I find is that if I let too long of a time elapse between putting the blocks together, I'm all kinds of mixed up and sewing things together all kinds of crazy ways. I just can't get my head wrapped around the block unless I sit and do a few at a time. I did 2 last night, the first took me about an hour and the second about 15 minutes. I need a whole day with nothing else to do to get this one whipped without frustration, I think. Oh well. We will see if that happens!!

 Don't get me wrong, it's really not a hard block, I just don't concentrate very well, I guess!! Oh, and you need to go take a look at all the lovelies that the Swoon 2013 participants are making at the Flickr Group! And join us, won't you?

My blocks so far, and my son's feet :)

 (Edited 07/07/2013) ... PS.  OK, 15 minutes might have been an exaggeration... I didn't time it, but it felt fast!  I don't want to discourage anyone :)