I Spy Baby Quilt

Ok, ok, ok. I said the next economy block quilt I made was not going to be scrappy. But here I am. It looks a lot like the one I just made last week, doesn't it? But I started with 3.5" inch squares in the centre, rather than 4.5" and spent a little more time fussy cutting. I love the littler blocks. I love the American Jane backing and other American Jane fabrics and scraps that I used throughout the quilt. This one finished at 31" by 38" and is for sale in my Etsy shop!

Economy Block Baby Quilt

A little scrappy quilt I just completed. I have to admit, I struggle a bit with scrappy. It may seem like a "quilter's sin" but I do. I like congruous. I like a lot of harmony and I like fabric lines. I like scraps in rainbow arrangements, though! 

 Anyways, I DO like the economy block and you might see this block again here. In matchy, matchy fabrics, haha!  And I DO like this quilt.  I can't resist it's crinkliness and sweetness.  It is a quilt after all, and a quilt means LOVE.

QUILT STATS

Fabrics: Scraps and a bit of American Jane for backgrounds

Binding: American Jane Happy Campers

Backing: Aunt Grace by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics

Batting: Warm & Natural

Thread: Aurifil 50 wt in 2021

Dimensions: 32.5" by 39.5"

For sale in my Etsy shop!

I Survived! (and I Quilted!)

Hey there!  It's been quiet from me for a bit.  I was single mothering for almost 10 days while all the mature male members of my collection were away to Orlando.  My older sons are very talented Minecraft artists and went (with my husband as chaperone) to Minecon, a Minecraft convention/trade show.  And took in the fun sights of Florida, too!

I stayed home with the younger boys and tried to keep my head above water by quilting late into the night.  Wait, I do that anyways.  Well, it was harder this time!

I finished this:

There are a few things going on in this quilt that I shall comment on.  One, I machine quilted most of it with Aurifil 50 wt, in beige on the bottom (bobbin) and ivory on the top.  Then I hand quilted the "snowballs" around the insides (roughtly 1/4 inch in) with various colours of heavier Aurifil and DMC threads (8 and 12 wts).

You know how when you quilt something different on the border than you do in the middle, there is a reckoning that has to happen between the two motifs where they meet?  Well, my motifs were weird about it.  I did straight lines following the diagonal in the middle and then a cross hatch following the plaid on the border.  Sometimes I ended up sewing over the same lines twice and sometimes I left a blank spot on the back of that border/middle seam line.  It just depended on what my crazy brain was doing and where I thought it made sense to sew.  Well... on the back it looked weird.  So my solution was to go over the whole thing with a thick decorative machine stitch that looks like a blanket stitch.  You can see it in this picture: 

The quilt came out to 54" by 71".   All the fabrics are American Jane, from the lines ABC 123 and School Days.  I should mention that I used an Ikea sheet on the back of this one as well.

And the other thing I did was to attempt some swirly, whirly loops on this quilt here.  Slow, slow going as this one is making me pull my shoulders up to my ears and I need to take frequent breaks to un-knot.   But I'm learning, so "yay!".

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!

American Jane 9 Patch Baby Quilt

Another little baby quilt!  I love doing these little projects to play with some favourite fabrics and practice some skills.

This time, I worked on my hand quilting skills.  Again.  Because it is soooo much fun!

I used several colours of DMC perle cotton in size 8, and an Aurifil in size 12 to hand quilt around all the 9 patches.  I machine quilted first, using Aurifil 50 wt. in the ditch, just to give it some strength, and then sat all comfy-like in my chair, or outside, or where ever I wanted to be, and stitched happily.

The fabrics are all American Jane, from a charm pack of ABC 123, and some yardage of the tossed toys on the back, and the lovely print of flowers on a blue background for the binding.

The batting is Warm & Natural and the dimensions are a little 27" x 32".

American Jane Tumbler Baby Quilt

American Jane fabric makes me go *squeee!* and especially when I sew it up into a quilt! This happy little quilt is going to someone special having a baby this summer. I don't know if mama reads my blog, but if she does... oops. The sweet couple was planning on decorating the nursery in a "vintage toy" style, so I think this might fit. I hope they didn't change their decorating scheme and I hope they and baby like the quilt. Cuz if they don't, I'm keeping it!

 
Oh, and those white flecks covering the quilt?  Not dandruff or fluff.  Those would be SNOWFLAKES. This is spring in these parts, folks!

Quilt Stats: Size: 34" by 40"
Fabrics: American Jane ABC 123, Peas and Carrots, and School Days
Quilting: All over meander with Aurifil 50 wt in 2021
Batting: Warm n Natural
Completed: April 7, 2013

The Duelling Quilts

A continuation of this post, now they are finished! I love the bright colours. Both quilts make me so happy!

 

A Quick Update

I just wanted to pop in and share two quilt tops that I finished in the past couple of days!

 And this one!

 

Click on the pictures for more information. I am too lazy today to write it out here! Or you can check my new page at Threadbias! There is info about my quilt projects there and you should join too! It is super fun!