another baby quilt!

I made this quilt about a month ago in anticipation of the birth of a new baby boy to one of my good friends from high school!  I looked through my stash and was excited to discover that I could make a pretty cute quilt entirely from my pantry!  I even had the backing and the batting.  The only thing I had to go out and buy was the binding (which was chosen by my assistant, Gracie :) )

I used the disappearing nine block 'pattern' which I have used before, but I really love the look.  This is one of my favorite baby quilts - it makes me happy when I look at it!  And baby Leo loved it too!

For my new niece or nephew!

My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby in early August!  They aren't finding out the sex, so I wanted to make a quilt that was fun and colorful and gender neutral.  I saw this quilt HERE and I just knew I wanted to do something similar!  I used white instead of grey (my mom always gets annoyed that I use white in baby quilts but I don't care :) )

I made this with mostly scraps but I did have to go out to buy some blues for the outside row... I didn't have enough!

I did some wavy free motion quilting in the whites.  I think it was perfect :)

I still have a quilt for my house that is all cut up and ready to be sewn as well as a few projects I want to do, but it just may not happen... Things are crazy here at the moment!

Quilt for Baby Nicholas

My friend Jenn just had a baby boy!  But she didn't find out the sex of the baby before the birth.  So I was fretting about what to do and then I just decided to make a boy quilt.  I thought maybe I could masquerade it as a quilt for a girl with a different binding, but then I just decided I could save it for the next baby boy if she had a girl!  I was lucky!

I just decided to do a strip quilt with scraps from my stash.  It's kind of interesting, and I think it looks a lot better in person with all of the different prints than through a picture.  I just did straight line quilting on either side of the seams.  And I used a flannel backing.

I was a little annoyed because I don't pre-wash in general - I usually just use those color catcher sheets in the wash.  But the dark blue bled into one of the yellow strips :(  I guess I should start pre-washing, but it is just such a pain in the butt!

I still have the plus quilt as a WIP.  It has been sitting for about 2 months all cut out in piles and ready to be sewn together.  I don't think there are any babies coming in the next few months so hopefully I can get it together :)

Catch up - pics of Gracie's quilt!

I know, I have been a slacker - I finally uploaded pictures from my better camera!  Here are a few pictures of Gracie's quilt. There is not one of the whole quilt because it was too muddy and it kept falling off of the clothesline because of it's size!!

Half of the front :)

Back part 1

Back Part 2!

Slacker!

I finally finished Gracie's quilt a few weeks ago!  We took a few pictures of it with my iPhone and it went STRAIGHT onto Gracie's bed because she has been waiting so long!

I love the way it came out!  I love the back (talk about anxiety!!)!  I decided to do a big "X" for quilting and then repeated it to the edges.  It was the first time I "marked" a quilt and sewed over the marks.  Wasn't in love with the pencil I used - I need to find something better for next time!

I did take some better outside pictures later on but I still didn't upload them, so they will come when I stop being a procrastinator!

I'm working on a "plus" quilt now.  Everything is cut and laid out (thanks, MOM!) but it's been almost 2 weeks and no sewing has been done :(  It will happen eventually!

Up-cycled quilt

My husband put a bunch of dress shirts (really nice, really expensive dress shirts) in the pile for goodwill about 6 months ago and I just knew I had to keep them.  I didn't know for what, but the fabric was just so soft and such a nice color.

Enter baby Oscar, who was born a month ago.  I was thinking of what I should do for his quilt, when his mom posted a picture of his nursery on her blog and I thought to myself "Self!  You need to use those shirts!"

So I cut them up, along with some old khakis, seersucker pants, and an old dress of Gracie's.  I wasn't really sure how it was going to look, but once I had it put together I was in love!  I know, it's a little weird to be gifting a quilt made of our old clothes... but it is my husband's super close friend, and they are pretty openminded, so I think it's ok :)

Thanks to mom, again, for advice on the borders.  I really stink at borders!

And I used quilting flannel for the first time for the backing.  I really love how it felt - I'll be doing that from now on for the baby quilts I do.

Luckily, I have a little break from baby quilts.  The next baby is in March, and they aren't finding out the sex, so I have time!

I have been working on Gracie's quilt.  Yah, I finally decided it was time to get this out of the WIP pile.  I am done with the basting and finished up the quilting today!  Just have to put the binding on that baby and I'll be done!  Gracie is so excited!



And I have my next quilt already cut out!  It's one for our house, so I'm super excited!!

HSTs for Christmas!

I made my husband's parents a quilt for Christmas!  I didn't know if I would have time to get it done, but I set a schedule and stuck to it!

I decided to do HSTs (Half Square Triangles) which I think take a lot of time and patience, but it's worth it with all of the different designs you can do with it!  I used a solid khaki color and blues and teals.  I really love the way it turned out!  Inspired by Rita at Red Pepper Quilts (who I think is SO amazing!)

I am not really into borders, so my mom helped me choose the borders (and the back - she's awesome!)

I tried "stitching in the ditch" on this quilt, because I wanted it to be really soft without too much quilting.  Stitching in the ditch is a huge pain and I don't think I'm cut out for it!  It is so precise!  If you look closely at my quilting I am not even in the ditch half of the time!  Oh well!  At least once it was washed and dried it got so crinkly that you can't even tell!

This is the largest quilt I have done since using my new sewing machine.  I had to do the block layout at my husbands office because it was too big for any of my floor space (it measures about twin size).  I had a tricky time with the basting - I did that in our computer room, but it was a really tight squeeze! If I had had more time I would have brought it back to the office!

I have one more baby quilt to do (baby overdue at this point!) and I really need to finish Gracie's quilt.  Poor Gracie.  That has been a WIP forever!  My parents got me a gift certificate to my local sewing shop, so I'm hoping to be able to take a class, or to get some beautiful new fabric to make something that I can keep for our house!!