Blue and Black Plus Quilt (Commission)

Final Stats

Name: Blue and Black Plus Quilt

Dimensions: 100"x96"

Pieces: Front - 392

Pattern: Plus Quilt

Technique: Patchwork

Materials: 100% Quilting Cottons - Kona Snow, Black, and Robin's Egg

Quilting: Machine quilting done on my little Euro-Pro

 

I don't do commissions often, because they have hard deadlines and even if I stop feeling inspired, I have to finish them. That's my biggest rule with commission quilts, I have to feel inspired about the project at least at first, or else I won't take it. I also have a family and friend policy where I contribute the labor if it's going to someone I know, and they pay the cost of materials. My husband's aunt, M, approached me about making a wedding quilt for her daughter, K. After some back and forth, and information gathering not just from her but also from her other daughter, J, I came up with a design in EQ7 that she approved. 

 

We decided to keep it all solids to save some money on fabric and because K likes things modern. Originally the quilt was going to be just black and white, but I learned from J that K had been buying some Robin's Egg blue things for her apartment recently, so I decided to add in the pop of color.

I cut all of the blue, white, and black 4.5x12.5" strips all at once. And then I strip pieced the plus points and sub-cut them into 4.5x12.5" strips as well. I chain pieced most of the quilt and it was super fast (once I finally got over my procrastination phase and actually started the thing). 

I found the backing in the "good" quilting fabric section of Joann's. It's a Robin's Egg blue with tiny black dots. And without having any of the Robin's Egg Kona on me, I'm surprised at how closely they match (yay, go me). It was also on major sale, so I ended up taking the rest of the bolt, which unfortunately ended up only being 6 yards, but already sub-cut into 3 yard pieces. To fill in the middle, I added the remainder of my bolt of Kona Snow (I still cannot believe that I've used up an entire 15 yard bolt of Kona Snow in a few months) and the rest of the Kona Black. I also bought a package of King-sized batting, because I knew my bolt of 90" batting wasn't going to make it without some serious piecing.

I straight-line quilted the thing about 1/4-1/2 inch from each seam. And added in some additional quilting lines in the row of blue so the plus would stand out more. My machine barely handled the queen-sized quilt, but it made it. However, I do not see myself being able to wrestle a king-sized quilt through that, no siree. Also, basting that thing on my living room floor used up every available square inch of floor space, so I don't think I'll be basting a king-sized quilt in there either.

 

The binding was a find at Capital Quilts. I do so love a stripey binding. It's a very thin black and white stripe. Unfortunately, and no one will notice this but myself, the white in the binding is a white-white and the Kona Snow is more of a yellow-white. But at the end of the day, there's very little binding on the quilt and a whole lot of Kona Snow.

The one thing I realize now, after the fact, is that I forgot to sign the thing. Usually I embroider my initials and the year into the lower right corner with contrasting thread, but I totally spaced on that part. I brought it with me to Michigan in my checked bag (thank goodness Southwest lets you check two bags for free again). I got to show my parents, my grandmother (who was there from Germany for my brother's wedding), and two family friends what I'd made. I left it at my husband's uncle's house, because that's where the wedding reception for K was going to be. Unfortunately I was not able to attend said reception, but from the pictures of the event, and the Facebook message I received from K, the quilt was appreciated. And that's really all any quilter can ask for. :)

HST Baby Quilt

So I am not entirely sure how this happened, but I apparently never blogged about this quilt finish.

I'm especially surprised since it was my very first commissioned quilt. Since it was for family (my husband's aunt to be exact), I just charged for materials and contributed the labor free of charge as my portion of the present. The quilt was for my husband's cousin who was expecting a baby. My only real challenge was to keep things cost effective. So I ended up using a single charm pack, about a yard of Kona Snow, 2 yards of one of the fabrics from the charm pack line (Ticklish! by Me & My Sister for Moda) for the backing and binding, and a cut from my roll of batting.

First I turned all the floral prints and circles into HST's, then added in everything else, because I quickly realized that when you start with 5" squares, they get cut down to 4.5" after sewing, and then finished they only end up at 4". That's a loss of a full inch. So I needed the full charm pack to have a decent sized baby quilt, and then it still ended up on the small side.

I didn't do anything fancy with the backing, because I'd used up every last charm square on the front of the quilt.

Total size was an 8 by 10 layout, or 32" by 40". Definitely far smaller than I usually make my baby quilts. Total time to make it was just over a month. I quilted in the ditch along the diamond patterns. After I washed it, it ended up a lot more wrinkled than I wanted it to be, which taught me a lesson in subject pre-shrinking of the batting.

I leave you with this adorable picture of baby Sadie wrapped in my quilt.

August Finish - Toucan Quilt

My goal for August was to finish the Toucan Crib Quilt. I am horrible at coming up with interesting names for my quilts, so they end up being called something simple based on the main attraction.

I did actually finish the Toucan Quilt.

I cut 33 5.5" squares each of yellow, green, and tan/brown. Putting those together into the quilt top was by far the quickest part of the process.

Next I found, blew up, and mirrored a picture of a toucan to use as the basis for my applique. I used rough edge applique with a straight stitch around the edges to anchor the fabric.

I ended up having to take a row off the top and the side because it wouldn't fit on the pre-cut batting I wanted to use. Instead I used one row on the back in between some striped green flannel.

Quilting was relatively easy as well, until I got to the toucan. I did stitch in the ditch along the edges of the squares, and then outlined every part of the toucan and leaves. That part took forever.

Binding is a Denyse Schmidt fabric I picked up at Joann's.

Finally I embroidered my initials and the year in the bottom right corner. It's kind of hard to see, since it's green on green. Now I just need to wash and send it.



April Finish

I made it. Both of my goals, for that matter. I finished the fracture quilt.

I quilted it in a sunburst pattern. The binding is from the same solid dark purple I used in the front and a purple print I was going to use on the back.

The back is a larger version of one of the front blocks. I even managed to embroider my initials before the end of April.

And I cut all of the light text prints for my Japanese X and Plus Blocks and started adding in the red triangles.

WIPs

I started making myself a to do list in Word. It started to feel like I should just copy and paste the same list over and over because I have so many quilts on my list that I am just starting.

So, here is my current list and a few pictures where I feel I can share them.

Two wedding quilts. One of them I can't share, because it's a complete surprise.

The other is a yellow, gray, and coral Plus Quilt for my brother and future SIL. It's sort of a surprise, but not much of one, since I very heavily hinted like that may be happening when I asked my FSIL what colors she likes.

I started cutting the gray fabrics, before I really thought about the process. I have since backtracked to cutting one long stretch for the cross-bar and two squares for the top and bottom of the Plus. I am using two 5.5" squares and one 5.5" x 15.5" strips. I have cut all of the fabrics shown above already, and am waiting on quite a few more to come in. This will be my first king sized quilt, and I'm a little freaked out about it. Maybe I'll change my mind and make it smaller.

There is another quilt I'm making out of batiks, but everything about that quilt is a surprise. No special occasion either, just because the recipient is awesome. I am still trying to figure out which pattern to use, since it has one fabric that I want to showcase. I think I've finally settled on two possibilities.

Then there is my Japanese X and + Quilt that I am making for myself. Finally!

I have cut most of the lighter text prints into 5.5" squares. I need 56 fabrics worth, and I think I have cut 52. I have two more light text print waiting to be cut, and then I need to decide if I want to purchase a couple more or just use some of the other stuff I have. As you can see, I have a variety of things in with the text, including musical notes, keys, and mustaches. I have one butterfly fabric with a cream background that I'm considering including as well. It's basically just the fabrics that make me happy. These will become the X portions of the X and + Blocks.

I am using Kona Rich Red as the points on the X blocks. Here they are pinned onto my mustache print. 

Here the points are sewn on and ironed flat. I will be using four different text prints for each block, but the blocks will line up in such a way that the four text prints will touch. Hard to explain right now, but I'll show you once I have a few blocks done.

As I am cutting fabrics, I am also cutting 2.5" strips for a Scrappy Trip Along quilt. Right now I don't have nearly enough variety to start making any blocks (light text prints, some greys, yellows, and corals mainly), but I'll keep cutting away.

I also have my charity quilt to finish, I need to put together, make the backing, and quilt the Hurricane Sandy quilt, and then get in touch with the organizer and let her know that I just received the last of my blocks and should I still send it to the Sandy charity or pick another charity instead.

As for my UFO's, I have the Star Wars baby quilt, the Split Rail Fence quilt, and the placemats sitting around looking at me longingly.

I also need to update my WIP and Completed Pages. I'm thinking about giving them a make-over at some point, but that will have to wait.

Secret Quilt Project - Finished

I finished my secret quilt project yesterday! I'm so excited and want to post pictures all over the internet. Unfortunately, I can't do that until after the recipient sees it. Grr.

But pictures will follow and you'll be glad you waited I'll be glad I waited.

Free motion quilting and 3x6 bee block

So I finished the top of my secret quilt project. Finally! Jig-sawing the top together was incredibly boring. It is now pin basted and I've started quilting. I'm outline quilting and decided to try free-motion because there's so much bulk that turning the whole quilt 360 degrees for every outline just isn't feasible. I'd practiced a bit before-hand, but the quilting is still sloppier than I like it to be, but it's so much easier than trying to turn the fabric all the time.

I finished another block for the 3x6 bee yesterday. Colors requested were turquoise, purple and black.
Although I managed to turn the center square the wrong way, I'm still quite pleased with it.

Secret Quilt - Progress

So, I finished what I thought would be the last piece for the secret quilt project yesterday. I measured out the 50x70 inch area I want to end up with and then placed the blocks in that space. I will be filling in the space between the blocks with one solid background color, but even then, there was just one glaring space that needed another block. So back to the sewing machine I went, and whipped up my final final block. Next step: join the blocks together using the background fabric, piece the backing from two different colors of flannel, quilt, and bind. My goal is to have it complete by Thanksgiving so I can turn to other projects.

I will be posting pictures as soon as the quilt is in the possession of the person it is for. Can't wait to show you guys.

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

This is my first time joining the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I know I've posted about it before, but I really enjoyed the Bug Quilt I made for a co-worker and think it's my best completed work this year.

Bug Crib Quilt

Quilt Measurements: 38x48 inches

Special Techniques used: Applique, hand embroidery

Quilted by: Me

Best category: Baby Quilt, Applique Quilt, Home Machine Quilted Quilt
Entry #597

 

 

Secret Project

So, this weekend was not as productive as I had initially hoped. I think I finished three blocks of varying sizes. That brings the total to 18 blocks. I haven't measured to see what the exact sizes are but the shapes varying from squares to rectangles.

I have learned some valuable lessons, including that paper piecing while tired leads to much seam ripping. And that I need to follow my gut instinct when deciding where to put colors because just blindly following the instructions helps no one. I hope to post pictures soon, sorry for the continued teasing.

At least the obsessive thinking about the project has tapered off, so I can actually focus at work.

Bug Crib Quilt

I started the Bug Crib Quilt a little over a month ago. The basis for the quilt was from the book Baby & Kids Quilts (Baby Blessings by Diane Tomlinson), although I knew that fussy cut center blocks just weren't my thing (even if I could have found them in my local fabric stores). Instead I decided to jump into the deep end and design my own center blocks. To the left are the fabrics I got for both the piecing and applique (along with a bunch of ribbon for the shinier bugs). 

The part that took the longest was definitely the 12 center square bugs and the 4 slightly larger corner square bugs. In the picture to the right, black ladybug with red spots, the blue beetle with black spots is Gibbifer californicus, next is a metallic wood-boring beetle or Sternocera aequisignata, bottom left is a gold scarab, followed by a rhino beetle, and a painted grasshopper.

In the left-hand picture, we have the following: Top Left: Large Milkweed Bug, Top Center: Weevil (unknown type), Top Right: Fiery Searcher (Calosoma scrutator), Bottom Left: Unknown, Bottom Center: Ladybug, Bottom Right: Blue Beetle (Chrysochroa mniszechi)

Finally, the 5 inch corner squares show the following: Red Dragonfly, Green Snaketail Dragonfly, Green Morpho Butterly. Rhetenor Blue Morpho Butterfly. All bugs were a combination of hand appliqued body and embroidered detail. Then I cut them down to the correct size. I think my favorite would have to be the Black Ladybug with red spots and the "regular" Ladybug as well as the Blue Beetle.

Next came the piecing on a variation of a traditional log cabin block with a bug at the center. I grossly overestimated the amount of fabric I would need for this process and ended up cutting all of my fabric into 2 inch strips. After finishing the blocks and seeing that I had almost half the fabric left over, I could have kicked myself. So much wasted scrap material. You live and you learn, I guess. Next I added the border strips and corner squares. Another life lesson learned: always test your fabrics to make sure they are heat resistant before you use them. The wings on the white and green dragonfly melted and I had to buy more fabric (organza instead of ribbon this time) and redo the wings and the center of the body. I heat tested it first this time on my iron's highest setting, not a singe.



I pieced rectangles using the 2 inch strips of fabric from the front as an off-center stripe for the back. I used a new technique for making the quilt sandwich (a huge thank you goes to Elizabeth Hartman over at Oh, Fransson!) which involved taping down the back piece before pin basting. I've never had such a nice, smooth back (my OCD couldn't be more pleased). I outline quilted the squares and log cabin blocks and straight line quilted the border pieces. They were originally going to be a 1/4 inch apart, but my laziness trumped my OCD in that case and they ended up being rather randomly spaced, which ended up making it more organic. Happy accident. Finally I used yet more of those 2 inch strips for the binding. Again a thanks goes to Elizabeth Hartman for the new technique I used, although next time I do that, I'll have to try it with 2.5" strips. That will probably make the mitered corners even better. Finished off the binding by hand sewing and then embroidered my initials and the year into the bottom corner.



Finished Quilt Front



Circles Crib Quilt

My friends seem to be having babies one after the other right now. As soon as I was done with the Jungle Crib Quilt (from my last post), I moved onto a Circles Crib Quilt. I got the pattern out of Baby & Kids Quilts (Dots for Tiny Tots by Sharon Smith), but put my own twist on it with the color combinations I chose.

The whole design reminded me of bull's eyes. And I knew that my friend's only firm decisions about her nursery at the time, was that they would hang up maps and possibly letters. Since maps are usually in nice bright colors, I decided to go with that as well. I bought the varigated color sets from Joann's Fabric in blues, oranges/yellows, greens, purples, and pinks. Each set comes in five colors organized from lightest to darkest (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). I decided to use each color combination four times, which left me with the following sets from smallest circle to largest: 1234, 2345, 5432, 4321. That is a total of 80 circles that I cut out from fusible backing, fabric, sewed, and quilted around.

Another friend helped me find the backing fabric and also pointed me in the direction of the psychedelic butterfly fabric I ended up buying for the border. After setting the blocks into white sashing, I added the border. After pin basting the quilt sandwich I started quilting. The instructions said to quilt along all of the sashing, but I decided the circles were close enough together that quilting around them would be plenty. Trying to sew decreasing sizes of circles with a regular foot was difficult. I finally found a free-motion foot for my machine and the little plate that covers the walking feet, so next time I get the hare-brained idea to quilt around 80 circles, I'll have the proper tools to do so.

For the border, I bought a half circle cutting template and used it to draw half circles along the border on all four sides in tailor's chalk pencil and 3/4 circles at the corners. I also sewed along the outside border of the sashing strips. Finally I added the black binding, cut from the same fabric as the background of the squares. On the right, you can see the finished back with the black quilting showing. I really love how colorful the fabric is, and it pulls in the oranges from the front and adds a touch of red which seemed to be missing from the front. The quilt was well received at the baby shower.

Finished Quilt

Jungle Crib Quilt

The fabrics I used for the quilt

I am happy to report that I have actually finished not one but two projects. The first was a barn owl cross-stitch for my mother (perhaps I will have the time and patience to do a post on that with pictures in the near future). The second was a crib quilt with a jungle motif for friends of ours who were having a baby of indeterminate gender (as in, the parents didn't want to know before the birth).

The first hurdle was getting DH to agree that I absolutely needed more crafting supplies and that I was actually going to finish this one. The second was overcoming my own fears that I wouldn't finish it. I had never finished a quilt except a tiny little doll quilt when I was taking a sewing class. So I figured a baby quilt was the place to start. I found an applique pattern I liked in a library book and set to work.


My first issue came up because I wasn't sure which stitch to use around the outside of the animals. I was relatively sure that I did NOT want to hand-stitch the whole thing, but my sewing machine didn't have the stitch the book recommended. So I experimented with different stitches and different widths and lengths until I settled on a loose satin stitch. Not the really tight satin stitch that most machine appliquers use, because I really didn't want that look for this quilt, but something that looked artsy. I did the animals first because they were relatively easy to do. Then I started the laborious process of adding on the "branches" in between the white strips and the 72 leaves.

I also added the two little birds to the top and bottom panels. All of this went fine, faster than I could have hoped for, actually. Even with having to individually stitch around 72 leaves. But the part I was dreading most still lay ahead. The little doll quilt I had made, was hand-tied. No actual quilting, certainly not machine quilting. So I was rather apprehensive about the whole process. I'm also a perfectionist, so I knew that any bulges in the backing fabric would drive me nuts.

Making the quilt sandwich and pining proved to be one of the most time consuming processes (see perfectionist comment above). Even after I had pinned it I was not entirely happy with how bulgy the back was in places. But I started quilting from the middle out, and although the fabric in the back still bulged in some places, it wasn't as bad as I had thought. I love the backing fabric, it's so wild and so African safari. I really enjoyed the project and I proved to both myself and my DH that I could in fact finish a project and finish it on time. A few weeks later I happily watched the soon-to-be parents unwrap my quilt and was gratified to hear the assembled friends and family ooh and ahh. After all what better way to know your craft is appreciated.

The finished product