Christmas Quilt from a Kit

I bought this kit about three years ago when I found this quilt shop in Wilsonville and decided I wanted to construct one of these lovely quilts but I didn't think I could coordinate all the fabrics.

It's a pattern called French Quarter, by Figg Tree Quilts

Then I did nothing with it until the dreary January 2013 weather hit and I was cold and blah and just started cutting.   It was again, very therapeutic to mindlessly cut squares and shapes after constructing garments.  I didn't take any photos of the cut pieces or construction.

In January and February I constructed the entire top except for one row.  Weird, that I just left one row unassembled and there it sat till November when I realized if I wanted to use it or give it away for Christmas I better get my butt in gear and get it finished.

I found this nice long arm quilter Elizabeth Originals Custom Quilts in North East Portland.

Quilt back from the quilters, raw edge.

I dropped off my quilt, picked a pattern and thread and Beth had it finished a week later!  Thanks Beth, it looks amazing.  You can see some better photos of the whole quilt on Beth's blog here.  And you can see all the amzing work she has done for other people.

It's hard to choose what pattern you want, there are so many that would look great. 

I also had enough squares to do a pillow sham. No idea how to finish this yet but it's quilted/backed.

Hand stitched the red binding Sunday night.

 

Finished!

Parting Shot............

Decorated for Christmas with little vintage trees.

You thought the parting shot would be Mochi, didn't you?   He's in there, see his stocking.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.   I know I did.  I even cut out and half assembled another quilt. What is happenning?  Inspiration in the form of dreery cold "inside days"?

Baby Girl Pink Scrap Quilt

Just some quick photos of the little scrap quilt that I put together as a girl baby gift to have on hand.

There is most certainly a better way to do these little squares I have learned since this photo.

I had lots and lots of pink with dots

All these squares are scraps from other projects....
Many are from this baby quilt project-
http://behindthescenesatthecircus.blogspot.com/2012/02/color-wheel-complete.html

Several are from this project of poufs-
http://behindthescenesatthecircus.blogspot.com/2010/10/gumdrops-for-birthdays.html

Assembled by rows trying to not put too many of the same near each other.

 I never thought that sewing little squares could make me happy but it's quite therapeutic.
And I love the way this turned out.  

The whole thing finished.  Not washed yet

I just machine quilted it 1/4" from the seam one direction and then the other along each row.

Here is the whole thing, bound in pink with white polka dots. 

oops, look, two identical ones, made it by each other and you know what, it's fine!

There's something so great about making something out of the parts that are leftover from something else.  I guess that's what I like about this quilting world.  You can make cool stuff out of the tiniest leftovers.  I even used leftover pieces of batting basted together, probably a no no but once quilted, I don't think it will matter.

Speaking of leftovers, who's still full from Thanksgiving......... me!

Parting Shot-

Mochi got his picture taken with Santa Paws for the Humane Society.

Summertime Stars/Marvel Comics Quilt

My second quilt was inspired by the Marvel Comics fabrics found at Fabric Worm fabrics that came out with the Avengers movie. I loved them, their bright colors and large scale.  I had to have them, looked at them everyday on line and waited just long enough till they were sold out (mostly, I did purchase some yardage from FW).  Loser!    Then I had to stalk them on Ebay and buy up what I could find at Fabric Depot along with some complementary ditsy quarters that would balance out their large scale.

Now, what to make....something for and super heros lover.  Perfect birthday present for my bedroom, I mean my 8 year old nephew's bedroom.  I missed out on being a little boy who worships super heros.

I picked this pattern from Fig Tree Quilts  that I originally planned to make a 4th of July quilt for myself. 

Super easy to cut out, you just copy the pattern three times and make 3 stacks of 10.

Make the cuts and then take the top star off the stack and put it aside.  It will be the center of the last square. 

The hardest thing to do was to get the large scale super heros to not be cut up too much in the star. 

Then over the actual 4th of July weekend, I spent a bunch of my time off just sewing star after star and listening to NPR.

This quilt is pretty fast to piece together.  Then with the help of my assistant and his armadillo, I laid out the squares trying to balance the obnoxious color and scale.  And not put any patterns that were the same next to each other.   

You will see that I didn't succeed in the final version.  I got two in the bottom corner next above each other, oh well.  It's so crazy you kind of don't notice.  I backed it with black and hand quilted around each star in a contrast color.  I used primary blue, red, green, yellow and also black and white.

This is a feeble attempt to show the quilted stars on the backing.   It's pretty subtle.

The binding was hand stitched as well and I machine quilted along all the seams of the squares. 

Here's my assistant on the final quilt, showing off new hair cut and still obsessed with armadillo.

At the birthday party opening his gift, my nephew Gray.

Nephew suffering through a hug from me in front of quilt.

Happily enjoying quilt on bed. 

At some point I need to make a quilt for myself!

Summertime Stars Quilt

I really enjoyed the quilt making.  And now I'm ready to make a quilt for my house.  For some reason I've been obsessed with making something stars and stripes for the 4th of July.  Since everything at Hollyhill Quilt Shoppe is BEAUTIFUL, I like to go there often to admire the quilts.  There's something so comforting about a stack of warm quilts.  I've always wanted that in my house like a Shabby Chic commercial.  I bought one at an antique shop for way too much money.  Time to figure out how to make my own.

I recently got up the nerve to buy a kit. But, it's a Christmas quilt and that's so far away.  I thought I would go for the 4th of July first.  And I've been loving the picture of a star quilt I've seen at HH.  You can find it on their blog Boughs of Holly.  You can see it in the background! I love the plaid and other prints layered in- very Ralph Lauren.

Summertime Stars Quilt Pattern

Last time I was there, I asked one of the ladies if they were making a kit for the stars quilt.  And, alas, the answer was currently, NO.  However, she found the pattern for me and showed me how cool the cutting instructions were and how easy and fast to piece that is would be. She said she made it and it was super easy. BINGO!  My second quilt.

 So, last night I used some extra fabric that I had- two quarters from JoAnne's.  And you cut them in a stack and end up with stars and backgrounds like this.  It was really easy and it doesn't have to be perfect and it looks super cute.    Later you have to make all the squares square but this was just practice.

Good thing, practice, because I slashed through one edge that I wasn't supposed to and it caused more sewing and a weird wonky issue.  But overall, I figured out I could do one block in about 10 minutes.  Sewing only.   And since there are 30 blocks that wouldn't be too crazy piece time.

I'm going to HH to pick up a cute fat Quarter bundle (yep, got the lingo down) this weekend.  Well, I might hand pick all the colors instead of a bundle.   yay.  Meanwhile, I'm setting up my new serger but it's hard to focus while I can hear the puppy tearing up the house.  Off to puppy wrangle....



Parting shot..... Mochi asking for tummy rub.  Ok, that's an old photo but he still does that all the time. 

Color Wheel Complete

I finally finished my first quilt.  It's a good thing because I was at Holly Hill and bought another pattern.  Thankfully, I held back from buying the fabric but I'm sure I'll be there next weekend to buy it.

Hand sewn binding

I love hand sewing.  I'm pretty good at it and it's very relaxing.  It's hard to control front and back of a  machine stitch but when you hand stitch you can feel as you go.  Members of my family have a slight shake: a palsy that causes shakiness in the hands.  I know at some point it will effect my ability to hand sew.  I think my next quilt will be hand quilted.

Total wheel machine quilted with white thread and hand bound.

Closer shot of the quilting- yes, a little wrinkly but I'm forgiving myself.

I love the way all the fabrics look together and especially because some are from other projects so it reminds me of finished objects.  And the rainbow is so happy on a foggy, rainy day.

This was a very easy quilt and I loved making it.  I almost hate to give it away.  I won't show you the back because there is a slight flaw in the middle but I'm overlooking it and enjoying the happy side.  Is it bad to give a baby a white quilt?

Cheers!

*** updated 8/6/12****
Here is a photo of the beautiful little boy that this quilt was made for....

My First Quilt- next steps.....

I might have made it seem like in my last post that all the cutting and work just happened but I actually did all that last summer and set it aside.  Then when my dear cousin got pregnant I thought I better get a move on and finish it to give to her.  I don't think she reads this blog.  If so, surprise! I missed your shower but your gift is on it's way.  And, before the babe is born, unusual for m.

Progress yesterday after I got my car washed and detailed, grocery shopped for the week and walked my tiny dog, the nerd in me stayed in, stoked the fire (ok, it's a gas insert but flipping the fireplace switch sounds so lame) and assembled the quilt front and back.

Green Quadrant

Orange yellow quadrant

 In novice quilter fashion, I was not good at keeping my 1/4" seam allowance and that made my color quadrants a little wider than the white portions.  I realized when I set them in the arcs of white that they were slightly bigger. You can really tell on the green that it's bowing out.

Blue purple quadrant

Red pink quadrant

So my remedy was to wet a towel and steam them so they laid flat.  I wasn't about to go back and resew them all.  That's the beauty of cotton, you can steam it to shape.  That is the reason the quadrants look damp.  I threw them in the dryer and then assembled them all together.

Front of quilt assembled.  Parting shot before bed.

The assembly was easy- sew two quadrants together making a half.  Repeat, making another half and then sew both halves together making the whole.  I'm very pleased with the visual of the colors.  I tried really hard to not repeat any print in more than one color although that option was available it felt like cheating.  There is only one solid piece: red- that I used from another project, blogged about here.  I didn't photograph the boy version that I made with the red, but the pinks and brights from the girls versions are here too.  The boy version was red, denim and baseballs was super cute and made more sturdy for jumping.

Today, Super Bowl Sunday, or in my house, doggie playgroup day and quilt layer assembly day.  Ok, also I need to run two miles as I'm training for the Shamrock Run in March.  This is Portland's first big run of the year- something like 30k people.  Huge.  Fun.  Good thing it's sunny and bright today- perfect for a brisk run.

My First Quilt

I got a wild hair this summer to make this quilt.  I had seen it on Very Prairie Blog, and then bought the book "Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts " by Joelle Hoverson.  From this beautiful book I made my first project, and I blogged about it here. 

But I always had this one in the back of my mind as a doable first quilt.  A gift for someone having a baby.  It has lots of colorful bang for your buck.  So I ventured out to JoAnne's with a coupon and found 52 different fabrics to make my color wheel. Well, I had some fabrics from this project, and I used them where the could be fit in.  So I think I actually bought about 45 pieces.   And when I cut it out I cut 2 of each so I have another one ready to go when I want to make it again.

Here are all the pieces laid out on my kitchen counter and butcher block so I can get the look. Love the space in the new house.

You sew the wheel in quadrants.  Here I've laid out pairs and pinned them.

I took photos of each quadrant laid out so I could make sure I put the pairs together correctly

Here is the chaining method I used (learned from UTUBE) to continuously sew the pairs.

Here's what it looks like when you've chained pairs.  I used a leading fabric to start sewing, then sewed right onto my actual fabric. Then I clipped in between.

This is the back side of one quadrant.  I pressed the seam allowances toward the darker fabric where I could.

Meanwhile I did make a little blanket for my baby. A doggie blanket. Just a square of the fleece with binding.  They make a fleece binding now but it's only available in black or white at most stores.

My inspiration was a dog blanket from Old Navy that my other dog used to sit on in the car. Mochi loves this. one and we use it for training "go to your bed."
It has terriers but no Yorkie. Darn.

And in other news, Mochi graduated from "Good Puppy" school this week. He can sit and stay and lay down all with either verbal or hand signals.  He can come when called, walk by my side and "leave it" and "drop it".  The last two are marginal but today when he ran off with the directions to a new quilt I'm planning I said, "Drop It!" and he did.

Then, he waited patiently for his treat which I was glad to give.  No teeth punctures noted on the instructions. I wonder how well that would work with a piece of steak?  Wish I had that one when we found the dead squirrel in the back yard last weekend.

And here's the graduate.  3lbs and all hair.  He's attempting to sit/stay. 

More photos of the quilt coming later this weekend.  AND I bought a serger today (with my yet to be received bonus).  Yay!!!  Can't wait to fire that bad boy up and make some knits......