lilac and turquoise greek cross baby girl quilt

this quilt is for emelia elizabeth, who came into this world just two days ago. emelia's mama tommie is my sister carrie's best friend & i've known her for 25 years.  this is baby #3, and once again i didn't do this whole quilting thing when the first two were born (sorry, ellie and reuben).

i picked out the purple dandelion fabric during textile's annual sale (it's an older alexander henry print). i used kona amethyst, aloe and snow to coordinate, as well as this denyse schmidt print from joann:

i didn't know what sort of pattern to use for this. i trolled flickr and pinterest for inspiration, and finally decided on fresh lemon's greek cross block from this tutorial). i found this tutorial for a quick-piecing method very helpful & time-saving.
greek crosses are another one of those things that seem to have hundreds of different layout possibilities. these were just two i tried out:

option 1?

option 2?

 once i sewed the top together, i decided to add a border to make it just a little larger.

i straight-line quilted on the inside of the squares & also around each of the crosses.

 

back

the quilt, just chillin on the swing

triangle solids quilt for the mister

after making quilts for both of my sisters, my dad, and countless baby quilts, i was beginning to feel a little guilty about not having made one for my husband. i kept my eye open for fabrics he may like and patterns he may find appealing, but the quest for the perfect combination of both kept this quilt un-made for a quite awhile. plus, i know how particular he is about EVERYTHING, so i wanted this one to be just right. i can't even remember how the decision was ultimately made, but i pulled a stack of some kona solids (windsor, sage, yarrow, chocolate and medium grey), asked him if he liked the color combination (he did), and ordered 2 yards of each.

from there, i set out cutting a bunch of triangles with my trusty creative grids 60 degree triangle ruler. (i cut them at 6").  i played around with different layouts and asked for his input. i love the hundreds of permutations that occur with triangles...

we decided on organized rows, double brown. (no go on the moon print, but i was able to use those in tracey's baby quilt). i spent the month of february sewing row-by-row whenever i'd get a chance (our house had sold but we weren't closing/moving til mid-march, so i had some spare sewing time again). i finished about half the quilt top before the move.

schminkey the cat, keeping tabs on me

new sewing room floor (and the quilt top 2/3 complete)

i can't remember when i got back to work on the other half, but it was well after we had moved in and unpacked. 17 rows of 21 triangles = 357 triangles. it's about 60" wide by 90"long, approximately the size of an extra-long twin quilt.

straight-line quilting, of course.

for the back, i did something a little cheesy, but i incorporated championship racing stripes, a nod to the mister's love of cycling. and kind of a bianchi celeste back there, too (it's the kona sage from the front). you can really see the diamond-shape quilting on the back.

says he: "i love it." he plans on taking it out on tour with him, so this quilt will see the likes of a stinky 15-passenger van, lots of states, some drippy taco bell fire sauce, and maybe some laundromats on the way. it's ready for adventure.

side note: i used quilter's dream wool batting for the first time; normally i use the natural select cotton. i've washed and dried the quilt a few times and i'm seeing crazy amount of "bearding" with this. i didn't even know this term existed, but when i googled "wool batting fuzzy problems" (or something like that) i learned that this sometimes happens.  it has to do with science! and molecules!  (if i think of it this way, i feel slightly less disappointed). i'll definitely stick to using regular cotton batting from here on out.  

moony triangles for baby boy quilt

Skipping #16 (a special quilt for the Mister....years in the making) to tell you about the 17th quilt I made: a triangle quilt for my cousin Tracey's baby boy (Brandon, born on July 30). I didn't know how to quilt when her first two kiddos were born (sorry Mairead and Connor), so I was excited to make a quilt for baby #3.

I had cut the moon triangles (part of the Lizzy House "Constellations" collection) as a "maybe" for Quilt #16, but I didn't end up using them. So I thought they'd be perfect for this quilt. I had some leftover grey & navy triangles, and I used the beautiful white starry fabric & a Lotta Jansdotter turquoise stripe as well.

it's always fun testing out various layouts

finished product

This one was a lot of fun to make. I loved the way the fabrics blended together - the colors are so calming; I am happy it went to a familial home. I still haven't met the 2nd child in Tracey's brood & I am hoping I get a chance to visit them all soon. If we lived in the same state, I know I'd hang out with them all the time. 

more Lotta for the binding

the back...used scraps to make the "shards"...

seven seas baby boy quilt

Hey-o, it's been awhile. I suppose selling and buying a house will do that to a person. In an effort to chronicle all the quilts I make, I went back in my time machine to revisit a quilt made for Maddox, Holden's baby brother.  I can't even remember when I started this one - was it December of '12? January? Again, selling and buying a house will make your mind mush.  Regardless, Maddox was born in March, and I know I mailed it off before then, so....

Maddox's family lives near to the beach & his dad can surf, so I went nautical for this one. I chose a few prints from Cloud 9's Seven Seas collection. I'm an absolute sucker for Michele Brummer Everett fabrics (I was a fan of her Monsterz collection, too)...all those critters! They're so strange and awesome and adorable!  The flags seemed very Newport Beach to me, which then made me think about Arrested Development.... All the while Echo and the Bunnymen's song "Seven Seas" is playing in my head.... and then this quilt is the result.

The colors are bolder than I'm used to/drawn to, but it works. A beachy blue and yellow and red to go along with the elements in the prints. I quilted sideways V's jutting from one of the sides.

solid squares quilt for my dad

borrowed the neighbor's fence for this photo

Since both of my sisters got quilts for Christmas 2011, I wanted to make one for my Dad for 2012. I had bookmarked the pattern for this quilt when I saw it about a year ago - the simplicity of the solids always struck me - and I figured it would suit my Dad quite nicely. He has shades of browns and maroons in his living room, and a really pretty comforter from anthropologie (!) in his bedroom (he has fine taste for a 60-something-year-old man), so I thought this quilt would match well wherever he decides to use it.
I got a kona cotton fat quarter bundle ("merlot") and used most of those (along with some other kona solids I had)...and the main background/sashing fabric is kona stone.  Merry Christmas, Dad!!

squares. you wouldn't believe how much i played around with the color arrangement.

quilt top, pre-basting

doggy patchwork squares baby boy quilt + flowers and dots baby girl quilt

#12: doggy quilt for beau

first up, a doggy quilt for a baby boy named beau (say that 10 times fast). i still haven't given this kid his quilt yet (he was born back in november)...but i have plans to see his mom & dad in a few days, so i thought it was safe to go ahead and post it. another patchwork quilt with the same formula as the others - 99 4 1/2" squares. my main source of inspiration was the ed emberley dog fabric (do you remember the "how to draw animals" books?) from there i chose some coordinating solids in bold colors. the straight-line outline quilting really shows up well on the back:

#13 flowers & dots quilt

nevermind that it was the first week of december, our house was on the market, and i had yet to start on my dad's christmas gift quilt: i decided to make a quilt for a co-worker who just adopted a baby girl. this one came together very quickly and i used some fabric from my stash (the dots & flowers & binding all came from the same collection, which i had purchased on etsy back when i first got into sewing).

quilt back

king-sized granny squares wedding quilt

One of the quilting blogs I follow, Blue Elephant Stitches, posted a "Granny Squares" tutorial back in January. Around this time, I got my new fancy sewing machine and decided to make a block and posted a picture on instagram. The photo was "liked" by a dear old friend of mine who happened to be engaged to a dear old friend of my mister. They're special to us. So special, that at that very moment, I decided I'd make a quilt as their wedding gift. I figured it was a completely do-able over the next 9 months or so before their wedding day. 

the beginning. this one didn't even make the final cut...it was a little too small

Whenever I'd get a free moment here or there, I would go into my scrap bin, pick out 2 colors, and cut and sew 25 2 1/2" blocks together.  (I used Kona Snow for the "background" color). My scrap bin handled the job with flying colors, but I bought a few 5" charm packs as supplementation.

I didn't document my process very well. But every so often, I would lay out my completed-to-date blocks and snap a picture with my iPhone to check out the color composition and whatnot.

22 down, ??? to go

 And I'd try to guestimate how many blocks I'd have to come up with to make a king-sized quilt.

In the end, I wound up with 6 rows of 7 (or 7 rows of 6...however you want to look at it!). This picture was taken before I sewed all the sashing strips. I used 3" strips between the blocks, then ended up adding about 16" all around. (I can't find the sheet I used for my sketches and calculations). If you're doing the math at home, that equals "a heck of a lot of" Kona Snow. I should've just bought a whole bolt of the stuff.

While I was piecing all the strips to the blocks for the quilt top, I decided that I was physically incapable/terrified to "quilt" the quilt at home on my machine. It was 108x100, twice the size of the largest thing I had ever done (a twin).  I'll skip the whole long story about how I ended up in Springfield, TN, but that's where I brought my quilt...

In the meantime, the bride and groom were married and it was a beautiful and fun ceremony and reception.  Fast forward weeks and weeks (and weeks) later, and I finally got the word that it was done. (Not quite though...they didn't bind it! So I decided to do that myself, and I am glad I did. It made me realize that (if I should ever undertake a king-sized quilt again), I may be able to quilt it myself. (I was really just afraid of the maneuverability of something that size, and I handled the machine binding with patience and ease).

close-up of the quilt back - you can see the "meandering tear drop" design

I wanted to photograph the quilt before passing the it off to the newly-marrieds, which posed another problem. My mister's arms weren't long or wide enough to hold the whole thing by himself. He used a microphone stand to prop up one corner and we finally put our back deck to use:

Cheers, Fergusons...We love you!