linus

this is a very late quilt for a very special little boy! it's been hanging around my house waiting for me to get it to it's new owner, which will hopefully happen tonight.

mainly made with Echino and Kona solids, I am hoping it will make the perfect play mat/quilt for Linus.

the wind didn't really want to cooperate with me, but at least you can see all the bright colors flowing in the beautiful sun.

the wind kicked up before I could turn the quilt to picture the back, but you can catch a glimpse of it in this shot.

and just incase some of you are interested my far far away quilt is being featured today at Quilt Story.

washed and in use

The picture of the quilt being basted from my last post was the made for the Robert Kaufman Solids challenge that I participated in along side many quilters from the LAMQG.

I have been meaning to take pictures of it finished, but never seemed to have the time...then last weekend it started raining. Well needless to say, the quilt fell into the washer, then jumped into the dryer and has spent a good amount of time in the last week looking like this

I backed it with some amazingly warm AMH flannel, which makes this quilt a new fav for knitting on the sofa.

 I wish I had taken pictures of it all laid out for you, mainly because of the crazy quilting I did on this one, it was quite intense. But the odds of that happening now are pretty slim. If Izzy and I aren't snuggled under it, then the boys are playing tug of war with it.

As for the knitting that is going on, well I have been working on my very first sweater. I chose a pattern by Melissa LeBarre called Tea Leaves. It is a really pretty cardigan that I have admired for a long time (and also plan on making one for Izzy). The yarn is Madtosh tosh dk merino, in french grey. 

It is my first of 3 sweaters that I will be making in the Magnolia Society, that I joined last month. If you have never heard of it, you can read all about in on the Madelinetosh website. It really was my way of forcing myself into the world of knitting sweaters. 

Now,  seeing as how it is still raining and all the boys are in school, I am back to my sofa with Izzy to knit and read the day away...oh and snuggle, of course.

no pins.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We spent ours up in the Bay Area (right outside of San Francisco for all of you who are not familiar with California) with family. We only go up a few times a year and it is always a joy when we do! It was also where this quilt found it's new home.

I made this quilt as a gift for my sister in laws birthday, which was back in August....but better late than never, right?

Since we were going up for Thanksgiving, I decided to rush it's finish so that I could give it to her in person.

Now normally I don't like to rush the finishing of a quilt, but this time actually forced me to try something that I haven't had the nerve to do yet...

 

machine bind an entire quilt with no pins!! I can't even tell you how exciting this was for me, the whole time I kept looking at my husband going "I can't believe I am actually doing this". Amazingly it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and took a fraction of the time it does when pinning. I didn't get a picture of me sewing it to the front of the quilt, but that was done without pins also. 

Here is what it looked like when finished. 

I didn't have enough time to picture the finished quilt before leaving, so we did it while my sister in law was out shopping, before giving it to her. I really love the simplicity of this quilt and have a feeling it is a style I will play with more in the future. In the beginning, I was nervous about leaving solid squares, but it turned out to be one of my favorite features of the quilt.

Quilted with diaginal lines in both directions, but not in similar patterns. 

Which you could really see on the back of the quilt.

 Just in case anyone is curious this quilt was made with Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line and Kona cotton in Ash and Snow. I have been on an Ash kick for awhile now, I think it may be time for me to give another solid a try!!

up to par

I am not feeling up to par today....I think that staying up until the wee hours of the morning trying to get this quilt finished has caught up with me. I'm anxious to share it with you, but not really feeling the motivation to type...so forgive me if I am a bit blah today. The pictures aren't to great either....the sun didn't want to come out and I haven't really found a good place to take them yet.

It's actually upside down in this picture, but it was one of the few decent shots I got of it, so it will suffice. The details of this quilt are sad and long, including a weeks worth of paper piecing, a completely different quilt top, four attempts at quilting, more torn (no not ripped, literally torn) stitches than I can count and staying up til 5:30 in the morning to piece a new top at the very last minute.

It was all worth it to have created this beauty though. I enjoyed every late hour/early morning minute of piecing, quilting, basting and binding this quilt. It came together so nicely with no thought or plan but just going with the moment. I think that is just what works for me....whenever I plan a quilt I end up not really feeling/loving it. Weird I know, but it's me.

All folded and ready to be wrapped! It was actually hard for me to let this one go (really hard) but I was strong and gifted it to my girlfriend yesterday for her birthday and as always got my dose of satisfaction when she squealed with joy and got giddy over getting her very own quilt!

Fabric details: all patterned fabric is Hope Valley by Denise Schmidt

all solids are Kona cotton in Herb, Ash, and Snow

trenton's quilt

Thankfully I was able to finish quilting Trenton's quilt before we moved. He was so excited to use it and hasn't let another person touch it since I handed it over to him.

This actually took me a few weeks to finish. It has lines going vertically, horizontally and lastly diagonally in both directions. 

I absolutely adore the way the intersections on the border turned out...they make all the work worth it. I have acquired a recent love for complex straight line intersections. 

This is a close up of Trenton's favorite block, not only because it is his hexagon block but because it was made with his favorite Quicksilver shirt (I literally had to pry it from his hands to get it out of his closet, even though it was 2 sizes too small). I think that he would of loved the quilt regardless, but this makes it extra special to him. 

This is what he looks like everyday now. He comes home from school, grabs his quilt and stays wrapped in it all afternoon (even when it's hot out)....I have to tell you, seeing a quilt I made loved like this makes my heart explode with joy and reminds me why I love this medium!!

far far away

My baby girl is turning three next week and outside of wanting to cry all the time over this fact, I have been trying to prepare for the big day. I had been planning on replacing her  first far far away quilt that I ended up donating to quilts for kids last year (she hadn't used it yet, and I really wanted to send as many quilts as possible) but just haven't gotten around to it. 

Her birthday was the extra encouragement I needed to get it done. This time around I did something completely different and I am loving the outcome. Now, although I resisted the temptation of putting a dresden plate on the front.....I could not resist the back!!

I think this may very well  be my favorite dresden thus far!

I completely blame my dresden addiction on Aneela...her blog was one of my first to read and where I first saw a dresden plate done in modern fabrics, I have been hooked ever since.

I have to confess something to you now (my head hung in shame) I don't label any of my quilts! I know, I know, I have been lectured more times than I can remember on this fact and I agree with all the reasons to label. Sadly for me, I have a bit of an eye distraction problem. I have tried several times to label a quilt, but end up pulling it off because it distracts my eye from the pattern of the quilt....which then drives me crazy. Outside of that, I am not good at making them. I CANNOT handle seeing my own handwriting on the label (even though I know this enhances the sentiment) and I am not a very skilled embroiderer. So I just skip it and I am fine with it. Until this quilt, I think because it is a birthday gift for Izzy I felt more pressure to label it......so I finally buckled down and made my first label! I hate it.....I think it totally takes away from the simplistic beauty of the quilt back and is a total distraction from the dresden plate. As much as I wanted to rip it off (i quilted over it on purpose to make it too hard to do) I like the fact that it tells her that I love her and when it was made. When she is my age and has a daughter of her own, she will be able to tell the story of this quilt and know exactly which birthday I made it for her. So even though I cringe every time I look at it, it stays.

I quilted it with a variegated thread and just adore the way it looks on the white sashing...I couldn't resist showing a picture of it.

in a world full of dots

My HST quilt is finally all done....wheeew! This one was a doozy. I have never named a quilt before, but after the amount of time I spent with this one I felt it was only appropriate to name it: In a World of Dots.

I know this isn't the best picture, due to all that shade, but I think it shows the quilting lines nicely. I did all the quilting in the white using lines spread out 1/2 inch apart, framing all those beautiful dots.

Now I have to be honest in telling you that this quilt almost didn't come to be. I found that even though I love seeing all the beautiful HST quilts in blog land...assembling one myself was quite tedious. There were times where I just wanted to throw in the towel...but all those dots, I couldn't just let them go to waste. So, thankfully, I pushed through it...and now have one of my favorite quilts ever!!

Here is some sun on the subject. I tried to get a shot of it laying on the ground, but my sweet little girl was not having it today. As soon as it hit the ground she was all over it, which means that like her Momma, she just can't get enough of this one. I will try again tomorrow. Now I must mention that this quilt was completely inspired by my favorite HST quilt (shown here) made by Cathy of Cabbage Quilts. If you haven't stopped by her blog before, you are in a treat...she is truly amazing!

it's really done....

My sister came over today to play with my daughter, so I took the opportunity to get some long awaited sewing done. I can't even express to you how excited I am to finally have this quilt finished. I started it way back in November of last year, and put it aside to get all my holiday sewing done, and never got back around to it. Sadly, my pictures aren't too great due to the grey clouds lingering over my yard....but I wasn't willing to wait any longer to share this one.

I have been wanting to do a larger quilt with Heather Ross Mermaids in dresden ever since I made my daughter this doll quilt.

I went with a bit of a different concept with the bigger one, but tried to give it the same feel as my daughters quilt. Originally I wanted to do a full dresden circle, but at the last minute decided to split it with the grey trim.... I am so glad that I did!

Besides the HR fabric, I used a Kona grey and a white, along with Kei dots in grey. The binding is a combo of Kei orange dots and brown dots. The center of the flower is done with a Denise Schmidt heavy weight fabric, and makes for a good contrast to all the other fabrics.

I adore the way it turned out and surprisingly love the brown/grey combo that I did in this quilt. It was one of those things that wasn't planned, but just turned out that way. I also love the little quarter dresden flower down in the right hand corner of the Kei grey dots square...another unplanned detail. Maybe this will break my sewing block and open up the door for more quilts.....well at least I will keep my fingers crossed that it will.

a little girls quilt

I finished the little girls quilt for Give a Kid a Quilt, and although the design is a simple one, I really like it. I think what makes me like it is the Joel Dewberry fabric in the center.....I adore those birds, too cute!. I will have to make a quilt for my daughter with that fabric someday. Some of the other prints include Heather Bailey and Amy Butler.

Now that I have both quilts done, I need to make a trip to the post office. I am really hoping that these two quilts find their way to their owners before Christmas.

quilting for a purpose

While sipping on my extra hot Chai tea latte last week I stumbled upon something that really touched my heart. I was on the sometimes crafter's blog reading her feelings on an important issue...homeless children. I followed her link to the blog, Give a Kid a Quilt organized by Rachel (from 2nd avenue studio) and Christina (the sometimes crafter).....after reading for a few seconds, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to be part of this amazing idea. They are collecting quilts to donate to homeless children, ok.....homeless children. I don't know if those two words hit you the way they did me, but just the thought makes my heart ache. So I immediately responded and told them to count me in. All other projects were put aside and I got to work!!

The reason I started quilting was to make something for my children that would represent me throughout their lives....something that would keep them warm and feeling safe when I couldn't. I get the most wonderful and fulfilling feeling when I make a quilt for someone that I love. What I learned this week is that I get that same feeling from making a quilt out of love for someone I don't know. I enjoyed making this one so much that I have decided to do another. This quilt was made with a little boy in mind, the next will have a little girl in mind.

I used some of my stashed fabrics for this quilt. The green dots are by Westminster, the orange and brown are from Denise Schmidt's Katie Jumprope line, the blue dots are Kei, the multi colored dots are by Alexander Henry and lastly the grey mushrooms are by Jay McCarroll. I am hoping that, when this quilt finds it's way to the little boy it is meant to belong to, it will supply him with warmth, comfort and hopefully a bit of safety.

one more check off the list

Since I am at a stand still with my HST quilt, I decided to get one of my Christmas list quilts done. I'm having a hard time staying focused on my Christmas sewing list, seeing as it is sunny and warm outside. It's one of the things about living in southern California that I will never get use to, every year I have to force myself to get holiday things done, because it never really feels like the holidays. I think it was all those white Christmas mornings in New York as a child that makes me associate Christmas with snow and cold. I successfully got myself into the mood last week, and am glad to have another check off on my list. A quilt for my sister....who has very different taste than I do. In order to make this quilt a reflection of her style, I had to go outside of my comfort zone and use red. The red fabric used is Kona cotton in Crimson.....and not at all a color I would ever choose to work with. I just kept telling myself "It's not for me, it's not for me". The layout of the quilt was inspired by one of my fellow guild members Terri and that part of the quilt I love. I will have to make one of these large wonky blocks, using only colors that I love, one day. I think it would be a good design for one of my boys.

I had a few request for a tutorial on my machine cover, I am hoping to have that finished and up by tomorrow. It will be my first tutorial and I want to make sure I take my time to do a good job.....I'm a bit nervous, but it is a really easy project, so the tutorial should be easy, right?!?!

in love...

OK, I admit it, I am in love. I didn't really know who I was making this quilt for, I just knew I wanted to make it. I fell in love with all these patterns when I made my daughter's apron, and decided then that I would eventually make a large quilt with them. Now that it is done, I know that it is MINE....ALL MINE!! Yes, I know I should give it to my daughter, but I love it!!

Because of the size of this quilt, 68x72, it was kinda hard to photograph the entire thing alone. Normally I would have that tall husband of mine hold it up, but he is at work, and I just can't wait to share!!

Now, even though this front turned out exactly how I had pictured in my mind, the back is actually my favorite part of this quilt.

Originally I had planned to have a solid backing on this quilt, but at the last minute changed my mind and threw this together. I adore the way it turned out. To top it all off, I had found these wonderful dots at my visit to Purl Soho last week!! They are from Alexander Henry, and are absolutely delicious, not to mention a perfect binding for this quilt.

The only complaint I have is the type of batting I chose to use. I decided to use Quilter's Dream batting for the first time....why I would try a new batting on a quilt like this, I don't know. It is soft, and great to work with, but when washed it crinkles A LOT!! Since this is such a geometrical design, I don't really like the crinkle effect that it has, but alas it is too late to change that!! So just to let all you know who haven't used that batting before, only use it if you want a lot of crinkle, and when I say a lot, I mean A LOT. I pressed it down after washing it so it photograph better, and I still think it is too crinkled.

a patterned quilt

Like most quilters, I am fully self taught. Up until about 4 months ago, I didn't even know what the names of different types of quilts were, or who Heather Ross, Denyse Schmidt, and Amy Butler were. Then I discovered flickr and the world of blogging. I have learned so much in the last few months about HST quilts, block quilts, log cabins...etc.

I do feel though that since I learned in the dark ages of no classes, books, or computer (not even a friend to learn from), there are some basics of quilting that could make my life easier (like basting with safety pins instead of straight pins...who knew). With that said, I gave myself the challenge of completing a quilt by pattern. I chose an Amy Butler pattern, from her new Softwares cd.

The name of this quilt is Aspen Branches...and I loved the pattern from the moment I saw it.

I do need to tell you that I did make some changes as I went. For example, the pattern has the stripes meeting in the middle on the seams, but I decided to off set them so that they wouldn't line up. The pattern only called for 9 different fabrics, I used 26. I also ended up putting on a boarder that was not called for. In all honesty, I can tell you that I did learn one thing....I don't like following patterns. I had a hard time being confined. I do love the quilt, and think it looks nice in its new home....

but I did not enjoy the process like I normally do. There is something to be said for going at it on your own and making up the rules as you go.

I love my blog reads and flickr addiction....I feel as though I learn so much more from reading blogs than I could ever learn from a pattern, in a class or a book. Besides, the talent found through these two sources is so amazing and inspiring...that I have a list a mile long of things I want to try. I am still determined to do Denyse Schmidt's Single Girl quilt, one day (I want to make it for my daughter's hope chest) and I am sure that there will be tempting patterns in the future, but on the whole it's just not my thing. I like trying to figure things out, and spending countless hours deciding where a block or fabric goes. It was a good experience though, and now I can say that I did it!! I am curious what everyone else's thoughts are on the subject.

As requested, a picture that shows the entire front of the quilt!! It has been used a lot since I originally posted this quilt, so it is a bit wrinkled.

peace quilt

My niece is 15 and her style is somewhere between bohemian and the days of peace signs and free love, you know the 60s. So my goal, to make her a quilt that would capture the feel of both of these worlds. As soon as I saw AMH fabric, I knew that it was a perfect match...bohemian for sure, but it needed a little something to give it that hippie feel.

I think that the peace signs were the perfect answer!

I decided to let all the patterns touch and intersect in order to keep it a bit more organic and colorful. All my left over scraps were used to make the binding, and I love the way that it blends into the pattern of the quilt. Once again, I used variegated thread for the quilting, and it really added to the feel of this quilt.

I am a machine binder, and usually end up with a clean stitch on the front edge of my binding, which looks nice, like I said, clean...but I have been wanting to perfect attaching the binding to the front first, that way the stitch would be on the back. I have tried over and over and had not found a perfect solution. Luckily, this world of blogging lets us learn from others and Red Pepper Quilts had the remedy for my dilemma. She had given the tip of stitching in the ditch on front of the quilt to catch the fold on the back....works like a dream!

This is the end result, I love it, and am SO thankful that she shared this wonderful tip.

Quilt Festival: Fall 2009

The quilt I have chosen for the quilt festival was made for my daughter, Isabella. It was made with a combination of her infant dresses and all my scraps. I originally wanted the whole quilt to be made with her dresses, but found that I just couldn't cut into a lot of them....I really wanted her to have them for the day she has a daughter of her own. That is when my scraps came in handy. I also really wanted the quilt to have a warm patchwork feel to it, with a bit of modern thinking. Once, the top was finished and it was time to quilt, I realized that I didn't really want to distract the eye from the prints or the blocks, so I went old school and tied off using embroidery thread. I had never tied off a quilt before, and I am still not sure I like it, but I do love the simplicity of the overall look of the quilt. my daughter has spent countless hours loving it and dragging it around, so I feel like I accomplished the most important part of a quilt.

One of the main things I love about this quilt is that I really feel like it represents a time not only in my life but in my daughters life. A piece of history that she will one day share with a child of her own. I have pictures of her in all the dresses that I used in the quilt so she will be able to connect to that moment in time. I also incorporated a few pieces of her crib bedding, which will also add to the long term sentimental feel to it.

one large improv block!

I was so inspired last week when I saw the improv blocks over at one flew over, that I really wanted do some of my own. Sadly, I was also ready to get to work on my Christmas list...first on the list was a quilt for my niece. I had already decided to make her quilt with Alexander Henry's Natura fabrics.... the dilemma....well the fabrics have REALLY large prints on them, that I REALLY didn't want to cut up into small pieces, what was a girl to do???? One REALLY large improv block of course!!

I have to say that this was the largest improv block I have ever done, measuring at 58 x 65. The happy and colorful fabrics were so much fun to work with and know that it will be the perfect quilt to keep my niece warm and snuggled up tight on cold nights.

I even had enough fabric to make the back pretty. Not another block, but I like the way the fabrics look in a stripped pattern also. The diagonal quilt lines were done using a pink and lavender variegated thread, that really added a subtle and beautiful touch to the quilt. Next on the list.....all that beautiful Anna Maria Horner fabric that I got last week, purchased with another niece in mind!