Sea Monster Baby Quilt

It has been awhile since I shared the flimsy for this baby boy quilt. I usually quilt up my finished tops right away. July was crazy so this one was folded up and neatly stashed away until everything calmed down a bit around here. I'm not quite ready to bid farewell to summer just yet though... then again we do have football to look forward to!  This quilt was featured at My Quilt Infatuation Blossom Heart Quilts and Quilt Story!!

I used a tutorial by cluck cluck sew called Scrappy Summer. I have seen this pattern referred to Penny Patch as well.

It was a great scrap busting project and I made it a little larger than I usually make my baby quilts because these blocks were fun to do and before I knew it I had a few too many! I used a palette of orange, navy, blue, grey and mustard along with Kona White for the the four-patch blocks. I love when I don't have to buy anything new to finish a quilt! Not that I mind buying fabric!

I quilted it in a meandering pattern using a variegated light grey thread from my Tula Pink Aurifil collection. Then bound it all together with a spotty mustard and white binding. I don't always wash my quilts after they are finished but I couldn't help but want to see this one all crinkled up! The crinkle factor is one of the main reason I love to use meandering even though meandering is tricky for my brain. I love how fluffy and snuggly it turned out. The backing was just the right choice so thanks to those who shared opinions in my last post about this quilt!

The constellation fabric above glows in the dark! I didn't have a particular little guy in mind for this quilt but I do remember my own kiddo loving glow in the dark anything! Just to be sure it worked I did take this into a closet and 'oooh and aaahh' over the glowing fabric yesterday! Plus there are monsters - sea monsters!!

I would absolutely use this baby quilt pattern again. My finished quilt is around 37x48 and is available in my etsy shop for some sea creature, outer space loving little guy or little guy at heart!

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July do.Good Stitches

The colors for our July do.Good Stitches block were so pretty that I couldn't put the fabrics away until I cut up bunches and bunches of it! My groupmate MsMinnesota (link to her blog) selected a palette rich in blues with pops of grey, green-mustard and burnt orange. Almost everyone in our group has an abundance of blue... not me, I'm all about teal but I have made an effort to select different blues to add to my stash since joining the group.

I would not have thought to put these all together but they worked beautifully! She selected the big multicolored plus block below - another block I haven't made before. It was very easy to do and I can't wait to see what she does with it!

While considering whether or not to put the fabric away after finishing my blocks or just letting it sit in the middle of my sewing room I couldn't help but note that these colors would make a great boy quilt... And boy colors are tough to pick! So I selected cluck cluck sews Scrappy Summer pattern which I've admired since Alison blogged about it and whipped up a bunch of these blocks in no time! I'm developing a bit of a habit with these do.Good Stitches blocks and color palettes. I did the same thing for May's do.Good Stitches blocks which were done in red, blue and navy also great masculine colors. Trying new things is one of the fun things about being a part of do.Good Stitches.

 

The Scrappy Summer patter is such a wonderful pattern! It goes together very quickly and works great for scraps. I used Kona White to make the four-patch blocks which are all strip pieced. 

I assembled 30 blocks and arranged them in a crib size quilt measuring about 40x48 over the weekend. Next up is backing and binding additions. I've been hanging onto these little jellyfish guys for just the right boy quilt...  not sure if this is the one or not! 

And these too - running low on blues again I see! Not sure when when I'll be back to finish this quilt as my son in finishing up his Marines training and we'll be off to see him before he heads off to California to his next duty station.

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Herringbone Quilt, Final Fat Eighth Bundle Project

After making two triangle quilts (here and here) with a fat eighth bundle of Coquette by Chez Moi I did something a little different and made this girly herringbone quilt. It has been quite a while since I used a lot of white in a quilt so it was fun to revisit something familiar. This quilt was featured on Quilt Story!

I pulled out all of the green and blue fabrics from the bundle leaving just shades of pink, purple and yellow. The blues ended up in a herringbone pillow, the greens are just orphaned to the scrap bin for now.

The backing is pieced in purple and yellow - I was a little nervous that I wouldn't like how it turned out but I'm really happy with it.

I especially love the chevron pattern on the back left by the quilting! I followed every row on either side of the seam using my walking foot. I used white thread since I was using a big dash of Kona White in this baby quilt. I used just under one yard of white for this quilt which measures 36x38.

When making my rainbow herringbone quilt last year I worried that it would be difficult to line up the seams but it is actually a very forgiving pattern. You can grab a link to the herringbone tutorial on my pinterest tutorials board.  I modified it some but the instructions are really good. My cut pieces were 2.5 x 9 which makes this a jelly roll friendly pattern too! I did have a little trouble with the rows not lining up this time around - there is a good dash of 'eye-balling' that goes into this quilt when piecing the rows. At first I thought my seam allowances were off but it ended up that my eye-balling was the issue. I must have had beginners luck when doing the pattern the first time because I didn't experience this issue the first go around.

I'd love to say this is the final installment of my fat eighth bundle but I have a huge pile of scraps so I'm not quite finished with these fabrics. I've used them so much I might just add them to my overflowing scrap bins.

Fat Eighth Bundle Projects 

Just to recap my projects from one fat eighth bundle and 1 1/4 yard of white 

Herringbone Crib Quilt, 36x38, plus 33 inches of white

Herringbone Pillow, 18 inch square, plus 10 inches of white 

Triangle Baby Quilt, 31x31

Triangle Crib Quilt, 36x42

A small mountain of scraps!

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Pillows and Patio Gardens

I’m still working on the third quilt from my Coquette fat eighth bundle but I did manage to complete a small triangle baby quilt and a zig zag quilted pillow! How much fabric has been stuffed in these little bundles?!

I used only the blues from the collection along with a bit of Kona white for the pillow top. I installed a blue invisible zipper and backed the pillow with white minky dot – minky is my go-to when I can’t decide what else to use.  Something with this blue… I just don’t have anything in my stash that ‘goes’ with it. Hard to believe I know! Tons of navy and tons of teal but blue is in short supply at my place.

The second quilt from my Coquette bundle is this baby quilt, smaller than the crib quilt I shared last week this measures quilt measures a square 31x31. 

Instead of quilting every seam I did only the diagonals which made a pretty cool diamond pattern on the back.

I’m a little in love with this purple lace fabric and I especially like that the white in this fabric line is not bright white rather a soft cream.

Three finished projects from the bundle so far. I still have quilt number three on my design wall….  And happily working on other projects at the moment! 

Patio Garden 

I still can’t believe it has been over four years since we moved to this area; but what I really can’t believe is that this is the first year that we’ve had a garden… a patio garden!  We used to have a huge garden with every vegetable you could imagine at our old place – I miss that. This year my hubby and I put together a patio garden with pots and containers of little tomatoes, jalapenos, lettuce, basil and cucumbers!  We have gotten a ton of rain and had a few warm days so everything is really taking off this week. Patio gardens are pretty simple to start and maintain. We spent half a day shopping for plants and planters and did the planting in a couple of hours – a weekend project. Now we, and by we I mean my hubby, just make sure that the pots are watered, no weeding required! Next year I’m hoping to add some zucchini and full size tomatoes.

And I couldn’t help take a photo of Peanut, our parti-color cocker spaniel. He’s getting very sleepy while he patiently waits for me to take photos this morning.  He has to stay awake so that he doesn’t miss a thing! After all, there could be opportunities for barking (!) at any minute... 

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Three Quilts One Bundle!

Gosh I love deals, especially fabric deals! So much that sometimes I buy too much, way, way too much! When I jumped back into quilting a few years ago I bought an inappropriate amount of fabric; it's normal to buy a couple hundred yards of fabric in a year right?? Right....  I have seriously curtailed my fabric intake this year. The neatly folded fabric has spilled off my shelves into piles on the floor which is not neat at all! In an effort to make a little room I decided to devour a fat eighth bundle of Chez Moi Coquette I bought from the Fat Quarter Shop which has had a birthday or two here. In case you are wondering you can make at least three baby quilts from a single fat eighth bundle!  Here is my first finish

After my recently finished postage stamp quilt with a gazillion tiny squares, a few angles were necessary to keep me straight! This is my first triangle quilt finish. I've dabbled in triangles before with my triangle pillow but this was the first usable quilt with nothing but triangles.

I'm constantly admiring them and I quickly realized how tricky the triangle points can be. By the time I finished this quilt I decided that pressing all seams open was the best way to save them. I did have a couple of 'point casualties' but there is always a couple!

For the quilting I decided on light pink 50wt Auriful thread following each seam. I really love this design partly because it creates stars all over the front and back

Pretty, pretty, pretty! This crib quilt measures 36x42. I was also able to create a triangle baby quilt and a herringbone quilt that hasn't quite taken form yet from this fat eighth bundle! Who knew so much fabric was stuffed into those neatly folded bundles?!

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Postage Stamp Quilt

I'm so happy to be finished up with this oversized baby quilt! I love these colors in the Up Parasol line by Heather Bailey and used up every last scrap of them finishing this postage stamp quilt. This quilt was featured at Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday!!

I added a bunch of scraps from my stash including Art Gallery Pure Elements solids in coral and light pink and several strips of my Birds and Berries collection plus a couple of others strays that fit in. Since these colors are a little out of my typical jive I ended up selecting a solid minky dot in celadon for the backing. Whenever I am in doubt for the backing I tend to gravitate towards a minky in solid. It seems to go with everything!

I liked the solid minky color against all the small squares - there was so much going on that a solid color worked well here. I went ahead with a solid light pink by Art Gallery for the binding after doing a couple 'binding auditions' on instagram.

I kept it really simple with the quilting here; using light teal thread in alternating directions on every other 'stamp.'  I really like the diamond look that it leaves on the backing.

I was really wishing that I had some of the Up Parasol plaid for the binding...  probably going to need to stash some of that!

This quilt was made up of 9 patch blocks created with 2.5 inch unfinished squares. 9 patch blocks measured 6.5 inches when completed and the total quilt size is 43x48. This quilt coordinates with the postage stamp pillow I created last week. Usually I do the pillow as a bonus project but this time I wanted to see if it was feasible with my patience level to actually finish an entire quilt using 2.5 inch squares. Turns out it was, but I've moved on to some nice equilateral triangles for my next project!

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Up Parasol Sherbet Baby Quilt

Oh jelly roll, how you get to me every time... I know I'm not the only one who finds it tricky to use jelly rolls but they keep me on my toes that's for sure! I had a bunch of leftover strips from when I made my rainbow burst mini quilt from a jelly roll of Up Parasol by Heather Bailey. I love the large scale prints in this line but it's hard to showcase them when they've been cut into 2.5 inch strips.

I added in some odds and ends from the Birds and Berries collection by Jessi and Lauren Jung. These two bird loving fabric lines went together just perfectly! The sweet oranges, pinks, greens and teals meshed so well! I could not help but think of sherbet ice cream the entire time I was working on this quilt!

With my deep affection for teal and orange fabrics it's no wonder that I drawn to the two of these collections. I'm so glad I was able to pull them together into one baby quilt! And use up part of my jelly roll.... although I still have a bunch of strips leftover so more jelly roll pondering in my future.

I didn't wash it but I can imagine it with all its crinkly quilty goodness. That pop of hot pink gets me every time!  And darn it, I do love plaid, I was just telling my hubby that I need more good plaid in my life... err, stash.

With all of the busy prints in this quilt I chose a solid binding from Art Gallery Elements.  The backing is by Kate Spain's Joy collection in Mint - although it was part of a holiday collection, it goes perfectly with this spring baby quilt!

I've been a meandering machine lately and again did a meandering quilting pattern.  I'm still perfecting my meandering - the pattern is so quick and universal that I just want to do it over and over!!

If you are wanting to make your own jelly roll squares quilt the center squares are 2.5 inches, followed by 6.5 strips and then 10.5 strips. It does require 'squaring up' after each square is complete. This baby quilt measures 40x40 and goes together super fast!

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Hourglass Crib Quilt

Last months do.Good Stitches block was a traditional hourglass quilt block combined with solid blocks following the Cloud 9 Shake It Up pattern using colors of red, cream, navy and blue. Can you believe I have never made hourglass blocks before! I'm loving this online quilting bee and learning so much!  I had so much fun making these blocks that I didn't want to stop and made an entire crib quilt top in the bat of an eye!

I had so much fun doing the hourglass blocks that I hardly used any solid blocks but did include a few to shake things up a little.

I had very little yardage available for this quilt as these colors aren't my typical 'thing.' I tried adding some sky blue but that was a major fail! I actually ended up buying a handful of fat quarters from my lqs to round this quilt out including the cute animal print from Alexander Henry above.  The navy colored Kona is Windsor, my favorite shade of navy.

I chose a polka dot binding - big surprise I know! But it really was the perfect thing here... isn't it always though?!  The backing is white minky dot. I quilted the hourglass diagonals and ended up with a cute diamond pattern on the back.

I finished this quilt just in time to capture a couple of pictures of our tree flowering in the backyard. Usually they bloom, it rains and they're gone. These little flowers smell so amazing... like summer

Our blocks were a little bit larger than the Cloud 9 pattern. We used 6.5 inch squares for the solid squares and started with 7.5 inch squares for our hourglass blocks. I love the method of making hourglass blocks in the pattern - nearly perfect centers each time - I didn't need to pin at all which I also loved! I sorta want to keep making these blocks over and over; I'm not quite tired of them yet! This quilt measures 36x47 after washing.

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An Owly Finish

A few weeks ago I mentioned a rainbow baby quilt top I was working on and I wanted to share the owly finish with you. These cute owls were just the thing to put on the back!

For the quilting on this baby quilt I did more meandering - I have been meandering up a storm lately! Very unlike me...  But I'm feeling a little better each time.

I was a little worried about the placement of the applique letters because it seems that no matter how many times you measure and plan ahead, these things have a way of moving.... and I knew I wouldn't discover it until the binding was attached. Not this time; placed the letters just where I wanted them... whew!

The quilt measures about 31x31. Fabrics were from Moda Good Morning by Me and My Sister Designs (pattern too), Kona White, the teal squiggle is from Jungle Bungle by Tim and Beck and the owls were from Timeless Treasures.

I appliqued the name using Wonder Under and machine stitching to attach the letters to the border before attaching to the quilt. I have found that machine stitching is necessary even with the Wonder Under for items that are going to be washed a lot. There was a few places that I didn't machine stitch on my Mr. P quilt (like the doggie door) and it has started to pull up on the edges that weren't stitched down. Mr. Peanut doesn't mind though...

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