Twin Star Quilts

Another friend of mine just had twins, which of course means I had to make 2 more baby quilts.



I made a large star for the front, and pieced 6" wide strips of fabric for the backing.



I had fun quilting large loops diagonally across the first quilt.



I didn't want the quilts to be exactly the same, so I switched up the star a little on the second quilt.  I also quilted a straight line grid on the second quilt.



I really like using a different binding fabric on one or two corners of a quilt.





That makes 5 finished baby quilts for me in 2013, as well as 1 more finished quilt for my daughter.

I have three larger quilts that have been WIP's for quite some time.  Hopefully 2014 will be the year for me finish those.

Linking to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Baby Girl Quilt

After finishing the quilt for the boy twin, I started out on a quilt for the girl twin.  Once again I started the process by just making some random blocks.

I had some left over HST scraps from snowball blocks on my daughter's quilt, so I used those to make pinwheels.



I fussy-cut some of Aneela Hooey's Little Apples and Into the Woods fabric, which became the centers for a couple stars and churn dash blocks.



Then when I had my pinwheels, stars, and churn dash blocks, I laid them all out on the floor.  I decided to tie them all together with stripes in the background, using all fabrics I had stashed.



I backed it in the same print as the boy quilt, and quilted it with a loopy pattern.



Here is the boy kitten my son named Rex (short for T-Rex).  I didn't manage to get a full picture of this quilt without a kitten in it.  Rex seemed to think the photo shoot was of him and not the quilts.



These quilts certainly don't match, but I think they are coordinated enough to be considered a pair.



Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Baby Boy Quilt

I have been sewing a lot lately, but not getting around to blogging.  I think slowing down enough to take decent pictures is the most challenging part. 



My big finish last week was completing a pair of quilts for a friend of mine who is pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl.  I had a fat eighth set of Aneela Hooey's Little Apples fabric, and I knew I wanted to use that in these quilts.  That's about as far as my initial planning went.



I just started off sewing random blocks for the boy quilt, depending on what I felt like making that day.



I think this is my favorite way to work.



Then I puzzled them together and joined the blocks with a bunch of strips.



I used one of the Little Apples prints for the backing and quilted it in a simple loopy pattern.



A couple weeks ago we adopted two kittens.  They weren't exactly helpful when I was trying to get some pictures.



But they sure are cute!  My daughter named the all black girl kitten Fish.

I'll save the girl quilt and other kitten for my next post, which hopefully will be soon.  Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Briar Rose Quilt Design Contest

I have been enjoying playing around with the Quilt Design Tool over at Threadbias as I watch the snow come down this May 3rd morning.  There is a quilt design contest hosted by Pink Castle Fabrics, Threadbias, and Windham fabrics.

I love this new collection by Heather Ross.  I think the strawberry prints are probably my favorite.  Here is the design I came up with.  It's a simple log cabin quilt, with 3" width finished logs.  Because of the larger scale of these prints, I wanted to use fairly large pieces.

 

I'm calling this 45"x60"quilt "Spring Ponds".  The blue center of each block is the pond, surrounded by the frogs, bees, strawberries, and flowers.  I can at least dream of spring, despite it still snowing here in Minnesota during May.

Hexy Flower and Sunflower

I'm enjoying some hand stitching today.



And the view from my window, despite the snow.



 Did I get every last bite?



Aww man, looks like I'm too late!

Finished Peppermint Snowballs Quilt

We're now on our third day of snow here in Minnesota, and it is getting pretty old.  It's the middle of April, where's spring?!  I'm working with lots of bright colors, so I can at least pretend it is spring.  I'm not normally a huge fan of quilt pictures with feet in them, but I just realized that my shoes match my project. 



I managed to finish the Peppermint Snowballs quilt in time for my daughter's birthday in February, but hadn't had the chance until now to get any decent pictures of it.



This is the only quilt I have made where I actually followed a pattern without making changes.  Maybe that is why it took me so long to complete.  I tend to get bored following patterns.  I just added the top and bottom borders to make it more useable as my daughter grows.



For the backing I used a large piece of my favorite Sherbet Pips print, along with a pieced strip of the scraps from the layer cake.



Previous posts about this quilt can be found here and here.  Linking up to Finish it up Fridays at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Combining WIPS - Scrappy Trippy Medallion

I started sewing a medallion quilt after being inspired by this one at Lily's Quilts.  The pattern is from Sarah Fielke's book, Hand Quilted with Love.



I added a green border this morning.  While pressing it, I was suddenly reminded of my Scrappy Trip blocks that were sitting neglected in the drawer.  So naturally, I had to go dig them out.



I think once again I am going to go ahead and combine a couple projects into one.  Now I'm having fun playing around to figure out what border to do next.  I think I'll add a border of Chicopee fabric and then scrappy flying geese.



Despite the fresh snow cover outside this morning, I am pretending it is spring, with an explosion of color in my living room.  We are supposed to get a bunch more snow tonight.  I know this is Minnesota, but still snow in April is pretty ridiculous.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Baby Quilt

A good friend of mine had her second baby in February.  I managed to pull a decent sized stack of fabrics from my stash for a baby boy quilt.  I have tons of fabrics that work for girls, but not near as many for boys.



I quickly turned this stack into a simple patchwork quilt.



I wasn't going to use any green in this quilt, but in the end I couldn't resist the green binding.



I also made a tote for the baby's big sister, and threw in some tea for my friend.

 

Linking this post up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Finished Hexy Mini Quilt

It's finally finished!  I finished hand stitching the binding while watching the Super Bowl last weekend.



You might notice that the label says 2012.  I really thought I'd get this done before the end of December, but that just didn't happen.



There are 59 one inch hexagons in this min-quilt, and it finishes at 12" x 26".



Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Quilting pebbles and loops

This week I'm working on quilting the Sherbet Pips Peppermint Snowballs quilt, which I posted about back in August.  This quilt has been a work in progress for a really long time, so I'm happy to finally be finishing it up.



Having a deadline is helping with the motivation to get it done.  My daughter's birthday is in February, and this will be her birthday present.



It took me awhile to decide how I wanted to free motion quilt this.  I am doing loops and then pebbles in the the white areas around the pinwheels.  I'm already finding out how much thread gets used quilting pebbles.

Scrappy Trip-Along

After seeing these fabulously scrappy blocks popping up all over people's blogs and on Instagram (#scrappytripalong), I just couldn't resist joining in on the fun.  Here's the tutorial on Quiltville.



I started these a week ago.  They are rather addicting to make.



I have 13 blocks done so far, and I'm not sure how big I will make this.  The squares finish at 2" and each block is 12".



While I was busy sewing up 4 of these blocks today, my son asked if I could make him a bag like one that his sister has.  How could I refuse that request?!  So off to the stash we went to have him select the fabrics for his bag.  Here is what he came up with.



I know the day will come when he doesn't want me to sew him stuff, so I'm just enjoying this while I can.