New quilt top finished

I finished a new quilt top and backing, which are waiting on funding to be quilted. 🙂 This quilt was designed for either the top of our bed or for our guest bed. It’s by far the biggest quilt I have ever done – about 90X65 inches. It also looks deceptively simple, as it required more exact measuring/sewing than I have ever accomplished before.

The idea for this quilt started with the middle blue fabric with the off-white hummingbirds. I loved it and wanted to base a quilt off of it for our bedroom, but only had 1/2 yard of fabric. I decided to use the neutral color as my base, and find complimentary fabrics that were also based off a single color paired with the neutral color. I chose chocolate brown and red, because I love the combination with the aqua blue and because it matches my bedroom well. So without further ado …

The quilt is made up of 7 squares of the blue fabric, and 14 squares each of the red and chocolate brown fabrics. The squares are 6X6 inches. In between the squares are 4 inches of natural fabric on all sides, and then the whole quilt has a 6 inch chocolate brown sashing.

Finished!

After work, and grocery shopping, tonight, I finished the quilt! And before anyone went into labor. Phwew.

I sure hope they like the quilt as much as I enjoyed making it. Being the first baby expected in the group of friends, and given that they live so far away, it made me a bit teary-eyed to make this. Since I can’t be there to hold the baby as often as I like, hopefully this quilt will be a snuggly substitute!

A browse around Etsy

On a much happier note …

I absolutely love wedding ring quilts and other wedding themed quilts. A quick scroll through some Etsy finds:

From MickeyBQuilts Etsy shop

From JunqueInTheTrunque's Etsy shop

Table runner from LazyMamaDesigns

From SusanEllisonArt's Etsy shop

SerenStitches Quilt from Etsy. While not a wedding ring quilt, look at that beautiful quilting!

Back from the (nearly) dead

Sorry for the recent lack in posts, blog friends. I spent a week ago Sunday through today pretty much lying on the couch, trying not to die from some sort of respiratory virus. Sewing was far from my mind as I concentrated on breathing and regulating body temperature.

But … I’m back! Just not quite up to my usual crafty/cooking self yet (thank God for boxed pasta). So until then, some beautiful quilt inspiration from Etsy:

By Ragadoos on Etsy

Tiny Trends Quilts

Warm n' Fuzzies

Reversible table runner how to

Finished project

I have been anxious to make a tablerunner for our coffee table, which may or may not have some paint splatters on it. *Ahem*

I made a very simple one that is a great use of fat quarters in your stash – I used 5 fat quarters for the front, the remnants of those 5 fat quarters and scraps from my stash for the back.

Here, a step by step guide.

1. Choose 5 fat quarters that have a complementary theme. Iron fabric.

2. From each fat quarter, cut 3 4-inch by 18-inch strips.

3. Lay strips by color side by side. Grab one strip from each pile. This is your first set. For the next set, start with the second pile in and grab five, making the first strip be your last. For your third set, pick the strip from the third pile to start your pile. So your piles will be in this order: 1,2,3,4,5; 2,3,4,5,1; 3,4,5,1,2.

4. Sew the five strips in your new piles together. Spread seams open, iron flat. You should have three sets when you are done, measuring about 18X18 inches after seam allowances.

5. Cut 4 inch wide strips from fabric (in the direction that will make 4X4 inch blocks of 5 colors, all sewn together). You should be able to cut 4 from each of the 3 panels, leaving 12 strips and small scraps of fabric at the end.

Cut strips will look like this.

6. Pick a pattern to make with these strips. For our table runner, I did 1,2,3,2,1,2,3,2,1. This left me with three strips leftover, which I used on the back. More on this later.

Sew strips together. Open seams, press flat.

7. From leftover fat quarters, create border. For the skinny edges, I cut 2 strips that are 4 inches by 18 inches, 1 each from 2 of the remaining fat quarters. This made the long side 39 inches long, so I cut 13.5 inch X 4 inch strips from the 3 remaining fat quarters, 2 from each colors. I staggered the colors for the edge so that the same fabrics weren’t right across from each other. Sew on sides, open seams, press flat.

Your top is done!

8. Make your backing. For the back, I pieced leftover strips and leftover scraps of fabric until I created a top that measured the same size. For a less time consuming alternative, you can just do one solid fabric backing. If you choose to piece as you go, then you have a reversible table runner.

Randomly pieced backing

9. Place right sides together of both front and back, pin together. Sew around all 4 sides, leaving three inches unsewn in order to turn right side out.

10. Fold in edges of remaining three inches, sew shut either by hand or machine. Sew around the runner 1/2 inch in from the edge to finish. And you’re done!

Finished backing

With table decorations

Reversible back with table decorations

My quilting hero

… is my Aunt Carol, or technically, my husband’s Aunt Carol. She is an incredible quilter, and can whip out even complicated patterns in an afternoon. She works for a fabric store, and has previously been a professional sewer.

She’s also insanely generous, and has provided me with quilting books, quilting magazines, and the beautiful Bernina I have. She also made us this beautiful quilt for our wedding gift.

I would guess that a lot of quilters have someone who turned them on to the hobby. Who was your inspiration?

Baby blanket – trials and tribulations

I wrote earlier about finding the perfect fabric for a coworker’s coming baby. Here are the fruits of the effort:

The perfect fabric

 

The backing

 

The blanked turned out pretty cute, but not exactly as planned. I thought this would be the perfect project to try some machine quilting on, since it was small. However, the flannel fabrics kept sticking to the all cotton batting, making it almost impossible to lay the layers completely flat. So, I ended up tying the quilt to finish it.

On the plus side, the flannels are super soft and it should make a very comfortable blanket for a newborn. 🙂 Readers – does anyone have suggestions to offer for layering batting and flannel fabrics and keeping everything smooth?

First attempt at machine quilting: Um, it’s done?

I decided to attempt machine quilting on a small project first – good call. I still like the block, and I still hung it up because it looks OK from a distance. 🙂

Lessons learned: Didn’t pin in enough places first. Didn’t iron flat enough. Didn’t leave enough fabric from the backing to do a neat binding – instead it is sloppy and stretched.

Oh well. Several more attempts and I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

Do not look too closely, and ignore the scuff marks on the walls 🙂

More quilt inspiration from Etsy

By Doodle Bug Quilts http://www.doodlebugquilts.com

Sew in Love Quilts: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sewinlovequilts

By Carly of Quiltville: http://www.CarlyofQuiltville.blogspot.com

By Little Leg Warmers: http://www.etsy.com/shop/littlelegwarmers

By Pieces of Pine: http://www.etsy.com/shop/PiecesOfPine

By Warmnfuzzies: http://www.etsy.com/shop/warmnfuzzies

By Teri's Treasures: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TerisTreasure

The Bobbin's Nest: http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBobbinsNest

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheBobbinsNest

Most complicated quilting block yet …

…. Not to say it was that complicated. As I’ve shown before, my ability so far has extended to being able to sew long strips of fabric together. But when I started seeing variations of cottage blocks everywhere, I had to try one.

I was inspired to try after reading this post. And Toni was nice enough to share with me the link to the free pattern.

Naturally, I completed the block in shades of pale blue and aqua (my favorite colors). I also added a small border around it, bringing the finished block to about 12X12 inches.

Easy quilting block

I would recommend this project to just about anyone – it was still not that difficult (took less than an hour including cut out time, sewing and ironing).

I have been wanting to learn how to actually finish a quilt but have been far too intimidated to learn on any larger project. So my goal for this month is to finish this block as a mini wall hanging, to get practice quilting and binding and all of the finishing steps that I’ve been too scared to try until now. Who knows, if this goes well, I might attempt a whole tablerunner. Dream big! 🙂