Scrappy Neutral Quilt For A Master Bedroom

It is rare for me to make a quilt for a specific purpose in our home. I have wanted a new quilt for my bed for as long as I can remember. There is an old family quilt that has been on our bed in the winter for a number of years and this new quilt is a bigger, neutral version of that quilt.

Here's an old, blurry picture I found of the inspiration quilt. This quilt was made by my grandmother or great grandmother. There are some awesome fabrics in this old quilt.

 And here it is on the bed. I do love the mix of fabrics here but I needed a neutral and timeless quilt that would last through whatever crazy color scheme we wanted for our bedroom. This quilt also barely extends beyond the top of the bed so something bigger was needed.

Each scrappy panel finishes at 15 inches wide The quilt top is made purely from stash. It used up almost all of my neutral stash. There are six scrappy panels so the finished dimensions of the quilt are 90 x 90. This is plenty big enough to cover our queen size bed.

I spent a lot of time debating the quilting design. Part of me wanted to go for simple vertical wavy or straight lines over the entire quilt. However, I would always think that I had taken the easy way out to go that route. Instead, I went for free motion quilting each piece with a different design. It was a lot of fun and took a really long time to complete. I would work on it for 15-20 minutes each day before work and then an hour or two over the weekend.

For some sections I quilted around the print motif like with these birds. There are lots of hidden messages in this quilt, too. In the panel just under the birds it says "LISTEN to the birds sing!"

The back is Kona Dusty Blue, which does work with the upcoming bedroom color scheme but is also neutral enough to stand the test of time. The binding is the same as the backing. The back of the quilt has a graffiti quilting look to it.

Of course, all those messages are mirror image on the back so you either need a mirror or a careful eye to decode them. The center right of this picture shows an "I love U".

Even the front newsprint fabric is spreading the message of love.

These pictures were all taken before the quilt was washed. Funny thing is my dryer died the day I finished this quilt. Impatient me washed it anyway and it is hanging out on the clothes line to dry. Those summer afternoon thunderstorms need to stay away today!

Here's another look at the quilting, this time with the message "More Dreaming". I lost track of all the messages in this quilt. It will be fun to run across them as this quilt gets used on a daily basis.

I'm really excited to be adding this project to the finished list. My interests have expanded a lot this summer with food gardening, bird watching, drawing, and painting. Other than a few smaller projects, my sewing machine might get a rest for a while. No matter what other interests develop, my heart is always with quilting so I know I'll be back.

Quiltville Good Fortune Mystery - That's A Lot Of Pieces

Every year when I am in the throws of gift making for the holiday season, I get this urge to make something for me. This year, I satisfied that urge by participating in Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt. I have participated in mysteries before, as a shop owner, when I knew the end result throughout the process. This is the first time it was truly a mystery from start to finish. I loved it.

The first step is the announcement of a color palette and estimated yardage. These colors made me think they were pulled straight from a basic crayon box. I thought about changing them up a bit but decided as a rookie I should stick with the instructions, and, these are not my go to colors when working on my own so it's great to use up this stash.

Each Friday starting in late November a new clue was issued. I liked going with the flow. All of the steps were straightforward and easy to complete. There may have been a few times where I thought, "You want me to make how many?!?!" The number of units for some of the steps was quite large but with a little Dori inspiration (just keep sewing sewing sewing), I persevered.

Each week's clue was saved in a bag. I loved the Instagram posts of participants trying to guess the end result. I did not do any of that. I completely gave myself over to the process and enjoyed every step. It was a surprise every single week.

When the big reveal finally came in mid-January, I wasn't quite ready for it. I was enjoying the drawn out pace of making this quilt top.

It took a couple of weeks to put it all together, but here it is. When the center blocks were assembled, I wasn't sure if I liked it. The outer border really pulled it all together for me. I absolutely love it now.

The thing that impresses me the most about this quilt is the sheer number of pieces. Since I went with strip sewing rather than string sewing for the orange in the blocks and the neutral borders, I was able to calculate the number of pieces in this quilt.

Bonnie does not allow counts and quantities to be published about her mystery quilts since they are converted into patterns for sale once the mystery is over. However, I don't think this number gives anything away. There are 2,936 pieces of fabric in my quilt top. Had the mystery been introduced as... join us in making a quilt with more than 2,900 pieces... I never would have joined in. A little bit every day made this happen. And even better, every single piece of fabric in this quilt came from scraps that I already had on hand.

It will be a while before this top is quilted, as there are a few ahead of it in line. One funny thing is that I hadn't been able to really see the finished top until I took these pictures. I have found two pieces turned the wrong way so far. Maybe I'll fix them before quilting and maybe I'll leave them for character. I have plenty of time to think about that.

I will definitely be joining in again next year. Thank you, Bonnie, for a fun initiation into the mystery quilt world.

Scrappy Pineapple Quilt Finish

This quilt originally started out as a gift for my mom. She wanted a quilt. I wanted to make a pineapple block. Perfect match, right? Well, no. This crazy, bright, bold quilt is very much my style but not so much hers. I set this aside to make a quilt she would love. You can read about that one here. I knew when I got back to working on this one, it would be for me.

I had never made a pineapple block before and I used the tutorial from Crazy Mom Quilts. It was a little slow going at first as so many new things are, but once I got rolling, I knew this would be a scrap buster extraordinaire.

The digging through scraps round by round was not a lot of fun, so I hunkered down and cut them all. All 1,140 of them. Yep. There are 1,140 pieces of fabric in this quilt top. I probably should not think about that too much.

The more blocks I made, the more bold and crazy the blocks became. I considered redoing this one because it is a bit over the top, but in the big scheme of the quilt, it fits in just fine.

And once I knew this quilt was for me and not for mom, the nerdy fabric came out.

This quilt finishes at 60 x 75 inches. It is quilted in big, loose, elongated loops using Aurifil 50 wt thread. Light gray (2900) on the top and a khaki tan (2600) on the back.

I did not want the quilting to be too heavy, and it is extra fluffy and crinkly after washing.

The binding is teal pearl bracelet fabric. I could not decide on a color for the binding and at breakfast one morning my husband said, "Teal. Make a teal binding." And so I did. The newsprint fabric on the back matches the backing fabric of the quilt I made for my mom. I like that the two quilts are connected in that way.

This is going to be my cozy sofa quilt for a while. I may take it to my office to hang on the wall after the weather warms up. There are lots of stories in those fabric scraps and it would be fun to be able to see it from my desk throughout the day.

I don't have full stats on this project since I only started tracking that at the beginning of the year. Here is what I know:

Size: 60 x 75 inches
Purchases for this quilt: Backing fabric and thread
The quilt top is entirely stash, the batting was on hand, and the binding was gifted in a give away from Pink Door Fabrics.
Time spent quilting: 3 1/2 hours (that big loose pattern went really fast!)
Binding: 1 1/2 hours

Neutral Stack and Slash Quilt Top

For years I have wanted to make a quilt for the master bedroom. It is always more difficult for me to decide on a design and color scheme for a quilt with a very specific purpose than for one I am making for fun (well, they are all fun to make, aren't they?!). The quilt that is on the master bedroom bed in the colder months is one that was made by my grandmother or great grandmother. It could have even been both of them as they lived together for many years of their later adult lives.

It is five fifteen inch wide columns of scraps sewn together in a seemingly random way. Some are fairly straight rectangles, some are quite wonky, and others are pieced.

I love this quilt, but it is not quite big enough for the bed. There are only four inches or so that hang down on either side. I had been thinking about replicating this quilt for a long time, and recently we started talking about painting this room. Since I really want this quilt to be timeless, I decided that the wall needed to be the focus for color and that a quilt for this room should remain neutral. That way it can live on through whatever color schemes come our way.

These pictures are a little on the yellow side as it was early morning and the sun was not all the way up yet. My family has been watching skeptically from the sidelines. One bit of advice from one of the teens... mom, don't put too much pee colored fabric in it, okay? Ha. He does have a good eye, and he was correct in his assessment. There is white, cream, gray, brown, black, taupe, and all sorts of other neutrals. There are a few pieces with other colors but not enough to take away from this truly neutral quilt.

This is the largest quilt top I have ever made and it put quite a dent in the neutral stash, and it is made entirely from stash.The amount hanging over the sides is just perfect. This quilt top is made of six fifteen inch wide strips that are around ninety inches long. The finished quilt as it is will be ninety inches square. The width is perfect.

The length may be a bit too much. I'm going to think about that and may trim it back a little. I've never had a quilt long enough to cover the pillows. I could always fold it back at the top. It would be nice to have extra covers to burrow under on a cold night.

See that rose fabric, the black and white one? That came from my grandmother. It had originally been cut out to become a blouse or jacket. I love that there are fabrics old and new in this quilt top.

I am excited about quilting this one. It will be easy to go quilting crazy so I will have to be careful not to take it too far. The original quilt has simple hand quilting. I am definitely going the machine quilting route and will likely vary the quilting design every few segments of the quilt.

I left the quilt top on the bed this morning when I left for work. I'm usually the last one home at the end of the day so we'll see what the family thinks about it now. I am happy to be making progress on this long desired quilt.

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Quilt Repair and An Intentional Break

Recently, I took an intentional break from this space to focus on other, more important things. My family. They needed me. I needed them. It was a much needed deep breath of family time. Balance in all things is important, and I had gotten a little off kilter. I continued to sew and create. Not sewing would be a very ugly off kilter that no one wants to experience. Trust me on that one.

One small project I tackled was some quilt repair. I have several of my grandmother's quilts and they are used everyday, just as she used them. I noticed some flaps of batting sticking up on the quilt that is on my bed. That could not be left hanging for long. It is in the sixth round of squares. The black and white checked ones. Have you noticed that in most old quilts, there is one or two fabrics that wear out long before the others? I suppose one of them has to go first.

There is no way to match these old fabrics. I did not even want to try that. Luckily, this quilt has so much going on that it is easy to choose a fabric that blends right in with all the others. Can you see where I repaired it?

The arrows are pointing to the repaired squares. I used a muddy gray with sweet little mushrooms printed on it. I cut larger squares and carefully pressed under the edges, then hand sewed them to completely cover the worn square. I did not remove any of the underlying fabric or batting. It is all still there. I had to repair three squares, and I can see that there will be more to repair in the next year or so.

I suppose I could fold and store these quilts away to preserve them but I really love continuing the use for which they were intended. Use things; love people. Not the other way around.

Yellow Scrappy Strip Quilt Top Finish

Thanks to all of the encouragement you guys provided when I last posted about this quilt, it is now a finished top.

There are twenty blocks in a 4 by 5 formation. Each block finishes at 15 inches so that makes this top 60 x 80 inches. That is the size of a queen size mattress so I am thinking about adding a border or two so that it can easily be used on a queen sized bed. My bed maybe? I'm not sure about that part yet.

Each of those larger blocks is comprised of 16 half square triangles. When I got close to the finish line for these blocks, I was ONE half square triangle short. Instead of making another scrappy strippy one, I simply made one from a single print fabric. I liked that there was just one that is not like the others. A Where's Waldo for half square triangles. It took me a while to find it in the full front view photo. Every quilt needs a little secret so that is my secret for this one.

I first posted about the idea of this quilt last June. The earlier posts have links to block instructions, pinterest inspiration that helped me figure out the layout, and the story of how this quilt came to be.

• About That Day I Was Taking A Break From Sewing - June 27, 2015
• Scrappy Strip Quilt Progress - Choosing a Layout - July 6, 2015
• Scrappy Strip Quilt - Making Progress - January 29, 2016

The story of this quilt isn't over, though. There will be borders and quilting and binding. Eventually. I'm just happy to have made it this far. I imagine you will see it again one or two more times before it is finished. Thanks for letting me share it with you.

Linking up to Whoop Whoop with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.