Bright Rectangles And Diamonds Quilt Finish

This fun quilt top was made by my mom from a kit. She did the piecing and asked me if I would finish it for her so she could give it to her great granddaughter for Christmas. Yes, of course I can.

Since there is so much color and pattern going on in these fabrics, I went with an all over free motion flower design for the quilting. In general, it just adds texture.

But on a few of the blocks the flower design stands out.

I think this is my favorite block. You can see two flowers here.

The kit came with backing and binding fabric, so it was easy to quilt and assemble. Once I decided on the quilting design, the rest of the decisions had been made for me. The quilting is done with a white 50 weight Aurifil thread.

The finished quilt is approximately 37 x 45 inches. It makes a perfect play mat or snuggle quilt for a little girl.

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

Brighten Up Scrappy Checkerboard Quilt Finish

This is a very special finish. It is the first quilt I will give to my first grandchild. She already has one quilt that I made, but that quilt was made as a general baby quilt before I ever even knew she was on her way. Actually, this quilt is born from the scraps of a quilt I made for my sister-in-law. When I saw I had scraps, lots of scraps in bright girly prints and colors, I just knew I had to turn them into a quilt for Amelia.

The original quilt used a jelly roll of Brighten Up, a fabric collection by Me and My Sister Designs for Moda. The leftovers cut up nicely into 2 1/2 squares. Paired with white squares, this turned out extra bright and fun.

The quilting is a simple cross hatch through all the white squares. It surprised me how quickly this quilted up.

And this is the first quilt I have made with a flannel back. I love love the feel of it. It will be perfect for playing on and snuggling under.

The binding is a solid purple and was completely machine stitched into place.

This quilt finished at about 38 inches by 54 inches.

The butterflies that are the focus for this fabric collection are super sweet.

I also added some complementary solids to the mix of prints. Not to many. Just enough to give your eye a place to stop every now and then.

I can't wait to gift this quilt to the sweetest baby girl I know.

Linking up to Let's Bee Social over at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Four Blue Placemats - Interpreting A Gift Request

For Christmas, I'd like four placemats for the kitchen. Blue, please. That was the request from my mother-in-law a few weeks ago.

I had been eyeing this quilt in Kaffe Fassett's  book "Simple Shapes, Spectacular Quilts" for some time and this project would be a good one to try out a few blocks. First, I had to dig through my stash to determine where to get the best assortment of blues. For this project, the batiks had the best choices for darks and lights.

The original plan was to have two placemats with dark centers and two with light.

Then, I tried mixing up the darks and lights and liked this result much better. Since it is somewhat scrappy, using the same block layout will help the set be more cohesive. Each block will finish at twelve inches so a four inch wide strip was added to the right side of each block. The strips are four different solid blues.

Then it was time to decide on quilting thread. Of these options, I went with the small spool of Aurifil 50 weight thread. It worked best with the variety of fabrics in the placemats.

To make the placemats a little more feminine, I quilted a big flower with a spiral center on each of the main blocks.

For the solid strip on each placemat, I headed over to The Inbox Jaunt and found her Basic Leaf Tutorial to be the perfect design for filling that space.

I love seeing the thread contrast on the different blues.

The same four blues that made the side strips were used for the binding. It was another mix and match to bring unity to the project.

All different, yet all the same.

The backing for each placemat is this fun striped blue fabric. They can easily be turned over and used from the back side for a different look.

The quilting shows up nicely on the back, too.

My favorite part of this project is how it evolved. I had no idea what I would create when asked to make four blue placemats. Each step was a new discovery. And, every part of them was made from supplies I had on hand. That makes them even better.

Fire And Ice - A Believe Circle Quilt Finish

I am on a roll with the quilt finishes. This is the third one in a week. It was a bit of a motivator when it was pointed out to me that there are less than 40 days until Christmas, Yikes! This quilt is the September quilt for the Believe Circle of do. Good. Stitches. It did not have any sort of real deadline, but it was one I just wanted to finish. The head and the heart don't always agree.

The theme was fire and ice and each member was asked to provide three 6 1/2" blocks. One all ice, one all fire, and one a mix. The block could be any design they liked.

As the blocks arrived, I placed them on my design wall. I thought I was going to arrange them by color, with the ice in one corner, the fire in another, and the rest in between.

When I looked at them without color, I decided to go with light to dark, which sometimes meant that the colors mixed in differently than expected. It took quite a number of attempts to get this right (at least right to me). This is the final layout.

And here it is in color. At this point, it was looking more like sun and clouds than fire and ice.

One inch sashing strips were added to finish the top. Originally, the quilting was going to be one off set spiraling circle. After I did some rounds, I decided that it needed something more. First, I thought about doing rays out from the largest circle to make it look like a sun. Instead, I went with a second set of circles and let them overlap. The quilting lines are about one inch apart. I was not measuring specifically so it is far from perfect. I am happy with it as a whole.

You can see the quilting better from the back. I thought the quilting might get lost on the front so I chose a solid backing so it would really stand out.

From the right angle, the quilting shows up nicely on the front, too.

I love the variety of the blocks.

This was the first circle to be quilted.

And this was the second set of circles.

The binding is a bright orange. All this quilt needs is a label, which hopefully, will be hand sewn on tonight.

Thank you, Believe Circle members, for taking a concept and turning it into such an awesome quilt.

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

Brighten Up With Butterflies - A Quilt Finish

My sister-in-law asked if I would make a quilt for her to give to a special little girl in her life. She gave me some input on colors and favorites. I thought we would enter into a bit of back and forth while I sent suggestions and she responded with feedback. The first fabric collection I sent to start the conversation is Brighten Up! by Me and My Sister Designs for Moda fabric. I also sent along a pattern idea, Simply Style Stacked Squares from the Moda Bake Shop. Her response was an immediate YES.

This was a fun quilt to make. Since the pattern and fabric were so busy, I went with a simple two-inch grid for the quilting. I am surprised that it shows up as much as it does, although these pictures are after the quilt was washed, which tends to make the quilting stand out a little more.

When I started the quilting, I thought that the grid would mostly be in line with the seams. The strips around the squares are two-inches but the center squares themselves are not an even increment of two, which means the quilt lines can fall anywhere along those strips. I think it worked out just fine.

I love the backing fabric. All the butterflies. All the colors.

The binding is a blue dot fabric from the same collection.

I'll be passing this quilt on to my mother-in-law on Thanksgiving Day. My sister-in-law will pick it up from her. It was a joy to make this quilt for her.

Converse Shoe Quilt - The Perfect Gift For A Teenager

Is there a Converse shoe craze going on in your part of the world? Ours has been going on for several years now. I keep thinking it is a fad that is soon to fade away, but it doesn't seem to be slowing down. One of my teenage boys has two pair and wants two more. The other has one pair and says that is enough for him. They know kids at school who own every color. That's just crazy.

There is a special girl at school who is friends with my son, and, for a while she felt like an adopted daughter of sorts. We are all band nerds and while she plays trumpet in the marching band, she also plays flute. I play flute, too, so that was just one more thing for us to bond over. Her birthday is this week, and my son and I wanted to give her something unique, to show how special she is.

Isn't this the cutest mini-quilt! The pattern comes from Quiet Play and you can find it on Craftsy here. My son picked the colors.

I just happened to run across these letters while I was searching for a backing fabric and decided to incorporate them. It was originally going to be part of the back but looked so cute on the front that I changed the plan.

This was the most challenging part of the whole project. Those are some teeny tiny pieces in that star. I thought I had worked it out where the star would be solid black but one of those polka dots managed to sneak past and become part of the star.

Isn't this the perfect quilt back for a music lover? I was becoming frustrated with finding a backing, thinking I was going to have to piece something together. My son selected and approved this piece. I was very happy he helped me figure that out.

The quilting lines are about a quarter inch apart in a dark gray 50wt Aurifil thread. It is not too light for the background nor too dark for the shoes. The finished quilt is around sixteen inches square.

Happy birthday, Keely! You are a special girl and I am thankful to have you in my life. Keep on being smart, funny, and beautiful.