Fancy Fox Quilt

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe the summer is over!  I didn't turn on my sewing machine much, and honestly, we were almost too busy to even notice.  My kids are back in school now, as of last week, and I'm ready to start sewing again.

I posted about this quilt a while ago, and here's the finish.  We were able to gift it to our neighbor who graduated from High School last June.  It was so fun to make and fun to give.  The kids each made their own blocks, and loved making them.  Speaking of sewing with kids, this was such a great project.  Each block is easy enough for even the little guys, and it didn't take much time to finish.  I put the quilt top together and did the quilting and binding, but they still felt they had a part in the quilt.

We labeled each of the fox noses with the child's name.

We used leftover orange scraps for the binding, a scrappy binding.

A grey woodgrain for the backing.

Pattern is Fancy Fox and can be found here.

Holly Hobbie

I shared this quilt top a while ago, asking for advice on the quilting.  A friend had done the embroidery, and asked me to finish the quilt.  I thought these squares were so cute, reminds me of baby Holly Hobbies.

 So many of you recommended hand quilting, and I totally agree that hand quilting would've been the best option for this quilt, but I didn't want to put in that much time and I knew my friend didn't expect me to do that.  So I went with in the ditch quilting.  I went around each square, and then along the dark pink seams.  I considered going around each light pink square, but I didn't.  

I actually think the quilt needed the added stability that comes from crossing quilting lines.  You can kind of see in this picture.  I washed and dried it and everything stayed together, and the quilt was so soft.  It's always a little scary doing work for other people.  I didn't want to mess anything up. 

diamond value quilt

I've wanted to make a value quilt for years, inspired by Katie of SewKatieDid, I finally made one.  Well, I actually started it a year (or more) ago, but I finally finished it up.  Up close, you don't see much of a pattern, but when you step back...

it pops!  I love how it works, I love that you don't look at fabric, but rather at the design.  This is a fun scrap buster.  I used 6 inch squares to make my half square triangles, and I randomly paired them.  I didn't even consider value until it was finished.  Some of them were hard to determine which was the light side and which was the dark side, but once the quilt is finished it all works together.

 I used my low volume stash for the back, and bound in a purplish plaid.

I kept the quilting simple, just a quarter inch on either side of the vertical and horizontal seam lines.

economy block quilt

I finished up my economy block quilt earlier this week, and it's been keeping us warm.  The weather turned COLD again this week.

I started making the blocks a year ago, and didn't want to stop (tutorial here).  They are a great scrap buster and pretty much anything goes.  I love that you can highlight those cute prints that we tend to collect.  My quilt ended up being rather large.  Each block is 5 inches square, and my quilt is 14 blocks x 16 blocks.  The quilt finishes at about 70in x 80in.

The backing was a happy surprise, it started out with various blue pieces from my stash (still trying to use my stash up), but I didn't like it.  The blues clashed and it just didn't feel light enough for this quilt top.  I almost went ahead with it anyway, but decided I didn't want to hate this quilt, I really wanted to like it because it has so many fun fabrics on it.  So, I scrapped the blues and went with Sarah Jane (can't go wrong there) and Orange.  I love the backing now and it makes me love the quilt even more.  

Using a border print on the back is a little tricky, especially when you use it on top and bottom.  You can see, I barely made it work...the selvage is pretty much showing.

Heart Quilt

It's the perfect week to post this quilt.  After I made my heart pillow, using this tutorial, I was contacted to make a baby size quilt.  Of course I said yes, these hearts are really fun to make.  And I still love the black and white.  We made the hearts 8 inches finished.

 We used this polka dot (by Lotta Jansdotter) for the backing and black and white stripes for the binding.  

to add some interest my customer wanted one polka dot heart on the front.  I love it.  

 (that black fabric is tricky.  It's hard to keep all the threads and tiny scraps off of it.).

Happy Valentines Day.

Twilight and Out to Sea Quilts

I feel like I can make this zigzag quilt in my sleep.  I have made a lot of them!  (pattern here) But I still like it.  It's a really easy, straight forward pattern that lets me sew and watch a movie without thinking.  Also a great way to showcase a particular fabric collection.

Both of these quilts were custom orders for my customers two little girls.  

They both turned out really cute, but I particularly love this wee wander one with the dark blue and mint and aqua.  We used the prints from the twilight color way.

 I love these stripes from Sarah Jane's Out to Sea line for binding.   They just perfect, and the colors have worked for so many quilts