Donna's Twin Quilts

Last year, one of my customers on Etsy (check out her Carpenter Star Quilt HERE) contacted me and asked if I would make twin sized quilts for her two grandchildren.  Of course I was super excited to be getting a quilt request from a repeat customer!

We decided to make the same quilt pattern for each child using different fabrics.  This is a larger version of the Scooter Pattern by Fort Worth Fabric Studio.

We went with Grow by Me and My Sisters for the girl quilt,

And Mixed Bag by Studio M for the boy quilt.

I'm a real sucker for big tall stacks of freshly cut fabric.  :)

And Noah (my 2 year old) loves dump trucks.  I think this quilt would have been perfect for him, too.

Even though I called these the "twin quilts," the grandchildren they were made for are NOT twins - the quilts were made for twin sized bunk beds.  :)  Here is the boy version testing out one of our twin beds.  Donna likes her quilts large (like me!) and this one has plenty of excess for tucking.  ;)

These quilts were huge - I had to snap a photo of the quilting in progress.  YES!  It's totally possible to quilt a bed sized quilt on a home sewing machine!!!

Girl version on the bed.  :)

I took the rest of these photos on the lawn the day after I finished them, which just so happened to be the day we were leaving for vacation (and the day I shipped them out), so I didn't have a lot of time to wait for better lighting.  Ah well.

The border and binding for this quilt were from a different line that I though matched well.  And of course the binding was sewn down by hand.  Only the best for my favorites!

For the quilting on the girl version, I went with an overall flower/swirl design.  It took about 4.5 hours to quilt.

We decided to add in this little strip of fabric on the back of each quilt.  Both quilts were also backed in this neutral green solid, giving them a little bit more of a matchy feel.

The boy version got a straight line meander with a few arrows thrown in for fun.  It took about 3 hours to quilt.

This one got a fun stripe-y border and a colorful patchwork binding.

I love how they turned out!

Quilt stats:

Started: May 2017

Finished:  July 2017

Fabrics: Grow by Me and My Sister Designs, and Mixed Bag by Studio M

Batting: Pellon 100% Cotton

Finished size: Boy: Approximately 100" x 74"

Finished size: Girl: Approximately 99" x 72" 

Recipient: Donna's grandkids

Methods used: Piecing, FMQ

Binding: Machine to front, hand to back

Time to Make: About 25 hours EACH

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Abecedary in Mint

Welcome!  This is my second post for the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Read more about the Festival HERE.
Check out my other entry HERE.
This quilt was SO MUCH FUN TO MAKE.  I'm excited to share it with you.  The pattern is called "Abecedary" and will be released soon by Afton Warrick of Quilting Mod.

So.  Here's the story of this quilt.  Once I had mostly finished making my Improv ABC quilt, I decided I hadn't quite had my fill of making these I-Spy/ABC quilts.  Plus I had recently been to JoAnn and discovered their huge assortment of cute novelty flannels and needed an excuse to buy some of them.  :)

So I went back to the first IG photo that inspired me to make ABC quilts using fabric that represented each letter (check it out HERE - Quiltingmod).  Isn't that such a fun idea?  I decided I wanted the pattern.  So I told Afton that I was anxious to buy (or possibly pattern test) her quilt pattern once it was ready.  And since she's so awesome, she sent me a copy of the pattern to test for her!
It was so much fun to work on.  I promptly went back to JoAnns and had a blast picking out 26 novelty fabrics.  I admit I don't sew with JoAnns fabrics as often as I used to, but I was impressed by their flannel selection and decided to make an entirely flannel quilt.
For the background, I had a hard time deciding on something that looked good with all the fabrics I had chosen.  In the end I went with this mint green and I'm still not sure I made the right choice - those first few letters are really washed out.  Oh well.  I'm not going to start over.  ;)

This was also my first time sewing drunkards path blocks and practically my first time sewing curves.  Luckily, Afton's templates are generously sized, so I was able to trim everything up with no problems. :)  Curves really aren't that hard.

For the back of this quilt, I had TONS of fabric left over from the top, plus a few big chunks of novelty flannels in my stash.  As I was arranging all this crazy fabric on my design floor, one of my four-year-olds walked by and said "Mom, that doesn't look good."  Haha.  I admit it's a little crazy, but its still fun and it's really another I-Spy quilt all on it's own.  And now my quilt is double sided.  Win win.  :)

I really tried to make this quilt gender neutral in the beginning, but by the end I had decided it was a girl quilt.  So I used this fun and funky girly print for the binding.  And I rounded the corners just for fun.

This quilt is even big enough to fit on a twin bed!  Score!

Once again, this quilt doesn't really have a recipient in mind (although Noah seems to like it), so I'll be listing it in my shop.  Edit - HERE is the listing.

Quilt stats:

Started: August 2016

Finished: September 2016

Fabrics: Joann Novelty and Solid Flannels

Batting: Pellon 100% Cotton

Finished size: Approximately 60" x 72"

Recipient: ???

Methods used:  Curved Piecing, Free Motion Meander Quilting

Binding: Hand Stitched to the Back (Flannel)

Time to make:  Roughly 25 hours

After lots of waffling back and forth, I've decided to enter this quilt in the Large Quilt category of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Check out all the other large quilts HERE.  Check the entire festival HERE.

Brionna's Puzzle Quilt

After making THIS quilt for my aunt to give my cousin at her wedding, I decided I wanted more opportunities to make quilts to sell.  So I created a listing on Etsy and advertised it on Facebook.  And what do you know - another aunt got in touch with me and asked me to make 2 quilts for her adult children!  Woot!

It was really cool to work with my aunt to figure out what to make for each of her daughters (my cousins).  They live far away from me (well, one state away at least, which is kind of far when one state is Utah and the other is Idaho), so I really don't know them very well.  Apparently the older cousin is really into puzzles.  And also fantasy.  And a little bit of Star Wars.  And she likes fall colors.

I'll admit - it took quite a bit of work between me and my aunt before I had a clear direction on colors for this quilt.  The pattern I had picked from the very start.  Fabrics were harder.  Have you ever tried finding fantasy themed fabric that is appropriate for an early-twenty-something girl?  Most everything I found was too babyish.  And then I found a really pretty Pegasus/Unicorn fabric, but it just didn't go with the color scheme.  More on that later.  

In the end, I found an awesome puzzle piece print and a dragon print that went really well with the colors I had in mind.  (Oh yeah - and check out the red Star Wars print).  Nearly everything else came from my stash - WIN!
For the quilting, I went with a simple stipple.  Partly because I needed something fast and easy.  Partly because it fits so well with the whole puzzle theme.

 The binding is actually from April Rosenthal's "Best Day Ever" line.  Of course I stitched it by hand.  Even though it was early December and I was swamped with Etsy orders.  Bindings just must be stitched by hand.  Besides, I can't make Rummy mats while watching TV with the hubby, can I?

Now lets talk about the back for a bit.  My Aunt requested flannel, since they live in Idaho and it gets pretty cold up there.  SO I found a flannel version of that pretty Pegasus/Unicorn fabric and bought a yard of it (no WAY was I going to spend $12 a yard on an entire quilt's worth of BACKING FABRIC).  Then I supplemented with some solid flannels from Joann along with some flannel from my own stash.  

I had this grand idea to piece together a couple giant puzzle pieces for the back.  But I made some HUGE calculation errors (which I discovered AFTER cutting, of course) and ended up having to scrap the whole idea because there wasn't enough fabric.  So the back is really a mish-mash of random stuff because I was just trying to get it all to fit together.  :p  The quilt is SUPER warm and cozy, though!

Of course, I included a label.  I bought a whole bunch of printable fabric and I'm loving using it for labels.  

My Aunt requested large Full size quilts.  Here it is on my Queen bed.  I think it's big enough!

And here it is with its sister.  :)

Quilt stats:

Started: Late September, 2015

Finished: December 4, 2015

Fabrics: Timeless Treasures:  Puzzles, Dragons, Unicorns.  Star Wars.  The rest is from my stash. 

Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 60/40 Cotton/Poly (It's new and I LOVE IT)

Finished size: Approx. 85" x 95"

Recipient: Brionna

Methods used:  Piecing, Free Motion Quilting

Binding: Hand stitched to the back

Time to make:  Approx. 25-30 hours

This quilt was #5 on my Quarter 4 Finish-Along List.  Linking up!

Finished: Korina's Radio Way Wedding Quilt!

It's finished and I love it! 

I present to you:  Korina's Radio Way Wedding Quilt (don't knock the creative title, okay?) I finished it (quite literally) just in time for her bridal shower.  I wanted to give it to her then rather than at the wedding for purely selfish reasons.  :)  I loved seeing her reaction and having her tell me it looks "just like the picture" and that "the colors are perfect."  WHEW!

It's a large Queen/small King.  That's me and my brother attempting to hold it up.

Here's the story.  As soon as my sister-in-laws fiance (finally) proposed, I was super excited to get started right away on her wedding quilt.  I love a good excuse to make a big new quilt!
So I sent her a link to my (rather extensive) pinterest boards and she chose a few designs that she liked.  Luckily for me, she seemed drawn to the more simple but modern designs.  I went for this design by Julie Herman called "Radio Way" - genius pattern by the way.   She said she wanted something with light green and black, but no yellows.  And that she trusted my instincts (Wahoo!). 
SO.  I just so happens that I had an old Joann's jelly roll in my stash with lots of lime green, aqua, and gray.  From there I found a bundle of the gorgeous Up Parasol line in greens/aquas and paired it with another jelly roll (from Etsy) in blacks and whites.  I also threw in a few extra Amy Butler prints from my LQS (they were on sale!!)  I even found a jelly roll with a white tone-on-tone print to use for the sashing.  I really love the colors in this quilt.
And it worked up SUPER fast!  I'm pretty sure (nope, I'm positive) that the quilting took longer than the piecing.  I LOVE working with precuts!

 
For the back, I used up some leftover yardage I had on hand, plus my three extra blocks.  I love being able to use every bit of fabric with no waste.  :)  Oh yeah, the solid is a sheet from Walmart.  I couldn't bring myself to buy 8 yards of quilting fabric.  I also couldn't bring myself to buy a king sheet just so that I could avoid piecing a back.  Pieced backs aren't really that fun for me to make, but I LOVE the end result!

For the quilting, I knew I wanted something slightly custom (no overall meandering here!), but simple.  In the end I was inspired to do some Angela Walters inspired "curved" dot-to-dot quilting mixed with a little bit of Leah Day sashing designs.   It took a lot of time, and made my wrist sore (have I mentioned yet that this quilt is a small KING size?), and I had TONS of tension issues (who says Aurifil is the best thread out there?  Cuz it sure broke a lot for me) but I really love how it turned out.  Even though those long curved lines are mostly pretty wonky.  Ah well.  Do you want to know the secret to quilting a King sized quilt on your home machine?  Excellent basting and stitching in the ditch around all the blocks before you do any FMQ.  My quilt is virtually free of puckers!  YAY!

You can see the quilting really well on the back of the quilt, which is awesome:

Here's a close up:

And a shot of the front:

I also remembered to add a label!  I kept it simple, but this time I used my printer, rather than my own handwriting.  :)  The label was actually a big hit once one of the girls discovered it at Korina's bridal shower.  Everyone thought it was so sweet that their wedding date was on the back.  I guess it's all in the simple things!

A big thanks to a bunch of my guild friends for helping me choose this binding!  It's from the Reunion line by Sweetwater.  It was just the right shade of gray and I love the little pops of green and blue.  I cut it on the bias, of course - because it looks amazing that way.  :)  And it's hand sewn to the back, of course.  I was sitting on the couch binding it minutes before I left for the shower...

And there you have it!  Now.  Who's getting married next?

Quilt stats:

Started: January 2015

Finished: March 28, 2015

Fabrics: Fabric Central "Delicate" collection (from Joanns), Up Parasol (chartreuse colorway), a few Amy Butler prints, various black and white prints

Batting:  Pellon 80/20 Cotton/Polyester (prewashed for shrinkage)

Finished size: Approx. 100" x 100"

Recipient: Korina and Garrett

Methods used:  Strip Piecing, Free Motion Quilting (on my home machine)

Binding: Reunion by Sweetwater.  Cut on the bias, machine stitched to the front, hand stitched to the back

Total time to make: Approximately 40 hours