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

Puff Quilt #5: Giggles!

I finished another puff quilt!  I started this one back in October because I made an identical one for my sister's baby shower.  Time started to run short, so I didn't get to finish this one until recently.  It's made using Me and My Sisters' "Giggles" fabric.  And it's listed in my shop.  :)

This was Finish #5 from my Q2 Finish Along list!  Wahoo!  Linking up:

Chevron Baby Girl Quilt

I'm so excited to share this new baby quilt with you!  It's been finished for two weeks already.  As soon as I heard a friend of mine was having a baby girl, I knew I had to use up some of my precious Me and My Sisters charms.  Everyone else around me seems to be having boys, so I jumped at the chance to make something girly.  Everything else was put away for two weeks while I focused on this quilt and finished it with plenty of time to spare. :)

I peeked at my friend's pinterest board and found a few chevron inspired items.  That was all it took to get me started!  I've been dying to make a cute little chevron quilt!

I forgot to take a picture of the completed top, but I did take a few of it after it was basted.  I almost went with white (or tiny dots on white) for the negative spaces but that would have required a trip to the store and I was too impatient.  So I pulled out these two grayish fabrics and used every last bit of them.  I LOVE how the dark, scrappy background looks against the bright colors!

I attempted to arrange my HSTs so that the quilt had an ombre effect to it.  Can you tell?  Squint a little and you will see it. ;)

The quilting for this quilt was inspired by Christa's Charming Chevrons quilt.  Of course, mine has a different spin on it - I quilted lots of straight lines with a row of pebbles in the background and kept the quilting to a minimum in the colored parts.  I think it works great!

I really love pieced backs and debated doing something cute for this one, but I had this piece of pink dot flannel that was the perfect size and just seemed to fit so I ran with it.  Doesn't the back look so fun?

I tried something scary and quilted all my straight lines with gray thread on top to match the neutral colors and pink thread on bottom to match the back.  Thankfully, it worked!  No pink dots on top or gray dots on bottom.  Whew.  Then I decided to quilt the colored zigs with matching thread on top and bottom, so if you look closely you can see a few lines in different colors on the back.  Of course, when it came time to FMQ the pebbles - using a FMQ foot instead of a walking foot, I could NOT get the tension right and was forced to use gray thread on top and bottom.  Otherwise I had scary little dots poking through where they weren't supposed to be. 

I love how the pebbles add so much pretty texture to the quilt.  Pebbles are awesome like that.  

 For the binding, I auditioned several different prints from my stash, but ultimately I had to go with the same pink dots as used on the back.  The plan was to save time and fabric and fold the backing over to the top for binding, but of course when I was trying to trim my quilt top and batting after quilting, I managed to cut a huge hole in the backing.  Ah well.  So I tried out Alyssa's technique for Perfect Binding.  I think it turned out okay, although I still ended up with 3 or 4 pesky sections that didn't get sewn all the way down.  The tutorial is great, and I'll probably try her method again (she used Elmers glue instead of pins or clips!) although it is time consuming and it was a little difficult to work with the thick flannel fabric.  Hopefully the quilt will be nice and soft.

You can see some blue stitched lines in this photo...

I tried one more new thing this time around - I prewashed my batting!  (Actually, I prewashed the flannel backing as well because I know how much flannel shrinks.)  I really love the clean lines you get on a freshly quilted, unwashed quilt.  Sometimes I feel bad when a quilt is washed and all the hard work I put into quilting it sort of fades away, you know?  So I prewashed the batting/backing.  Since this is a baby quilt and is going to get washed lots and lots, I wanted to do a test wash before gifting it.  Here are a few more photos pre-wash:

And finally, fresh from the dryer:

In my opinion, prewashing the batting didn't really make a difference.  (NOTE TO SELF:  Next time try hang drying instead of machine drying.)  Although the quilt still looks basically the same when you take a step back, it has lost it's "fresh, new" look and has adopted the "wrinkly, old-fashioned" look.  Ah well.  I suppose I should call it "crinkly and cuddly."

 You can see the crinkly look better here.  What about you?  Do you prefer fresh and crisp or crinkly and cuddly?

Quilt stats:

Started: August 5, 2013

Finished: August 18, 2013

Total hours (I was curious, so I kept track this time):  11 hours (5 hours piecing the top, 4 hours quilting, 1 1/2 hours binding, 1/2 hour designing/layout)

Fabrics:  Amelia and Favorites by Me and My Sisters; Kona Steel and Bison

Finished size: 31 x 25 (post washing)

Recipient:  MM baby girl due in November 

Edited 6/13/14:  Linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio's "Oh Sew Baby" series.  Check it out!

Back at it!

It's been awhile since I have sewed, but things are starting to settle down and I have some progress to share!  Yay!

July was a BUSY month.  We moved at the very end of June, so there was lots of packing, cleaning, unpacking and cleaning going on.  Followed by two separate vacations, two weeks of swimming lessons (Mommy and Me - so fun!), and a whole month of working here and there to get our apartment ready to rent.  Ugh.  But once we started settling in, I picked right back up where I left off.

But first, I have to say that we are LOVING our new house!  We moved from a duplex apartment to a 3,000+ square foot house practically up in the mountains and it is amazing.  I have so much SPACE!  And I have a SEWING ROOM again!!!  Yippee!  Check out the awesome view from my sewing machine.

Every now and then a little family of deer or wild turkeys will walk past.  That's kinda cool.

 And the amazing TWO closets I get all to myself!  Now I just need to fill them up. :)

Crazy picture!  My sewing room isn't THAT big - I was backed clear into the window trying to capture both closets at the same time.

Even with all that space, I can't help but keep my actual fabric stash out on the floor in my plastic drawers so I can see it all the time. :)

Now that we are living in a real house and plan to stay here forever, I decided it was time to get rid of our ghetto grocery bag dispensers.  You know the ones:

I used THIS tutorial from Gen X Quilters to make some super cute new ones.

I made the first dispenser following the tutorial exactly, with the exception of the scary grommets.  I just attached my handle on one side and sewed some velcro onto the other side so I can hang it from the rods in our laundry room and closets, rather than installing hooks.

I used the same super cute fabric I used on my favorite bibs for the boys.  It's going to look great in their room, hanging from the changing table.

I wanted to practice some FMQ designs, but this fabric DEMANDED to be quilted with straight lines.  SO I obliged.  I did, however, use some fun variegated thread.  

Complete with decorative stitches at the bottom and the top to reinforce the bag.

 

For the second dispenser, I decided to go a little smaller, since the first one is SO LONG.

It didn't take long for me to pick out this blue African fabric.  I used it in my skirt and I've been saving the leftovers for the perfect project.  It's so pretty, I'm glad I'll get to see it all the time now.

This time, I was able to do LOTS of fun quilting!  It was so fun, and I definitely need more opportunities to practice and get better at it. ;)

I used Angela Walters' Tiles pattern for the first sashing strip, swirls in the fussy cut circle strip, and a simple back and forth in the next sashing strip.  For the main panel, I couldn't bring myself to quilt over the design, so I just stitched around the flowers and echoed them.  The next sashing strip is Leah Day's Modern Art design, and the next fussy cut print strip had diamonds following the pattern.
The bottom section is left unquilted, because it is the part that holds the elastic.

Here's the inside of the panel before I made the bag.  You can see the quilting better. :)

Also,  I'm still plugging away on my Storm at Sea quilt.  I'm making Snail Trail blocks for the borders, using some of my lovely and precious Oakshotts.

I'm also stocking up on solid remnants from Joanns (50% off!) for the backing.  I've got almost 12 yards stashed now and I think I have enough to put together a quilt-as-you-go King size backing (sorry for the fuzzy pic.  I'd hate to give TOO much away now, wouldn't I?)

And lastly, I've started a brand new quilt!  A friend of mine is having a baby girl (FINALLY!  A GIRL!), so I broke into my long hoarded Me and My Sisters charms and whipped up some HSTs.  This quilt is going to be darling.

Stay tuned!  I've got a couple of birthdays coming up as well and you know the birthday people need something handmade!  :)  I'm so glad to be back.