JJ's Polar Bear Quilt

This post is about the second quilt I made for my Aunt to give to one of her daughters (see previous post HERE)

This one was a lot easier to choose colors/fabrics for!  My Aunt says that this cousin LOVES polar bears and that her favorite colors are blue, teal, aqua, white and brown.  So I found this awesome polar bear print and decided to feature it with various sized squares.   I LOVE the colors in this quilt.  Don't you?

The quilt was fun to make - I just cut a bunch of strips from all my fabric and started making blocks with them.  Some are off centered, some are not.

The quilting was the hard part on this one - I couldn't decide what to do!  Finally we went with straight lines echoing the squares.  Next time I suggest doing this on a very big quilt - SOMEBODY STOP ME!  It turned out okay, but I just didn't feel like it was my best work.  The quilt was way too bulky to attempt straight line quilting with my walking foot (which I did for about 6 blocks), so I had to do the whole thing free hand.  I probably should have gone with a different quilting design, but as it turns out - this one really blended in and let the blocks themselves shine.  You really can't see the wobbly lines (which are ALL OVER THE PLACE) unless you are looking very closely.  :p

 I went with a solid brown, hand stitched binding.  Mmm.  Love this color of brown.  It reminds me of chocolate.  

The back is almost all flannel from my stash.  Woot!  (I had a few extra blocks left over, so they got to be on the back with the label.)  It's so warm and cuddly, I love it. 

Here it is on my Queen bed.  It's big! 

And here is it with its sister.  :)

By the way, my aunt sent me a video of the girls opening their quilts on Christmas morning.  They love them!  YAY!!!

Quilt stats:

Started: Late September, 2015

Finished: December 4, 2015

Fabrics: Polar Bears are Elizabeth's Studio.  The rest are from all over. 

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

Finished size: Approx. 84" x 96"

Recipient: JJ

Methods used:  Piecing, Free Motion Quilting

Binding: Hand stitched to the back

Time to make:  Approx. 25-30 hours

This quilt was #6 on my Quarter 4 Finish-Along List.  Linking up!

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!