A new bed quilt

I've been quilting for a while now, and realized that's been at least 10 years since I have given some bed quilts to people.  I recently changed my quilt and realized that these other family members might also like a change.  One of them took me up on the offer.

They previous had a duvet cover (project 19!) and didn't want a duvet anymore.  They also liked one of the baby quilts I had made a few years ago, so I went with a larger version of that.   This is project 108, so probably about 80 quilts later.  (There are some in between that I still need to finish up.)

I enjoyed making this quilt because I got to use a bunch of my scraps.  I still have a lot of scraps, but the scrap bucket went from overflowing to manageable.  I had also gotten some fat quarters as a present soon after I started this quilt, so I included those liberally to pull things together at least a little bit.

It was quilted mostly with just a basic stipple because the quilt is already pretty noisy, but I added some leaf-pairs in too.  I thought it would give the quilt a bit of interest while not taking too long nor adding too much quilting.

Since I'm tracking my solid fabric usage, the light brown is Kona Sand and the green binding is Julip.

And now it's at it's loving home!  We think I'm going to take the duvet cover back and make a light quilt out of it - and then it can change with the seasons.

Nathan's round robin

A long while ago, Liz suggested that I make a quilt hanging for Nathan's office because it was cold and boring.  She had made a blanket for his office, so Christmas 2022 she brought the yarn she had used and I color matched it with fabric so that I could match the current blanket.  I decided to make a round robin style quilt.  I thought that all the different shapes on the blanket would lend themselves well to that style.

Here's the original blanket:

The colors I used were Kona putty, old green, bluebell, taupe, dresden blue, saffron, and ochre.

I took my time with the quilting (for once).  There is a tiny stiple in the center, the blue squares have back and forths, there are some echoes in the chevrons, and figure 8 in the green borders.  Not all of my quilting is nice and straight, but it is good enough. 

I matched the thread to the fabric color too.  It just looks nicer.

Harry Potter nine patch

I love how this quilt turned out!  (I think that about a lot of the quilts.  But nevertheless, this one is no exception.)

The pattern is Urban Nine Patch on Point by Jenny Pedigo of Sew Kind of Wonderful.  The colors correspond to the different house colors in Harry Potter.  (There are several different links with slightly different colors, but I used this one.)  I didn't want the quilt to scream Harry Potter though, so I put the colors in the blocks and mixed up the houses.

I used the following Kona colors:

background: steel
inner background: dove
Gryffindor: Chinese Red and Papaya
Slytherin: Shale and Holly
Ravenclaw: Pacific and Gold
Hufflepuff: Citrus and Black

I went a bit crazy on the quilting.  In the background it's a star stipple - pretty easy.  In the nine patch, the corner colors have a tiny stipple and the other color has some curved lines (using a ruler).  The thread color always matched the fabric color.

Where the blocks met I did some more curves with the ruler, still matching the color of the triangle the curve went through.  If I had to do it again, I'd change this part.  I think it was a lot of extra work for not a lot of coolness...although it does make an interesting pattern and I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Heidi's wedding quilt

The wedding quilt is finished!

It's large and therefore hard to get a picture of.  However, it wasn't too large for my quilter, so that was awesome.  The pattern is from the July/Aug '19 issue of Quiltmaker and designed by Sylvia Schaefer.  (The official name is Glow Tiles.)  I'll admit, I didn't like the pattern in the magazine.  It's one of the first patterns I've made from a magazine, so they might all be this way.  There were a few details that were missing so I had to do a lot of flipping the page and using the process of elimination.

I also don't love the quilt.  This also has a few reasons...I'm used to working on smaller quilts and I think I just got bored.  I had some significant problems with the quilter also really threw a damper on things, although by the end of the quilt they were mostly fixed.  There are also a few mistakes in the quilt that I just really don't like.  I'm not sure anyone will ever notice, but...they're there.

Ok, enough of the negative.  Let's talk about the things I do like.  I do like how I quilted this.  In the glow tile part I did a dense stipple, which really made the glow tiles pop.  Outside of that I did some zig-zags, but also added some thread fireworks to make things a bit interesting.  I like using thread so that it stands out from the fabric, but it's a bit nerve-wracking too.  The fireworks on the bottom should be on the bottom side of the mattress and not on the top.

The colors that were used were Kona's Teal Blue, Dark violet, Violet, Orchid, Gold, Curry, and Mustard.

I backed it with minky.  As always.  Because adults love the softness too.

Linking up with Q4 Finish-A-Long (#1)

Table Runners

I met someone on the other side of our little lake that is also a quilter.  She wanted some table runners done, and so I did them for her.

Number One.  This one was done with leaves: white thread in the white parts and variegated green/brown in the leaves.

Number Two: same threads, but a stipple instead.

It was nice to find a new quilting friend.  It was also nice to have a white backing because I could see the quilting so well.

Pillows for the wedding quilt

I thought it would be rather nice to have some pillows to go along with the wedding quilt that I made for my sister-in-law's sister.  I also thought it would be fun to work on something a little different this month.

I made two pillowcases for normal pillows.  I didn't have enough Kona Grellow, so they're reversible.

I also made some covers for throw pillows.  I only gave her three pillows, figuring she could either swap them out or buy more as desired.

First up we have the light grey (Kona steel).  It mirrors the light grey quilting on the quilt with the one inch square squares.  It is in a different setting though.  Also, I had to use to different pieces to make a piece large enough and it seems as though they might not actually have been the same color.  This was very evident after it came out of the wash and I may have freaked out a bit.  Now that it's dry it isn't nearly as noticeable, but it is still there.  The dark grey (Kona iron) and saffron are just enlarge copies of the quilting from the quilt.  The saffron one does have a single white loopy strand running through it.  It's subtle.

The other three I played with a bit more.  The dark grey doesn't have any quilting.  The white has a meander in three different colors, and they all overlap each other.  The saffron one has their monogram, which shows up because of microquilting straight lines around the letters.  There is also a dark strip on the right where I used a different color thread for a bit.

I think my favorites are the white one and the dark grey with quilting.  I'm pretty happy with how the monogram turned out, but the thicknesses of the letters are a bit wobbly.

This was my December goal.  I didn't finish in time to give it as a Christmas present, but I did finish with plenty of time by the end of the month!

Interlocking triangles

The baby is here!  He showed up a bit early, but is doing well.

So obviously he needed a quilt.  I was going over to my parents' house and thought it would be fun to get some pictures there.  It's amazing how many fun backgrounds there can be even just going to a different house.

The design is an original.  I found out that they had this rug on their registry from Crate and Barrel.  Then I used the Play Crafts' Pallette Builder to get the colors.  I ended up changing the yellow and orange a bit so that the quilt would be a bit brighter, but am curious to see how well the others match.  My design also plays on the triangle theme, but isn't too similar to the rug.

I went back and forth on the pink...the gender was not found out until the baby was born, so should I keep the pink?  There is pink in the rug.  I decided to do it.  There isn't too much pink and it seems silly that boys shouldn't be able to have a bit of pink too.

This is my favorite picture.  It is a rock pathway that is really only about five yards long and goes no where.  But it made a great background.  If you look closely you'll notice that inside the triangles is a light tan (Kona Putty) and outside is white (Kona white).  The only reason is that I ran out of putty and was didn't want to order more.

Quilting - the triangles have a wood grain in a matching color thread while the background is stippled.

I used a flannel on the back.  I don't like it quite as much as minky, but I couldn't find the right color in minky.  The quilt is bound in red sateen.

The other colors I used were Kona Bluegrass, Mushroom, Stone, Straw, Primrose, Sunny, and Rich red.  And an orange...I can't recall where it is from.

Linking up with Finish It Up Friday, Fabric Tuesday, and Sew Cute Tuesday

Places to go - finished

I finished this quilt as part of my July ALYoF goal (#30)...and before the baby has been born.

This quilt is for my cousin's son.  As part of the baby shower, everyone wrote a blessing or a Bible verse on a square of fabric.  Mine is below - "Remember that God 'will do more than we ask or imagine.' Eph 3:20."

I'm calling the quilt "Places to Go" because there are care on the themed fabric an the blessings show how to go.  And babies and toddlers always, always have places to go and things to do.

I did a stipple over the squares that didn't have writing on them and put a car (and maybe a sign) in the dark blue squares.  I found the cars from The Inbox Jaunt.  I used the simple version.  And since the stipple looked so much like a road, I added a few signs (squares and triangles on sticks) to make it look even more like a road.

The back has the car fabric.

Off we go!

Linking up with Finish it up Friday, Whoop-whoop Friday, and TGIFF.

Doll quilt

I finished quilting a doll quilt to go with my niece's quilt.

For reference, here is the large quilt.  The larger octagons have hearts and cupcakes, the squares have rainbows, and the border is feathered.

Here is the doll quilt:

I put hearts in the unicorn squares, stippled the nine patches, and put some feathers in the outer border.  It uses a subset of the same elements as the larger quilt, but in a way that made the doll quilt come together rather quickly.

Partying with Whoop-whoop Friday, Link a finish Friday, and Finish it up Friday

T-shirt quilt 2

My friend is about to return overseas, so I wanted to make sure that I got this to her before she left!  It is a sister quilt to her husband's.

 

The back is grey polka dots on a black background.  I used matching threads in the borders and sashing, and I like how the yellow pebbles stand out so much.

The T-shirts are trying to escape the dresser!  (Otherwise known as me trying to find interesting pictures.)

Here are some of my favorite blocks.  This one I traced around the continents.  I did it to make sure that there was enough quilting for the batting, but it made it pop nicely.

I have this same shirt and it is one of my favorites...so comfortable! 

This one is funny because my friend lived in a cottage called DeGraaf for a year or two.

This one shows my continued effort to drape a quilt casually yet artfully.  I won't show you all the outtakes.

And one more showing the back.  You can see the border quilting best here.  (Hmm...if you zoom in on the picture.  I need to do a better job photographing quilting.)  Figure eights in the green border, back and forths in the blue border, and double straight lines in the yellow.  For the green and blue borders I used a tip from Amy's Free Motion Quilting Adventures and used a plastic grid and pounce pad to put a grid in the quilt.  This helped me keep everything a bit more evenly lined up while not taking up too much extra time.

edit: I realized I forgot to give some credit for the design (again!).  The original was seen here.
Linking up with Whoop-whoop Friday, Link a finish Friday, and Finish It Up Friday.