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.

Green Quarter Log cabin - finished

I've been attending a Mom's group at church and this baby snuck up on me quickly.  I knew for most of the year that she was pregnant and yet suddenly the baby was here!

Anyway, I was Queen Bee in January for Stash Bee, so I decided to use those blocks for the quilt.  I started laying them out and realized quickly that it was way to big for a baby quilt.  So I've only used a bit over half of them, which means I can use the other half for another baby quilt!

For the bee block I asked for a log cabin block and then I cut them in quarters.  In hind-sight, this was probably not the best choice for a bee block.  Bee blocks come in with all sorts of tolerances, and then when I cut them the things seemed to get worse.  (I would like to note that I am not always the best at getting the block size perfect either, especially if I'm doing the whole quilt.  I try really hard and am getting better, but I'm often surprised at how some of my seams end up so small.)  I used Kona Hunter Green for the setting triangles.

I used a leaf motif for quilting.  I thought it fit the green theme well.  I didn't quilt on the white squares, because I didn't want the green thread showing up.

As always, the back is minky.  I used a satin ribbon for binding.

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.

Pixel flowers

My niece needed a new quilt.  We went to the fabric store last time she was in town and she loved the bright colored fabrics and fabrics with flowers.  While I didn't buy any of the fabrics that she loved, I still tried to go with the same themes. (Also, her mom wanted a quilt that would grow with her, which makes a slight difference.)

I modified a quilt block from the 2017 Quilter's Planner called Lauren's Doodle block.  As the original stood, it didn't shift the flowers over every row.  It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but with a very slight modification I ended up with a block that didn't have quite such an obvious repeat.

Purple is my niece's favorite color, so the flower centers are all purple (unless the leaves are purple) along with the binding and the minky on the back.

For the quilting, I did leaves with white thread in all the white spaces.  For the flowers, I did an eight-pointed flower in a matching thread.  Yes, this meant I had a ton of ends to bury at the end, but it was worth it, especially when looking at the back.

Do you see the fabric in the center of the purple flower?  I decided that I loved that fabric for the quilt and after a lot of searching I realized that it was out of print and no one had it for a reasonable price anymore.  Oh well.

This was the only thing I managed to finish in Q2 for the FAL, but I'm very happy with it.

Owl Quilt

My mother-in-law made this quilt for her newest grand-niece.  I had the honor of quilting and binding it.

The rows with flowers in the fabric received matching quilted flowers.  This time I tried putting leaves on some, as seen below.  I also put circles in between some petal rows, like the fabric.  It only turned out ok, so I didn't take any pictures of it.  (Also peaking through this pictures is the meandering stars that I used by the owls.)

The rows with owls on branches received wood grain.

The outer border had leaves.  I feel like I've been doing a lot of leaves lately, but they just match all the fabrics really well.  The sashing had back and forths.

This was my September goal...I finished up!  Also linking up with Finish it up Friday.

Finished: In the Woods

I finished this quilt, which has gone through many different names.  I finally settled on "In the Woods"

The fabric was a Christmas present - a Woodlands FQ bundle.  I love how HSTs work together in a quilt, so decided to go that route.  (I always question myself about half way through trimming them up though.) The placement of most of the colors is not random, but figured out in advance.  That being said, I ran out of a few colors in the middle of making the HSTs and needed to substitute some other colors.  (See how there is more of the bright orange in the bottom center?)

I took my kids to a natural playground in the area and it was a lovely spot for getting pictures.  I did one other quilt that you'll see soon, but I expect I'll be back for more pictures.

If you couldn't tell, the green section represents a tree that is just starting to change color.  The brown section is the ground, which has had many leaves come down over the course of the years.  The bright yellow and orange triangles are the leaves that have turned color and are starting to fall down.

Although there are no pictures, it is backed in an orange minky and bound in an orange sateen.

There are three distinct quilting sections. The tree, which is clam shells - art deco (by Esther at I Patch and Quilt)

The air, which has loops.  Kind of like falling leaves, but there are a lot more loops than leaves.

And the ground, which has leaves.  The fallen leaves from years past.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

Happy Surprise - Aunt's quilt

My aunt's quilt is finished!  It is based on a quilt from the American Patchwork & Quilting 2016 Calendar, month June.

The main differences include the center square all being the same fabric and the fabric layout.  It is scrappy, but all the pairs are the same...purple & pink, blue & yellow, and orange & green.  I had meant to put complimentary colors together, but made a mistake.  I like it though.

I spent a very long time on the layout.  I'm not really going to describe the pattern to you, but it is there. 

I put a minky cloud on the back.  Because minky is for adults too. I thought the clouds went nicely with the trees, and was light enough that it wouldn't be showing up on the white fabric on the front.

For the quilting, I did three different motifs in the white squares.  An 8-pointed flower, flower power - it looks like a chrysanthemum to me, and Fancy Hook Feathers (from 180 Doodle Quilting Designs).  In the colored sections I did some leaves...ground cover for the trees.

Since there were so many pine trees in the quilt, it is only fitting that a picture be taken near a pine tree too.

This was my February goal.  I finished it about a week ago, but had to hurry up and get pictures!

Finished - stack 'n whack

I've wanted to make a stack 'n whack quilt for a while.  (In case you don't know what that is, it is where you put several layers of fabric on top of itself, all lined up so the design is in the same place on each layer.  You then cut out your pieces and put every stack together, creating a sort of kaleidoscope affect.)  I was a bit unsure of the layout that I wanted as I wasn't thrilled with many that I saw.  Then I saw one that had many background triangles in it and decided I liked it...it gave the eye a place to rest.

Here is the fabric I started with:

I cut it up and realized that I didn't quite have enough stars for a full layout and decided to add extra background.  I love how it turned out!

My initial thought had been to slice up the circles into pie shapes, but then I realized that would be rather boring.  So I added some of the white background into the mix and got some fun designs.

The flowers are quilted in white thread using a flowerish pattern.  The background is quilted with leaves (from Angela Walters).  I think of it as ground cover.  It is quilted with a thread that is fairly ugly on the spool - brown and green variegated.  But it was perfect for this.

The back is a minky.  The colors don't really match, but the theme does.  The original fabric was full of butterflies and dragonflies and flower-type things.

As with all my blankets, I bound it in sateen.  I thought it was a bit more coral in the store, but when I got home it seemed pink.  Ah well, it still matched well.

The baby should be here any day now, so I'll get it send off soon!

Linking up with TGIFF and Finish it up Friday.  Finishing this was also my November ALYoF (#54).  I love finishing a little early and feeling like I can work on anything or everything for a few days.