the accidental quilt ----> christmas coins quilt :: finished

I finished this quilt top back in August of 2013.  You can click this link to go back & read more about how I made this quilt, if you are so inclined.  I had originally named this quilt the "Accidental Quilt" since I hadn't really planned on making it, but now that it is finished, I have decided to name it "Christmas Coins".      

This quilt top was sent to Abby Latimer for long-arm quilting.  We decided on the Christmas Snow pattern, which I think turned out really great on this quilt.  The only thing I wish I had done differently is used a different backing fabric.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of time on the backing, so I used a wide back that I found at my LQS.  I like the backing fabric, but the quilting really gets lost on the busy fabric.  I love when quilting stands out on the back of a quilt, so going forward I will try to choose fabrics that will allow the quilting to shine! 

I decided to go with the same grey fabric for the binding as I used for the background so the coins could appear to float on the background fabric.  

The “giveaway” will remain open through the month of May.  Click back to this post for the details & to enter, if you are interested!   Giveaway now closed.

Quilt Stats:

Fabric:

          Quilt top - Blitzen by Basic Grey for Moda and a grey solid for the background fabric

          Binding - same grey solid that was used for the background fabric

Pattern: simple coin design

Dimensions: 69" x 83"

Started quilt top: August 1st, 2013

Finished quilt top: August 7th, 2013

Quilted: by Abby Latimer of Latimer Lane Quilting using the Christmas Snow pantograph pattern

By the way, Abby is having a Christmas Quilting in July sale.  Click on over to her website for more details if you are looking for a long-arm quilter!

Thanks for reading!

Valerie

Linking to:
NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation
TGIFF @ My Quilt Infatuation 
Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts 
Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Link a Finish Friday @ Richard & Tanya Quilts  

tensley's "baby" quilt :: finished

So, in other news, Tensley started preschool on April 7^th.  She goes 2 days a week (Monday & Wednesday) from 8:15 – 12.  Easton naps 9 – 11 so I have been trying to catch up on my WIPs.  The first one I pulled out was Tensley’s “baby” quilt.  (Nevermind the fact that she turned 3 on April 13th.)  

I finished this quilt top in October of 2012.  You can click this link to go back and read more about making the quilt top, if you are so inclined.  I went with this brown / grey fabric for the back.  

I sent it out to Abby Latimer for long-arm quilting.  We decided on the Candyland quilting pattern & I really like it!  It is perfect for this quilt.  

I went back and forth on what to do for the binding.  It was between using the same fabric as the back, which would hide dirt, or doing the same cream fabric with green polka dots that I used as the background fabric.  Of course, the drawback of the cream was that it would be more difficult to keep clean, but ultimately I decided I wanted the binding to blend into the background.  I’m really happy with the result.  

 One more picture, just because....

With this quilt finished, Tensley now has 4 quilts, so I decided a quilt ladder was in order!  My local quilt shop has them for sale & so I picked one up the last time I was in.  I went with the unfinished pine because my plan was to paint it white.  However, now that it is in her bedroom, I am not so sure.  Perhaps staining it to match her woodwork would look nice.  Or maybe a darker grey color?  Her walls are Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams, which is a really lovely light gray that takes on different colors in different lights.  If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!  

Also, the "giveaway" will remain open through the month of May.  Click back to this post for the details & to enter, if you are interested!   Giveaway now closed.

Quilt Stats:
Fabric: 

Quilt top - It’s A Hoot by Momo for Moda and background fabric is cream with pale green polka dot by Robyn Pandolph              

Binding - same as background fabric 

Pattern: simple HST design
Dimensions: 48” x 56”
Started quilt top: September 24^th, 2012
Finished quilt top: October 13^th, 2012

Quilted by: Abby Latimer of Latimer Lane Quilting using the Candyland pantogram pattern  

Thanks for reading!

Valerie

Linking to:
NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation
TGIFF @ Quilt Matters
Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Link a Finish Friday @ Richard & Tanya Quilts 
Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts   

playing catch up :: Easton's nursery bedding

Did I say I was getting into a routine & would be blogging more soon….?  Ooops….

I took a hiatus from the blog because life got a little hectic.  Easton was born September 23^rd.  October & November were busy with finalizing things for the house & overseeing the final work.  We moved in on December 14^th. (More pictures to come in a future post.)  The unpacking & Christmas shopping & present wrapping kept me busy until Christmas (okay, the unpacking kept me busy until January).  January started with the 3 of us getting sick (me, Tensley, & Easton).  It took us nearly 2 weeks to completely recover.  Both kids were sick again in February and then both had ear infections in March / April.  During that time, I also had mastitis – twice.  Ugh.  So, needless to say, we are more than ready for Spring! 

Somehow during that time, I did manage to finish quite a few projects.  I’m hoping to be able to post about each one over the course of the month of May.  Also, as I was organizing my sewing room, I found a number of items that I think could go to a better home.  Stayed tuned for more about the items at the end of this post.  If you are interested in them, comment below & I will pick a winner at the end of May.

Easton’s crib bedding was on the top of my “to finish” list.  I decided to make a crib bumper for him because he moves a TON in his sleep.  From his back to his tummy and from one end of the crib to the other.  I have found him cross-ways in the crib many, many mornings.  I didn’t want him getting stuck in the crib rails and now that he is 7 months old, and “crawling” (okay, lunging forward repeatedly until he gets where he wants to go), I am not worried about him getting stuck up against the bumper. 

I had purchased a yard of this striped fabric about a year ago as the color inspiration for his quilt.  The fabric is Seaside by October Afternoon.  I decided to go ahead & purchase another 4 yards of fabric to use for the bumper & crib skirt.  To make the crib bumper, I essentially made a “duvet cover” for Tensley’s old bumper!  I lined the “duvet cover” since Tensley’s crib bumper was pink & yellow stripes that otherwise would show through the Seaside fabric.  I went back & forth on making the piping, but eventually decided it would look nicer to do the piping.  I used my zipper foot and followed this tutorial.  It actually was not difficult at all and I kind of enjoyed it!  I made the piping & ties out of fabric I had left over from backing Tensley’s quilt.  It matches the brown / grey color in the striped fabric perfectly!  

I also made the crib skirt, which was even easier.  Because I had purchased 4 yards of fabric & it was cut continuously, I used the length of the fabric to my advantage to wrap it around the bottom of the crib! Easy peasy!  I hemmed the top, bottom, & sides, but that was the only sewing required.  I didn’t even think to line the crib skirt, but I wonder if it would have given it more structure.  It is kind of “floppy”.  I could always go back and do that in the future (if / when I have time & decide it bothers me enough).  I also should have pressed the crib skirt before I put it on, but again, I could do that when / if I decide to line it or when I decide it needs washed.  

 Just in case I get questions about how I attached the crib skirt to the crib, I have a piece of plywood under the mattress (on top of the mattress spring).  I was originally going to staple the fabric to the plywood, but my dad suggested I try taping it to the plywood first to see if that would hold.  The benefit being, when I need to lower the crib mattress, I don’t have to pull out the staples to shorten the crib skirt.  So far the tape is holding great (I used masking tape).  Thanks Dad!

I ended up with the original yard of fabric left after I made the bumper & skirt, so I decided to make a blanket.  I used a blanket I already had for Easton, but one side was sports themed.  I sewed the right sides together (striped fabric & blue minky fabric facing each other), then pulled right side out through an opening, then topstitched the opening shut & topstitched around the blanket.  Quick & easy!

The best part is that I made a crib bumper, crib skirt, and blanket for Easton – all for about $50!

Now for the “giveaway”.  If you are interested in the items below, leave a comment, and I will pick a winner at the end of the month of May.  (US entries only please since I am shipping this myself.)  I’m going to leave the giveaway open for the entire month of May to give more people a chance to enter.  Some of these items are things that would be most beneficial for a beginning quilter, so even if you don’t have a use for them – perhaps you know someone who would like them...   Giveaway now closed.

 

"A Caboodle in a Box" - not sure exactly what this is... a pattern of some sort

"A Scrap Savers Solution Book", "Scrap Quilts" pamphlet, "Quilting the Quilt" pamphlet, "Bound and Determined to Finish that Quilt" booklet, "12 Quilting Guides" booklet, "The AQS Guide to Quilt Care" booklet, Sulky thread color card, & Bonnie Bonnet pattern

2 Quilt Journals (each with 15 entries for journaling about your quilts), Amy Butler Swing Bag pattern, Essential Quilting DVD

Miscellaneous floss, iron-on patches, bias tape, twill tape, seam binding

Triangle square ruler, 6" square ruler, & binding tool

10 HST on the left & 1 HST on the right (I forgot to measure these, but they are maybe 6" HSTs...)

2 Swoon practice blocks (I believe these finished at 24.5")

3 fat quarters & 2 Moda Turnovers of Fig Tree & Co Patisserie

If you are interested in the items above, comment below & I will pick a winner at the end of May.   Giveaway now closed.

Thanks for reading!

Valerie

Linking to:
NTT @ My Quilt Infatuation
Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts 
TGIFF @ Quokka Quilts
Whoop Whoop @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Link a Finish Friday @ Richard & Tanya Quilts 
Finish It Up Friday @ Crazy Mom Quilts 

introducing...

... Easton, born 9.23.2013 at 7:50 am, weighing 8 lbs 4 oz & measuring 19.5" long ::

One day old & getting ready to head home

Cousin Ella, holding Easton

Sleeping on his side

Showing off his Dad's nose ;)

Favorite sleeping position, despite my best efforts to get him to lay both ways

 Tensley loves her baby brother very much, as do her dad & I.  I'm starting to get a routine down & hope to get back to quilting & blogging soon!

-V

karianne's baby blanket

My friend & former co-worker recently had her first baby.... a beautiful little girl with big eyes and lots of dark hair, whom they named Karianne.  I wanted to make her a baby blanket for when the weather turns cold, which it will eventually do...  (I have to keep reminding myself of that because it is 90°F here today, with a real feel of 101°F.  And I'm 36 weeks pregnant...)

 

I took Tensley to one of the playgrounds in town this morning so she could play while it was still relatively "cool" and I could get a few pictures of the blanket.  One side of the blanket is a pink & brown, paisley patterned, minky fabric and the other side is one of the pieces from Aneela Hoey's 'Posy' fabric line.  I rounded the corners on this blanket, which I really liked.  They don't match perfectly, which bothers me, but now that I have done them once, I think I will be able to do them better the next time.  I forgot to measure the blanket, but I'm thinking it was close to 40" x 50" after washing & drying.  I like the larger size because it works well for laying on the floor, can be doubled up for use in the stroller or car seat, and is large enough to be used into the later toddler years.  I also like to choose fabrics that are not super "baby-ish" for the same reason.  I think this blanket will be a good size, and still age appropriate, even when Karianne is 4 or 5. 

Not a quilty finish today, but a finish nonetheless.  And now I am finally starting on my baby boy's quilt....  We'll see if I can get the top pieced in 3 weeks or less... Wish me luck!

-V

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.  
Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday.
Linking up to Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday. 
Linking up to Confessions Of A Fabric Addict.  
Linking up to Richard & Tanya Quilts. 

Katy Jones' Blogger's Choice Bundle quilt top

 
Oh hi there!  Yep, I'm back already with another finished quilt top.  I'm on a roll!  It took me about 2 months to finish the swoon quilt (which felt like for-ever!), then I finished the accidental quilt top, which really only required me to put sashing between the "coins" on that quilt...

And I had fully intended on starting on the baby's quilt next.  But then something happened...  I won Katy Jones' Blogger's Choice Bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop!  I usually don't enter giveaways because I like to see fabric in person and am finding that I enjoy the process of curating fabrics for a quilt.  However, I really loved the fabrics Katy chose for her bundle.

Katy blogs over at I'm A Ginger Monkey in case you don't already follow her blog.  Her blog was one of the first 3 or 4 that I found when I started sewing.  In fact, to win her blogger bundle, you had to guess what her fabric choices would be.  Since I've been following her for quite some time I had no problem guessing what she would use.

Once I received the fabrics, I could not resist cutting into them.  I tried to resist, I really did.  But that lasted for all of a day or two.  I almost immediately knew what pattern I wanted to use.  My sister has a really cool antique quilt that I admire every time I am at her house.  I thought that the blogger bundle fabrics would work perfectly with that pattern.  I asked her to send me a picture of her antique quilt and so she did:

From there, I estimated the size of the block and then calculated what dimensions the pieces would need to be cut at.  If I had been more patient, I could have waited until the next time I was at her house & measured the quilt block components, but I was so excited to get started I just couldn't wait!  After I calculated what size pieces I would need, I figured out how many pieces I could get out of each fat quarter.  I then decided that I wanted to add 5 fat quarters from my stash so I could make the quilt top a bit bigger and also so I could add just a little bit more variety.  I'm finding that the more fabrics I use in a quilt, the more I like the quilt.  I don't know if it is that I like the look of the quilt more or that I like the process more because I get to use more fabrics.  Maybe a little of both.

From there I cut out the fabric to make a practice block.  I wasn't sure how it was going to come out, but it actually worked!  I made just a few adjustments to my dimensions.  The block ended up being 9.5" unfinished.  I was shooting for 10" unfinished, but the math just worked better for the 9.5" block. 

I ended up doing a 6 x 8 layout, which worked perfect for having the X's not get "broken", and gave me a final quilt top of 54" x 72", which I think is a great size of quilt for me.  Yeah, that's right, I'm keeping this quilt for myself!  I just love it too much to give it away.

I finished this quilt top in about 10 "working" days, which is really fast for me since I typically only get about 2 hours of quilting time a day - and that's if I'm really lucky.  And that 10 days included making the calculations and the practice block.  I'm sure part of the reason this quilt top came together so quickly was that I never pinned a single thing.  Really the only time you would need to pin is at the end when you are joining the blocks.  Even without pinning I am pretty happy with how everything lined up.  (We have had overcast skies since yesterday, which is when I finished the top.  However, I was too excited to wait for a sunny day for pictures, so hopefully you'll forgive me for these less than stellar photos.) 
 

As much as I really want to dive in and start quilting this top, I know I need to piece my baby boy's quilt first.  So this quilt top will just have to join the queue of tops that are waiting for quilting. 

Quilt Top Stats:
Fabric: Katy Jones' Blogger's Choice Bundle for the Fat Quarter Shop (click on link above to see the names of the fabrics included in the bundle) + 5 fat quarters I pulled from my stash 
Pattern: Replica of an antique quilt my sister owns... I don't know if there is a name for this pattern....
Dimensions: 54" x 72" 
Started quilt top: August 8th, 2013
Finished quilt top: August 21st, 2013

-V

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday.
Linking up to Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday. 
Linking up to Confessions Of A Fabric Addict.  
Linking up to Richard & Tanya Quilts.  
Linking up to Finish It Up Friday. 

the accidental quilt top....

I didn't set out to make this quilt top....

Originally my plan was to take the scraps left over from my Starry Christmas quilt, sew them all into strips, cut the strips to 6.5" tall & 70" long and use them on the back of that quilt.  I didn't calculate anything out, I just started sewing scraps together, figuring that I'd maybe be able to make 2 or 3 rows of strips.  Well, it turned out that I had more scraps than I thought!  Not only did I have enough scraps to sew 10 rows of strips, I ended up having a giveaway for the rest of the scraps!  In fact the entire "back" could have been strips sewn together, had I wanted to keep piecing them.  Instead, I decided to use some grey fabric from my LQS to separate the pieced strips with rows of grey.  Once I did that, I realized this quilt "back" might as well be used as a quilt top rather than making it "share time" with the Starry Christmas quilt.  I also thought about using the grey fabric as a border, but decided I preferred the look without the border.  It's kind of like a coin quilt, only the coins are giant and all different sizes!  Haha.

The quilt measures 69" x 83" after being squared it up.  Random dimensions, I know, but again, this was supposed to be the back.  The only drawback of calling this a quilt top is that it brings my total to 3 quilt tops that need a backing & need to be quilted!  And I have 2 more quilts I want to start on very soon!  I think those 3 quilt tops might just have to wait a little longer to be finished....

-V

Linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday.  
Linking up to Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday. 
Linking up to Finish It Up Friday.
Linking up to Confessions Of A Fabric Addict.
Linking up to Richard & Tanya Quilts.