a doll for Appleby

Over a year and a half ago my dear friend Ari's daughter Appleby turned one and I wanted to make her a special birthday gift. I decided to make her a doll (I used this doll pattern and recommend it) that resembled her and a quilt for the doll using the same fabrics from the quilt I made for Appleby. I was overambitious and even asked Ari to send me a picture of her current favorite outfit of Appleby's so I could capture her one year old style forever in doll apparel. Although I am not one to sew garments I drafted a pattern for a sweater and leggings, even piecing the fabric for the sweater since it needed to be striped and I didn't have coral and cream striped fabric on hand. I admit to scrapping the first two sweaters I made and even asking for help dressing the doll after I realized I couldn't get the leggings on over her big feet. I didn't learn my lesson though because I've made this doll a bunch of times since then and made the same mistakes on the next two dolls. I wised up for the last two though, constructing the doll bodies out of the clothing fabric rather than making clothes, and I was much more successful. Anyway, I was pleased with the results and loved giving this doll and little doll quilt to Appleby!

my first foray into hexagons | a quilt for Lillia

Thanks so much for all the sweet comments yesterday about the mug rugs! I really like making them so it's great to see so much interest. I'm going to be putting a few more in the shop, hopefully soon! I received a few requests for specific fabrics and colors and it will be fun to make some custom designs. If you missed the announcement yesterday you can see what I'm talking about here - mug rugs are now in the shop, and from now until the week before Christmas you can receive a discount on your purchase of one (or more!) to help out with all your holiday shopping. Now, back to sharing all the baby quilts! 

I made this quilt for a sweet baby girl who's just a little younger than Finn. I loved the bright and feminine prints mixed with gray and black from Violet Craft's Waterfront Park line of fabric. I had been wanting to work with hexagons for a while and these large ones seemed like a nice way to showcase the prints. I must admit though, I cheated and used this method of piecing! Next time I'll be going all the way, Y seams and all. For now, here's Lillia's quilt, ever so elegantly photographed on my living room floor. It was winter and I wasn't up for a photo shoot in the snow!

My favorite print is the one with the triangles, and also the dots. They remind me of braille or morse code. I quilted simple straight lines across the quilt, along either side of the seams that make up the top, middle, and bottom of each hexagon. I think free motion quilting would have added a little more to the design, but I had yet to attempt that at this point in my quilting career! This quilt was made in either December 2013 or January 2014, and I hadn't free motion quilted anything until this summer.

There's a fun bit of scrappy binding - some solid gray mixed in with a citron Denyse Schmidt print. I used Rachel's method of zig zag binding and I have to say I didn't love it and haven't used it again. Hers is much neater than mine, so there's that, but I prefer the look of a clean straight line stitched in the ditch, or invisible binding. 

I love handwriting my labels on gifted quilts, but I'm looking for some to use on quilts to sell. Any recommendations? I'm going to try to post about another baby quilt finish tomorrow. There are quite a few more that I need to write about!

wonderland | a quilt for Emory

Edit: I gave this quilt to our friends Alex and Andy when they were expecting their daughter Emory in May of 2015.

Again with the quilt names lacking in imagination - I'm calling this one Wonderland after the fabric collection I used in it. Busy and scrappy, this quilt is a delight to the senses! It's soft and cuddly, perfect for wrapping babies and toddlers in, and it doubles as an I Spy quilt! You can spend time with your child looking for butterfly wings, meadows, scissors, and two pincushions! 

The back is a bold Heather Bailey print, some scrappy blocks leftover from the front, and a strip of a nice neutral fabric I found in my stash that is a relic from the second quilt I made! See the listing for Wonderland in my shop here!

P.S. Speaking of I Spy quilts, did you know that my mom made Ezra one when I had Finn? It's quite different from this (as this isn't a true I Spy quilt) and we spend lots of time searching for all the fun prints she included. Check it out here on her blog!

won't you be my neighbor | a quilt looking for Eleanor

Edit: I gave this quilt to a baby girl named Eleanor who was born to parents who had lost their first son right around the time I had Finn. His name was Henry and he was stillborn at 39 weeks. They went on to suffer two miscarriages and eventually began the process of adopting a little boy. Just a few months before his adoption was finalized they welcomed a baby girl into their family. I wanted to give her this quilt because she's home, here on earth, with her family, rather than home in Heaven like her older siblings. I made another "home" quilt for her adopted brother, too, as he has a forever home with his new family. I hope and pray that their quilts bring them warmth and much comfort, and that always remind them of home.

Last night was a productive one for me. I finished writing thank you notes for Finn's birthday (albeit much later than I would have liked to but at least they're done now!) and I finished binding my 34th quilt. Did you catch that? My 34th quilt! I counted them recently (you can see about 2/3 of them here - the rest will be on the blog soon, I hope) after completing my biggest quilt ever. Thinking about all those quilts had me remembering how I started with this crazy craft of cutting fabric up and sewing it back together. I learned to sew in 2007 (I think... it might have been 2008), making a pencil skirt at the home of one of my high school friends with her mother, Lorraine. Lorraine is a master seamstress and can make anything, and she is always willing to share her time and her skills with others. Around the same time my mom and I took a class at RISD to learn how to batik, which is an Indonesian technique using wax resist to dye fabric. We ended up with lots of pieces of our hand dyed fabric, but none of them were large enough to make anything with, or so I thought. I mentioned it to Lorraine and she immediately suggested a quilt. Making a quilt would be a great way to showcase the fabric we dyed, using all the small cuts of cloth and creating a keepsake along the way. So Lorraine taught me how to make a simple patchwork quilt and I learned how to chain piece, too. You can read more about my first "quilt" here. Anyway, after that first quilt I was addicted, making a baby quilt for my cousin's daughter from one of Denyse Schmidt's books. It seemed appropriate since Denyse is a RISD grad and it was a class at RISD that got me into quilting, in a way. Thirty four quilts later, with a few commissioned projects along the way, I've finally decided to sell some of my work.

The quilt pictured is called "Won't You Be My Neighbor" and it's the first one I'm listing in my etsy shop, the tiny hummingbird shop. I'll be listing more quilts in the days and weeks ahead as well as a few other fun little handmade items. Visit the shop for details and the story behind the quilt. Please take a peek and spread the word! These quilts are made for snuggling and are looking for good homes :)

a quilt for Lumpy // geometric elephant blocks

Once again I find myself wanting to keep a quilt for Ezra instead of giving it away... I made this one for a baby boy who should be arriving some time next month. Stan and Karissa are decorating his room in grays, blues, and greens so I went through my stash (and my mom's, too - thanks, mom!) to see what I could pull together. I found a few pieces from Laurie Wisbrun's elephant collection and decided to use them as the centerpieces for the blocks. Some of the other fabrics include pieces from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane collection, Anna Maria Horner's Garden Party collection, the Denyse Schmidt for collection for Joann, and of course lots of Kona solids. Here are some of my favorite fabric combinations...

This was actually the first time I made a quilt using blocks and sashing. I liked that it was like making nine mini quilts which I got play around with in creating the larger design. The backing is made up of Kona grass green and Kona coal along with a little label made of one of the stripey Laurie Wisbrun prints. The quilt is bound with a green-on-green sort of geometric print.

Like the quilt I made for for Ari, this quilt's label has a blank line on it for the baby's name which will be revealed after he makes his debut.

And... the usual stack of burpcloths that helped me use up some odd shaped remnants left over after making the quilt. I can't wait for the little man to arrive so I can see him all wrapped up in elephants!