two plus one equals three | a quilt for Parker

Plus quilts are pretty trendy right now and I had been wanting to make one of my own for a while. I decided to make this particular plus quilt (since I do think I'll be making another some day!) for my friend Jill's baby boy, Parker. He's their third baby which is why I named the quilt "two plus one equals three" - two children plus one baby equals three kids for Eric and Jill :) The pluses seemed like a great pattern to show off some fun fabrics, and since the blocks were on the large side I knew that it would come together pretty quickly. I used a combination of Michael Miller fabrics, seersucker, some Lizzy House, and a few random fabrics that were given to me by a friend who doesn't sew. The background is Kona silver which is my new favorite neutral. 

The back is made up of some large cuts of fabric - gray polka dots that my mom gave me (left over from the back of Ezra's I spy quilt), blue and white chevron, some airplanes left over from the quilt I made for my friend Keri's son Will, red polka dots, and some scraps left over from the front.

I did straight line quilting on either side of each seam to frame each block and bound it in Art Gallery squared elements. There's one little scrappy bit of binding in there though - a small piece of Lizzy House jewels.

A simple handwritten label finishes it off. 

And of course I had some assistance with the photos :)

welcome to the world | an embroidered birth announcement for Jonas

Just a quick post today! I love making "paper" with fabric and thread, and when I posted a picture of a piece on instagram my friend Ashley commented that it would make a cute baby announcement. Well, she was pregnant at the time so I filed that away and then made this for her son's room. I've made a few embroidered notes over the years and there's still something special about them to me. I definitely need to work on my embroidery skills though!

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!

under the sea and dreaming | a quilt for Giuliana

Edit: I gave this quilt to our friends Matt and Kerry when they were expecting their second daughter in early January of 2018.

This quilt represents the gateway to modern quilting for me. Not so much the design, obviously, because it's just a patchwork quilt with borders, but the fabric. It's Heather Ross's fabulous Mendocino line, out of print (but it's being reprinted! though it won't be out for a while apparently) and pretty much impossible to find. My mom and I discovered it at an MQX Quilt Festival back when we first started quilting in what was the only booth selling modern fabrics that weekend. Prior to the quilt festival I had only purchased fabric at Joann and a local fabric shop that doesn't have a great selection of anything really, so I was amazed to see what this modern fabric shop (in quilt festival booth form) had to offer. We snagged a layer cake and then I didn't do anything with it for ages because I couldn't bear to cut into it. I finally used it when I was teaching my friend Amanda how to make a quilt. We used Amy Smart's beginning quilting series (highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn how to quilt!) and made quilts side by side. 

Simple five inch squares are perfect for baby quilts. They come together quickly which is great when you're trying to finish a quilt the night before the baby shower, not that I've ever done that. Ha... back to modern quilting though! I typed Heather Ross's name into Google and discovered the online quilting community - blogs, independent fabric shops, the Modern Quilting Guild, and eventually the awesomeness that is #modernquilting on instagram. I'm proud to say that I'm part of that community now, and I love being able to contribute to it in my own small way.

For more information about this quilt and to make it yours, visit the listing on etsy here!

the namesake | a quilt for Crosby

So I'm calling this quilt "the namesake" as a bit of a joke because the little recipient shares my name - his name is Crosby, which is my middle name. It's my mom's maiden name and I've always liked having it for a middle name because it's unusual and unexpected. My friends didn't name their son after me, but it's funny that we share a name now :) I made the quilt for him after his mom, my friend Amanda, bought the fabric and then kind of stalled out. She had been working on a quilt for her older son but decided she didn't like the fabric she had chosen and then got stuck in a rut. I don't know about you, but that has definitely happened to me! So, knowing she had her fourth little one on the way and not much time on her hands, I offered to make them both for her. I finished Crosby's first to help welcome into the world. I plan on starting on Lee's after I check a couple more things off my to make list.

The pattern Amanda chose is the fabulous Colorblock Quilt by Bijou Lovely. You may recognize it from last week when I posted about the quilt I made for Emmett. You may also recognize the fabrics - this is the quilt that inspired Steph to ask me to make a quilt for Emmett. Steph chose many of the same fabrics Amanda did, although Amanda made her purchase much earlier, maybe even a year earlier, so they weren't all available when I placed Steph's order. For example, that awesome panel Amanda snagged was no longer available. Anyway, I loved putting this quilt together - it's such a quick sew and really shows off the fabrics.

This is the first quilt I tried free motion quilting on which was a little daunting. I had to rip out quite a bit at first but I finally got the hang of it and ended up really liking the simple loop design I quilted. Oh, and then I added this sweet little tag because it matched :) I hope you like your quilt, little Crosby!

Lotta Stripes | a quilt for Alexandria

Edit:  I gave this quilt to our friends Elsa and AJ when their daughter turned 1 in June of 2017. 

I'm terrible at naming quilts. I know it's really not an important aspect of quilting but I always see other quilters coming up with the cutest and most clever names for their creations and I'm seriously lacking in that department. So this one is Lotta Stripes - Lotta Jansdotter is the designer of this fabric collection, and there are a lot of stripey prints. There you go. I actually made this quilt as a potential gift... if a friend of mine had a baby girl it would have been hers, but she had a boy so I had to whip something else up! I posted pictures of his quilt yesterday :) Anyway, for this quilt I used a layer cake of Lotta's Bella fabric, but I can't remember what pattern this is. I'm pretty sure I cut each 10" square into two pieces 6" and 4" wide, mixed them all up, sewed contrasting pairs back together, and then cut them again in the opposite direction. It sounds complicated but it was really quite simple! I love the sweet birds perched on the tree branches.

The quilt is backed in an organic Cloud 9 fabric that I picked up at Joann along with some blocks leftover from the front. Simple straight line quilting adds some texture and scrappy binding finishes it off! This quilt is listed in the shop and will steal the show at the next baby shower you attend! Or at least I hope it will ;) View the listing here at the tiny hummingbird shop on etsy!

I made you a mixtape | a quilt for Jonas

This is my entry for the Bloggers Quilt Festival! I'm excited to be participating for the first time :)

When I found out my friend Ashley and her husband were expecting their third baby I immediately started thinking about what sort of quilt I'd like to make for him or her. Then I found out that they weren't going to find out the gender of the baby. This is what I have to say to that: boo! I am a planner and I like to be able to check things off my to do list. When my friends don't find out what they're having I can't make a quilt in time for the baby's birth so I feel like I'm behind and can't properly welcome the little one when they arrive. I know, totally not a big deal, and I sound like a big whiner, but I do think it's cool for the parents (along with everyone else!) to be surprised on the baby's birthday. So this time, to make things easier on myself, I talked with Ashley about what she was planning for the baby's nursery and gave her a few options for different styles. She told me what she liked and I decided to make two quilts! One in case the baby was a girl, which I wrote about yesterday, and one if the baby was a boy.

The inspiration for the quilt was the fun mixtape print. I saw it a couple years ago and bought a yard, knowing it would make a great focal point in a quilt some day. I added in lots of grays - stripes, polka dots, and a couple solids, framed everything a nice blue, and sashed the whole thing in solid gray. Besides the mixtape print this quilt was made entirely from scraps!

The back is made up of the remaining large piece of the mixtapes, a bright three dimensional looking print, and some of a print from one of Denyse Schmidt's collections for Joann, plus some solid navy on the bottom. Like a lot of quilters, I like to use up pieces left over from the front and hunt through my stash for large cuts of coordinating fabrics when I'm designing a backing. I quilted it with diagonal lines about an inch apart, but the lines are a little wonky because I just eyeballed them as I went along. The binding is the scrappiest I've ever done... so many seams! It felt like it was never going to be long enough, but after piecing together twelve different strips I finally had a piece that would work.

Side note: I love this baby's name! I've considered using Jonas as a first name for both our boys but ultimately decided we wouldn't ever use it because I don't like how names that end in S sound with our last name that starts with C (Jonas Celeste sounds like one word to me), and Grey was the runner up to Finn! We basically ended up going with Finn because it was Ezra's favorite :) 

This is by far the coolest location of any of my quilt "photoshoots" - if you can call them that, haha... Matt and I were going out to breakfast at my absolute favorite place to eat in Providence, or probably anywhere, Nick's on Broadway, and right before we left I remembered this awesome mural (or is it graffiti? I don't know!) nearby. So I took the quilt along and made Matt hold it up for me while I stopped traffic and stood in the middle of the street to get the shots I wanted :) I think it was the perfect backdrop!

Ahoy, Matey! | a quilt for Emmett

Commission quilts are some of my favorite pieces to work on. When someone appreciates the effort that goes into a quilt it makes the work that much easier and more enjoyable because I know the recipient will truly love the end result. I made this quilt at the request of our friends Steph and Bryan for their son, Emmett, to match his new room in their new house. They were at our house for dinner one night over the summer and Steph saw a quilt I was working on for a friend's new baby and she loved the fabrics, Ahoy Matey by Michael Miller. She quickly decided that they would look great in Emmett's new room and over the next few days we figured out the right size and discussed her fabric selections. 

All the fabrics on the top are from the Ahoy Matey collection and the sailboat and anchors on the back are Out to Sea by Sarah Jane Studios. The pattern is Bijou Lovely's Colorblock Quilt, a pattern that is quickly becoming a favorite. It's perfect for showcasing your favorite fabrics and it sews up pretty quickly! I love a project I can finish in a couple weeks. I quilted free motion waves across this quilt like I did on my Anchors Aweigh quilt, although this time I did it on my mom's domestic machine (thanks, mom!) rather than renting time on a long arm. The quilt that inspired this one will probably show up here on the blog next week, so don't be surprised when you see some fabrics that look familiar! Since this is a commissioned quilt it won't be listed in the shop. Steph actually came over just last night to pick it up! It's been a chilly October week so I'm sure it's already been broken in and snuggled under :) Steph and Bryan, thanks for having me create this quilt for Emmett! I hope that it will become a part of your everyday - for snuggles before bed, for making forts in the living room, for long rides in the car, and picnics on the grass - and I hope Emmett loves it for years to come!

Olive You | a quilt for Sienna

Edit: I gave this quilt to our friends Kerry and Matt when they welcomed their first daughter in 2015.

Here goes, quilt number two listed in the shop today! This quilt is the perfect size for snuggling up on the couch, watching chick flicks, and eating bowls of ice cream. It's made with beautiful fabrics that were inspired by the Greek island of Santorini. My favorite prints are the little olives :) I originally made this quilt for myself but as our house fills up with them I'm quickly realizing I can't keep them all so I've decided to let this one go. I wish I could give them all a home! Check out the listing here at the tiny hummingbird shop for all the details!

And please excuse my ponytail peeking out from the top of the quilt! Matt was trying to keep an eye on Finn as he played with the grill (parents of the year, I know) so he was a little distracted while he was taking these pictures for me :)

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 :)

an unconventional love letter

This was my Valentine's Day gift to Matt.  I had intentions of embroidering a line from Corelli's Mandolin that my sister-in-law read at our wedding ("Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches they find that they are one tree and not two.") but I got through the first word and promptly ripped it out.  Way too time consuming for a gift that needed to be completed in less than seven hours.  Instead I went with the simplest of sentiments and a hot pink heart.  I almost wanted to leave it blank because I loved my fabric paper so much.  

If you love it, too, I have good news - I opened an etsy store, the tiny hummingbird shop,  where you can buy your very own stitched love letter.  I'm thinking of offering variations as well, like initials (TC + MC = [heart], perhaps?) and names - "Ezra Raphael Celeste" with "11-01-10" underneath, for example.  Much more to come!  Look for quilts, all manner of banners and bunting, and, of course, stitched love letters.