double the plus | a quilt for Bryce

I'm playing catch up once again here on the ol' blog... I made this quilt lickety split in just a couple days to get it done in time for a baby shower I was cohosting. Our good friends Matt and Kayla are expecting their first baby in February and when my instagram friend Emily put out a call for pattern testers I knew it would make a perfect baby quilt for him. The pattern is called Double the Plus and would be great for an experienced beginner! Emily's cutting instructions are clear and easy to follow, and the quilt comes together really quickly, even if you're not hustling like I was! Make sure you check out the #doubletheplus hashtag for more classic examples of the pattern as mine is a bit unorthodox... I've put myself on a fabric diet and went for a very scrappy look with this quilt! In fact, you can only just barely make out the plus signs, but I like the effect. I used a combination of Tokyo Train Ride by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel to make the plus signs and I used various Kona solids for the background.

Since I had a looming deadline I decided not to make the quilt double sided and instead used another Cotton + Steel print, Mesa by Alexia Abegg, for the backing. The binding is more C+S, some scraps of Cookie Book and another print I can't remember the name of for the life of me.

Finn wanted to sit on the quilt in the worst way so once Matt was done taking the couple of pictures I wanted I laid it down on the grass for him. I hope Bryce likes his quilt as much as Finn did! I think he was sad to see it go :)

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!

gingham and robots | a quilt for Elliott

I'm posting about this quilt, totally unintentionally, on the recipient's first birthday. So first let's wish Elliott a very happy birthday! I made this quilt for him using lots of my favorite fabrics - some robots by Kokka, guitars by Michael Miller, a few Denyse Schmidt prints, one of Heather Bailey's prints from her Nicey Jane line, and two solids. Simple rectangle patchwork made this a quick quilt to finish in time for my friend Rachel's baby shower even though Finn was a newborn at the time. It seems so far away now! I can't believe these boys are one now. 

I found this gingham in my stash and it made the perfect backing. I had planned on making myself a scarf with pom pom trim with it but I never got around to it and it was too perfect for the quilt not to use it. All my non-quilt sewing projects get pushed to the side and forgotten about because quilting is my favorite.

More stash usage here in the binding - solid gray coordinates nicely and there's one little strip of gingham in there that totally makes it.

Those robots! I love them.

I made a stack of burp cloths with some scraps because I looove using up scraps. I always forget how time consuming scrappy burp cloths are to make, and just for spit up. At least they're useful!

As you can see from this and the top photo, I had a helper during my photo shoot :) Ezra took the photo below, too. I'm so proud - he's a budding quilter and a budding photographer ;)


John and Rachel were so thankful for this quilt which made it even more special. They sent me the nicest thank you note and raved about it repeatedly in person. Apparently John borrows it occasionally :) John posted a couple pictures to twitter when Elliott was a newborn and I just have to share this one of him at ten days old on his quilt - ha! Happy birthday, Elliott! I'm so glad you were born!

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!

plus one | a quilt for Finn

When I found out we were having another boy I admit I was relieved. I knew what to expect, somewhat, with a boy, and I loved the idea of two brothers. I was excited to welcome another little guy into our family and I couldn't wait to welcome him into our lives. One thing I love to do to welcome a baby is make a quilt. Of course, right? So I started planning out what I would make for my second baby boy. I decided to use a cool sugar skulls print I had been hoarding as the accent of a plus quilt because I hadn't made one yet and I like the simple modern design. I mixed in lots of graphic gray prints from my stash as well as a few solid grays. I quilted it with vertical and horizontal straight lines to accent the lines of the plus signs.

The backing is mostly a white and gray stripe I bought with a gift card I won to Pink Chalk fabrics, and I added some strips of the sugar skulls because I love them and had to use them again. It's bound in a gray and white seersucker stripe which makes it even more soft and crinkly. I've used seersucker in a few baby quilts over the years and I love the texture it provides. This quilt may be simple but it's one of my favorites because it's the one my sweet baby boy snuggles with.

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!

quilt on a quilt | a quilt looking for a good home

Edit: I donated this quilt in April 2018 to a raffle for a little girl who is battling cancer. 

This quilt is the product of a challenge hosted by the Modern Quilt Guild (I'm a member of the RI chapter) and sponsored by Michael Miller Fabrics. The fabric line is Petal Pinwheels which is a really cute and fun line. I loved tile pile, the print that looks like orange peels, and I used a bunch of Kona silver and added bright coral binding with some scraps, too. Scrappy bindings are my favorite. Actually, stripey bindings might be my real favorite. Anyway, my guild set one guideline for the fabric challenge - to use negative space in your work. I had never really used much negative space in a quilt before, but I knew I wanted to design something with some patchwork floating in a sea of open space. I drew inspiration from Denyse Schmidt's Big Charming quilt to create this piece and I ended up loving the result. Ezra asked why there's a quilt on a quilt :) Perfect for a sweet babe or toddler, it's listed in the shop and ready for snuggling! 

Thanks so much for joining me this week as I relaunched the tiny hummingbird shop! I have three more quilts that will all be listed next week as well as a bunch that have already been given to their owners, many of them Finn's friends :) Have a great weekend!

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 :)

One! | Finn's Birth Story [updated]

Finn Wilder turns one today! I'm so thankful for this sweet boy. Even though I haven't been blogging I wanted to record his birth story and share it here, but it's been a year (obviously) so some of the details are hazy for me. The wonderful photos are by our dear friend and birth photographer extraordinaire, Karissa. There are no graphic images but there is one where I look like I'm in the middle of a primal yell... just thought I should warn you! :) Thanks for reading... 

My water broke at around 10:30 on a Tuesday night. It was September 10th, eleven days past my due date, and I anticipated labor lasting into the next day. We had to go to the hospital rather than stay home to labor because I had tested positive for Group B Strep and had to have antibiotics prior to delivery, so Matt and I quickly got our things together and I called my mom to come stay with Ezra for the night. I started to cry then, thinking about how Ezra's life would change and how I wouldn't be there for him in the morning, something that had never happened before. I knew adding a child to our family, and a brother for Ezra, would be a blessing but in that moment I mourned for the life we shared as a little family of three. As we waited for my mom to arrive I called our midwife, Deb, and informed Karissa and Natalie, our doula, that we would be heading to the hospital soon.

Everyone met us there and we came up with a plan for the night. My body seemed to be responding to my water breaking in the same way it did when my water broke before I had Ezra - it basically didn't do anything. At least not anything productive! I had contractions but they were completely tolerable and I arrived at the hospital only 1 cm dilated, feeling fine, not like I was going to have to push a baby out. Our options were to try to sleep and hope labor would begin overnight, and if it didn't, be induced in the morning, or to try to stimulate labor and get things moving. We opted for the latter because I really wanted to avoid induction (I was induced with Ezra and realllly didn't like it). To make a long story short, my labor did not get going overnight. We basically walked the halls and tried to get some oxytocin flowing but it didn't work, so on the morning of the 11th I agreed to labor augmentation with Pitocin. If you don't know, Pitocin is the synthetic form of oxytocin and it causes much more intense contractions than usual. I mentally prepared myself for the intensity and sure enough my contractions came more quickly and they were much stronger. We continued to walk the halls with a telemetry unit and I was coping well. It even says so in my medical records :) Once my contractions were steady Deb suggested that she break my water (it hadn't broken entirely when labor began the previous day) and turn down the Pitocin, hoping that my body would continue laboring on its own. Unfortunately that didn't happen. Deb did break the remaining bag of waters and lowered the Pitocin, but very quickly I noticed the intensity of the contractions subside. Disappointed, I told everyone in the room that they weren't as strong and resigned myself to more Pitocin.

I labored in many different positions as the Pitocin levels were steadily increased, and now I was not coping so well (also reported in my records, ha). We all thought I was in transition but when Deb checked my cervix I was only 5 cm dilated which was devastating. I couldn't believe how hard I was laboring and I was only halfway there! My records say that at this point the plan was to check my cervix in another two hours and if there was no change I would get an epidural. I don't remember if we discussed getting the epidural or not, but I do remember that I didn't want one. I really wanted to do this on my own, especially since I couldn't when I had Ezra. An hour later the doctor on call was consulted about my lack of progress and he agreed with the plan to administer an epidural in an hour if there was no change. I continued to have contractions and they were terrible. I remember crying through some of them, sobbing and writhing, and Deb basically telling me if I didn't pull myself together and work through the contractions I would have to get the epidural. Matt says he remembers that her admonishment got my attention and things started to progress. Edited to add, because Karissa just left me a message reminding me about one of the most crucial aspects of this hard labor. A reminder like this is just one of the many reasons it's awesome to have other women supporting you during labor - they will remember what you have forgotten! Anyway, when Deb was telling me to relax, I asked "how do I relax?" The memory surfaced; I remember I asked it desperately, wailed is more like it. I was frustrated, and all I had done to prepare for giving birth had escaped my mind. I couldn't relax, and I needed Deb to tell me how. She said, "just picture yourself in the arms of Jesus." Deb is a Christian, and God gave her the perfect words in that moment. Having a Christian midwife was and is such a blessing. I remember we prayed together at one point, too. I ended up making the most progress standing at the side of the bed, leaning over it, and squeezing Matt's hands with each contraction. Natalie stood behind me, applying counter pressure with each contraction, and eventually I felt the need to sit/squat and Natalie supported my weight. However, Natalie is only about as big as me when I'm not pregnant so it got to be a bit much for her, so Deb acted as my chair, bearing my weight. I remember thinking, "is this weird that I'm sitting on Deb's lap?" but nothing matters when one is in labor so I brushed that thought aside. As the contractions grew more intense I remember wanting to throw up so badly but I wasn't and it was so frustrating. I was hot and sick and in immense pain and I just wanted to be done! My reaction to these contractions showed that I had finally, probably, progressed to completion and was ready to push.

I wanted to help catch the baby so I labored on my side, and I remember squeezing Matt's hands as hard as I was physically able to, and repeatedly yelling "OH MY GOODNESS! I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW BAD THIS HURTS!" because I really couldn't believe it. I feel a little bit sick right now just thinking about it. Thankfully, this phase didn't last long. The baby's shoulders were a bit stuck so Deb had to apply pressure to my abdomen in order to move the delivery along, but I only pushed for eight minutes total, and then I reached down and this little guy was handed up to me.

I will never get over the miracle of birth. As I'm ;ooking at these pictures again I'm amazed at God's design. Anyway, our second baby boy was born at 4:47 pm (only an eighteen hour labor! Much better than the forty-eight hours I endured with Ezra) and he was giant! And adorable! And I loved him immediately, even though you can't tell from the pictures, ha... If you looked at all the images from the day you would notice that I don't smile at all until about an hour after delivery. Labor is hard, man! I was recovering in more ways than one. Anyway, we named him Finn and spent the afternoon marveling at the little baby who had entered our lives.

Matt & Deb :)

Karissa

About four hours after Finn was born our families came to meet him. I asked that Ezra come in first so we could have a few moments together, and their introduction went better than I imagined it would. Ezra kissed Finn a few times and wanted to look at all his body parts, especially his tiny toes :)

We gave Ezra a doll that I made for him, and Ezra brought a rattle that he had picked out for Finn when we were shopping a couple months before. Being a family of four was (and is!) beautiful.

Happy birthday, Finny! We're so glad you're ours!