flower garden | a quilt for Susanna

Our friends Dawn and Andrew are welcoming their second baby girl into the world soon, so a pretty kitty quilt was in order. They have two cats and I made their older daughter a cat quilt so it only seemed right that their second daughter have one too. I had the perfect fabric, a charm pack of Posy by Aneela Hoey , so I combined that with a few other prints and solids from my stash to make a simple patchwork quilt. 

 The back is a strip of C+S gingham and a fun print by Suzy Ultman - I love the ice cream truck! I used it on the back of the quilt I made for Mykenzie too. It's just so good for a little girl.

 More grid quilting and scrappy binding, and that pretty much sums me up as a quilter lately. I can't wait to meet little Susie!

purple patchwork | a quilt for Tabitha

 Finn is always the first one (actually the only one) to volunteer to hold quilts for me. Luckily for him, my quilt photography standards have declined significantly and I don't mind if he holds them crooked or even if the pictures are blurry. I just want to be able to remember what I've made. I made this quilt for the third daughter of a friend from church who I've known since I was a little girl. My mom made the little pink and purple panel a long time ago and gave it to me recently, suggesting I might use it in a quilt for a baby girl. Since Brenda was having a girl I knew just who to use it for. I pulled some coordinating fabrics from my stash (the seersucker is always so nice in baby quilts - it's so soft and crinkly) and made a simple improvisational design as I was working with a tight schedule - Brenda was past due to have the baby and I had only just decided to make the quilt!

I chose some nature and vintage inspired prints for the back. Brenda and her husband and three girls live in (what I think is...) an old farmhouse with a big yard and she's always posting pictures of them exploring outside, so the birds and florals felt just right for a little girl growing up in such a setting. 

I did some free motion quilting in the patchwork panel and along the top edge where the birds are on the back, and the rest I quilted with straight lines, echoing the shapes and angles of the fabrics. I made scrappy binding which is always one of my favorites, and already gave it to mom & baby. Hopefully it brings them warmth while they snuggle up on these cold New England days!

simple strips | a quilt for Benjamin

Friends recently welcomed their first baby and of course he needed a quilt. I've realized that I don't have a lot of greens or blues in my stash so I bought a scrap bundle to fill in the gaps. These simple strips came together quickly - I actually cut and laid them out when we had friends over for waffles one night! The back is made of scraps left from the front along with one big piece of cotton + steel clouds. In the photos it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb but I promise it coordinates quite nicely in real life. I can't remember how I quilted it except that I wrote his name, Benjamin, somewhere in the middle. He's already almost a month old and cute as can be - he has red hair like his mom and dad!

I love the polka dot binding, but I'm a little bummed that I didn't put a label on it. I kept forgetting to order more and I ran out and didn't receive my new ones until well after I gave this one to the baby's mom. At least his name is on it! Ezra and Finn were very helpful when I asked them to hold the quilt so I could take a couple photos before wrapping it up. I love these little guys so much!

"Tzute" | a quilt for Nico

On Sunday my friend Courtney welcomed her third child into the world, a baby boy she and her husband named Nico. I worked on this quilt throughout both of our third pregnancies this summer and delivered it today. I don't usually give my quilts very creative names but I felt obligated to do so this time because I submitted it as my work for the Modern Quilt Guild challenge which was sponsored by Riley Blake this spring. I called it "Tzute" because I was inspired by the graphic, colorful designs of Guatemalan textiles. Throughout our pregnancies Courtney and I had been drooling over the bags made by Nena and Co., so when I was thinking of what kind of quilt to make for her babe I decided to try to evoke the bold feeling the bags often have. Courtney's favorite color is green and she and her husband didn't know what they were having at the time so I set the black and white prints against a background of vivid blues and greens. I quilted each solid color with coordinating thread using straight lines, and quilted the black and white fabrics with contrasting thread. The back is made up of leftover solids, as is the binding. I attempted to line up a blue section of the mostly green binding with the blue section of the back and I was off by an inch! You can see it in the bottom right corner of the photo below. Next time I'll get it right ;)

The name of the quilt is a twist on the traditional part of the Maya Indian's daily dress called a "tzute" which can be translated as "multipurpose" cloth. Quilts are also multipurpose in their ability to warm, comfort, and depict beauty. I hope this quilt keeps Nico warm, brings him comfort, and is an object of beauty in their home. Welcome to the world, sweet boy! We can't wait to watch you grow.

a quilt for Penelope

Like many quilters, whenever I find out a good friend is pregnant I immediately start thinking about what kind of quilt to make. Olga sews and makes quilts, too, so I asked if she had a plan for the nursery or any preference for fabrics or patterns. She asked if I would use a collection of fabric that she had called Sweet as Honey, and I knew she liked hexagons after she sent me screenshots of several vintage quilts that were made of teeny tiny hand sewn hexies. I regretfully told Olga that I wasn't up for hand sewing, but that I would try to make something she would like. I sent her a few ideas and one of them was for this triangle star quilt block. Once I got the go ahead from her I started cutting, using my regular rectangular ruler and the 60° line which took a little getting used to, but eventually I got all 250+ triangles cut out. I sewed two rows together and lost steam because the triangles were hurting my brain. My rows kept getting skewed because I wasn't lining the triangles up right so I gave up for a while. They stayed on my design wall for ages, falling down in the humidity of the summer and early fall and getting kicked around by Matt and the boys, ending up in the hallway and wedged in the door jamb. Amazingly, I didn't lose any and finally started sewing again after the baby was born. Penelope didn't mind though, and I finished up at the end of September, if I remember correctly, only a couple months after she was born.

The back is a few Kona blues that I had on hand along with some of the Sweet as Honey fabric that Olga provided me with. I love scrappy backs and this one is no exception. I can't even remember how I quilted it, but I think it's free motion random loops which are very forgiving for a novice free motion quilter like me. The binding is scrappy, too, made from two different fabrics from the Sweet as Honey line. Sometimes it's nice not to have to make a lot of decisions about a quilt, and using one collection definitely simplifies things. Hopefully this quilt will help keep Penelope warm and cozy this winter!

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 :)

Harris Road | a mini quilt for the Gamble family

I've been meaning to write about this little wall quilt I made just so I don't forget about it! We have friends who own a small amount of land and they put it to good use with a huge garden in the summer, blueberry bushes, and even a section of Christmas trees. Last year they let us choose our tree from their land and we had a great time trekking through the muddy woods to get to the area where they're planted. I wanted to do something to thank them and originally thought I would make them a little quilted ornament of some kind. I thought it would be cute to make a tiny house that looked like their actual house, but as I pulled fabrics and started cutting it started to get out of control and I knew there was no way it could pass as an ornament. I'm not sure how they use it, if they hung it up or use it as a table topper (or stuck it in a drawer, ha!), but I'm happy with how this little house turned out and I had a lot of fun putting it together. Pieces with meaning and purpose are always the most fun to work on.

P.S. Excuse the low quality photo! This is the only one I have of it, and I took it with my phone.

deep waters | a quilt for the Woodward family

This quilt is another really special one (though I'm a firm believer that all the quilts I make are special) that has been in the works since October. My friend Jackie loved the anchor quilt I made and gifted to a mutual friend last year and expressed interest in a quilt for herself, so we talked about a few quilty details at the time but I told her I wouldn't be ready to start something for her for a while. However, in the back of my mind I was already scheming. I knew she liked the anchor quilt because it was nautical - she and her husband Mike (who's one of our pastors as well as a friend) are transplants to RI from New York and New Jersey respectively and they love it here, so I wanted to include lots of nautical elements. I pieced together a bunch of fabrics very soon after my conversation with Jackie last fall, creating the quilt top above. Then I got to work designing the back. I treated it like a puzzle, fitting together scraps from the anchor quilt and another nautical quilt I made, and then planned on filling in the space with some special blocks.

They're hard to see because this photo was taken under duress (Ezra was strapped into his car seat in the car just a few steps away, screaming to be let out at the top of his lungs, threatening that I could never take quilt pictures again if he couldn't get out of the car) so I didn't make Matt take any detail shots, but if you look closely you can make them out. There's a sailboat block, a star, the anchor, the word HOPE, two cats to represent the family pets (off to the right; their faces are cut off because it was super windy. This was actually quilt photo shoot attempt two of the day because the wind at the other location, closer to the water, was impossibly windy. The quilt was billowing. Anyway - ), and a book block that is supposed to be the Bible onto which I embroidered the words "The Sacred Writings" because that's one of the ways Mike refers to the Scriptures.

I gave the quilt to Mike and Jackie a couple weeks ago, but today is the day that I actually wanted to present it to them. You see, tonight Mike is being ordained as co-pastor at our church, which is quite an important event in his life and for their family. We have been on vacation on the Cape this week, but we decided to come back a couple days early because we really want to be there for his ordination. If I had known we were going to cut our vacation short to be able to attend I would have waited to give them the quilt tonight. Well, anyway, they already have it and it's being well loved! On the day I gave it to them Mike told me it was "enchanted" and that he was going to wrap up in it every morning when he prays. I'm sure he will, too, because he appreciates ritual in the spiritual. 

My friend Emily snapped this picture with her phone one night when she was over recently. I was looking the quilt over, checking for loose threads, and contemplating what to write on the label. Usually I have a hard time naming the quilts that I make, but this one came easily - I called it "Deep Waters" because serving God in full time ministry is a sacrifice that not many families choose to make, and I'm sure they will go through some deep waters because of their choice to serve Him, but I know that God will reward them for it. As I was making this quilt I often listened to Hillsong's Oceans, which has always reminded me of Isaiah 43:2. I don't know if the songwriters had that verse in mind as they were writing, but I decided it was the perfect verse for this nautical quilt so I included it on the label. The verse says, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." That is my prayer for the Woodward family - as they walk down this path of service to God and ministry to us, His people, that He will always be with them no matter the circumstances. I know that He will. 

a t shirt quilt for Brendan, or how to spend almost the entire night sewing to meet a self-imposed deadline

My brother recently moved out of my parents' house and I wanted to do something to help spruce up his new apartment, and of course, being a quilter, the first idea that came to mind was to make him a quilt. But, with all the baby quilts I'm making over the next couple of months, I didn't think a larger quilt would be possible for a while and I wanted to make something soon. Then I had the brilliant idea of making him a t shirt quilt. Normally I would do anything to avoid making a t shirt quilt because I think they're ugly and I don't like working with knits, but my brother is a hoarder and could stand to part with some shirts, specifically the ones he's been saving (and wearing!) since, oh, elementary school. So I figured this would be a way to help him clean out his closet and provide him with a little apartment warming gift, both figuratively and literally. He gave me a giant stack of shirts a few weeks ago and they sat in a pile while I finished up some other projects at the sewing machine. His birthday was last weekend so I thought it would be nice to finish it up in time to give to him then. It was Saturday, the night before his birthday, and I don't know what got into me but I decided to I was going to have the quilt done on time! I had about fifteen hours to complete it, and that was if I stayed up all night which, for my own health and sanity, I knew I should not do. So at about 6:00 pm I took the boys outside to play in the backyard and I brought my cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter out onto the patio table. I cut into the shirts outside for about an hour and then took a break to bring the boys in so they could eat a quick dinner, take a bath, and get to bed. They were asleep by 8:30 so I continued cutting and worked on the layout on the dining room floor as I cut.

Once I was done cutting I started piecing the quilt top, joining sections together until I only had a few places that had partial seams. I was psyched to be able to finish it up, and after it was done I trimmed a twin size fleece blanket to the right size and sandwiched the two pieces right sides together, but Finn woke up so I decided to call it a night, hoping I would have enough time to finish before church in the morning. It was 3:00 am at this point so I really couldn't stay up much longer anyway! Like I said earlier, I really don't know what go into me. It's over a week later and I think I'm still paying for that late night! Anyway, I went to bed and prayed the boys didn't wake up too early. I slept like a rock! I don't think it was until around 8:00 that we all woke up, and back to the sewing machine I went. I stitched along the edges, leaving an opening for turning (so it's not a true quilt as there is no batting or binding), and then I stitched along the edge of the quilt to finish it, closing the opening as well. I didn't even trim the loose threads! I just stuffed it into a gift bag, got us all dressed, and handed the boys granola bars as I hurried them into the car so we wouldn't be late for church. We made it there with ten minutes to spare!

After church we headed to my brother's apartment where we all had lunch together, and Ezra gave him the quilt. His words were, "This looks even better than I thought it would!" Ha! I'll take it :) I think it took me about eight hours in total. I always try to keep track of the time it takes me to make things but with all the interruptions (child care, bathroom breaks, chocolate chip cookie breaks, etc.) I tend to forget to do it. Making this blanket in such a short span of time cut down on that so it was pretty easy to keep track! Now hopefully I won't have to make another t shirt quilt in my life, but if I do I know it won't take me too long ;)

If anyone is interested in making a t shirt quilt with a layout like this, you simply cut everything to be divisible by any one dimension (the sides of my "blocks" are all divisible by four - 4x4, 4x8, 4x16, 8x8, 8x12, etc.) and then fit all the pieces together like a puzzle. I like to save some t shirt scraps in case I need to fill in any gaps in the quilt top. I used a few sleeve pieces and some blank areas to fill this one out.

quilt 03 of 2015, for Lee

This quilt is the brother quilt to this one that I made over the summer. My friend Amanda wanted to make a quilt for each of her children. I had taught her how using Amy Smart's amazing beginning quilting series the summer that I was pregnant with Ezra and she was pregnant with her second daughter, Sophie. I made this quilt and Amanda made one for Sophie alongside me. Then she made one for her daughter, Amelie, and when she got pregnant with baby number three she bought fabric to make a quilt for him. She ended up not loving how the fabrics worked together (that's the difficulty of shopping online!) and ordered some others. I would periodically ask her how it was going, and when I learned that she had put it aside I offered to make it for her. By this point she was already pregnant with their fourth child! So I told her I would make quilts for both of them.

The feature fabric is Heather Ross's guitars from Far Far Away III and the rest are low volume prints that Amanda picked out - a couple chevrons and one that looks like a maze, but you can't actually solve it. I know because Ezra tried... mazes are one of his favorite things to do lately. Because so many of the fabrics were light and lacked bold color I decided to use the guitars in a few different places to give the quilt some life. I think it worked! More straight line quilting (I think I have so many projects going on lately that I can't put any creative energy into interesting quilting - I'm just trying to get things checked off my list!), and it's bound in more of the chevron fabric, both colors. 

I was super excited to be able to use my new quilt label, too! I've had the idea for them in my mind for months but needed Matt to design them in photoshop for me and I kept putting it off. I finally pinned him down a couple weeks ago, sent the files off to inked papers, and had the labels in just a little over a week! I definitely recommend using them if you're in need of labels for any kind of sewn items.

So Lee finally has his baby quilt! No matter that he's almost three ;)

half square triangles and school buses | quilt 02 of 2015

This baby quilt was commissioned by my dad whose former bus monitor had a baby last year. He wanted to give a quilt to her son before the end of the school year and I was happy to make one for him. I had a bunch of half square triangles left over from the quilt I made for my nephew last year and had been itching to use them up and this was the perfect opportunity.

I didn't have nearly as many as I thought though, so after I finalized a design for the HSTs on my design wall I looked through my stash for the fabrics I had made them with and added them to the sides. Alexander Henry's 2d zoo and teeny tiny zoo are my favorites, and then there are a couple polka dots, and some random frogs that I've had in my stash forever. While I liked them, it was one of those prints that I'm glad to say goodbye to!

The back is made up of a couple large cuts of fabric that I had in my stash - green seersucker, typewriter keys, and school buses! I was so excited when I remembered I had school bus fabric in my stash. I used it as a table runner for Ezra's second birthday party and hung on to it, sure I would never find a use for it, but since my dad drives a school bus part time and this quilt is for a bus monitor's son it couldn't be more perfect! 

I quilted it with straight lines on either side of all the horizontal and vertical seams, and bound it in the green seersucker print that I used on the back.

a quilt for Audrey | stars and hexagons

I have a few more quilts to blog about before I'm all caught up, and then I'll be making a new wave of quilts! So many of my friends are pregnant at the same time - currently I have seven baby quilts to make this year, all before the end of July! And there's no telling who else will announce that they're expecting before the end of the year. Anyway, I made this quilt for my friend Hillary's daughter, Audrey, before she was born, and she'll be two in just a few short weeks.

Hillary liked the look of stars and hexagons, so I pieced together some large hexies and let the negative space create the stars. It's difficult to see in the photos, but some of the white hexagons are actually made of a really sweet pink on white flocked polka dot fabric.

Some other sweet details are these little strawberries, funny olives, and lots of florals.

It's quilted with simple straight lines to outline the hexagons. I made this quilt in December of 2012, and looking at these pictures makes me realize how much my skills have improved since then! It's nice to look back and be able to see progress.

The backing is a large cut of a Heather Bailey print, a strip of pink seersucker (I love using seersucker in baby quilts, it makes them so soft!), and one other random pink print I had in my stash.

It's bound in the pink seersucker, too. I think we all know I love a stripey binding!

I wrote this label out on the morning of Hillary's shower and brought it with me so my mom could hand stitch it on for me! I have exactly zero hand stitching skills (really need to work on that) and my mom is always kind enough to help me out. Usually I try to piece a square of fabric into the backing so I can just write directly on the quilt, but I didn't do that here.

And just this past weekend Matt helped me put my idea for a quilt label into an actual design that I'm having printed! I can't wait to use them. These are the things that get a quilter excited :)

Now I have to get to work on a quilt for Audrey's little sister! She's due in May but I had the colored pencils out today so I could start sketching out a design. Coming up with a plan is one of my favorite parts!

a quilt for Luke

I made this quilt for my new nephew back in January - it's hard to believe he's almost one! I took  photos on the morning he was born. We knew what his first name was going to be but his middle name was a secret so I had to wait until I found out so I could write the label.

I cut lots of half square triangles with these boyish fabrics a while ago with a different plan in mind, but when it came time to make the quilt I couldn't remember it! So I played around with a few designs and came up with this kind of random layout. I don't love it, but it was difficult working with the directional prints, especially the chevron. I think it will be well loved anyway! Babies aren't usually too picky about their quilts ;) The quilt I made for his brother uses some of the same fabrics, Alexander Henry 2D zoo, which I think is nice. They don't share a room, but I like the idea of the quilts coordinating anyway.

The backing is a soft blue seersucker and brown and white polka dot. Both were from my stash which is always nice.

The binding is my favorite part of this quilt - polka dots are always a good choice!