More Giggles

This is actually the first Giggles & Giggles quilt I completed. My mom and I made this quilt probably about a year ago - she is such a trooper and does the ruffling for me - for my daughter, who is two now. 

It was a very cute kit Emily at Materials Girl in Draper, Utah had put together. I love all the rich, bright pinks and oranges, with touches of gray and yellows. Perfect for a tiny little girl with a very large personality.

This is the pattern by Sew Much Ado.

This was also my first attempt at doing some fancier free motion quilting designs.

It is certainly far from perfect, but I went outside my comfort zone and I'm happy with that. Practice practice practice! My new philosophy when it comes to long-arm quilting: have a drink, put on your big-girl panties, and get stitchin!

Here's a peek at the back:

And a few more looks....

Gathers & Giggles Galore!

Another baby quilt done! Only one more to do....that I know of anyways.

The mom-to-be is not the girly-girly type, so I wanted to stay away from the typical baby pinks and purples. She has a bit of a hippie flair to her, and I think this quilt is the perfect fit!

This is from the Gathers & Giggles pattern by Sew Much Ado (click here to learn more).

 

I have been very brave (at least for me!) in trying new free motion quilting patterns. Every design on this quilt was something new for me. Here are some close-ups of the quilting.

 

Here is a peek at how the back of this one turned out:

 

 

 

I have also been working on perfecting a machine binding technique. This is the fourth time I have done it and I think it turned out perfectly.

 

Happy Monday!

Boston Lobsters

I can't find the words to describe how much I love this quilt. LOVE. 

Isn't she perfect!? I made this quilt for my manager who is having a baby boy in about a month. She loves Lobsters, Boston, and the Red Sox. When I found this lobster print (which I'm hoping really is lobsters and NOT crawfish), it just seemed perfect. When I was looking for fabric to go with it, I came across a Reunion Jelly Roll (by Sweetwater for Moda) I had in my stash, which complements it perfectly - so many great navys and reds.

Just a simple 16-patch that I strip-pieced and then alternated with the lobster squares. In case you are interested, these are 8-inch finished blocks, so this is somewhere around a 40x40 quilt.

I just did a simple stipple for the quilting, and did machine binding.

Aren't they cute!?

Aidan's Baby Quilt

It seems I always know someone pregnant. I should learn to accept that I will always be making a baby quilt or two. As a matter of fact, I have three other women in my life pregnant right now, so I'll have plenty of baby quilt posts in the upcoming weeks.

I found this cute line from Bernartex, called Mischief which I thought was just perfect for mom and dad to be. I did just an easy strip-type quilt...the fabric was just too cute to cut up!

I used the cute green on green polkadots for the backing.

In case anyone is wondering, these pictures were taken back in early September if I remember correctly. We are covered with snow right now!
 

Such cute fabric! I'm partial to the pirate dude...my son loves pirates so we have been very pirate friendly the last few years.

Giggles Quilt

It's been quite awhile since my last blog. Several reasons. One, my husband commandered my laptop so I have been without computer access for quite some time. Two, I have not had as much time to quilt as usual.

But, I have been working on this quilt for my girlfriend. She's having a baby girl and I wanted to make something special for her to match the baby's room. She was using these fun apricot and pink colors. I was lucky enough to have a charm pack from Riley Blake's line Summer Song. I was even luckier to find one of my local quilt stores, Cottonwood Fabrics, had a few bolts of this line left in their clearance section.

I was hoping to applique the baby girl's name, but they are not sharing the name they have chosen, so I improvised. When I think of my children as they were babies (or are babies as the case may be), I love their giggles the most. Such joy to hear a baby giggle! A great milestone and one I felt worth documenting.

Here is the finished quilt...

I've been doing so many gifts recently, which I love to do, but I was getting bored and wanted a challenge, so I took on flying geese. This is my first attempt, and I am really proud of how they turned out.

I was also really happy with how the applique turned out. The yo-yo for the dot on the i is also my first yo-yo. The quilting was also the first time I had done some small, filler quilting on my new-to-me HandiQuilter 16. I'm starting to get more comfortable with it and I can't wait to keep trying more and more!

Here is my friend, Valerie, after opening her quilt.

Another Finished Quilt!

This is SOOO exciting! I am actually finishing projects...of course, these ones have due dates - much like the mommys these are going to. Having a deadline always helps.

This morning I am taking this quilt to my girlfriend's baby shower. She is having a little girl. She is doing the room in a dark purple/plum-ish type color and I thought these fabrics would go well.

Here you can see the quilting a little bit better. This is the third quilt I have quilted using the HandiQuilter 16. I did a simple freehand loop and flower all over the quilt. I'm still getting comfortable with the machine.

You can see there is an assortment of prints in this quilt. I believe I picked up this custom charm pack from Quilts Etc. awhile back. There are some Moda It's a Hoot, which is one of my favorite Moda lines in quite awhile.

I picked up the border and backing fabric from Thimbles and Threads - a quilt store I just recently discovered that is right in my backyard! Who knew!? I'm so glad I found it. Cathy and Janet are so wonderfully helpful and nice.

Back to the fabric. The mommy-to-be is a hip, modern mommy so I thought this simple plum-brownish with simple flowers would be perfect for her and tie into the crib collection she purchased.

Here it is all ready to go!

Finished Quilt!

I absolutely love the way this quilt turned out. I am so happy with the colors and the overall feel of it.

My favorite part has to be this fun and colorful binding which really tied the whole quilt together.

Boy Quilt Top

This is probably my most favoritist (yes, I'm making up words again) project I have done in a long time! I love the way this quilt is turning out!

It is SOOOOO difficult to find fabrics that are for boys/men, especially if you aren't a fan of the baseball and football fabrics. This quilt is for one of my sister-in-laws who is expecting a boy this fall. She has a little bit of an edge to her (in a totally awesome way!), so I kind of went with it.

The pattern is from Moda Bake Shop, Building Blocks Baby Quilt, which I just made a bit larger than the recipe called for.

I basically just decided to go around the fabric store and pick out fat quarters that I liked, that weren't completely girlish. I found about 4 fabrics that reminded me of a skater/80-90s era, and I decided to just go with it. I ended up with 8 fat quarters that went together pretty well. There are a couple of Ty Pennington designs, a few Sugar Pop from Moda, as well as some others mixed in there. Can you spot them?

And I loved the herringbone-ish sashing fabric! One of the girls at the quilt store helped me pick it out - thanks Emily!

I will be going back to the fabric store on Friday to try to pick out the border fabrics. I really hope she likes it! I kind of want to keep it for myself!

Zoo Charm

This was (at least in theory) a quick charm pack quilt put together. This quilt features Kate Spain's Central Park for Moda line...which really is beautiful. I love all the colors and variety of prints.