Bird Quilt + Quick Easy Quilt

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Jenny

This year I have been working on my first Queen sized quilt. My dad saw one just like it at some political thing and asked if I would make it. Ha! I thought. Then I told him I would do it if he would buy the materials. I am nearly done, but during my arduous journey since February, I took a break and finished these two.

The first was for our local Peach Days Celebration. Our quilt guild holds a challenge every year, and this year the challenge was “hand quilting.” Not my favorite, as you may gather from my quilt.

This little quail pair was my favorite of the birds, I think.

Then I finished this quicky that only took two charm packs and a yard of fabric for my sister:

It looks really busy, but I did try to do darks on the right and lights on the left. The fabric line is “Oh Deer” by Moda, and fits my sister because she and her husband are into nature and deer and all that stuff. The top came together in a snap, because I only had to cut the rectangles, and the pre-cut squares saved so much time.

I backed it in flannel, because I like flannel even though it is so hot here we don’t need it. The orange is a little wild, but I couldn’t resist those cute little birds or the orange, which is my favorite color.

I will post about Her Majesty soon. I am going to quilt it on Thursday at a store that lets you rent time on the long-arm machine. It will be my first time and I am so excited.

Thanks to Linz for the inspiration!

Finished Friday + WIP

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Jenny

I think I may not have posted about this quilt at all, because I only had time to sew or blog, and sewing won! My cousin picked these fabrics and mailed them to me, and I did the labor as a gift for her and her baby, due next month. I am proud that I finished this so far before the due date.

The pattern is “Off Track” by Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew. I received “Seville” for Christmas this year, though my husband forgot to give it to me under the tree. We found it in his sock drawer sometime in January, when I got out a stack of new fabric an needed something to do with it. That was when I remembered having seen the telltale envelope in early December and asked him whatever happened to it.

I love the colors my cousin chose. I think the fabric line is “Taza.” I wouldn’t normally have picked this palette, but I am really happy with it, and it has inspired me to think outside of my normal color box more often.

Seville is my current Work in Progress:

I have a couple of possible hacks for this pattern, but I am not sure if they are improvements or not, so I’ll wait to see how it progresses to post about it.

Easy Baby Boy Quilt

Posted on October 22, 2011 by Jenny

I am not going to take the trouble of explaining how to sew this quilt, because it is so easy that you can just look at it. I picked a fabric I just loved cut it in six inch strips, and then I grabbed 6″ scrap strips from my stash to fill in for a striped quilt. This is for my sewing buddy, who just gave birth two weeks early and is therefore now excused from producing anything else other than a mostly clean, fed child for the next six to twelve months.

I used my water soluble pencil and drew this robot on one stripe (because she and her hubs are geeks like my hubs and me),

And this boat on another stripe,

Then I used my walking foot to stitch the ditches and halfway points, then I free-motion quilted my two little drawings. I bound it with scraps of binding from my bag o binding scraps. I like to think I could have finished that by her due date if I had been allowed to do so. Easy peasy!

WIP Wednesday

Posted on August 24, 2011 by Jenny

This is my first time trying WIP Wednesday, after watching it on a few of my favorite blogs for awhile. Thanks for doing it, Lee!

I helped a friend sew some costumes awhile back, and she gave me a little photo book as thanks with a sweet quote about sewing on the front, so one of my WIPs is this little book:

Keeping a history of my quilts was also inspired by my grandmother, who hand quilted for many years and did over a thousand quilts. I calculated that out, and it is one a week for over 37 years. She is 80+, so I believe, even though that is an incredulous number. I was also inspired by Elizabeth at Occasional Piece and Quilt. You can see her progress on a quilt journal today on WIP Wednesday, too!

Below is the flimsy for an aloha quilt I started a couple of days ago. Sometimes it is nice to just sew squares together. Especially if someone else cut them out, and sold them to your best friend for $2 at the swap meet on Oahu. I often feel like I get nothing done lately, but this is coming together in no time.

I’m also still working on the block of the month for quilt guild, and added a yellow block. I am a few months behind, but maybe now that school has started I will catch up.

I’m excited to go see some more works in progress, check them out at Freshly Pieced.

Red and White WIP

Posted on May 26, 2011 by Jenny

These are some blocks I made for a quilt for my husband’s baby sister. She is having a baby. She doesn’t know the gender, but I don’t really mind, because I make the quilt for the mom, not the baby, now. That way I don’t have to get overwhelmed trying to keep up with all of the quickly proliferating nieces and nephews.

I was originally going to have a vote on here for which style of arrangement, but she liked the geometric one below best, so that is how it will be. For these I just sewed together three strips, and cut them at 45 degree angles. It’s like the hourglass from cluck cluck sew, except with three instead of two strips.