Quilting: Color Therapy patchwork complete

I completed the patchwork on this little number today during potty training bootcamp (not the best pic), which will be a wall hanging. The quilting is still to come, but I was too excited to post some quilting progress on the blog. I have had the half square triangles (HSTs) sewn for a while and wasn't sure how I wanted to patch them together (more on that indecision in a previous here), until I saw the new book Vintage Quilt Revival. Check it out, if you're into quilting. Seems like a fantastic new book.

Baby girl quilt wall hanging

This is a quilt wall-hanging for a friend at work who is having a baby in November. She was such a huge support for my while I was pregnant two years ago at work, that I was honored to make her something special!

Baby girl quilt with English paper piecing and pretty "Posy" fabric

A quilt finish! For my friend Dawn who just had a baby girl, this is a quilt made with a fabric line designed by Aneela Hoey called "Posy," plus coordinating solids of green, pink, and purple, oh, and the ever popular Pearl Bracelet Fabric by Lizzy House for the binding. I just thought the theme and colors were so "baby girl," and it turns out, they totally matched the baby's room. So fun to give something useful and homemade to friends!

So many ways to patch together half square triangles; so little time

I don't know if I will ever be able to sew this quilt together. Every time I put together a design I like, I think of another fun way it could look. Here are all of the ways I've played with the half square triangles recently.

 

A little graphic for Pinterest!

 

 

My new (lovely) blog design

With the great help of my friend's amazing blog and e-book that focuses on empowering women to design their own (lovely) blog, I recently re-designed my site and ended up with a look that I couldn't be more proud of. Here's a fun account of the progression...

The original look
Clean but nothing special

Iteration 1
Showcases some of my sewing but still nothing special about the design. I was really struggling with taking the look to a new level.

Iteration 2

First new design after reading my friend's e-book - starting to play!

Iteration 3

The final look has one of my actual hand sewing projects tweaked in the banner to create a unique, personalized look that I love, that's me, and which leads the eye where I want it to go - to the blog posts!

Huge thank you to my uber talented friend Marianne Manthey for the amazing support and inspiration her website and e-book gave me. It truly is an invaluable resource for blog design. I plan to continue to follow her! Give her a visit!

Design Your Own (Lovely) Blog

www.designyourownblog.com

Baby boy quilt with dragons, stars, and spinning pinwheels for Baby Mars

I completed this baby quilt a few weeks ago. There is an uncanny story about the design. I asked my friend if she had any preferences on color or themes or anything, and she gave me full creative freedom to choose anything, so I chose stars and dragons and colors and fabric I thought was very boy-like and with nice contrast for a newborn. As matter of the fact, some of the fabric is from a line designed by a man. Anyway, the uncanny part is that the baby's name is Mars. I didn't even make the connection after I learned the name. Too perfect.

English paper piecing with hexagons AND diamonds - oh my

We recently took a road trip to Montana for a total of 32 hours in the car. I had a blast with my son playing, eating, reading, laughing, looking, talking, and just plain starring at him all of that time. While he was sleeping or playing on his own, which was a minority of the time, I worked on a little hand-sewing project I brought along with me. And as many sewing/quilting projects seem to go, I started with one idea in mind that quickly went in a whole new direction. That's part of the fun, right?

Originally, I was just going to sew up a bunch of hexagons for a couple baby quilts I want to make for friends having baby girls this year. But the hexagons I had printed out on card stock paper for cutting and piecing were separated by little diamonds, and I thought wow, what I could I make with hexagons *and* diamonds, and low and behold I ended up with this little number...

...which was really fun, so I continued and before I knew it, I had created something interesting (to me anyway). You can see the basting stitches are still on. I am not going to take them out until I get some starch on this baby, but I think I am just going to applique stitch it to a small piece fabric and just put it somewhere near my bed to look at it. I have to admit, it was really time consuming, so I don't think I will make another one, but I do think it's a pretty little thing that will always put a smile on my face and remind me of all the enchanting time I spent looking at my son on that road trip.

Of course, this picture will also remind me of our time together, which will be cherished until the end of time (he's working very hard to balance all of the animals; he was even careful moving his head to smile and look at the camera phone...there is nothing more adorable)

A baby quilt finish for my coming nephew

This is the first good baby quilt I've ever made, and I've made two. (The first baby quilt I made was in 2010 and was a bit of a design disaster. I still posted it on my completed projects page since it was my first, but I am not proud of it. I didn't know anything about choosing fabrics and putting them into a complementary design. Plus, I finished it a week before I found out I was having a baby boy and didn't do well choosing unisex patterns and colors, so it didn't end up being right for my son.) Anyway, I'd like to call this my first real baby quilt!

It's called Forest Path, because of the way I designed the shashing and because of the forest animal theme. My nephew will be born in the Colorado Mountains at about 9600 ft altitude, so it is fitting that his room is themed forest animals. His mom has done a great job decorating it, and I hope she enjoys having this quilt around.

Being a working mom, I have started to machine bind my quilts. It's much faster and stronger, so for both of those reasons, I choose to do it more and more. However, it still takes skill, and I'm not perfect at it, but I'm improving. Here are more pictures. I have another baby quilt to finish for some friends' baby boy due one day after my nephew, so I better get cracking!

Oh, and the back in flannel!

With this quilt, I hope my nephew will always know his Aunt Loves him!

A mini-quilt finish: Urban Energy

I recently finished this quilt for one of my favorite DJs in Denver. First post here. I don't think this quilt would have come together like it did, without having the final owner in mind. Thank you Nate Ishe -- this quilt was inspired by your mad skilzzz on the decks!

A little more about the project...this was the first time I played with half square triangles (HSTs). I can now see why HSTs have always been so core to quilting designs, old and new. There are so many creative ways to put them together; I can't wait to do more.

Although I have some baby quilts coming to a completion that will follow a little bit more of a traditional design, this quilt was inspired by wanting to do something different, with bold colors, using solids and modern patterns, and playing against the grain to create something that could appeal to both the female *and* male aesthetic. That's the kind of quilting I'm really into.

The fun of this design was in the impromptu nature of putting it together. I played with layout for weeks, moving colors and patterns around as more and more of design unfolded. I loved how shapes kept coming together within the colors and patterns. I love the points and arrows. I love how if you look closely, you can see an abstract heart in the overall final composition. (Which was only realized after I rotated it 45 degrees counter-clock-wise after it was all done, another unfolding of the design, but the final one.)

This is a mini-quilt designed to be a wall-hanging at 20x20 inches. I will enter this into a Modern Mini Quilt Challenge just for fun (hey, it's not a mainstream design, but you never know, maybe it will stand out in the crowd and inspire someone).

Two man quilts in progress - Urban Energy and Dragons!

Completed this quilt wall-hanging (just the top so far) to thank one of my favorite local DJs for accepting a very special request to spin at a friend's newly purchased home and birthday party this weekend. But this wasn't just any DJ, this was DJ Ishe, an great DJ, a great guy...

"Urban Energy"

Ishe's set was unbelievable. I woke up the next day with a renewed relationship to the bass music I love. I love the music he plays, but his abilities on the decks and passion and presence are like no other. He was channeling, and I am blown away with gratitude and wows. Anyway, I am also honored to have him interested in a quilt and can't wait to gift it to him once I get the binding complete. This is the first time I've improved with half square triangles (HST), and I can't wait to do it again. I got inspired by reading an post on Owen's Olivia blog about HST wall art (that was supposed to be a laptop cover for her husband, lol).

Speaking of man quilts, I just started another one. This will be a baby boy quilt for my friends' nicknamed the Moogies who are expecting a little man in early July. There is no set theme, so I went all out with dragons and stars and pinwheels.

I am really enjoying quilting for guys. There's something really fun and creative about using what most people think is a girl craft to make something a guy would love. I have another one for my coming nephew in the works as well. More to come on that. Have a great week!