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!

Kids Clothes Week Project Complete and Broken In!

Kids Clothes Week has come and gone (and was so inspirational). I completed this project for my little man, and he broke it in on the same day, spilling on it, getting lots of hugs from friends during a music event we attended yesterday, and giving it some good little boy wear and tear. I knew I had to make the shirt when I saw this fabric. And this is the first time I've sewed a shirt; usually when it comes to clothes, I do vests, so this was a great learning experience.

There was a lot of technical learning here, including shirt yokes, placards, and gather stitching and easing to sew the sleeves, not to mention basting for new reasons I had not done before. It was nice (and fun) to learn a lot of new things doing a small version shirt before a big one, which I'd like to do for my husband some day soon. Already took him to the fabric store to see what fabrics he liked. Hehe. Looking forward to sewing more clothes in the future.

Sugar Block of the Month Quilt Club – work in progress (With improved pictures)

Here’s the April block I completed as part of the Sugar Block of the Month Club and even better, how all four completed blocks look together. So colorful and cheery – these are so fun to put together, and I am learning a lot every month.

Note: This is a second post with improved pictures. To see the original post from a few days ago, go here. 

Kids Clothes Week - Work in Progress!

Just a quick sneak peak of my Kid's Clothes Week progress...and tracing the pattern! Too fun!

Fabric for a woodland animals baby quilt for my coming nephew

I have a nephew coming early July and am planning a baby quilt for him with the following fabric. They live in the mountains and are decorating with woodland animals.

I just loved the “Mind your Ps and Qs” fabric, and it matched perfectly with some fabric I already had from “Camp Modern.” I also discovered how a couple colors of a pattern from the new “Glimmer” line was very woodsie and complementary as well.

Kids Clothes Week - Getting ready to make an Oliver +S Sketchbook Shirt

I am participating in Kids Clothes Week, which is a really fun way to be part of a community (online) focusing their sewing on making kids clothes for a week. The challenge occurs once a quarter and crafters link up their ideas, tips, progress, and completed projects online using blogs, facebook, flickr, instagram, and more.

Here's the fabric I am using. It's from the "Timber and Leaf" collection, and I'm not sure where the flannel is from, but I plan to use it for the placard and yoke of the shirt.

And just cause it's fun to share, I got myself some fabric from the same collection, which will be a skirt for me. Gotta make yourself something once in a while!!