Ryleigh's Quilt is One Year Old!

It's been quiet around lately. I seem to be working on multiple projects and not actually finishing anything. Hopefully that means I'll be posting lots of finishes soon.

In the meantime, head over to check out Ryleigh's Quilt, used in a recent photo shoot for Ryleigh's first birthday. That girl is a cutie!

Kappa Sorta

I have another finish to share with you though this quilt was completed in 2011. It was a gift for a family member and I forgot to take a photo before wrapping it up.

I came across it while visiting with family during a recent trip to Chicago. I was so happy to finally take some photos.

I started this quilt in 2009. I purchased much of the fabric during my 10-year wedding anniversary trip to Las Vegas and drew up a pattern over Labor Day weekend that year. I love all the colors! I had several people in mind as recipients but never got around to finishing the quilt. It was even packed away for over a year. I thought I lost it but finally found half finished blocks at the bottom of a box.

I finally finished it in December, just in time for Christmas.

I'm happy that I have another quilt to post as finished in 2011 - the eighth one. Now I just need to get working on my 2012 quilts. I've finished four and I have several I've started:

• My version of City Blocks
• A solid quilt for the Covered In Threads Quilt Guild Challenge
• A wall-hanging for a friend (in traditional, brown blocks - yuck)
• A baby quilt - which I love but needs to be finished in two weeks.

Three of these are tops just waiting to be quilted. Too bad I quilt my own quilts or they'd be finished by now. Ha!

Quinn's Quilt Part 2

It's always a special treat when one of my baby quilts makes it way in to a photo shoot.
My recollection of Quinn as the cutest baby every (after the Kubatski kids) can be verified with his 4-month photos:

Green with Tiffany

My latest quilt project was a commission quilt. The owner requested something done in Tiffany blue and and lime green. What great colors to put together!

I decided on a wonky log cabin block. It seems appropriate to make this more contemporary take on a classic quilt block, given the color scheme.


I spent more money that I wanted to on fabric for this quilt so I decided to use the leftover to piece the back.


Every quilt I've made for this customer has this phrase on the back. Special thanks to my friend Christy for embroidering it for me.


I quilted it with wavy lines throughout. I especially like the wavy lined borders which made the quilt especially crinkley.

Hippo-tastic

I love it when I plan to make someone a baby quilt and before I even tell them, they put in a request. This was the case with my friend, Jess, who is due in April. She sent me this photo for the inspiration.



It turns out that I was able to find fabric to match the bedding. Good hippo fabric is hard to find! I was feeling a bit modern/contemporary for this quilt (which is reflective of Jess). I've never made something like this and it was a bit out of my comfort zone.

I finished the quilt in early January but saved it for Jess's baby shower which took place over the weekend. I couldn't attend but the Polack did and texted me to let me know that Jess was tearing up before she even opened the present. She immediately contacted me to say that she loves it and she's planning to have professional photos taken once Gronk (a temporary name for baby-to-be) is born. I can't wait!



Here's a close up of the quilting - straight free motion lines.

Lazy Days of Gray Quilt

This quilt has been an ongoing project full of love.



Around 18 months ago, I bought some charm packs about the same time I fell in love with gray quilts. I didn't want to cut the charms up so I chose to surround them with different shades of gray. I finished the top last year and added a border that I ended up hating. I took off the border and kept with my gray theme. The top sat in a tub in my quilting room for several months and I finally quilted it during this year's January quilt camp. I recently finished the binding and put it through the washer and dryer so it would have that crinkly look I love.



The highlight of making this quilt was when I was working on the top during the February 2011 quilt camp with Blue Underground Studios. During the weekend, Amy Walsh asked me what pattern I used. I told her I made it up and then she asked if I was interested in submitting it to Blue Underground. What an honor! If I was actually any good at writing patterns, I definitely would have followed up with her. Just having her ask is one of the most exciting things of my quilting career.



I'm keeping this quilt. It's going in my downstairs guess room which currently has white walls but guess what color I'm going to paint it? Yep - gray!

Solid Challenge

The ladies that I quilt with have decided our 2012 quilting challenge will be to create an all solid quilt. The quilt can be any size, any pattern, and shape. The only requirement is that it must be made entirely of solid fabric.

I started my quilt yesterday. Look at these lovely fat quarters!



The bundle was so pretty, I didn't want to cut in to them. Even the schnibble pile is gorgeous.


I love watching the ribbon effect during chain piecing.


I am so inspired by this quilt that I wish I could spend the weekend finishing it but we have lots of plans with friends plus activities to run the boys to and fro. And I'm pretty sure I haven't done laundry or grocery shopping in a few weeks.


I also need to finish up a commission quilt that I started a few weeks ago. I don't like the fabric I purchased for the border so I'm going to do some shopping for it this weekend. I keep telling myself that I need to finish the commission quilt before I work on the solid quilt but oh boy, do I really, really want to keep going on the solid quilt.