Family Jewels

I always enjoy working on quilt projects WITH family members FOR family members. Over the winter, my mom and I made a wedding quilt for my cousin, Steve, and his bride-to-be, Ellen. They requested green and jewel tones. We decided on this pattern from Pinterest. (We didn't have the actual pattern but it was pretty easy to replicate.)

It took some digging to come up with jewel tone scraps as it's been many years since I've done a quilt in those colors. We worked on putting it together during a quilt retreat weekend. When one person does the sewing and the other person does the cutting and ironing, things sure do go fast.

We layered the quilt when my mom was visiting me for the weekend and then I did the actual quilting at another quilt retreat weekend. (I get so much done during "quilt camp".)

The back was teech too short but luckily we had leftover blocks. I love the look of pieced backs.

The wedding was in April, held at a windmill museum and my youngest was the ring bearer. Here are some family photos from the event.

IU Chevron

 Since moving to Bloomington and working at Indiana University, the amount of red in my house has quadrupled! So it's only fitting that I actually started collecting red fabric to go along with everything else red in my life. I've been collecting some true red (aka red, red) fat quarters for a few years and wasn't sure what to do with the material. Unfortunately, it's impossible to get IU themed fabric (trust me, I've tried!) therefore I finally decided on a chevron quilt (similar to my Purdue chevron from a few years ago.)

My strips were different sizes which gave some visual edge to the quilt. I ended up with a baby size project and donated it the Boys and Girls Club Holiday Auction along with some other IU baby items. Unfortunately, I didn't get a great picture of the finsihed quilt. Oy. This one will have to do.

Log Cabin Challenge

The Covered in Threads guild challenge for 2014 was a log cabin quilt. I love log cabin quilts but I don't particularly love making them. They always seem to take longer to construct than I think they should!

I decided to make an off center block and after laying them out a few ways, I went with this following pattern because I felt like it gave this traditional block a circular effect.

 Here's the finished product.

I used a circular pattern to quilt it.

I brought this quilt to our winter retreat for show and tell. 

 I wasn't the only one. A few others had finished their log cabins for show and tell too!

The 2015 challenge is a tessellation quilt. Several of us had to look up the meaning of tessellation.

Triple Rail Fence

Another baby quilt! I've done several this year but I think this is the last one for a while. Of course, I always think that but I'm always wrong. Which is just fine with me because I LOVE making baby quilts!

This quilt is for my dear, dear friends from Lafayette. They are having baby #2, a little brother for Reed. For Reed's quilt, they asked for something in brights which I did but I wasn't sold on the random star pattern I chose. So for this quilt, I went with a contemporary twist on a class pattern. Enter the triple rail fence....

The quilt I made in the requested aquas, oranges, and grays was inspired by a few pinned items from Pinterest:

By Red Papper Quilts, taken from Flickr

Pattern can by purchased from her Etsy shop

By Liz Taylor of LizTaylorHandmade

I needed this to be scrappy and I thought I had plenty of orange, aqua, and gray scraps. But my gray scraps were mostly solids, I didn't have nearly as much aqua as I thought, and my orange scraps were mostly used up making a log cabin quilt for the 2014 Covered in Threads Challenge. (More on that at a later date.) This meant I was forced to buy fabric. Poor me! :)

I needed variety of fabric to achieve the scrappy look and of course I ended up with too much fabric. Which isn't normally a problem except that I cut all that fabric in to two inch strips. Doh! I wasn't sure what to do with all the leftover strips. (I only used about half of the cut strips for my front.) The situation got me thinking... how could I use the leftover strips on the back? Hmmmm....

I love how the back turned out (almost has much as I love the front!). It's pretty kick ass...

If I do say so myself.

The Polack has been challenging me to make a two sided quilt and with this quilt, I can check that project off the list. (Bonus!)

Now we just need to find some time to get this quilt to it's intended. They are due any day now!

Runt Rowe

I know I've said it before but it bears repeating... I love making quilts for people who appreciate the blood (sometimes), sweat (figuratively), and tears (hopefully not) that go in to each individual work of art. I had made a baby quilt for the Rowe family a few years back. They were so appreciative that when I found out they were expecting baby #2, I immediately asked if I could make a second quilt for them.

I always want some sort of guidance in terms of color scheme and/or pattern/style when I'm giving away a quilt. They asked for something in their color scheme - pink and green with gray. Since they loved Ryleigh's quilt, I wanted to choose a pattern that was similar in style.

I created several gray blocks with green and pink "sticks" in them. I wasn't sure about the layout so I tried two different options:

I ended up going with option 2 and I'm happy with the end result. I especially love that I used scraps for this entire project. I didn't have to buy anything for it. I even pieced batting leftover from another project.

Baby 2 will be arriving sometime in the next few weeks and I can't wait to hear how much Ryleigh enjoys being a big sister.

Paintbox Quilt

I have always loved the Paintbox Quilt pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh! Fransson. But I had never thought gsdgabout doing it until a few years ago when a friend said she was making one. She had been collecting solids for the project and offered to share some cuts with me. It was what I needed to get started.

Here is Elizabeth's version:

Isn't it so pretty?! I worked on putting blocks together of the course of about 2 years. Every time I added a new shade of a solid to my stash, I cut some strips for this quilt. 

When I went to lay it out, I was shocked at how big it was. I had trouble finding space in my house for the layout. The layout was tough... I wanted the colors to flow from one shade to another. I played and played around until I found a layout I liked. 

Here is the finished top:

Figuring out how to quilt it was another challenge. I ended up coming up with a pattern that I made up. I did geometric angles and filled them in as I went.

It took a long time.

A really long time.

A really, really long time.

But I love how it turned out. You can see some of the quilting on this photo of the back: 

Taa-daa... the final project! I took photos from a few different angles so you could see the different blocks. Don't mind Freddy who is sitting in his favorite spot.

I definitely gaze fondly at this quilt when I'm hanging out in my bedroom doing laundry, watching tv, or prepping for the class at I teach. I'll see a block and I think "I love that block - it's my favorite!" And then I'll see another block and think, "Oh wait, THAT'S my favorite!" I definitely can't decided; they are all unique. (It sounds like I'm talking about my children.)

Here are some blocks that I wanted to highlight:

 

 

 

For more Paintbox inspiration, visit this Flickr page!

Bar Keep T-Shirt Quilt

So the buyer of the Diabetes T-shirt quilt commissioned me to do another project for her. She is a bartender and when working, she wears t-shirts that are appropriate for the bar setting. She's must be pretty well known for her t-shirts because she even has customers that give her shirts to wear.

I got a kick out of some of the shirts. You'll have to zoom in to read some of them. I really enjoy t-shirt quilts more than I thought I would. I love the design process. My one problem with this quilt is that once I put the top together, it wasn't as big as I wanted.

I solved that problem by adding a piano key border. I think the end result was great.

Most importantly, I had another satisfied customer.