Simple Purple Baby Quilt

Day 2 of the 31 day blog challenge. Today I have decided to share a baby quilt that I was asked to create by my sister. She always comes to me when she needs a baby gift for a friend or coworker. Because of her work travels, my baby quilts are all over the world and that makes me smile.

This baby quilt I decided to keep simple. Sometimes, simplicity works best for these little quilts. I pulled from my stash of purples and cut them into 3.5" squares. I alternated the purples with a creamy print. 

I also decided to do nice straight line quilting to emphasize the blocks.  The backing is a simple print with little birds   

This baby quilt was very happily received by the family. Hope their little one enjoys it. 

While I was photographing the quilt my helper puppy was playing in the leaves. 

Project Quilting Challenge 3 - Orphan Blocks and UFO's

This weeks Project Quilting challenge was all about Orphan Blocks and UFO's.  I knew exactly what I would be working on as soon as I saw the challenge.  A while back (2012) I created two quilts for brothers Calvin and Henry.   They were actually take 2 because my sister did not like take 1, which were reverse applique circles.

I still had take 1 sitting around and was planning on doing something with it along with the scraps from Calvin's and Henry's quilts.  In the summer the boys became big brothers to little Charlie so I figured a quilt with both sets of fabrics, combining them would be fun for the youngest.  Well, it sat for so long because I couldn't decide on a direction.  This challenge pushed me to finish it.

I took apart the quilt top that had the 6 reverse applique circles, using two of them in the quilt.  I then pulled the left over brick pieces out of the scraps and cut them into 3.5" squares.

After I put them up on the design wall I felt like it still needed something.  I dug through more scraps and found some leftover Color Weave by PB Textiles, which is what I used in the original quilts, and decided to frame the square blocks.  After then I decided to add just a touch of color to the circle blocks to finish off their edges.
 

Once the top was together I pulled the leftover backing from the brother's quilts from my stash and was ready to quilt in no time.  

I did a simple stipple all over the baby quilt using cream thread on the front and a variegated green on the back.  The variegated green looks pretty cool up close.  

I used a fun yellow print for the binding, machine stitching it on like I usually do for baby quilts.  

I know, photo overload, but I am so happy how this quick simple orphan block/ufo baby quilt came out.

I've decided to name it Spiffy Dinosaur Quilt because of the little argyle and plaid fabrics mixed with the dinosaur prints.

Spiffy Dinosaur Quilt

33" x 33"

Pellon Cotton batting

Assorted stash fabrics and ufo blocks

Made in my home in Lanoka Harbor, NJ

Project Quilting Season 6 Challenge 1

Ahh it is here again!  Another season of Project Quilting hosted by Kim at Persimon Dreams.  I am not sure if you all know how much I love Project Quilting.  It is a one week challenge where we are inspired by a topic posted by Kim.  We can make any quilted item for the challenge as long at it is completed in the week and posted to her blog by 12 noon the following Sunday after it is announced.  I've made all sizes of quilts for Project Quilting, 2 have been in multiple quilt shows and one of the ones I designed has the pattern is in American Quilter!  So I really love Project Quilting!

Challenge 1 was trees.  I had to think about it for a couple days before I came up with my plan, improv whimsical trees.

I reverse appliqued the colorful tops then fused and zigzag stitched the trunks.  The white fabrics are all different white on whites.

After I made a number of trees I decided my whimsical forest needed some birds so I drew up a little curving flying geese pattern and sprinkled them through.  My mom says they remind her of kites flying.  Then came time to piece it all together.  Oh the fun of inset seams, next time I shouldn't have so many in the quilt.

I decided on some swirly free motion quilting around the trees and geese.  It gives movement to the little quilt.  

I just love the little geese.  

The back is a sketch fabric in a light blue.  I have a lot of it since it makes great backings.

It is machine bound in a fun orange that frames the little quilt nicely.  This was a fun quilt to start the year off with.  My first finish for 2015.  It had reverse applique, regular applique, and paper piecing.  Definitely a great way to start a year of quilting!

Whimsical Trees Baby Quilt
28.5" x 31.5"
Assorted cotton fabrics
Pellon 100% cotton batting
quilted with Coats and Clark machine quilting thread

Emmett Baby Quilt

I have been on a baby quilt roll lately.  Everyone keeps having babies!  This baby quilt was created in a color pallet of navy blue and gray.  That is a really hard color combo for a baby quilt.  I created a couple of quilts before I figured out the perfect quilt pattern.

I found a fun print with boat schematics and felt that it needed to be in the quilt.  But was at a loss at what to make.  Then on a trip to the fabric store I stumbled on the elephant print.  It had navy blue in it!  I decided to use that fabric as my inspiration.  I cut the print on the bias to have the elephants standing upright.  The blocks are places in an argyle pattern and quilted to emphasize that.  

If you look closely, the plaid lines in his name line up perfectly.  Ya, I am nuts like that, haha.  

I backed the quilt with white minky fabric, which shows off the quilting nicely.  

Maggie had to check out the quilt while I was taking pictures.  She loves to look at quilts...

and the she loves to hide in the bushes when the wind blows.

Emmett Baby Quilt
35" x 45"
80/20 Pellon Batting

Brown and Blue

Recently I created a brown and blue baby quilt for a little boy.  Using almost all stash fabrics, this little quilt came together quickly.

It is made with the disappearing nine patch block.  I added a couple borders to frame the quilt.  

I free motion quilted the quilt using a light blue thread in a large meander.  I love the loopy on these baby quilts and it goes so quickly when I quilt it.  

I backed the quilt with minky fabric, blue with a strip of brown.  The quilt is bound in a brown argyle.  

I love the simple blocks for baby quilts, they really make sweet quilts.  I hope the little baby enjoys his quilt.

I-Spy Baby Quilt

My sister recently asked me if I could make a neutral baby quilt for a friend of hers.  They were not finding out the gender of the baby, so I decided to make an I-Spy quilt.  I pulled out my crazy stash of I-Spy blocks that I have collected from my stash and from swaps with Polly from Pieces by Polly.

I sorted a handful of squares by color and pulled out 18 blocks from each stack to make 2 nine patch blocks of each color.

After I pieced the top, I quilted some wavy lines along a number of the seams.  I like to add a lot of quilting to baby quilts to make sure they hod up to lots of washings.  I also machine bound the quilt.

I backed it in a fun tree print with a couple teal strips running through.  The binding is a small yellow chevron, adding a pretty stripe along the edge.

I love the colorful quilt among the fall leaves.

I-Spy Baby quilt
31.5" x 42"
Assorted fabrics
100% Pellon cotton batting

June Project Quilting - Out to Sea Quilt

Yay, I finished up my June off season Project Quilting Challenge.

I went from this panel and box of scraps, (and a little bit of stash)

to this mess on my wall.

And from there to a completed top.  And now, a totally finished quilt! 

I did some wavy quilting down the length of the quilt because I felt it fit the Out to Sea theme I was going for.

The back is pieced with navy Kona and a fun nautical flag print that looks like they are blowing in the wind.

The binding is a red stripe with little red anchors dotted through it.

This quilt was quick and fun to make.  I really enjoyed digging through my box of nautical scraps to find the right pieces for each spot.

Out to Sea Baby quilt

34" x 40"

Multiple lines of 100% cotton fabric

Pellon cotton batting

June Project Quilting

It is off season for Project Quilting and this month is the Panel It challenge.  All you have to do it take a panel and make a cool quilt or quilted item out if it and link up by June 30th.  

Amazingly, I have more panels than I would have thought when I pulled them all together.  I decided on the fun nautical panel that I realized I had 2 of in 2 different spots (at least I know I liked if if I bought it twice).  I pulled my nautical scrap bin and a couple pieces from my stash and went to town playing.

This was totally done free form, with a log cabin inspired frame around the panel sections.  It was fun to just play around with the bin of scraps that really doesn't look like I pulled from it at all even though almost the entire top was pieced from it.  I am kinda amazing at the amount of nautical inspired scraps I have, but it probably has something to do with living on the shore.    

Now off to piece the back and get quilting, the end of the month is coming quickly. 

Project Quilting Challenge 5 - Grocery Store

I can't believe it is Friday and I am already done with my project quilting project.  And to be honest, I only started it Wednesday.  I love how when the perfect idea hits it just flows.

This week is the Grocery Store Challenge.  I chose the pasta aisle as my inspiration.  There are great colors and shapes in the aisle and it just called for a quilt.  The boxes in the aisle are blue, green, yellow, orange, and red depending on the brand and type of pasta.  And they are stacked so nicely on their shelves.  Once I turned to look out of the aisle there was a display of matchbox cars and other kids toys so the idea hit.  I had the perfect fabric in my stash to create my Pasta Box Quilt.

I started with a doodle of my pasta boxes on the shelves and went from there.  I grabbed my car and train sign fabrics, which are all primary colors, and started cutting away.

I lined them up on my design wall to check the arrangements and check out which color I wanted to use as my "shelves".

Once I figured it out I realized I had to quilt it with free motion "spaghetti".

Loops and squiggles all over really complete the look.  This Pasta Box quilt went together quickly and was a fun simple sewing project.

And to top it off, the entire quilt came from my stash, even the back.  Love that part!  The back also features a couple extra boxes from the front and a little tag with the quilt info.  Not only does this quilt work for Project Quilting, it also crosses off another quilt from my to do list that was requested, score!

Pasta Box Quilt
36" x 38.5"
Created in my home in Lanoka Harbor, NJ

Project Quilting Challenge 4

Two weeks ago was project quilting challenge 4 for season 5.  The challenge was Across the Universe.  I knew exactly what I was going to do as soon as I saw the words.  I had been looking for an excuse to play the the scraps from Matthew's space quilt for a while now and this was the perfect opportunity.  I pulled the bag of space scraps out and went to work.

In the scraps there were already some triangles left from Matt's quit so I threw them up on my design wall.  I decided I would continue with the triangles so I started free piecing the scraps together to make more, adding robots, space ships, and astronauts to the center of them.

I was going to make it a square, but as I added the triangles I realized that I liked the hexagon and felt it was the perfect shape for a space play mat.

For the backing I pulled the last pillowcase from the sheet set I bought to back Matt's quilt and make his pillow sham.

The quilting is free motion molecules because, hey that's sciencey and perfect for space.

The space play may is 36" across the center of the hexagon, perfect for the future astronaut. 

This weeks Project Quilting Challenge is Grocery Store.  It is not due until Sunday at noon so you still have time if you want to join in on the fun.