A Sweet Baby Quilt

Fair warning this post is sooooo full of pictures of a very pink quilt :)

So a very good friend of mine had a little baby girl last month.  I was so very excited when I got the text at 2:30 in the morning that it was a girl!  I was not able to make it to her baby shower the month before, but I sent here out a package with Bunny and Ellie.  She did not know what she was having ahead of time so I had to wait to start the quilt.  Well I got the text Wednesday morning, the 28th,  and so after physical therapy that day I made a trip to my LQS to shop for fabrics.  I wanted to match Bunny and Ellie as much as possible.  I was so excited to be shopping for pink!  I already had the white raindrop from Ellie and the brown and blue polka dot.  I also had the pink and brown and the blue and brown flower fabrics.

So while at my LQS I pulled out all the pink and brown that I could find and only the best would do.   I ended up with the pink with the brown splotches, the pink and white dot, and the brown and pink polka dot.  I also went to another fabric shop I love and got the pink and brown circles and the backing.  I pulled a piece of pink and brown swirly from my stash that I have been saving for something special.

The backing... love it!

So I decided I wanted to make this a fun quilt with lots of little squares, I love the look of postage stamp quilts, so I cut out 2 inch squares of my main fabrics and make blocks with them.  I didn't want a pattern, I like the random look.  So I made blocks of 9 squares by 9 squares.  I also decided I would be turning them on point.

Only halfway done with blocks at this point.  Pressing all those seems took forever!  But I kept at it...

And now the top was all done!!

I love how neat all my seems look!  

Ok, I am also proud of my corners... that was a lot of work!

I decided to free motion quilt the baby quilt.  This was the first quilt that wasn't a mug rug or mini that I have free motion quilted.  I did each block separately and then did a squiggle along the borders of the blocks.  I used a variegated pink thread that really stood out against the brown.  I used warm and natural for the batting.  

Closer look of the quilting. 

And the back.  I framed the backing fabric with the brown and pink swirly.  You can see the pattern of the blocks if you look closely at the quilting from the back.

I loved the look so much that I decided I needed to make a smaller, snuggley quilt that will be perfect in the car or stroller or to be dragged around when she is a little older or ever a quilt for her dolls when she is older, too.  This block I made 10 squares by 10 squares and then made small borders.  I also free motion quilted this, but I backed it with minky that I framed a little piece of the backing (thank heaven for little girls) so I didn't want too much quilting to keep it super soft.  

Both together... I love all the pink!

I am so happy with how these two quilts turned out.  I love all the pinkness!  The baby quilt is about 48"x48" and the mini is about 20"X20".  

I sent them off to their new owner.  I find it so exciting that there is a new little person in the world and I love that I was able to make her a special gift.  I can not wait to meet this little bundle of happiness that I made this quilts for.  

And here is a link to a picture of the sweet little girl with her new quilt.  

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story and at Quilting by the River Linky Party Tuesday.  

Go home relax, ice, rest, and... sew

So I have to say that I have a great physical therapist that knows me very well.  This has been a hard week on my knee.  It was so sore Monday and they I had to have another injection on Tuesday.  So by the time I had physical therapy on Wednesday I was in so much more pain from the injection (why does it hurt so much after?!?).  Well after my wonderful 4 hours there he said to me, "go home, ice, relax, and maybe sew something".  Well you don't have to tell me that twice.  I decided that I was feeling too bah to sew an of the dozens of projects I am working on so while sitting and slicing fabrics for my nephews' I-spy quilt I decided to cut up the smaller scraps to make an I-spy place-mat for my physical therapist's little guy.  I mean, it was his idea to rest, relax, and sew.

So this is that I came up with.  It has all kinds of fun things on it... giraffes, tractors, trains... I love how it turned out.  

I did straight line quilting just outside the seem lines.  I like the look of the grid on it.  I just need to bind it and then it is all done to bring to physical therapy tomorrow.  The little guy is 20 months old so this will be a fun game for him to play.  

I just have to decide on what color to do the binding.  I am off to go relax with some more ice on my knee.  Anyone want to trade a sightly used and abused knee for one with a little less wear and tear?  

Update:  All done :)

Quick Strip Quilt

So I know I haven't posted about sewing much lately, but I have been totally busy sewing a special gift for a friend, but since I don't know if they received the package yet I have to hold off a little while longer to post about that project.

I had a birthday party to go to on Friday and I had been hemming and hawing over if I was going to go and what I would bring as a gift if I did.  Well I decided that day that I would go and that I needed to bring a fun little throw for her.  I know, I know... could I wait any longer to start a project like this?  Thank goodness I didn't.  I decided on a quick strip quilt.  (Which was nothing to the baby quilt I spent the last 3 weeks working on)  I pulled out some fun bright fabrics from my stash and started slicing away.  The strips range from 5.5" to 2.5" cut and 5" to 2" sewn.

There is no pattern as to how the colors went, just that the more solid colors broke up the patterns.  The floral prints are a Michael Miller collection that I have had (and hoarded) for years.  I love those prints and only use a little bit at a time.   I quilted it just to the right of the seam lines.  So that was just as quick as putting it together.  I love the bright yellow binding I put on it too, makes the colors all pop.  I will say, my binding is a little sloppy in parts, but I didn't have time to take it all off and fix it.  The backing is another piece of purple, light and speckley, but I forgot to get a picture of the back :(.  The finished measurements are 43"x50".  A nice little throw to snuggle with on the couch (thank goodness she is short like me).

So start to finish just about 4.5 hours.  Next time I will give myself more time to complete it.

I am linking up to Quilt Story for Fabric Tuesday.

Happy Easter... and some more fabrics

Happy Easter.  Today was a nice day spent with my family.  It was relaxing with church then dinner and then just chilling.  It is beautiful today so my Easter outfit was perfect.  About two weeks ago when I stopped in to Kohls to return something I decided to just take a quick look around.  I always have to check out the clearance section just to see what they have and I found a dress that started at $68 and was marked down to just $6.40!  It fit perfectly so I couldn't pass it up.  And just yesterday I went back to see if I could find a cute sweater to go with it and score, a cute one for just $12.  With my Kohls cash (which was left from January) and my coupon I paid just .39 for it.  So my Easter outfit only cost me $6.79.  I love sales!  My little silver shoes are from Aldo and were a gift from my sister for Christmas.  And I carried a little clutch that I made.

So I showed you some fabrics that I picked for my sister's quilt already, but I needed to find some more to add to it so I spent an afternoon and headed to another fabric store not far from me.  There I picked up some fabrics for a backing that I fell in love with (and wasn't looking for) that I will show when the quilt is finished (tehehe).  I wandered around for a while and found some great fabrics that fit with the theme that I have for my sister's quilt.

So these are the ones that I felt worked with the theme.  From the left we have Wild Thyme by Carolyn Gavin for P&B Textiles, then the top lighter one is Robert Kaufman "Fusions", below is something by Faye Burgos (it was cut off), top again is color splash by Hoffman California, and the blue is by Timeless Treasures.  The Color splash came out of my stash but I just realized that it fit with the others and I am totally kicking myself for only getting a half a yard of the Faye Burgos print... I may need to go get a little more.

All together I like the feel I get from them.  I guess I should get started on her quilt now that I have a good selection of fabrics to work with.

While I was out this week I also picked up a few fabrics to go with my I-spy swap fabrics.  I participated in an I-spy swap about a month ago set up by Midnight Maker.  I was very excited when my fabrics arrived in the mail and immediately laid them out to see all the fabrics.

Here is a selection of them.  I have some others to add in but was told that my nephews would not appreciate the pink dresses or shoes or purses.  Humph... I guess I will save those for if I need to make a girl I spy quilt.  But I think my flamingos are awesome

And these bugs totally rock

Oh and these little fish I picked up at the store the other day I just love

I also have some lobster fabrics and trains and some other ones that will work great.  I saw some blue crab fabrics that I need to pick up too because I mean we do live near the water.  And I found some more of the road signs but in a yellow on yellow form super cheap so I grabbed that too ($1.75 for a fat quarter!).

Well that is an update on my fabric habit.  I think I need to avoid the fabric store... except to go and get more of that one print, haha.  I guess I should go get sewing.

Getting the boat ready...

So I have been working my little fingers away on a fun project that I can't wait to share on here once it is complete and sent to its new special owner.  Cutting, pressings, sewing, pressing, sewing, pressing, arguing with iron, pressing again... keeps me super busy.

But I also have been helping as much as possible with getting the boat ready. (Which isn't much this year thanks to me knee :( )  So I sewed on some straps to the side curtains of the boat.  We then added some snaps to the straps so that when we take the back of the curtains off we can snap the sides so they don't flap in the wind.

The boat will be in the water in about a week.  Then it starts fishing season.  

When we took the winter cover off.

Now back to sewing that special little project!