Kailee's Quilt

My friend Nancy recently asked me to create a quilt for her niece who just had a baby girl.  The baby's name is Kailee.  She had seen this quilt on Pinterest and wanted something similar.  I had so much fun creating this quilt for her.  It was simple and colorful and I needed a break after working on those memory quilts for so long.

I went to my stash and pulled some fun colorful fabrics for the quilt.

I laid out the colors and cut the strips to random widths, making the quilt 45" long and 36" wide.

The name was appliqued with a zigzag stitch before piecing the strips.  I quilted the quilt a quarter in from each seam across the quilt adding swirls in the strip that has the name appliqued on.  

Nancy asked if I could make it super cuddly so I backed it with a soft yellow minky.

I love how the swirls really show on the minky.  This was my first time using a basting spray.  I figured because minky is stretchy it might help hold it in place along with the safety pins.  The minky did not move at all and free motion quilting the swirls went smoothly.

Nancy loved the quilt and I even got Oma's approval (she is brutally honest, haha).

Kailee's quilt measures 36" x 45" 

Front is a mix of prints from my stash.

Binding is a purple raindrop print.

Backing is minky

Batting is 100% cotton Pellon Natures Touch .  

I am linking up to Linky Tuesday at Freemotion By The River and to Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story.

Studio Tour

So over at Ellison Lane and The Sewing Loft there is a studio space blog tour going on.  There are so many beautiful studios that have been shared that I was like, umm mine is nothing like that.  And I saw that some sew in the dining room or kitchen so I decided to jump on board.

I sew in the corner of a spare bedroom.  Yes I tend to take over the entire room and make it difficult to clean for a quick guest visit, but that is because I have a chaotic crazy creative gene (or so I like to say).

My desk is an L shape and over it I have my bulletin board that I have notes from quilty friends, pictures of and from my nephews, and my 1st place ribbon from quilt con (that quilt now lives on the living room wall).  I store my second machine to the right on top of a couple storage bins.  I love to open the blinds during the day when I sew, I have a great view of the backyard.

My design wall is made up of a large foam core board that was used in framing when I worked at a craft and fabric store.  It leans on the wall at the head of the spare bed.

I have storage for my thread, bindings, spare needeles and other small items in these drawers.  I have fat quarters here, too.  On top of the fat quarter is a pile of UFO's.  I need to get those going.  I also pile my bundles here.   In the drawers beneath I store some backings, but mostly it is sheets and such for the spare room.

Behind the door I hang my templates and rulers.

Since I don't have a studio, I store my fabric stash in my bedroom.  My desk has great shelves on it and I love seeing the colors every day when I wake up.  Clearly this desk is no longer used since the fabric is even on the top of the desk.  On top are some of my favorite physics books.

The second shelf is when you walk into the room, on top there is storage for some scrapbooking stuff and a couple bins with fabric projects.  I started this stash many years ago when I first worked at a fabric and craft store and I share much of it with my mom, even my friends.  I am a huge sale shopper and hit up the sale rooms at my favorite stores regularly.

And this short shelf has both scrapbooking and a couple math books.  Also some trims are kept on top on top.  Next to it there are bins with other fabric storage.

Not pictured is my Domestic Rotary machine in a table that holds my serger and a couple other machines that are in other areas of the house that I am not using right now.  

I am spread out with my sewing, but I don't mind since I still have the ability to sew and create.  My little sewing space is prefect for me and I love that I can just wake up and create something amazing every day.

A Lovely Year of FInishes - August

Not even the end of the month and I have already finished my goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  Can you believe it?!?  I am so excited to say that the 4 memory quilts that I have been working on for the past 2 months are completed and to their homes.  Part of the quilts were my July goal (July finish) and then the rest was my August goal (August link).

Fair Warning - this post has a ton of pictures for these 4 quilts.

Quilt 1 alternates between a block with 2 - 4.5"x8.5" bricks and a block 4 - 2.5"x8.5" strips. It is quilted .25" outside the seam of each block.

  

Quilt 2 alternates between a block with 2 - 4.5"x8.5" bricks and a block 4 - 4.5"x4.5" squares.  It is quilted .25" outside the seam of each block.  

Quilt 3 is done in the subway tile pattern.  Each tile is 4.5" x 8.5 ".  I quilted on both sides of the seam of each row.

Quilt 4 is done with 2.5" strips and 2.5" squares.  This idea came from a quilt I saw while searching through quilts on pinterest and through the necessity of using the pieces that I had.   It is stay stitched periodically in the ditch across the quilt and then 7 pairs of vertical lines are quilted into the quilt, too.   In the end, I think this one turned out to be my favorite.

Each quilt is different because the 4 recipients of the quilts had their own special relationship with their mom so I felt they deserved different quilts.  I made sure to put special pieces of the clothing into each quilt, saving as much of the embroidery as possible.

All 4 quilts do have the same backing, a pretty leaf print.

I had a helper when I was trying to take pictures.  Spooky, my neighbor's super friendly cat, came to check out the quilty fun.  

Can't wait to link up at the end of the month and see what everyone else has finished for A Lovely Year of Finishes this month.

Quilty Gift :)

Today I finally was ably to give my Godmother, Aunt Carol, her quilt.  If you remember I created it back in January, the Blue Wave Quilt.  She loved i and that made me so happy.  I am so lucky to have her.

Don't you just love to give quilts as gifts, especially when you give it in person.  Makes me happy to share something I created with someone.

 

August Already!

Wow, hard to believe it is already a week in to August.  This summer is really flying by and I feel like I haven't spent nearly as much time sewing as usual.  But I have been enjoying my time away.  You see, I have two little guys that love to take up my time.  My nephews are so much fun and I eat up every minute spent with them.

On the sewing front, I started quilting the memory quilts.  All four need to be done by the 17th, I think I can get them done, I just need to really get to work.  One is now fully quilted, two are ready to quilt, and the last top is still not fully together, but being worked on.  I am just straight line quilting these, I like the simplicity of the quilting on them.

Chris and I have been doing arts and crafts (or arts and craps if you ask him).  We did cutting, gluing, water painting and played with glitter.  But I think his favorite was making play dough.  I let him mix everything himself and choose the colors while his big brother was fishing with mommy and grandpa.

I also took some time to do some hexi sewing at the beach while the boys played and my sisters ran around with them.

And became the coolest Aunt ever when I was able to make the boys flags for their castles.  (Totally worth using some hexi fabric for!)

 Such fun times with my guys!  (And of course my sisters at the beach!)  Sad to see the end of the summer is near and that Matt will be starting 3rd grade soon.  

So I guess I should go and get some sewing in before the sun comes back out and I feel the need to relax in the pool.