I’ve had this quilt finished and rolled up under my drafting table all summer.  I have a friend at church whose oldest daughter just got MARRIED, and this daughter of hers is a photography major and likes artsy things, so I felt like I needed to make her something for a wedding gift rather than head to Target and buy something.  I ordered the fabric in time for the big day, got it all pieced too late, but in time for a visit this spring.  Unfortunately my free motion quilting wasn’t going quite as planned, so I missed that window to give it to her as well.  Finally this past weekend she was here again and I hurriedly unrolled it to take some photos before whisking it over to her.  Here it is, wrinkles and all.

I ordered a fat quarter pack of Joel Dewberry’s Modern Meadow line (not the colorway in the link, though).  I took 8 of the fat quarters and cut them into big 17 inch  squares and made 2 rows of big blocks in the center of the quilt.

Then I added big solid stripes of some Moda Bella Solid and Cross weave on the top and bottom and called it a quilt top.

For the back I took scraps of the fat quarters to make a narrow stripe and used some more Moda Crossweave, all the same color this time, to complete it.  I really like the simplicity of it because it shows off the loveliness of the fabric so well– and it was fairly instant gratification.  I added ties to one edge so that it can be rolled and tied and taken on picnics for years and years to come.

I quilted it in my signature swirls, but had a hard time getting my machine to cooperate this time around.  I was just using the foot my machine came with and my tension was crazy and my thread would break every time I changed directions.   It made me want to swear.  I didn’t swear, of course, but I really wanted to.  Then I tried RaeLyn’s spring loaded foot and was able to buzz through the whole thing in an afternoon at her house.  I spent about 4 hours on 12 inches of the quilt before our sewing date and then did the whole rest of it in an afternoon between the hours of 1 and 4– with lots of chatting and eating and kid chasing mixed in.  (RaeLyn– We really need to get together again.  Soon!)

So, anyway, here’s the quilt that’s been hiding all summer.  I have fat quarters cut to make another, just need to get some more solid fabrics to go with them.  And I think I’ll keep the next one.

My in-laws got me a stack of craft books for Christmas.  I’m going to show you one today.

Patchwork Style!  This book has been making the rounds in craft-blog-land for years as a Japanese craft book, but now it’s in English.  Japanese craft books do have super clear diagrams and beautiful photographs which make them easy enough to work from if you don’t mind using a little guess work– but being full of words with a recognizable alphabet in a language I can actually read makes this one much, much better.

I was intrigued by the way Suzuko Koseki says to piece log cabin blocks by basically foundation piecing onto your batting.  Simple, and you quilt as you go.  I tried it out with this simple project:

a patchwork pillow.  It’s a great way to use up treasured tiny scraps of favorite fabrics .

Since I only have one it keeps moving around from place to place.  If you can’t tell, I like it so much it even became my new header here.

It does need, at the very least, a partner.  My goal is to have that done in time to welcome our new couch into the house at the end of the month.  If only the IRS could be faster…

This summer when we went to visit my family I went through my usual crafty frenzy that I seem to have while I’m home with extra adults to police the masses.  I  made a trip to the best quilt store I’ve been to and came out with a stack of Kaffe Fasset shot cottons in close colors of green and fat quarters of prints by Heather Bailey and Amy Butler.  I pieced a bazillion half square triangles and put them up on my mom’s design wall.

And that’s as far as I got.

For Christmas my mom put it all together for me.  She squared up all those little tiny squares, sewed them together, quilted them in a super cool pinwheely pattern, bound it, and sent it to me for Christmas.

I love it.

Don’t you?

Thanks mom!

This was Wednesday night:

Free-motion spiraling away.  I decided to take a stab at free motion quilting the pattern I did on this quilt  using a long arm quilting machine.  I broke my thread quite a bit at first, but once I got in my groove it went really quickly.  I think I got this one quilted in less time than the one I made last week.  I like how it turned out better.  April’s got her signature quilting pattern.  Maybe this one is mine.

The back of this one is a fun Amy Butler flannel.  The front–some Kona cotton and a few fun prints.

I can’t think of a cute way to end this post.  Maybe you can.  I need to go tend to the screaming baby and the hoodlums pounding on the piano.

I whipped this baby quilt together in 2 days.  It is good for me to have a deadline.  I get things done that way.

I kept it super simple– just using some Amy Butler scraps I had on hand and little bit I added with a trip to a local quilt store.  I haven’t had time to venture to many quilt stores since moving here.  I try to get to the Fancy Tiger whenever I can, but it’s a long drive when I can really only steal an hour at a time.  My mission was to find something closer, but it was kind of a let down.  There were a lot of sample quilts made in fabrics I liked, but only one on a bolt.  Oh well.  I guess driving all the way out to the Fancy Tiger is worth it because I know I’ll find something I love.

It turned out cute, though.  I copied April’s swirly quilting (though I think I need more practice) and just used a solid flannel for the back.  I’ve got another baby shower coming this weekend.  Can I do a 2 day quilt again?

Barry got a surprise day off of work today, so I spent some time inside working on this:

while things outside looked like this:

There’s at least 16 inches of snow out there and last time I checked it was still coming down.  We went straight from summer to winter here in Colorado.

I got a cute wooden bassinet off of craigslist to put right next to my bed before Hunter was born.  The problem is, now that he’s a little bigger and wigglier I’ve found his little arm stuck through the slats a few times, poor guy.  This was a perfect excuse to give some free-motion machine quilting on my new machine a try.

I made it with Kaffe Fasset shot cottons in aqua and grass.  The weft and warp of the fabric are different colors, so it’s almost solid, but not quite.    I fell in love with this fabric over the summer when I made this quilt for my new niece, now I’ve got something made with it for me!

The actual quilting was kind of a headache.  It included a trip to the sewing machine store to have help figuring out why the heck I was getting a crazy mess of thread underneath my work, why my thread kept breaking, and why I was SO frustrated that my quick, instant gratification project was not instant or gratifying.  The nice lady helped me figure it all out, and after that the quilting went pretty quickly, but I definitely need to use thicker, nicer thread next time.

Good thing I didn’t stay true to character and try this out for the first time on a king size quilt.

Now Hunter’s little arms will stay inside his bed, where they belong, and he’ll be able to sleep right beside me for a few more months.

………………..

Also, make sure you stop by my friend April’s blog.  She is an amazing seamstress and quilter and she’s been busy making birthday presents for her readers this month to give away on HER birthday.  Time is running out, but if you head on over you can comment and maybe even get one of her amazing creations for yourself!

making… bread with my littles.

laughing… at Ellie helping Brenna fold the laundry.

loving… that 15 minutes of quiet scripture study has become a consistent part of our daily routine.

using… my craft space just a minute here and there– right in the middle of the action, just like I had hoped.

It was one of those days I just needed.  Not totally smooth and predictable, I think it will be many, many years before I have a day like that, but the time flowed and we flowed with it, and I’m happy.

To start with the most important news: I have my husband back and we have a house to move into next week!!! It is so good to be a family again. SO, so so good. There is a light at the end of the tunnel of chaos that has been this summer. YIPPEEE!!

And, drum roll please, I have completed 3 Big Zig quilts for my boys.

I started on Saturday, August 29th and worked non-stop (except for Sundays) until they were done on Tuesday, September 9th. Whew!

Details of Jonah’s (front/back):

Logan’s (front/back):

Ian’s (front/back):

I didn’t have my book (it’s packed in storage somewhere in Denver), so I was probably reinventing the wheel with a lot of it. I even remembered that on triangles a squared plus b squared equals c squared, but in the end I didn’t need all that fancy geometry because I just ended up cutting squares the size I wanted the long side of each triangle and cutting them diagonally into 4 triangles. That way when I was piecing the long strips of triangles together I was working safely with the straight grain and not the crazy stretchy bias. Getting my triangles overlapped just right so that my seam allowances were lined up was tricky at first. I ended up tearing apart the dark green zig zag a few times, but by the time I was on quilt 3 I was a pro. Just marking the quilting lines took a whole day, and then I just used my mom’s regular sewing machine, with a walking foot, to do the quilting. That took about a day each. A long day each. Go, stop, pivot. Go, stop, pivot. Over and over. And over and over.

But they’re done!! The boys love them and I got them out of my mind and into reality!

Now it’s time for a road trip, a stop at Ikea, some supervising of the movers, arranging furniture, unpacking boxes, meeting neighbors and getting on with this move already!!

My mom made Brenna a beautiful quilt for Christmas. While we’ve been here they put all the scraps to use.

Brenna did all the designing and sewing, Granny did the cutting. Their goal– to make a little quilt for Buttercup. (Oh, and I did the quilting and Granny the binding.)

It turned out very cute, and has been put to good use.