A Little Lovey

Every boy needs a little blankie to carry around.  (Just ask my 11-year-old who still sleeps with a square of flannel.)

Since Joe's quilt was a bit large to be dragging everywhere, I made him a little lovey to carry around from the scraps of his quilt.

This baby is about 18" square.  Free-motion quilted.

I added loops of ribbon into the binding.  I cut the ribbon at 5", folded them over, sewed them to the back of the quilt as I put the binding on the front, and then pulled them out and stitched them down when I sewed the back of the binding on.

A mini-me.

Joe's Quilt is Finished

It's done . . . before he can even roll over ;)

I ended up stippling.  I need a walking foot before I attempt straight line quilting again.

I pieced the back too precisely, which meant it ended up being too small.  I added what I had left . . . blue.  I wish I had at least split up the blue with a couple of little pieces of brown, but if "wishes were fishes we'd all have a fry." 

I almost like the back better than the front.  Almost.

All in all, I'm rather pleased.  Do you think maybe Joe is too?

Quilt Stats:

Size: 43" x 52"

Fabric: All Stars 2 by Riley Blake (bound with the stripes of the same line)

Kona Chocolate and Kona Baby Blue

Pattern: Chain Linked by Amy Smart of Diary of a Quilter

Perils of a Pieced Back

I may have rescued it with a strip of blue from the front.  Certainly NOT how I wanted this quilt to go.  Quilting almost complete though.

Valentine Crafting Spree

I am avoiding quilting Joe's quilt.  There, I said it.  Hence, the plethora of Valentine's crafts I've been pumping out the last few days.

Button collage.  A hot glue gun has been added to my list of "tools that are too dangerous for Sonia to use."

A Valentine pennant banner with fabric triangles purchased online.  (I really need to get some fancy molding around that window . . . oh, and clean those icky, icky blinds.)

Here's progress on my Giddy table runners.  Check out the quilting.  Tee, hee, hee.  I'm not usually a heart fan, but for Valentine's Day I ought to make an exception, right?

Work-In-Progress.

Now, back to Joe's quilt.  I could try some free motion stars as shown below.  Someone suggested straight line quilting straight through the quilt--not following the optical illusion.  The ideas are simmering.  Guess I ought to just get to work.

The three stars at the top and the meander on the right were done by my 5-year-old.  I love that she is not afraid to try new things!

Workshop in Progress: Thread Color & Quilting Design?

I'm linking up to Cheryl's Workshop in Progress on Naptime Quilter.  I love to quilt, but I don't love the actual quilting . . . I never feel confident in choosing thread color and design.  And frankly, I don't practice enough for my quilting to ever look good to me.  I always have to remind myself of my mother's mantra, "It looks good from the stage."  In other words, no one is ever going to see my tiny mistakes.

Anyway, here's my workshop delimma.  I made the red quilt just for fun (based on Amy's "Chain Linked" pattern from Diary of a Quilter) and loved it so much that I decided to make my baby's quilt from the same pattern.

Here's how I've done the quilting on the red quilt.  Straight line quilting outlining the shape of the optical illusion and around each square.  I'm thinking of adding another "set" of squares inside each square too (in fact, convinced that I will.)  I find this process rather tedious . . . stop and turn at each corner, but I do like how it looks.

So my question is, should I use the same pattern on Joe's quilt?  The back is a bit busy (shown below).  Or should I just stipple all over (to accomodate the back and to get it done faster)?  Either way, what thread color should I use?  My instinct is to take the time to straight line quilt it with a dark brown thread, but wonder if I should switch to a light blue thread on the light blue parts.  If I stipple, would a dark brown work, or should I try for a lighter brown?

Thanks for your input!

Joe's Quilt Top Finished

After a bout with the stomach flu this week (me AND the kids), I finally got back to sewing today.  Here's the finished quilt top.

I was trying to use what I had left over from the front to complete the back.  This isn't turning out as awesome as I had envisioned it would be, but I guess it's okay for a back.

Here's the finished "Joe" block.

And progress on piecing.  I really wanted to finish this today, but I'm ready to hit the sack ;)

And if you ever wonder what to do if the tooth fairy forgets to visit . . .



. . . a teeny-tiny note.  She was totally thrilled.

Making Progress

I've continued with my goal to finish one quilting thing each day.  Today I got the vertical lines pieced.  After I lay my quilt out, I fold over sets of blocks and then stack them in vertical column piles.  I can "chain stitch" entire columns and then stitch columns together until the entire top is pieced.

Tomorrow is ironing and horizontal seams . . . maybe.  I may need to pause and tackle that mountain of laundry.  The back is going to be pieced from leftovers of the fat quarters . . . that idea has been percolating and evolving all day.  I can't wait to tackle it!

Joe's Quilt

I was able to cut the blocks . . .

. . . and get them laid out.  Stitching will have to wait until tomorrow.  It's been a busy day.



Fabric is All Star 2 by Riley Blake, Kona Baby Blue, and Kona Chocolate.

Quilt design by Amy of Diary of a Quilter.

Red & Aqua Experiment and a Bonus Finish

This was another quilt that stalled because of a mistake I was worried about making.  I hadn't even made the mistake yet and I put the quilt away!!!  I had gone so far as to quilt the middle with a stipple and was working on quilting the border with some closely-spaced straight lines.  I was 3/4ths of the way through the border when I began to worry about how the lines would match up when I got all the way around.

So today I finished the quilting, bound it, and got it nice and crinkly in the wash.

And guess what . . . the quilting lines worked out just fine.

As a bonus for today, I turned this pile of fabric . . .

into this pile of pieces and then . . .

into this pile of strips.

My goal for tomorrow: turn that pile of strips into blocks.