Bright Quilt

I put this quilt top together about 3 months ago, quilted it a few weeks later, and just finally finished up the binding this week! My mom has been machine sewing her binding on, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's super easy and comes out looking decent if you're patient!

Fall Owl Quilt

My Mom gave me some of her cute fall fabrics to make a quilt with last week. She had made one from a similar pattern, so I came home and figured out some dimensions for cutting and went to work. I have now learned how to cut fabric with a rotary cutter while sitting down! It's not as easy as one would think. I decided that I wanted 30 blocks that are 8" once the quilt is assembled. I spent one day cutting, one day sewing, and 2 days basting, quilting, and binding. I think this is one of the fasted quilts I've put together! Tom and I both love the little owls in the bright fall colors.

Halcyone's Hexagon Bib

I saw a picture of a bib someone had made with hexagons that I got my idea from. I have no idea where the picture came from, but here is what I ended up with!

I started by making hexagons. This meathod is called English Paper Piecing. This video is an excellent tutorial if you want to give it a try! Here are the steps I followed:

• Make evenly shaped hexagons out of cardstock scraps.
• Cut fabric scraps to go over the paper. I'd recommend a little more than a 1/4" allowance.
• Baste the fabric over the hexagons.
• Lay the hexagons out to make sure you have the colors set up in a way you like.
• Whip stitch the edges of the hexagons together at the edges.
• Iron once they're all sewn together
• Remove baste stitching and pull out papers. If the papers don't look too worn, you can save and use them again.

Once I had the hexagons all sewn together, I cut a piece of fabric and sewed it across the top. I used a piece of an old skirt for the back. To get the pieces to stick together for when I cut out the pattern, I very lightly spray basted the backing, a piece of warm and natural cotton batting, and the hexagon piece together. After it dried, I pinned a pattern I made (I traced a Carter's bib, making the neck space a little bigger.) to the fabric stack and cut it out. I machine quilted the layers together. For the binding I used some bias cut binding made from more scraps I had. To finish it up, I used some great 16mm snaps (no sew!) from the Snap Source. Now I can't wait to use it!

Paddington Quilt

A couple years ago I found a couple fat quarters of this cute Paddington Bear fabric. I added to the collection as I found different pieces of it on sale. My mom also had a few pieces that I was able to use to complete this quilt!

I finished sewing the pieces together and quilting through the layers about a month ago. This is the first quilt I haven't "stitched in the ditch" on. Instead I sewed about 1/8" on either side of the seams. Tom and I both like the way it turned out, and it was much easier to keep strait. After being put on bed rest I was able to hand stitch the binding down around the back side. Hopefully Halcyone likes this quilt as much as Tom and I do!

I'll try to update this blog a little more often! I've been working on lots of hand held projects over the past couple weeks. A few of them are almost finished!

Quilted Pillow Covers

When we got our new-used couches back in the spring, we knew we'd eventually need some throw pillows to jazz them up and to stuff behind one's back while watching a movie. I'd looked at pillows at a few different places and finally decided to just buy uncovered pillows and make something fun to cover them with. A few weeks ago when we were at Ikea I found two 19" square pillows that I thought would be dense enough. They've been hanging around on the couches since then, making me look like an odd decorator, but now they're finished!

I used a couple of ideas I found at Red Pepper Quilts because I decided it would be fun to use some of my fabric scraps. The first pillow cover used strips of fabric cut into 3" x 9" randomly sewn together. I used 1.5" strips of white in between the colors. The second pillow I used sets of 4 pieces of fabric from one color group cut into 1.5" x 4.5" strips. I finished the tops just like a quilt, with batting for stability, then sewed a double sided envelope-style back.

Brown Bear Quilt

This quilt went together so quickly! I bought half a yard of the animal blocks from the Brown Bear Eric Carle, 4 fat quarters, and 1/2 yard in a two different minky fabrics. I still have enough that I can make a second quilt exactly like this one. I used a pattern from the Summer 2009 edition of Quilts & More. I swapped some of the cotton fabric for minky (an interesting experience) and made 9 blocks instead of 20. This is the first time I've used minky. At first it was frustrating me because it kept stretching, but I added the walking foot and that helped keep everything lined up. At 40" square this will make a perfect baby gift!

The Washington Quilt

The fabric from this quilt came from the 2007 Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. I started working on the blocks slowly back then, and have gradually added to the stack over the past 2 years. I used some of the patterns from previous shop hops, substituting the fabric from those other years with the Washington themed fabric from 2007. I pulled together enough fabric to fill in the sashing, boarders, backing, and binding from post shop hop sales. This quilt was fun because I had to learn how to do paper piecing, the blanket stitch, and English paper piecing.

Now it's living on the back of our large living room couch. Yes, the kitties tried it out while I was still sewing the binding on. They approve!

Above - English paper piecing

Below - paper piecing

2009 Quilt Shop Hop

The Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop was once again last Wednesday through Sunday. My mom and I visited 13 shops on Wednesday, and another 7 on Thursday. We visited shops in Lynden, Bellingham, Anacortes, Everett, Bellevue, Renton, Des Moines, and some in between.

The shop hop included about 60 stores in the state that created 8.5" blocks from a collection of fabric designed just for this event. Each shop uses 3

pieces of fabric, one of them a coordinate of their choosing that is not part of the collection. We both liked this year's fabric, but weren't crazy about the main flower and butterfly print. One of the first shops we visited (Fourth Corner Quilts in Bellingham) had used the collection and added several bright prints of their choosing, which we loved! We bought a few half yards there to split and make our quilt with.

My favorite shops were:

• Forth Corner Quilts, Bellingham
• The Quilting Loft, Ballard
• Quiltworks Northwest, Bellevue
• Keepsake Cottage Fabrics, Bothell

One of my goals on the shop hop was to find enough sock monkey fabric to make a crib set with. I knew this would be difficult because that line of fabrics came out about 4-5 years ago. I ended up finding enough, picking up different pieces at about 6 different shops. Some of them were even on sale!

I also found the following exciting fabrics!

Paddington Bear & Eric Carle's Brown Bear - The Paddington fabric was half off and perfect for some other Paddington fabrics I've been accumulating slowly for a kids quilt. The Brown Bear fabric will work well for a baby quilt gift.

Anna Maria Horner Flowers - I've had my eye out for this fabric for a while as well. It's from an older line of Anna Maria's fabric, but it will be perfect for the couch throw pillows I'm planning to make!

And lastly, I found some cute patterns!

(Can you believe this is my 50th post?!)

What a Swell Quilt

I started this quilt last summer! It's made with the line of fabric called Swell by Moda's Urban Chicks. I love the bright red with pale yellow and blue. I was originally going to do a scalloped edge, but that turned into far too much confusion, so it ended up with a regular old straight edge. I used 2 sets of charm packs for the center, and yardage for the borders. It ended up being a very quick job to quilt once I had it all glue basted together! 

The cats also decided they needed significant involvement in this project. Orangey helped me sew the binding together. Missy tested it for cuddliness while I took a break from whip stitching the binding to the back. Now our living room is proudly sporting a new couch-quilt, and the fall themed one is resting for a few months! 

In a Pear Tree

Today I finished my pear tree quilt! Initially I thought that it would be a lap sized quilt, but as you can see it almost covers our queen sized bed! I used some Nancy Halvorson Christmas fabrics that I started collecting last year, and then found a complimentary line this year. This is the biggest quilt I've done, and it was almost too large to comfortably quilt on my machine. I think now I'll get back to a smaller project! :)

I made this wall sign for our bedroom about a month ago, but just got to the pictures! I used a piece of hardwood, covered it with a sealer and then used the crackle paint spread as the background. Then I designed the words in photoshop, printed it, and used graphite paper to get the outline onto the board, which I then used acrylic paints to detail. 

Wedding Gift

I made this quilt and giraffe for a good friend who got married a couple weeks ago. She's doing her home in an ethnic theme, so I had fun picking out fabric and colors (teal, green, blue, brown, purple). This is the first time I've ever made anything with batik fabric, and I love it! Tom thought I should make a duplicate quilt for our living room.