Blogger Quilt Festival - Baby Quilt

While at SewDown Philadelphia, a bunch of us were looking for something to do during the free sew time. I had come directly from a work trip in Milan, Italy, so I didn't have much room to pack extra fabric/projects. Fortunately, we all received charm packs of Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids in our swag bags. A bunch of people decided to do a challenge to make a quilt using the charm pack - and thus the SewDown ThrowDown was born.

While I think everyone else added additional fabric, I set out to just use the fabrics provided in the charm pack - my own personal challenge within the challenge. I knew my suitcase was nearing the max weight, so adding more fabric might have put me over the limit (I ended up three pounds over and had to do some serious moving of stuff anyway).

I decided to make half square triangles, separating the colors by warm and cool colors. Overall, I think trying to separate the colors that way was okay, but because the charm pack was full of colors that could have gone one way or another - yellow or green, or purple or pink - that the separation of colors wasn't quite what I was hoping for.  That being said, I'm still really pleased with how this quilt turned out.

I backed it using an Art Gallery print that I've had in my stash for a couple of years now. As you can see above, I quilted this quilt, echoing either side of the diagonal lines of the HSTs.

I bound the quilt using Kona Iron.

Quilt Stats:
32" x 28"
Fabric: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Kona Iron, Art Gallery (I forget the line)
Batting: Warm and Natural
Thread: Aurifil #50 2600

SewDown ThrowDown

While at SewDown, a bunch of us were looking for something to do during the free sew time. I had come directly from a work trip in Milan, Italy, so I didn't have much room to pack extra fabric/projects. Fortunately, we all received charm packs of Michael Miller Cotton Couture solids in our swag bags. A bunch of people decided to do a challenge to make a quilt using the charm pack - and thus the SewDown ThrowDown was born.

While I think everyone else added additional fabric, I set out to just use the fabrics provided in the charm pack - my own personal challenge within the challenge. I knew my suitcase was nearing the max weight, so adding more fabric might have put me over the limit (I ended up three pounds over and had to do some serious moving of stuff anyway).

I decided to make half square triangles, separating the colors by warm and cool colors. Overall, I think trying to separate the colors that way was okay, but because the charm pack was full of colors that could have gone one way or another - yellow or green, or purple or pink - that the separation of colors wasn't quite what I was hoping for.  That being said, I'm still really pleased with how this quilt turned out.

I backed it using an Art Gallery print that I've had in my stash for a couple of years now. As you can see above, I quilted this quilt, echoing either side of the diagonal lines of the HSTs.

I bound the quilt using Kona Iron.

Quilt Stats:
32" x 28"
Fabric: Michael Miller Cotton Couture Solids, Kona Iron, Art Gallery (I forget the line)
Batting: Warm and Natural
Thread: Aurifil #50 2600

Simply Solids - August Block

August completely got away from me. I don't know where the summer has gone or where 2013 is going. Wasn't Christmas and New Years just a few months ago?

Anyway, last week I squeezed in some time after a late night of work and finished the Simply Solids bee block for August. I finished it with just a few days to spare in the month.

The august block was a HST block using a bunch of solids and a few shot cottons. I've been hoarding a few shot cottons for a while now, and after making this block, I have the urge to cut into them. Not to decide what to make... 

WIP Wednesday

For my March goal in the Lovely Year of Finishes Challenge, I would like to finish this quilt that I have been working on.

This means that I need to trim all of these remaining HSTs.

This means I still need to trim all of these down to 4.5" square.

And then I can add those trimmed HSTs to this pile of HSTs and finish piecing the top.  It's a good thing I have retreat coming up to help me finish this quilt.  I'm going to need some good sewing time ahead of me.

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Finish Friday: HST Baby Quilt

Last weekend I quilted and made the binding for a baby quilt so that I could hand sew the binding down and have something to do if I lost power with Sandy.  Well, I lost power around 7pm on Monday, about 5 minutes after I finished cooking dinner - talk about great timing.

So, I did what any quilter would do.  I set myself up on the couch, propped a flashlight on my chest and spent a couple of hours sewing the binding on. It certainly took longer doing it by flashlight, but it sure beat the alternative of sitting around doing not much of anything.

It's finished in a nice, soft flannel print that matches the colors on the front.

I quilted this one pretty simple; I echo quilted around all of the seams, horizontal, vertical and diagonal. Just a 1/4" on either side on the seam.  Simple but effective. If you study the quilt closely, no print was used more than once on this quilt, so it's kind of like an "I spy" quilt in that respect.

To make the HST's, all I did was take a bunch of 5" squares, draw a line on the diagonal and sew on either side of the line to create two squares.  I then trimmed up the squares to 4.5" square before piecing everything together.

I went back and forth on what to do for the binding and finally settled on a red print from my stash.  I think it is from the "Fresh" line by Deb Strain. I really love how it adds another pop of color to the quilt.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  I'm looking forward to washing this and seeing it become all soft and crinkly.  I used two layers of 100% cotton batting to give it an extra soft, plush feel.


And a reminder... it's time to nominate your favorite quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  I'd love it if you nominated and voted for my Dazzling Diamonds quilt - Quilt #78!

Another "Baby" Quilt

Using this same pile of fabrics, I am in the middle of creating another "baby" quilt.  I say "baby" because it really isn't for a baby.  It's for a sibling of a "still-cooking" baby.  I'm all about being equal.

This is the start of this one.  I'm hoping to make this more of a throw or twin size.  The squares in the first picture are 5" square and I sew on either side of a center line to create two 4.5" HST blocks out of one set of fabrics.  I have a ways to go with this one, but I think it will be really great once it's finished.  I'm really linking how this one is coming out.

Baby Boy Quilt

With this bunch of fabric, I plan to make 3-4, or even 5 quilts for family members and friends who are having babies this year and early next year.

I'll throw in some red for those who don't know what they're having.  Several folks already know they're having a boy, so these colors are perfect for that.

I threw this baby quilt together.  I've been wanting to make a half square triangle quilt for a while now, and I thought this was the perfect opportunity.  It measures 24" x 36".  I thought about making it a little bigger, but I always hear that people make baby quilts too big, so I thought I'd stick with a small one for now.  I really like how this came out.

I thought about using Minky on the back, but the more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards using a flannel instead.  I'm thinking flannel might be more practical. 

I'll probably just do some straight line quilting on either side of the horizontal, vertical and diagonal seams.