Niece and Nephew Quilts are Finished and A Recap

I've been sharing with you the quilts I've been making for my nieces and nephews, the ones who have not received one in a while.  I overlooked three of them so thought I'd get caught up on that and do a recap.

The ones I've already posted about are Josh, Ashley, Laura, Nikki, Travis, Paige, Natalie, Emily, Carrie, Karlie, Kourtnie, and Kacie's. (Each name has a link attached in case you'd like to see them.)  All of them were made since 2018.  Thank goodness, I have a fantastic quilter (Shirley Jackson) I can depend on!

Jason is the one nephew who had never received a quilt from me.  When he was born (and I'm embarrassed to tell you how old he is, so I won't) I was crocheting afghans for new babies.  I also crocheted a large afghan for him when he was first married.  (Oops, that hints at how old he is.  Don't pay any attention to that.)  Anyway, it was definitely his turn!  I named his quilt "Long Time Coming".

For Tim I tore into my box of batik strips (again!) and made a variation of the Jelly Roll Race Quilt, using different size strips and pieces (instead of WOF strips) and sewing some diagonal seams instead of straight. It wasn't nearly big enough to suit me, plus I wanted to change it up, so I added strips around it going in the opposite direction.  It ended up plenty big enough, and I ended up with another happy nephew.  

Tina's quilt was Amy Walsh's "Zen" pattern.  Yes.  I used batiks.  I've used this pattern before, but this time I sewed some of it in a hotel in Seattle.  I've set up a little sewing area in many a hotel.  An important thing to pack for that is my Ott sewing light.  You know how bad hotel lighting is.

You may remember that, in 2018, I went a little crazy cutting up my batiks into 2.5" strips.   

Now, that box looks like this .....

Hooray!

Now all the nieces and nephews have new quilts.  (Another Hooray!)  Should I start on the great-nieces and nephews?  Well, I do have all those scrappy squares I cut up a few years ago.....

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Quilter, and Super Scrappy.

An "All Stacked Up" Finish and a Stash Report

In September when I first shared about the "All Stacked Up" quilt I was working on for my niece (you can read about it here) I really hoped I'd finish it and gift it before the end of the year.  And I have!   

Shirley Jackson, once again, did a beautiful job quilting it for me.   She used the Juliette panto from One Song Needle Arts.  

So another loved niece ..... 

..... has her quilt from Aunt Sandy.  Doesn't it look perfect on her new green sofa?

And now every single niece and nephew has received a new quilt at some point during the last five years, most within the last three!  I know I've missed posting about several, so I'll catch up with a show and tell soon.

NOVEMBER

Fabric Added in November -  9 yards

Fabric Used in November -  22.8 yards

Fabric Added Year to Date - 86.7 yards

Fabric Used Year to Date - 218.4 yards

Net Used in 2022 - 131.7 yards

Days I sewed in November - 30/30

Days I sewed this year - 324/334

Percentage - 97%

Linking up with So Scrappy and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

February's "One Monthly Goal" and Stash/Sewing Reports

It's time to set my OMG for February.  What I'm going to work on is actually a UFO, something I started last summer.  I only have three more nieces to make new quilts for, and this is one of them.  "Lazy Eyes" is a pattern in "Strip Therapy 2" by Brenda Henning.   I finished one block just to see what it will look like in batiks .....

 

..... and the rest of the 143 blocks are partially made.

The goal is to have the top completed by the end of this (short!) month.  I'm determined to do it.

2022 is also the year I'm going to do some serious stash busting.  The last time I did that (in 2015) I used about 150 yards net.  Matching that will be quite a challenge, especially considering that January's stash report is, well... not so great.

January

Fabric Added in January - 10.9 yards

Fabric Used in January -  13.5 yards

Fabric Added Year to Date - 10.9 yards

Fabric Used Year to Date - 13.5 yards

Net used in 2022 - 2.6 yards

After all the isolation of the last two years getting to shop for fabric in a real quilt shop did me in!  It could be worse, though, for sure.

Another of my goals for this year is to sew every day.  So far so good.

January

Days I sewed in January - 31/31

Days I sewed this year - 31/31

Percentage - 100%

So I'm looking forward to a fantastic February.  I'll keep you posted!

Linking up with One Monthly Goal

Two Quilts For the Price of One?

Still wanting to use up those batiks in my stash and having a few more nieces in line for new quilts, I decided to make a batik version of the "Radio Way" pattern by Jaybird Quilts for my niece, Laura.  I had lots of time at home during my Covid isolation, and what better way to use that time than to make quilts?  It didn't hurt that some of my online quilty friends were doing a sew-along using this pattern, and I wanted to play along.

I really enjoyed working on such an easy pattern.  How simple are these blocks?!

See those hashtag marks on the notepad in the first photo?  Once again, they don't mean anything.   I ended up with twice as many blocks as I needed.  What is wrong with me?  Don't answer that!  lol

So, double the blocks means two quilts.  For the price of one?  Not technically, but since everything was from my stash, I'm saying, "Yes!"  One for Laura .....

..... and one for my son, Aaron .....

..... because he said, when I sent him a picture of the blocks in a text message, "I really like that!" 

I chose some of the lighter (and pinker!) blocks for Laura's quilt and used the darker and more neutral blocks for Aaron's.  Then I used some of the leftover strips on the backing of Aaron's quilt.

The tree branches on the lower right are just from a shadow.  I wish I had thought of that, though.  It's kinda cool.

Linking up with  "Oh Scrap!"

Ashley's Wedding Quilt

If you're tired of me starting off my blog posts with "another niece needed a wedding quilt" I'll just say instead that Emily's and Paige's cousin, Ashley, needed a wedding quilt.  Yes, that would be my niece.  Another niece.  I have a lot of them.  

I'm still trying to use up those batiks, so this time I chose the "Bella" pattern by Timeless Treasures.  

The stars really added a lot of interest to an otherwise simple pattern.

Another interesting part of the process was sewing the first two columns on upside down .....

.....then ripping them off and putting them back on right side up.

Can you see the difference?  Please tell me you can see the difference!  I would have never experienced another peaceful night's sleep if I hadn't corrected it.  Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but .....

Either way, this beautiful bride loves it .....

..... and that's all that matters.

Linking up with So Scrappy and Oh Scrap!

[wedding photo credit Rachel Turner Photography]

Jelly Roll Baby Quilt

One of the goals I set for myself for this year was to make a baby quilt using this Zen Chic jelly roll.  I love this entire collection by Brigitte Heiltand for Moda.

I decided on this pattern I found online.  The tutorial is available as a free download HERE.  

It took a while to lay out the strips in an order I liked. Naturally, once I started sewing I rearranged (and rearranged!) and then ripped out seams and rearranged again!  (Ummm, this wasn't the first time I've ever done that.)

  

There is nothing more boring than sewing long strips together .....

..... unless it's ironing those seams open!

And there is nothing more frustrating than running out of bobbin thread and sewing for 40 inches without being aware of it .....

..... unless it's wearing a sweater that day and being covered with lint from those pinked edges on your pre-cuts!

I appliquéd the flower petals too far apart so I just added another smaller row.  I actually like the double row of petals better.

Now, it's basted and ready to quilt.  We've had some pretty cold weather lately so I'm happy to have some hand-quilting to do in front of the fire (and the TV....)

This will be the first of several quilts I plan to make and set aside for future great-nieces/nephews. I have lots of nieces and nephews ranging in age from 45 all the way down to 16, and the youngest six don't have little ones yet.  That's not even including future great-grands!

It looks like I have some serious quilting to get done.

I'm linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

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Karlie's Quilt -- Stars and Hearts

When my niece, Karlie, asked me to make a quilt for her I was delighted to do so.  When she said she wanted it to be black and grey with white stars and red hearts I thought that might be a challenge.  I've made quilts with stars,  and I've made quilts with hearts, but I've never made one with both.  I wondered if I could come up with a design where the stars and hearts played well together.  I got out my handy-dandy graph paper and started with stars.  (Don't anyone tell me I need to learn to design on the computer -- I've tried -- I can't.  I like graph paper.)

Every single black and white print came from my stash.  I have a pretty cool supply of B&W prints!

My original plan was to just put a black border on it, but I didn't like the way the stars would be cut off.  

You know what that means, right?  Out came the graph paper!

This is how I made the components I needed to get the stars to extend into the border.

Does that make sense?  Anyway.  This border was going to look lots better.

I had to at least throw some hearts into the backing.  

A little bit of everything actually ended up there.

That was still not enough hearts to suit me.  Now it was up to my friend, Shirley (Custom Quilting by Shirley Jackson) to work in a few more.  I asked her to do a simple meander and every once in a while, throw in a heart.  It's all good, she knew exactly what I meant.  She used a variegated black and red thread which looked perfect.

The hearts needed to stand out just a little more, so I embroidered around just those in the border.

Yes!  That made me happy.  In fact, I love it.

Finished! 

The best part was yet to come.  Seeing Karlie's face when I gave it to her.

There you have it.  The perfect gift for a beautiful young woman.  I know she loves it.  These pictures don't lie.