Oliver's Quilt

Now I can tell you about the most recent baby quilt I made.  The last time I posted I was getting ready to mail it to our newest great-nephew, Oliver.  I had actually started this one in plenty of time instead of waiting until the last minute, I just couldn't post about it until now.  I wanted to make his quilt with black and white and brights because I had given this quilt to Oliver's mama, Nikki, when she was a teenager.

I decided to appliqué stars onto a black and white print marked off in 5" squares.

Then I found a great black and brights print to use for the alternate blocks. 

Love the green I used for a little accent border!

Hand-quilting is one of my favorite ways to relax in the evening.

I wanted to use another shade of green for the binding, but after I made it and started sewing it on, I decided I really didn't like it .....

..... so I tried out a red and a yellow and didn't like them either.

Do you ever find large pieces of yardage in your stash and you can't remember why you bought it?  I didn't think so.  Anyway, I found five yards of this in my stash, and it looked perfect.

I really love this quilt.  Hubby smiles when I say that.  I say that after every quilt.

The backing is pieced with a few bright strips to make it wide enough.

I think little Oliver likes his quilt.  I know his mama does.  

That makes this quilter really happy!

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and WIP's Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden. 

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Hudson's Quilt

When I bought the fabric for "Grampa's Little Genius"  which I told you about in this post,  I bought more than I needed hoping to make another baby quilt from it.   I loved a quilt my friend Rita had made after "seeing it somewhere," so I sketched it out and determined that I had enough for it.  I cut it out and set it aside waiting for just the right baby.

Recently Baby Hudson made his entrance into this world so I started looking for quilt ideas trying to figure out what to make for him.  His Aunt Leah sent me a photo of his nursery, and guess what?  The wall color works perfectly with this fabric.  I got busy!

This was a really fun quilt to work on because of having everything prepped ahead of time.  Maybe I should do that more often.  It went together fast.

Straight-line quilting was the right choice for this quilt.  I'm getting a little better at it, I think.  Even if it's not perfect I mean for these quilts to be used, spit up on (and worse!) and dragged around.  After a few washings, who can tell, right?

So, another baby quilt went into the mail, and a sweet little baby can start snuggling right away.

Hudson's mama sent me these photos of him so I could include them here.  I think he likes it!  If nothing else, he's feeling very mellow about it.  

I'm linking up with WIP's Be Gone at A Quilting Reader's Garden.

Golden State Warriors Wall Hanging -- Done!

I can't tell you how happy I am to have completed my July goal for ALYoF.   (A certain little boy is, too!)   This project, however, was not without its problems.

The fusible web I bought at my local quilt shop did not have the best directions I've ever seen.   Even though I read them repeatedly I ended up wasting several hours (and a bit of fabric) by cutting out the logo without having reversed the pattern before tracing it.   Honestly, the directions never said anything about that very vital step.  That means it ended up backwards, and I had to start over.    Thank goodness I got it right after that.

Once the logo was stitched down I decided to baste and quilt before adding the team name.  I didn't think it would be too much fun quilting around all those letters.  

The original plan was to stipple inside the logo and do some straight-line quilting on the background, but I needed to finish this so I decided to keep it simple.  And this is how much of the quilting was left to do when the bobbin ran out.  Isn't that always the way?

It's been a long time since I used my Clover mini iron.  Just a reminder -- don't hold your letter down with one hand and blindly reach over and grab the iron with the other hand.  Ouch!!

Then don't just drop it onto your cutting mat when you run to the sink to put cold water on your hand.  Oops!!

The top letters were just too small to cut out and iron on (for me, anyway!) so I embroidered them with a double row of outline stitch.  I really like the way it looks.  

Finishing this little quilt was so much fun.  I'm really happy with it. 

Aidan is pretty happy, too.  Look at that smile!  All decked out in his Golden State Warriors cap and Championship shirt and standing in front of his new wall-hanging.  It doesn't get much better than that!  

I'm linking up with Fiber of All Sorts for their ALYoF July Finishes Party. 

I'm also linking up with WIPs Be Gone Week 31 at A Quilting Reader's Garden.

April Goal -- Finished!

I wasn't holding my breath on this one.  The April A Lovely Year of Finishes goal I set for myself turned out to be SO much more work than I had anticipated.  It seems like all I did was quilt for the last 3 weeks!  My machine made me proud of her while I burned the midnight oil, so to speak.

I remembered to clean and oil my machine and change to a new needle after every three bobbins of sewing.  I think that made the quilting much easier and the results more pleasing.  There were a lot of thread color changes which made for an incredible number of threads to bury, but I think it was worth it.  I'm happy with the results.   Can you tell?  My Quilted Village is done.  I'm calling it "Synesthesia."

Here are a few close-ups of the quilting.  

I'm going to take more photos tomorrow when, hopefully, it isn't quite so sunny.  (I shouldn't be complaining about that since we've had so much rain this month!)

I am linking up with Fiber of All Sorts for their Finishes Party.   

I am also linking up this week with A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIP's be Gone Week 18.

Quilted Village -- A Work in Progress

I'm finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel on my "Quilted Village" project.  I finished the final house block today!  This one was a little challenging because of the embroidery on the clock and the flag, but I think it turned out well.

When I started this quilt top in 2012 I was so excited about making mine different from the pattern that I jumped right into the house blocks and didn't make the quilt center which was the first step in the instructions.  If I had done it in the correct order I would be very close to being finished now.  

This is the way the pattern looks .....

..... but, obviously since my houses are bright and colorful, my greens in the town square need to be colorful, too.  That's the next step -- digging through my greens.  That'll be fun.  I have more greens than any other color in my stash.

I'm linking up with  ......... WIP's Be Gone Week 11, then I need to see what everyone else is working on.  

A Very Purple Finish

I first blogged about the Purple Quilt in this post then updated you in this post, and now I can tell you the rest of the story.  This was one of the most fun quilts I've ever made.  I was making it as a surprise for a dear friend, but also blogging about it and sharing it on FaceBook.  A lot of times I asked for input and followed her recommendations whenever she commented.  I even went so far as to hint for buttons knowing she would volunteer to send me some!  

I used my favorite King Tut thread by Superior Threads to quilt the violets .....

  




















..... leaving a space in the centers so I would have room to add the buttons.  

I didn't like the way that looked on the back, though .....

..... so I ended up putting appliquéd green squares over all those spots, and I actually love the way it looks now.

After quilting the violets with purple and the background with ivory, I decided I didn't like the green cornerstones not having any quilting in them, so I went back and quilted with purple in each one.

It was so much fun putting such a variety of buttons on this quilt.  I love the effect.

Now, my dear friend has a lot of favorite things in addition to purple and buttons, and one of them is tea.  I embroidered a little teapot and cup along the edge on the backing.

Another little special touch was adding a piece of purple hippo fabric onto the back.  (Yes -- she likes hippos, too!)

There you have it.  A special quilt for a special friend, Gloria.  

Here's the front.  (It sort of blends in with my design wall, but hopefully you can see that the quilt ends at the purple binding.)

Here's the back.

And here's the beautiful label my friend Penny made for me to add to the back.

Gloria was truly surprised today when she received the quilt in the mail.  She thought sure she had figured out who I was making it for, but she was wrong.  After she stopped crying she posted this photo on FaceBook of herself wrapped up in it.  I think it's safe to say she's happy with it.

I am linking up with A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIP's Be Gone Week 11.