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.

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.

Kacie's Quilt

Every girl needs a new quilt when she leaves home to go off to college.  Especially when her Aunt Sandy thinks she does! And even more so when her sisters have recently received new quilts.  (You can read about Karlie's here and Kourtnie's here.)  It was Kacie's turn.

Jennie Doan's "Summer Camp" pattern looked like fun, and I was in the mood to work with teals and grays.  I dug into my stash and found something to work with, but I ended up adding a few fat-quarters to round out the mix.  We have to do our part to support our Local Quilt Shops.  I mean, that's a given, right?

The blocks were pretty basic so it went together quickly.  That's a good thing since I had waited to even start on it until she was just about ready to leave for school!  Isn't it nice when a block starts out as a half-square-triangle and keeps changing as you add simple strips?

I reversed the way the lights and darks in the HSTs are positioned in order to get a different look.  You know me.  Gotta change it up a little if I'm using a pattern!  It didn't make much difference really, but ... well ... you know .....

Another beautiful quilting job by my friend, Shirley Jackson, and a hand-stitched label and binding, and Aunt Sandy was ready to ship it off to one of her (many!) darling nieces.  

Getting some nice shots of the finished quilt is one of my fave things to do.

Seeing that big smile when someone gets their quilt is my absolute fave, though!

It makes my heart happy!

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict 

Linking up with So Scrappy