Little strips, little squares, little blocks, little quilt…
This is the most decadent quilt I’ve made to date. I used this tutorial from Red Pepper Quilts to make 48 different 16-patch checkerboard blocks. The repetitiveness of piecing these blocks was very therapeutic: cut, sew, press, repeat. Each of those 768 squares finish at 1.5".
I’ve been collecting fat 8ths and fat 16ths of Liberty of London Tana Lawn for awhile now and finally had enough variety (54 different prints) to give this a try. I used my favorite fabric, Peppered Cotton, for the solid. I just love the way the charcoal color makes the Liberty pop.
I quilted this on my Janome with a simple cross-hatch through all the solid squares. I used the thinnest (request loft) Quilter’s Dream cotton batting. Even with the thin batting there is an amazingly beautiful poof to this that I just couldn’t capture in a photo.
The binding is super luscious voile. It’s so soft I wanted to make it bigger and used this great tutorial to help me sort out the math to do that.
The back is a single piece of classic D’Anjo Liberty that I splurged on when Duckadilly had their Black Friday sale.
I made this ultra luxurious quilt in anticipation of our first grandchild who was due in February. She arrived six weeks earlier than anticipated and I have a few more quick little projects to share.
First, our baby girl (BG) is teeny tiny but mighty and healthy and we are blessed. The sweet little hat she’s wearing was donated to the Special Care Nursery where she spent her first 10 days. If you make things to donate to hospitals THANK YOU! I now know first hand how gratefully they are received.
I used this tutorial from Cut to Pieces to make a simple crib sheet. More of these are in the works!
Every baby needs a few sweet burp cloths. No tutorial needed here. Just measured, pressed and sewed.
Finally, I used this simple tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew to make a car seat canopy. The measurements Allison provides fit a Chicco infant car seat perfectly - just in case you ever need to know! The fabrics are organic cottons from Cloud 9 I picked up at Joann’s over a year ago. It’s good to have some yardage in your stash for when you need to make something quick!
Linking all these little finishes up with Crazy Mom Quilts. Then I'm off for some baby cuddle time!
Like many, I’ve been reflecting on my 2015 finishes. Two highlights, in no particular order, are participating in my first blog hop and having one of my quilts go to Quilt Market. It occurred to me that I had not yet posted about my quilt going to market - so here we go…
Fellow Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild member and owner of Pink Castle Fabrics, Brenda Ratliff, designed her own fabric collection, Pie Making Day, for RJR Fabrics. It was very exciting each month at our meetings to hear about the process and see the initial runs. We were offered the opportunity to make something for her booth. We could only use fabric from the collection and RJR's Cotton Supreme solids. When the fabric arrived time was running short so I chose a pattern from Amy Smart’s "Fabulously Fast Quilts". I’d been eyeing the Modern Buzz Saw pattern for awhile and felt it was perfect for showing off the whole collection.
I used all 24 prints with Wimbledon & Cove for background colors.
I had extra fabric from my bundle so I used it for a border.
This was the first time I played with selvages. It took a few tries but I love that I got the collection and designer’s name, and even the date, in there!
On the back I used the last bits of fabric to make the blades for a version of the Sawtooth Stripe quilt from Denyse Schmidt’s book "Modern Quits Traditional Inspiration". I love that this is a two sided quilt!
Keeping with the saw blade theme I quilted this with all-over jagged lines.
Can you spot my quilt in this photo of Brenda’s award winning booth? I still can’t believe my quilt went to market!
Equally exciting is that Amy Smart was there to see it and she shared it with all her followers on Instagram and on her blog! (Amy's post is excellent. If you are interested in learning more about Quilt Market I encourage you to check it out.)
This quilt is one I'm keeping. It fits perfectly in the bunk room at our camp!
Thanks to Brenda for this wonderful opportunity. A highlight of 2015!
Completing this post is a finish so I'll be linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.
