Cherry Sherbet Baby Quilt

 Hello Quilters,

 

Hope you're all having a great extended weekend! Today I have to show a cherry red version of the lime sherbet quilt I made for my friend Cari. This one is a commission for a very special baby. Click each photo to enlarge.

 

 

You can see the grey elephants, hedgehogs and kawaii animals with balloons, all imports from Japan. There's also a Joel Dewberry bird and Heather Ross fish (times two) and weiner dog.

 

 

You can see the back here, flannel, like the red on the front. Satin binding with one corner left open for little fingers.

 

 

These are my two favorite blocks. Heather Ross from the mermaid line and Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail eating blackberries. I tried a smaller needle to see if indeed I got smaller stitches and I did! Enlarge and check out my tiny quilting stitches. Well, tiny for me, anyway!

 

 

Cheers!

Lime Sherbet Baby Quilt

Updated 9/6/11: photo of Braelynn on the quilt!

I made this little sherbet baby quilt to take to a shower for my friend Cari. She wanted pastel yellows and greens and also forest animals. Well there are lots of forest animals, plus some other fun stuff, like cupcakes! Yum. I used my favorite piecing method: fussy cut the inside square and then add enough fabric around to make the right size. Oh, all hand piecing and quilting as usual, of course.

I happened to have the perfect backing fabric in my stash, this chandelier print by Tina Givens. It is just the right color of yellow-green. I used yellow satin for the binding and it's perfect too.

Here's a boy for scale.

And a closeup of one of my favorite blocks, some dancing frogs by Heather Ross via Kokka Japan. That's Cari, Clay and the baby in the meadow. I previously used the rabbit family from the same fabric in this modern baby quilt for another friend, Sarah.

These colors don't really match each other but I wanted to put the owls in some trees :)

And of course some old Heather Ross prints on top, because I love them, and a cute big doggie.

Enjoy!

Modern Baby Quilt Finished!

It's done! Click here to see the beginnings of it and the directions on how to make the applique circles. I'm very proud of this quilt, because it's the first time I've made the quilting part of the design. I used to dislike the quilting, but I'm liking it more with every quilt. As an all-by-hand quilt maker I am usually in a hurry to finish. But not anymore!


Wolf is enjoying it for now, until it goes to my dear friend Sarah.



Here are closeups of the four quadrants of the quilt. I love how the quilting on some of them "breaks the plane" of the square it belongs to and draws the eye away from the block divisions.

I didn't mark any of the quilting. The circles naturally turned out at 1/4" intervals, I think because I'm used to "eyeing" quarter inch seams. For the straight lines I just took a plastic quilting ruler and ran it back and forth on the fabric, pressing down, so I could see the line.


Frog prince!


The owl and the pussycat!


Dandelion moon!


Hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed making it. Cheers!

Four Patch Baby Quilt Finish

I had so much time over the Thanksgiving break that I whipped up this simple little baby quilt at Mr. Babyquilts' request for a customer/friend of his. Here in slower than molasses all-by-hand-land, you don't often hear the words "whipped up", but I really did! It only took me about four days to finish it.



I was extra proud that I made it all from stash, except the silky binding. I had just purchased those cute dogs and thought they'd be perfect for a baby boy. Yes, those are the same gray Japanese elephants I used for the baby pants I made last month. I even used some of my precious Heather Ross goldfish bags, just to be nice :) You'll also notice Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry, Jay McCarroll and of course, Amy Butler making appearances.



The back is Amy Butler Love dots that I had in stash for just such an occasion. I embroidered the year the baby will be born, since I don't know his name yet. Click photo to see embroidery better.

Enjoy!

A Finish - Starry Starry Night

Yay! A finish! A big deal here in all-by-hand land. I finished this Starry Starry Night quilt for our son Corey and his soon to be born son. I found the inspiration quilt on the internet and saved it for years, then when Corey chose it I had to figure out the measurements and directions. It was easier than I'd thought!


I quilted it in an all over diagonal pattern to give it some movement.


Love the Valori Wells Urban Flannel on the back! I love that entire collection of flannels.



Enjoy!

Japanese Elephant Hearts

I've been working on a new quilt commission and here it is! Japanese elephants and Alexander Henry 2D Zoo fabrics. Love it! It's a commission for my good friend Sarah.



I love the colors in the 2D Zoo! So yummy.



I've got it all pinned and ready to quilt.



Wolfie says hi!



More AH dots on the back. Do you like it?

Starry, Starry Night

So did the title of this post make you think of the famous painting or the famous song by Don McLean? If you click the link to the song, it's actually an analysis of the lyrics compared to Van Gogh's life, very interesting!



But i'm not here today for a fine art lesson, i'm here to introduce the new quilt i'm working on! I keep a bunch of photos of quilts I've found interesting over the years, just in case I want to make them someday. My younger stepson Corey is having a baby now and picked this photo out of my files. I searched the internet for hours trying to figure out who made it or where I got the photo, and no luck, even on flickr, so if you recognize the quilt, speak up and I will give credit!!!

I don't use patterns when making quilts, so it was fun trying to figure out the measurements, considering if you look closely, it's not really pieced in rows. I just used a 5" measurement per unit to get the measurements I wanted, for example I counted the corner small square at 5" and the long piece next to it at 5X10". I'm going to piece it in chunks, starting in the middle.


I'm really loving the cute little stars i'm making! I love the twinkly yellow one...


And the apple dots star...


But I want to know your honest opinion of the star above. What do you really think? Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Click to enlarge and maybe that will help you form an opinion. lol.


Best for last....my favorite. Japanese froggies dancing in a flower circle with Park Slope yellow green goodness. That's Corey, Ashley and the baby dancing. Love it! Which one do you like?

A Little Bit of Everything Crafty

Hello everyone! Since I finished the ginormous squares and frames quilt I've been kind of between quilts. I've been sewing some on my red and aqua gnome homes, just to have something to do. Here are my two latest.

My daughter is newly in love with owls, so she begged for an owl softie. She wanted it to be bigger than the ninja bat I made her last year, so here it is! I used the same tutorial from Juicy Bits that I used to make the owl ornaments last Christmas. I just cut out each piece in Photoshop and blew it up to 250%, then printed it out on its own paper. This pattern is so cute no matter what you do with it! Thank you Juicy Bits!

I've also been slowly adding to my stash of designer fabric, now that i'm a designer fabric snob in the most unflattering and haughty way. Here are the stacks of pink, red, green, blue, purple and neutral/white/multi in my Bergsbo fabric cabinet from IKEA.

And here are the stacks of yellow, orange, brown, black and grey, plus a stack of flannel backings. The solids are not good ones, just stuff I picked up a million years ago. My stash is super lacking in good kona/bella/butler solids, as in, I have none. Oh, except for that dark blue on top, that's Bella.

See anything you like?

A Tiny Baby Quilt

After I finished Amber's commission quilt I wanted to make a small present for the baby using up some scraps. To make this tiny quilt I took a cue from my sister who makes these for babies to use while strapped into baby seats, like this baby below.

They are just the right size to fit over their laps and keep them warm while providing a satin edge and minkee backing to feel. Then when they are older, they can use them to put dollies night-nights like my daughter does.


I found the perfect green minkee for the back to match the green in the fabrics. I'm not usually fond of animal prints but the green matched perfectly! I got the minkee at the most FABULOUS quilt store in all of Central Texas. It's called the Quilt Haus in New Braunfels and they have probably 500 bolts or more of exclusively designer fabric! When I walked in and saw the ENTIRE collection of Nicey Jane in every single colorway and print I just froze. My brain said 'turn around and walk out before you spend the rent!' Anyway, I digress.


Here's the back, I just quilted it very simply.


And here it is next to the one my sister gave me that I patterned it after. I LOVE the Heather Ross one, you should click the photo to see it bigger!

Enjoy!

A Finish! Wonky Japanese Squares

It's finally done! The commission quilt for Amber which is a copy of this one where I used Heather Ross fabrics. On this one Amber chose a bunch of Japanese and organic fabrics. I like how it turned out! It's unisex, as her sister doesn't know the sex of the baby yet. Do you likee? Click any photo to see it large!


I just quilted around all the squares inside and outside.


And put little surprise faces in the cornerstones.


Oh! Here's the back!





Edited April 2010: Here is a photo of the recipient, John William, with his new quilt!
Enjoy!