The GIANT Plaid Quilt

This quilt was commissioned by my boss for his mother.  It is made of his father's flannel shirts and will be a gift for his mother. This quilt is quite large, 80x96"(I think it's the largest I've quilted on my machine). The top is 10" squares (the shirts were HUGE! 3XL) set on point with red sashing.  It is backed with navy fleece to be extra cuddly, with a stripe of plaid squares pieced into it. I quilted it sparingly so the pockets would still be open, and went with straight lines either side of the lattice sashing to keep the masculine feel and to create a plaid-type design on the backing fleece. 

Hawaiian Applique

Hawaiian applique is usually made with just two fabrics, one appliqued on top of the other, with a circular repeating pattern. Usually the patterns are organic, representing leaves, flowers, or animals. I decided to try my own updated version of Hawaiian Applique with a completely rigid and geometric pattern. I needle-turn appliqued the design onto the background fabric and then simply echo quilted it. The quilt is quite small, only 24" square.

 I decided to do simple echo quilting because I wanted emphasize the shape of the applique. Once again, I like the back as much as the front!

Here's a detail view of the front. It doesn't really match my decor, but it has a new home above my bed.

Hexagon Stripes Quilt

I recently finished what is probably my new favorite quilt. It's nearly twin sized, with a navy blue minky back. This is the first blue quilt I've made, which is surprising as blue has been my favorite color for at least the past 25 years. There were a lot of firsts in this quilt; it was my first experience with English Paper Piecing, the first time attempting hand applique (which it turns out I LOVE, look for more hand applique to come!) my first time quilting anything larger than a throw, the first time I used 505 spray baste, my first minky back, and my first time using silicone to reduce friction on my SewSteady table (minky is fuzzy and likes to stick, I used a dimethicone gel because I already had it, but many quilters recommend Sprayway 946 silicone spray).

The blue hexagons are cut from shirts that belonged to my grandfather. The red, grays, and whites are scraps from other projects, and the red silk with the three-legged-llama-dogs are from a tie that my brother got as a gift. The hexagons were thread basted to paper patterns, then whip stitched together into the stripes, thread basted to the gray fabric (a brushed cotton bed sheet from Target) then appliqued. I then spray basted the top, batting (my usual Warm and White) and minky, rolled it up and started quilting. The quilting on this one was kinda crazy, the echoes are a 1" zigzag, which means quilt an inch, stop, lift, pivot, repeat. I marked the peaks and valleys of the hexagons before quilting, which made it easy to eyeball the distance from the previous row of stitches.

Binding the minky made me nervous, so I ran it through my serger after I squared it up. I auditioned a few bindings, and wasn't really happy with any of them, so I asked my sister. Katie suggested red, so I went digging in the stash (it's in milk crates under the bed) and found this red solid. I don't know what it is, but it was the perfect color for this project.

It is by far the cuddliest quilt I've ever made. Something about the minky makes it drape so wonderfully. Any other quilt I've made with this much quilting has been so much stiffer than this. In the week since it's been done I think I've found Katie snuggled with it almost every day, unless I get to it first!

 

YAY! for Patriotic Pillows

My 4th of July pillows are finally done! They really don't match the sofa so I think I'll keep them on my bed. Pattern is a paper-pieced block from a quilt pattern called Morris and Company, by Moda.

I don't have a pillow form for the larger one yet, so it's filled with pajamas ;) 

The block is easier than you would guess as it's paper-peiced. The original square was only 6 in, so I blew it up on the copier to 8, then added borders to make the pillows the right size. 

I can't make a pillow cover without piping anymore, they just don't look sharp enough! These have navy, which suits me fine. 

I hand quilted the tops during General Conference, and just got around to finishing them up today, mostly because I want to start on a Christmas quilt. I hate to have unfinished projects. 

YAY! for Spring Pillows!!

I can't really call them Easter pillows since I didn't finish them until a week after Easter, but they are fun and cheerful so we'll keep them up for the spring!


The larger pillows have a chevron design that was quite fiddly since the stripes ended up at 1" and have to be laid out on the diagonal, and cats and dogs love to sleep on quilt layouts. I ended up laying out the top 3 or 4 times since my boys kept messing it up. 


The pattern I used is from here, but I changed the size of the strips to make it much smaller. My strips were cut to 1 1/2".

The other pillow is a block from Moda Bake Shop. It was quick and easy to put together and I will for sure use it again!

YAY! for Pink!

 After we took the Christmas pillows down the sofa looked naked, so I got fabric to make pink pillows for Valentine's Day. It took a while (I've been busy) but I finally finished all four pillows.

Scrappy string-pieced squares

I made two 16" covers, with a paper-piecing technique from here. I used 1-2" strips of all the fabrics to make a scrappy looking top.

I like the pinwheel look of these two.

For the 14" squares I used only 3 fabrics and cut strips to make 8 identical squares. I then put them together into fours.

One with the lightest fabric in the middle

This one is my favorite!

And one with the darkest fabric in the middle. I'm bad at math, so the 8 "squares" were really rectangles, so I trimmed them down and added a second border to make the 14", which I actually really like. I had planned on a border of the backing fabric, but I like the second border a lot.

I always make envelope back pillow covers, with at least 6 inches of overlap.
I find the cover looks better with more overlap

YAY! for wonky nine patch!!

This YAY! for___!! thing is going to stop working, I just know it. I'm having a hard time thinking of new ways to say "quilt"

I could see a quilt like this in my future

This week I made the real Friendship Basket pillow cover. I made a wonky nine patch (instructions here ) The finished squares are 4 1/2", but with the sashing the pillow is 16". I decided to only quilt in the sashing, because the blocks are busy enough. I really like the straight precision of the quilting with the crazy skiwampus nine-patch. 


I also really like the retro look of the fabrics and the colors are so pretty. 


In other quilting news, I got a new quilting table! I rearranged some furniture to fit a folding table in the room. I've got to get some better lighting, since I usually quilt after noon, and the room doesn't get much light after about 2pm.

YAY! for Christmas Surprises!!

This year for Christmas I made my sister some pillow covers. I noticed she had no pillows for her sofa, and picked out fabrics in her favorite green. I wasn't able to finish before she got here, so I fibbed and told her the pillows were for the "Friendship Basket" at church. I'm supposed to put in something that represents me and my interests, so I also got fabric to make a pillow cover for the basket, but told her the green ones were for church. 

She was really surprised that the pillows were for her, and said she was jealous I was putting so much effort into pillows for the friendship basket. There are two 18" and 1 14". I used a small fat quarter bundle from Joann's with Kona white. I made small disappearing 9 patches with 3" squares, planning on making just the two larger ones, but had enough to make another small one. 

These pillows were really fun and quick to make, and I'm pleased with how they look and feel. Next up, the pillow that is really for the basket!

YAY! for penguins!!!

The quilting bug has really bit. I spend a lot of time thinking about quilts and what to make next and reading all the lovely quilt blogs. When I went to the fabric store to get backing fabric for the tree skirt I saw the cutest penguin fabric and thought, "I have to get that for my manager" She LOVES penguins, teal blue is her favorite color, and her birthday was coming up. Then I saw the price tag, $7.99 per yard. That didn't fit my budget. Along came the Black Friday sales and the flannel was only $1.49/yard. I could afford that! So I went and stood in line for way too long and soon I had 7 yards of penguins and a few yards of blue, and enough black for a binding.

Hunter likes penguins too!

I brought the fabric home, looked at it, and finally came up with a block design. I decided to do a rectangle because it seemed more modern, and went with a 2 1/2" strip so the penguins would be mostly intact. I made 6 rows of 5 blocks, but decided that 6 was too long, so I put one row on the back, just for fun!


 I quilted it in straight lines along some of the seams, using my walking foot (which it turns out I can't use with my quilting bar? silly Kenmore)

I'm really pleased with how well this one turned out, and the birthday girl seemed to like it too.

Next up, the zig zag quilt, but first Christmas cookies. 

YAY! for Christmas Quilting!!

I've recently taken up quilting, and have been busy getting things ready for Christmas! I made a new tree skirt

The tree isn't up yet, so the tree skirt is hanging out on a rocking chair, sometimes with a poinsettia pillow.

I used a disappearing nine block (tutorial here) It was a lot of fun to put together. The skirt started as a square, 10 x10 blocks. I got a little carried away and had leftover squares, some of which I turned into pillows for the sofa. I used metallic gold thread for the quilting for a bit of Christmas Sparkle, and I like the way it turned out.

This pillow is living in my bedroom right now

 I've also done a penguin quilt, a post on that will be here soon, and I have fabric to make a yellow and gray chevron quilt.