Finishing a Set of Four

Since I quit teaching to quilt full time, I have made several memory quilts from clothing, and I have been dividing my time between "work" quilting and "hobby" quilting (quilting where the design and fabrics are mostly of my own choosing).  Memory quilts are so special to their recipients and each one has its own unique qualities, but I don't usually include them on here because I feel like there are only so many men's shirt quilts I can write about (in October alone, I made eight).  

This week however, I have been working on a set of four memory quilts that are a little different.  They are the first I have made from ladies' clothing, namely pajamas and a few blouses.  Since most memory quilts I've seen are masculine, I wanted to share them.

I took the photos of these four quilts yesterday after quilting, but before binding since we had another full day of rain today (which incidentally made for an interesting trick or treat experience).  Oh, and the breeze in the air is making the seams look crooked, but they aren't.  Admittedly though, some of the stripes and plaids are not completely straight, but that's inevitable when you're working with clothing and are trying to use every bit of fabric.  Straightening the print sometimes just wastes too much.

The trickiest part was making the limited fabric stretch into four quilts.  It took quite a bit of planning to ensure that I cut the clothing wisely.  Each quilt measures 48 inches square.

Also included in the box of clothing for these quilts were four embroidered pillow cases, and when I saw them, I knew I needed to find a way to incorporate that lovely hand work into a quilt without cutting it.  I made a giant log cabin quilt, which perfectly used the long, wide strips, and also made use of shorter pieces without them looking out of place.

There are four pieces of embroidery in this quilt, and most of them are small, simple flowers, but my favorite by far is this one.  Aren't the little birds so sweet?

The backings are identical on all four quilts.  I found this large pink polkadot fabric that is almost a spot-on match for one of the pajama fabrics (can't resist a good pun!), and Kona Candy Blue is just about perfect as well.

Although the photos don't show it, the binding I chose for these quilts is a pretty shade of buttery yellow, and I finished all four this morning before all of the Halloween hoopla tonight.  I can't wait to get these delivered!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Aaack!  I can't believe I almost let the Fall Blogger's Quilt Festival pass by without entering!  I've decided to enter my most recently completed favorite, Hot and Cold, in the ROYGBIV category.  Scrappy rainbow quilts always turn out to be my favorites!

This quilt was so much fun to put together.  I raided my scrap jars and sewed strip sets together in warm and cool colors, and then turned them into HST's.  I played around with a few different layouts, but I decided on this one, in part because I love the alternating direction of the warm and cool strips.

I used some leftover strips to create a mini rainbow on the back, and used a tiny black and white polkadot to really make the colors pop!  Tiny polkadots never turn out properly in photos, so here's a better view.  You can also see the soothing Kona Oasis binding in this one.

Quilt Stats:

Name- Hot and Cold

Size- 64" x 64"

Quilting- Free motion meandering by me

Entry Category- ROYGBIV Quilts

If you've never experienced the Blogger's Quilt Festival, you are really missing out!  There are so many gorgeous quilts in every category.  Hop over to Amy's Creative Side to check out all of the quilty inspiration!

Party Time!

Rain, rain go away!  Hurricane Patricia (or, what's left of her) has been making its way across our area for the last few days, and although my plants are grateful, it certainly makes getting decent quilt photos impossible.  I had to settle for snapping a few inside pics of my latest finish since this quilt needs to be delivered to its new home soon.

Even as a rival team fan, I have to say that I like how this one turned out.  The team fabric is subtle, and the pattern is modern and masculine enough for its recipient.

I used the partial squares that were left over on the back, along with chambray.  In general, when I make a quilt for a man (or boy), I try to keep the backings pretty simple but still interesting, and I love using chambray for them.  It's 57 inches wide, so that makes it really easy to just add a small strip of scraps and call it done;  and what man do you know that doesn't like denim?   The binding on this one is Kona Rich Red, which I had left over from my Truffles quilt.  The finished quilt measures 62" square, which is a weird measurement for a quilt that is eight blocks across.  It's because the starting blocks finish at 16.5," which are then cut into fourths, making them 8.25" before sewing, and finishing at 7.75."  Clear as mud, right?

Sooo...let's jump to a few features from last week's party, shall we?  Jennie at Porch Swing Quilts showed off this stunning flowering snowball top-

Jayne from Twiggy and Opal linked up this cool quilt using her Denyse Schmidt stash.

and Micki at 2 Dogs Studio shared this fun little quilt.  This is a great way to show off little sampling of large, bold prints!

Okay, friends!  Time to link up your latest projects!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

One Thing Leads to Another

Well a few of my latest quilts, namely my two Ole Miss quilts and my LSU Love quilt, have prompted another friend to ask for a team quilt for her son- 'tis the season for gifts, you know!  She asked for the Stacked Squares pattern for the quilt, and only wanted a tiny bit of team fabric (fine by me!).  She was also open to the addition of a few more colors than just the traditional red and navy to add some dimension.

Ole Miss sometimes wears retro helmets that are actually powder blue rather than navy, and occasionally the team sports shades of gray as well, so I incorporated those colors in the design, and I really love the depth it added to the quilt.

As I mentioned before, the season for gift sewing is in full swing, which means that I am also working on a couple of secret projects.  It's always tough for me to keep these kinds of projects off of my blog (I am the worst secret-keeper), but at this time of year, there's just no way around it!

Another thing I can share though is that I just got a full fat-quarter bundle of the Ambleside collection, and I have a great plan for these sweet colors as soon as I finish up this latest quilt.

NTT and Team Spirit

This quilt was pure fun, from the first bit of fabric browsing to the last stitch in the binding.  I finished it up yesterday, and I thought that a photo shoot at our city's youth league football field would be fitting.

The finished quilt measures 72" x 99" so it is a generous twin size, and this pattern was really easy to size up (fyi- I started out with 30 complete blocks, in case you want to tackle this pattern).  Since several have emailed me to ask- you can find the original (free) pattern HERE, which explains how the quilt is constructed (including photos);  however, I changed the measurements slightly to make the pattern fat quarter or yardage-friendly, since I rarely use precuts.  My measurements (and cutting diagrams can be found HERE).

Now that the quilt is all finished, I love the addition of the gray and white even more.  I feel like just that little bit of neutral fabric really keeps the purple and gold from being overwhelming.  In another context, I would refer to this color as yellow, but we LSU fans say that our colors are purple and gold, rather than purple and yellow.

I kept the back simple;  just Kona Purple with a wide stripe of the busiest LSU fabric.  I quilted it with white thread, and I love how it shows up against the purple.  There was a time (a long while ago) that I would shy away from really dark, solid backings because I worried about the contrast showing every single imperfection in my stitches, but these days I am more comfortable with my quilting, and as it turns out, these high contrast backings are really some of my favorites.

The binding is Kona Corn Yellow, and it frames the quilt perfectly without adding any extra pattern.  My first instinct was to put a gray binding on the quilt to pick up the gray in the top, and I really struggled with the decision; but my husband's reasoning won out when he reminded me that gray is actually not an LSU color.  As it is, I think it mostly just blends into the front, which is good, and it really pops against the back, which is fantastic.

This one has already been shipped off to my friend, and I can't wait to get his reaction when he receives it!

Alright!  Last week's party was filled with lots of awesomeness, so check out some of my favorites!  This string quilt from Kris at Sew Sunshine is so beautiful, and I love the contrast of the bright colors against the weathered barn in her photos.  Amazing!

Chelsea at Patch the Giraffe linked up this pretty Picnic Pinwheels quilt.  I love it!

and of course, the fact that I am a sucker for a rainbow quilt strikes again, so I can't help but feature this Rainbow Patches quilt by Myra at Busy Hands Quilts.

Y'all just amaze me week after week!  I can't wait to see what you have going on this week!  Time to party!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

Geaux Tigers!

For those of you who are not from Louisiana, "geaux" is how we LSU fans spell the word go- not all the time; just when we get extra excited about sports, which is often.  It's just one of those quirky things that gives a little nod to the French influence in our great state, and I love that it's unique to us.  We're smack in the middle of an undefeated football season and school spirit is running pretty high right now, so when a friend from college contacted me and asked if I would make a twin sized LSU quilt for him, I jumped right on it!

I decided on the Stacked Squares pattern since I wanted something modern and definitely not feminine.  I never seem to tire of the illusion that this pattern creates!  I had to size it up to make a twin, which means that I had to make 30 different blocks in order to make all of the partial squares work out properly.

For the stacked illusion to show up in the quilt, the blocks need plenty of contrast, so I decided to add a little bit of gray and white to the mix.  Plus, as much as I love purple and gold, it can get overwhelming pretty quickly.

I must confess that I exhibited the ultimate in quilt photography laziness today with this pic.  I did actually press the top before taking it outside, but you'd never know it!  Autumn has definitely arrived here, and the leaves have begun to fall, scattering themselves across my backyard and deck.  I was in such a hurry to get this photo taken so I could start basting, that I just spread the quilt top right over the existing leaves, hence all of the bumps and wrinkles.  Oh well.

From the moment I started shopping for the fabrics, this one has been so much fun to create.  It is all basted and ready to "geaux," so quilting will be happening soon!

Hot and Cold and NTT

Happy Needle and Thread Thursday!  I have been looking forward to this post, because I am so thrilled to reveal my finished warm and cool quilt, aptly named Hot and Cold.

I had so much fun creating this one!  I chose to back the quilt with a tiny black and white polkadot, and I used up some of my leftover strips to make a rainbow stripe to add some interest.  There is just something about the black and white against those brights.  The colors just sing!

For some reason, I couldn't get the polkadot fabric to photograph properly, but you can see it in the close up below.

With a quilt like this, I really could have chosen any color binding, but because the strips are busy, I wanted it to be solid.  I also knew that I wanted a cool color so that the binding would blend into the background of the quilt.  I chose Kona Oasis, and I love it!

The finished quilt measures 62" x 62."  I have wanted to make a warm/cool quilt for a long time, and I'm so glad I finally did it!

Now, check out some of the amazing features from last week's NTT.  This mini from Kris at Sew Sunshine is so fantastically modern!

Emily from Cardboard Boxes and Paper Hearts shared this fun Hopscotch quilt.  Beautiful!

and Cynthia from Quilting is More Fun Than Housework shared a tutorial for this sweet Half Hexie Baby Quilt.

Okay then, it's time to party!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!

Warm and Cool

I finished my warm and cool string quilt top late yesterday afternoon, and finally got it pressed for a good photo today (although the relentless breeze in the air still created some ripples).  It turned out shockingly busy and loud; and I totally love it!

This quilt was an amazing scrap buster and it was lots of fun, easy sewing.  When I started working on the warm blocks though, I realized that since my summer scrap purge, I had actually not accumulated any pink scraps, so I had to cut into some of my stash, and of course, I cut way too much.  So, I should say that this quilt was a great scrap buster for all of my colors except pink.

I pieced the backing this afternoon, and tomorrow I am going to work like mad to get it finished in time for my guild meeting on Sunday afternoon.  I'm thinking that if I shirk enough housework that shouldn't be a problem, ha!

String Play and NTT

Happy NTT, friends!  Well, after an unexpected out of town trip for a funeral last weekend, I have finally gotten a couple of days to play with my strings.  I have never made a warm/cool quilt before, and I have always thought they look neat, so I figured that would be a good use for some of them.  I say some, because this is by no means all of my strings.

I sewed strip sets together, grouping them together by either warm or cool, paired them together, and turned them into HST's.  Even though they aren't all sewn together yet, I couldn't resist pressing and laying out a few, just to get an idea of how the quilt will look.

I think it is really fun!  Of course, when I have more HST's sewn, I can take care of distributing the prints a little better (even though I know it's not permanent, that pink on the bottom right that is driving me crazy).  I like how the warm strips run in one direction, and the cool ones are opposite.  I think when the quilt is finished, that will really add a lot of movement.

Alrighty then!  Check out some of the fabulous projects showed off last week!  Leanne at Crystalbrook Cottage linked up this fun Christmas quilt.  They look like little gifts!

Isn't this black and white Sparkler quilt by Lorinda at Laurel and Pine  so awesome?  I've never seen one with a black background.

and Lori at Crossquilt shared this pretty, pink butterfly pillow!  The text print background is perfect!

Okay, time to show off your latest creations!

1.  You can link finished projects or WIP's , but just keep it about quilting and sewing!

2. Link to your specific post (not to your home page!) to make it easier for others.

3. Please remember to spread the word and post my button or a text link.  

4. Spread the comment love far and wide!

5. Following me is not a requirement to link, but is so very appreciated!