Clementine Baby Quilt

My wild thing spent the week at my parents' house last week, so they brought him back to us and visited this weekend.  After making my Posy quilt, I had several bits of fabric left over and I decided to turn them into a little baby quilt, and this project was the perfect thing to squeeze in before hosting out of town company.

I just love this fabric line, and since I had enough left over for another project, I just couldn't bear to put them into my scrap jars.  Besides, when I have lots of coordinating scraps at one time, turning them into baby and preemie quilts is one way that I keep them from completely taking over my studio.  

I found this awesomely bright Denyse Schmidt polkadot for the backing.  It's hard to tell in this photo, but the polkadots are outlined in dark green to really make them pop against the lemon yellow; and the turquoise tonal polkadot binding frames it nicely.  I'm not sure you can ever have too many polkadots!  This little quilt measures right at 42 inches square, and is destined for my cousin, who has a baby girl due later this year.  

After making this quilt, I only had four scrap pieces to put into my jars.  That feels like a victory to me!  Of course, I can't always use every single piece of fabric, and every summer, I purge my scrap jars with quilts like my Shattered Rainbow and Kitchen Sink.  

So, what's your system for keeping your scraps in check?  Do you prefer to hold onto them until you have enough for a bigger project, or do you use them on smaller projects along the way like I do?  Do you like to work on leader-ender projects or tackle them all at once?  I know everyone works differently, and I would love to hear!

Posy and a Label Winner!

I finished up my latest quilt last night, and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I've named this one Posy, since the pattern is reminiscent of a bunch of flowers with wide open petals, and I can't wait to get the pattern finished.

Despite my very best efforts, I could not seem to get the soft pink in this quilt to photograph accurately.  It looks a little bit washed out, but in person, the color is soft, but definitely doesn't blend into the background.

I used 25 out of the total 28 prints on the front (more than necessary, but that's just how I roll), so that left a good chunk out of each fat quarter left over.  Even with a scrappy binding, I had plenty for a pieced backing, and I even got to work in the other three prints on the back.  I love that the giant bricks on the back really show off these gorgeous fabrics.

Another thing that didn't really photograph well, though in person it shows up nicely, is the pretty cross/crown shape created by the negative space.  I always love to design patterns that have more than one interesting shape.

The only stumbling block I ran across was with the binding.  I chose to take advantage of the abundant fabric and create a scrappy binding, and since the background of the quilt is white, scrappy works.  Well, I must have had some bad binding karma, because I had a joining seam in every. single. corner.  grrr... I have no idea how that happened!  I never measure out my binding beforehand to make sure that doesn't happen, but it was such a pain to get nice crisp corners, from now on, I just might!

We are heading out of town to visit family soon, and you can be sure I'm taking my computer along so that I can work on this pattern if we have any downtime.  Be on the lookout for it!

Okay, so I promise that I'm not going to show you a photo of my quilt labels on every single post from now on, but they're still so new and exciting, I couldn't resist one more quick glimpse.  Plus, it's time to announce the winner of the label giveaway from FinerRibbon, so I thought it was fitting!

There were 187 entries in the giveaway.  Wow!  The winner is lucky comment number 114, Deb Franklin.  Congratulations, Deb!  If you didn't win, I hope you will still check out FinerRibbon for gorgeous, custom labels and excellent customer service!

Deb (Neddo) FranklinJuly 8, 2015 at 6:41 AM

I love these labels! I have some from another company that I am almost out of, but not thrilled with them because of their rough edge. Would love to order from this supplier! 

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By the way, NTT is still on this week, even though we will be traveling, so I'll see you then!

Oh My Darlin'

...Clementine!  I love the Clementine fabric collection by Heather Bailey.  The colors are soft and pretty, but the orange and ginger colors thrown in keeps the whole look from being overly precious.  I'm so glad I finally got around to making this quilt.  I came up with the design (I'm calling it Posy) way back in November, but it just sat in my sketch book, waiting for fabric inspiration to strike.

My machine is due for servicing, and I'm working to finish this one last quilt before taking it in.  I've put the service off for a few weeks, waiting to take it in when we are traveling so I won't miss it too much.

If all goes to plan, I can finish this quilt then take it in, and by the time we get home, she'll be all ready to go.  I do have a lovely backup machine that I use for piecing (an Elna Quilter's Dream), inherited from my great aunt, but since free motion quilting depends so much on the "feel" of the machine, I save my quilting for my Bernina.

Now that the top is done, I can't wait to finish the quilt and release the pattern!  You can bet I'll be working on it while we're away.