finished quilt! : The Baby Swoon

Hey there!  Long time no post.  I've been super crafty & busy and unfortunately have not taken the time to document any of it.  I'm here to remedy it!  I recently put together a set of handmade gifties for a sweet little boy recently born ...

I have wanted to make a Swoon quilt ever since the super-sized blocks took over the quilting blogosphere a while back.  I purchased the pattern, and before I started making my own quilt blocks I thought I'd try it out on some stashed fabric.  I made a baby cowboy-themed quilt block some time back and was pleased with how it turned out.  After I found out that my cousin, who lives in Texas (where my family is from), was having a baby boy I knew I had to finish up the quilt to send off to him! Unfortunately baby K has been born -- but I'm still managing to get this off before he's too big to use it as a stroller quilt.

 

I was quite pleased with how the quilting turned out ... I followed Angela's directions for quilting a Swoon block, and pretty much did as she told me to do.  Despite not spending a lot of time doing the actual quilting on a block, I feel like the outcome was okay!

I also added the quilt label that I've been adding recently, a little tab inserted to the binding that says "made with ❤" on one side, and "jenifer f. 2013" on the other side.  And yes, I machine sewed the binding on ... I think that if I could get even better at this it might become my go-to binding technique.  The backing was a scrappy pieced backing, my favorite.

I also managed to use the leftover HST on two little bibs, and I also sewed up a little "latchy catchy" that I saw on Etsy and pinned once upon a time.  I thought that was a clever idea for keeping the door quiet on a sleeping baby!

Last, but not least, I added in a knit cap and booties that I made a while back.  The knit cap was practice for two-handed stranded knitting (pattern long ago forgotten!). (ravelry link)

The booties were made when I saw some friends down and taught them how to knit socks.  We made baby socks with worsted weight wool (leftover Malabrigo Worsted), and they are the perfect add-on to these goodies.  (ravelry link)

Hopefully it won't be a year before I update again ... see you before then!

finished quilt! : Dr. Seuss Charm Squares Quilt

I've been mysteriously absent from my blog ... it doesn't mean I haven't been making stuff, but more like I haven't finished any stuff!  I've started a new job that keeps me just a little too busy, but that's neither here nor there so let me show you something I actually finished ...

A baby quilt!  My daughter has a teacher who just had a baby this year (she's on maternity leave, to be returning shortly to the classroom), and I love using book-themed fabric for book lovers.

I love Elizabeth's updated Charm Squares Baby Quilt pattern which includes a twin size quilt.  I'm going to make that bigger version one day!   In the meanwhile, I offer you the Walking Quilted photo of the finished quilt :

And a close-up of the quilt :

I'm especially proud of the free motion quilting that I did where I attempted to quilt in the names of all of Dr Seuss' book titles in the white strip portion.  Can you read the "Dr Seuss and ..." here? :

I loved the fabric I used for the binding, a new addition to the line-up at Joann's, and a pretty nice quality fabric to boot.  (I see myself stocking up on this.)  I did my usual tab-style quilt label, though this was my first experimental one which ended up too large, but then I ran out of time so I grabbed it & used it anyway.

Hooray for finishing something!  It's been sent off and has a happy new home.

Wonder if I can mange to scrounge up a few more finished objects to post here?  In the meanwhile I hope your finishing goes well. :)

{zakka style sew along} week 8 : the zakka block quilt, a.k.a. the Parisville Quilt

I've been going crazy with the zakka style sew along ... it's been so much fun, and this week's project was no exception!  I will say, however, that this week just about did me in, with the school year ending and all of the insanity that comes along with that.  Or, should I say, that this week *saved* me from the end of the school year insanity?  Because though I had to find time to work this week in, it was a peaceful retreat at the end of each day!

And so I present you with this week's project : the zakka block quilt, a.k.a. the Parisville Quilt.   After coming across the walked quilted flickr group, I've decided that I'm going to have to start targeting picturesque spots that I can drag my husband to, so he can hold up my quilts, in the flickr group headless fashion.

I used Tula Pink's Parisville collection for this quilt, mainly because I succumbed to buying the entire set of fabric in 6" charms some time ago, and they ended up being perfect for this project!  (French teacher = anything with the word "Paris" in the title must be purchased!).

The solid sashing is Kona cotton in Champagne, a rather nice color.  It's darker than the usual Kona cottons I use but it definitely grew on me during the making of this quilt.  I used the same Kona on the binding, which I usually don't do (I love a good polka dot binding!), but inspired by the original in the book, I thought I'd try it.  I like it! It gives the entire quilt the look of a seamless canvas.

For the quilting, I mimicked the "fans" print of the collection and quilted some large scallops over the whole quilt.  Don't judge me based on the close-up ... I keep telling myself practice makes perfect with free motion quilting! :)

For the backing, I used the "cameo sprout" print, and I do think it's just about perfect.  Not quite wide enough, I added a strip of my remaining charm squares and a tad more Kona.  I love the back!

In all, I made this quilt in under a week -- and an insane week at that! -- so I'm *definitely* keeping this pattern in mind for any quick quilts that I need to make in the future.

finished quilt :: "turtle love"

A pregnant colleague/friend of mine saw an image on pinterest and asked me if I could sew it for her, as I'd previously made her first child a baby quilt, and she knew I was "crafty".  (Some people would be annoyed at that -- I love the opportuntity go make something for someone that they actually want -- it makes it that much more special!)  It turned out that it wasn't sewn at all -- it was a crocheted "turtle cape" used for photo props, and my friend has a deep love of all things turtle. 

At the last minute -- like, literally 11:30pm last night -- I finished it up, just in time to present it to her at her baby shower at work today.  {raveled here.} I have to admit, despite the fact that I'm not the best at following crochet directions, this did turn out super duper cute :

I also managed to finish quilting and binding the baby quilt I'd started during spring break.  [Note to self : don't quilt at the last minute, at night -- save that for when you're fresh!]  [The quilting leaves a little to be desired.] 

I used the same label technique I used on my previous quilt : I embroidered my name and year on one side, and "made with love" on the other, and added it as a tab.  Because I finished binding the quilt last night, too [procrastinator!], I totally forgot to insert it to the binding, and simply sewed it on this morning. 

 I'd be more distressed at these minor little imperfections if the whole gift hadn't turned out so darn cute.  The fact that I *did* manage to finish up the set at the last minute is okay, because it was really fun to see my friend open these gifts today at the shower!.

I really do love giving thing that are just cute!

finished quilt :: "sugar skull-eating-pirates"

I finally finished the crazy wacky baby quilt that I blogged about earlier.  Again, this was a quilt made for a young lady who is my substitute teacher extraordinaire, and even returned to sub in my middle school classroom only 5 weeks after giving birth to her second child ... wow!  That's impressive, in my book.  The whole "pirates eating calaveras" theme came from the fact that we are the pirates at my school, and that she is a Spanish speaker, and thus who subs in my Spanish classes.  When I first thought of this idea, it seemed like a really good one.  In the end, the quilt is just a little crazy, I admit ... as I said before, she'll either love it ... or hide it.

Here's a close-up of my quilting, which was a pseudo-loopy stitch ("pseudo" meaning that it didn't always turn out quite like I wanted it to).  Given my general inexperience at free motion quilting, I'm really okay with how it turned out:

The backing of the quilt is the allover pirate fabric, with one extra strip of red + scraps, because I needed the extra width.

And for the "signing" of the quilt, I decided to do a tag like one that I saw on someone's blog (and immediately pinned).  For this tag, I first embroidered two things, one on each side of a fold ...

... which turned into a tag:

... and then I inserted the tag into the binding. 

The back has my name and year on it.  (My embroidery skills leave a bit to be desired ... more on that later.)  I have no idea what this will hold up as, in terms of tags and baby hands grabbing at it, but I thought it might be a nice idea to at least try out.  We'll see !

Yay for a finished baby quilt!