Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt

August 2, 2023March 14, 20253 Comments

My first true venture back into a crafty lifestyle after working on my Masters degree is finished! It’s interesting how much of quilt-making was still just there in my bones, and how some of it was like, “I know I’ve done this before, why can I not remember how to do this part?” Completely random, but then I’d figure it out after a couple seconds and be off and away. Remember, kids…repetition builds learning!

This baby quilt is for a dear friend back in Utah who just had her fourth baby after a bit of break after her third…eleven years, actually. But this friend of mine ADORES having babies and she was THRILLED at the news, so it was such a happy pregnancy to watch unfold. Everyone is happy for her and her husband!

This family names all their kids after American Presidents, so I figured I’d go with a patriotic fabric collection. As luck would have it (or not…?) Baby Hayes was born on the 4th of July, so it will be perfect for him.

Details:

Pattern: Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt, a FREE pattern by Fat Quarter Shop. (If this looks familiar, it’s because I was one of the pattern debut sewists when it came out. My first go at this pattern can be found here.)

Fabric: “Stateside” by Sweetwater for Moda. I used one charm pack cut into fourths, and the background fabric is the Vanilla Stars print. I used the Sky Bandana print for the binding.

Backing: Mammoth Flannel Americana Lindsay by Robert Kaufman fabrics. SKU: SRKF-19667-202 AMERICANA

Batting: A scrap from the stash. It felt like an unbleached cotton.

Thread: Piecing: 50 weight Aurifil, some white color. Quilting: 40 weight Aurifil in needle, 50 weight in bobbin: Color #2000.

Quilting: I quilted a basic stipple pattern because that’s what I do.

I love sewing up baby quilts so much! Hopefully this one gets a lot of good use!

FINISHED: Cat Lady Quilt (Em will have to fight Quesnel for it, though…)

January 21, 2022March 14, 20255 Comments

This quilt has been a long time comin’…

I think Em asked for this Cotton + Steel Cat Lady fabric for their…twelfth birthday? They were into quilting at the time, but the interest waned soon after. So it sat on my fabric shelf for years upon years until I decided to make it up into a quilt for Em’s sixteenth birthday two years ago. I only got the top finished and presented that to the birthday kid with the promise to get it completely finished soon after. BUT…it was 2020, I had just started my Blank Quilting ambassadorship and…it was 2020.

So the Cat Lady quilt went into the hibernation pile and did not come back out until this month. Em will turn eighteen next month (!) and it just started bugging me that this quilt wasn’t done, so I made a goal to finish it before their birthday. Ta da!

Details:

Pattern: Layers of Charm, by Fat Quarter Shop. I’ve made this pattern before and really love it for those prints you just don’t want to cut up too much. C+S prints are generally super cute and I like to keep them as intact as possible, so this was a good pattern for that.

Modifications: I went with a 6×8 layout for a bigger throw quilt ~57 x 76″.

Fabric: “Cat Lady” collection, by Sarah Watts for Cotton + Steel, ca. 2015. I also added in various other Cotton + Steel scraps I had in my stash that I thought Em would like.

Backing: “Cuddly Kittens Flannel Sorbet Kitten Faces #18119” by Wendy Kendall for Robert Kaufman Fabrics, 4.75 yards, pieced vertically.

Quilting: Aurifil 40 wt. in top and bobbin, #2021. I asked Em what they wanted for the quilting and they said, “That wavy line quilting,” so I stipple-stitched it. It’s been a long time since I’ve done free-motion quilting of any kind, and I think this is the biggest project I’ve ever free-motion quilted.

Binding: Scraps of the C+S Bluebird print I had from my friend making a dress from it.

Dates: Pieced January 27-30, 2020; Quilted January 4-7, 2022

Cat Lady Quilt in-progress, January 2020

I was so excited to get this done, and asked Em to do a photoshoot with it, but when it came time to do it, they were taking a nap. Undaunted, I decided to just do a one-woman shoot with the couch to help me out because…want to be done. But, weirdly, our cat Quesnel became OBSESSED with getting in my face while I tried to take pictures of this quilt, and the resulting photos are…well:

Mercifully, Em stumbled into the room after hearing me asking Quesnel to please stop getting in my shots, and Quesnel was momentarily distracted.

I asked Em if they’d help me out with some more photos, and they were less than enthusiastic about the task.

So I made it work.

All while being supervised by the true overlord of this house:

I’m surrounded by crazy children and cats all the time, and I’m loving the photographic evidence that I acquire when they’re being especially difficult.

Briar Rose Baby Quilt

July 22, 20165 Comments

Another baby quilt completed during this Year of ALL THE BABIES™! This was for another friend from college, and I decided to bust out the coveted Briar Rose charm packs that I had been saving for “something special.” She had mentioned in Facebook comments that she hoped to not “drown in a sea of pink,” and Briar Rose is the perfect amount of girly without a lot of pink, in my opinion.

My oldest daughter, Emily, helped me out with piecing the top as part of her summer chores (I’ve assigned one hour of sewing to her everyday in the hopes that she’ll start making a dent in some of her WIPs). I then took over from there with the quilting and finishing.

I was stressing pretty bad about the baby quilts when I started quilting this one, and I just decided to let go of all of the expectations of getting gifts done before the babies were born so I could actually enjoy the process of making the gifts. I was going to burn through the quilting on this with a simple stipple design, but the quilt spoke to me and it wanted some sort of floral quilting. Floral stipple? Nope. Chrysanthemum all-over design? Nope. And then the idea of vines and clover popped into my head, and the quilt clapped its hands in excitement, and off we went. It took longer to do, but I’m so glad I went that route. It was a good exercise in doing something new.

I tracked down some Briar Rose yardage* for the back, which made my matchy-matchy heart so happy, and I dipped into my preciously-hoarded stash of my own Briar Rose yardage for the binding.

I decided to take some time and also have fun with the label, and I love how it turned out…little, teeny pinwheels! Oh, be still my heart. Love, love, love.

It’s simple patchwork, yes, but I’m super proud of it–beautiful fabric, new quilting design, and adorable little label. It makes me smile to look at the pictures every time I see them. AND it was a joint project with my girl…win-win all around.