Over Labor Day weekend I took these to the lake and started sewing. Are you surprised? I take my machine everywhere. The hum of the machine in nature was quite refreshing. I did some early afternoon sewing, most people were out on the water and our area gets pretty quite.
Once I got home, I pressed the small squares with seams open and began adding 2″ Kona Ash strips. Why is it every time I go to type ASH, I type AS*? Adding those strips takes no time and creates an interesting look.
Once P was in bed I could lay out the quilt in the house and piece the rows. My process involves piecing all the rows, then pressing. I also don’t press the seams between rows until the top is finished. From my stash I chose a blue backing that I had picked a while back.
For the binding I had a large scrap of a Robert Kaufman print that was a wide back. White bindings are scary on a baby quilt, but sometimes it just works. Quilting is my go to all over loops.
Time to refresh my scraps and maybe mix them up a bit. The scrap bin is overflowing. Anyone up for a scrap swap?
Geese A Flutter baby quilt has been in the works for over a year. Can’t believe that is true. It started with an idea from the Handmade Swap last spring. Soft girly colors for a baby quilt. Shortly after our friends announced they were going to be having a girl.
I started with stacks of flying geese and started building my 4 block units. These come together rather quickly.
Laying out the blocks revealed a small hiccup with my original idea. The quilt would be too narrow.
At the IMQG retreat this winter I added thick borders. So this baby quilt is really more of a lap quilt size.
I chose the Art Gallery butterfly print in my stash as the backing. Using free motion loops I was able to quickly quilt this up. Binding is one of the blue floral prints in the quilt.
Then the quilt sat in my sewing room. It’s been done since May or so. The baby was born in December. I found the quilt while cleaning out my sewing space this summer.
It got a good tumble through the dryer, a new photoshoot, and then wrapped to send.
It’s enjoying snuggles with it’s new owner. While I say it’s my last flying geese quilt for a bit, I doubt I’m done. They make great srappy quilts and come together smoothly.
This is number 14/40 for my baby quilt goal for 2018.
Fantasia fabric has been cut into charms and sitting my my stash for some time. Since creating this quilt in 2015, I knew I wanted to make a smaller version.
Digging around for scraps before the IMQG retreat this winter, I found the remaining charm squares. They were added to the mountain of stuff I was taking just in case I wanted a simple project. A simple project is a great way to get the creative juices flowing and help you accomplish a bit more.
Saturday night of the retreat I laid the blocks out in about 15 minutes. The top came together in under and hour. A plus quilt is one of my favorite patterns. Mostly because I can use charm squares in something more than just a patchwork top.
Somehow the Kona Mint goes with this color palette. It’s out of my element for sure, but it’s a fun touch. Again I kept the quilting simple.
No crazy machine troubles this time. The backing is pieced with left over bits of the fabric line.
The binding is a Kona solid. Soft green and a bold pink are an interesting combination. The blues are a great accent color.
This quilt is looking for a new home. Are you interested? It’s for sale on my Facebook page for $75 plus shipping. Buying a handmade quilt is a wonderful gift. I add a personalized touch of the babies name if you know it.
You can still find some Fantasia in shops. One of my favorite shops, StitchStashDiva, still has some available here.
Have you ever been stuck when it comes to naming something? Over the last few weeks, giving this quilt the best name has evaded me. Thank you to my wonderful Facebook followers for some suggestions. One suggestion was sea glass. I added the sparkling since the background fabric is silver metallic dots on white. Plus, it truly sparkled in this picture.
Background
Shout out to Nicole at Modern Handcraft for sharing her scraps from the IMQG retreat this winter. While I’m not sure what project the blue scraps are from, but there was enough to spark an idea. She had these castoff triangles that I wanted to pair with the same background fabric all over.
I was able to pick up the white with metallic silver dots, the metallic silver crosshatch, yellow and orange solids also at the retreat. The blues needed something else to complete the look. So why use the yellow and orange solid too.
The triangles were trimmed to three inches.
Time to chop up the dots for background fabric.
Conveniently, I had a sew day planned for race day here in Indy. Hubby rode out to the Indy 500 and P was away at the lake. Look how cute these trimmings are.
I had everything cut out before the race. Did you know in Central Indiana the race is blacked out for the live broadcast? We can watch a taped version usually around 6pm after the race. It’s been this way my entire life. Growing up we listened on the radio to the race every year. So I turned on P’s Lighting McQueen radio to listen to sew.
During the race I was able to get all the triangles pieced and another quilt top started. Now it was time to trim and sort.
Some of the colors were so close together, it was hard to tell. Piecing the rows went smoothly. The piecing was done with the random method I have done before. It can be challenging to not overthink this part of the process
Beautiful rows were sewn together and a top was suddenly finished. Take a look at this picture? I think it’s stunning.
Quilting
The backing is a Robert Kaufman light gray crosshatch on white. I kept the quilting simple with straight lines on the rows. However, my machine decided to be a royal pain in the ass. It was just in for service and I’m dealing with this crap?? UGH! The stitching was ripped out multiple times.
Finally something worked and this quilt got finished. I was able to photograph as the sun started to set, giving this warm glow.
My favorite detail in this quilt is in the binding. I ran out of the silver metallic crosshatch with three inches to go. Scraps of the blue solids were added to make up the length. It’s the perfect touch on this quilt.
Do you keep a basket of treasured fabrics? A basket of Lotta Jansdotter and V Christenson fabrics live in my sewing room. They are my special fabrics since I adore both designers. My pink basket of V Christenson fabrics have gone with me every year to my quilt guild’s retreat. Last year this quilt was created at the retreat.
This year I was determined to use a jelly roll stashed deep down in this basket to create Cluck Cluck Sew’s Diagonal Strip Quilt. It’s been on my to make list for a couple of years. Since I am aiming for 40 baby quilts this year, it seemed easy enough.
At the retreat I had a chance to get started on it. Some of my strips were not full length so I adjusted and just went with it. A stack of blocks was created and I was so excited to lay them out.
However, I had a few left over halves and unsure what to do. These blocks were not enough to make a baby quilt. Rather than get frustrated I changed the design. I cut all of the blocks above into half.
To utilize all of the halves I had, I just pieced them together randomly. The new design was perfect and big enough to be a baby sized quilt.
I posted this picture during the retreat after a brief snow storm. After I wrapped it on a bolt and left it to sit. Once my machine was back from it’s spa treatment I was ready to quilt this.
A number of quilting options were tested on this. Ultimately, I went for straight lines. I backed the quilt in the purple zig zag print.
The binding on this quilt is my favorite part. With the leftover 2.5″ strips I pieced together this scrappy binding and machine pieced it in place.
Here is the finished product in it’s quilted goodness. It came out of the dryer all crinkly. A freshly washed quilt straight from the dryer is my favorite part of the creative process.
Welcome back. We have made it through the first 10 days of the 100 Day Project. It’s been nice to comment on something positive everyday. It’s easy to get wrapped up in negativity online. This is a growth exercise for me. Life, stress, and challenges still happen to me everyday. I’m choosing to focus on positivity and grace to help make a better impact.
Day 11 – April 13th, 2018
Friday the 13th is supposed to be spooky. Instead I took the opportunity to get outside for a bit. The weather was still nice. I was aiming for 5-7 miles. My body had other thoughts and really didn’t want to cooperate. Still being able to get out and run three miles is good.
Day 12 – April 14th, 2018
It was a done of quilting fun with members of the IMQG. We drove over to Ohio to see a Charlie Harper quilt exhibit. It was nice to support other quilters and their work. River City Quilt Guild licenses Charlie Harper’s work to be able to create these wonderful quilts.
Day 13 – April 15th, 2018
Today was IMQG meeting day. As I’ve noted before these people get me and are truly amazing. After meetings I’m inspired to come home and create. We had a massive scrap swap and I found a few things that came home with me.
Day 14 – April 16th, 2018
Did you watch the Boston Marathon? I watched Des Linden take the lead and not look back. Her determination was inspiring. She passed others and sustained her lead with some of the worst conditions the marathon had ever seen. Not only that, she is the first American woman in over 30 years to win.
Some days it just flows and I feel like I’m born to do this, other days it feels like I’m trudging through hell. Every day I make the choice to show up and see what I’ve got, and to try and be better.
