Nautical Themed Baby Boy Quilt

I’m truly at a loss for words to talk about this quilt.  All I want to do is play this video when I think about it.  This song will probably get stuck in your head.

Apparently, that is a dark song.  I was just thinking more of the Sail Away with me part.  A customer asked for a nautical themed baby quilt.  The vision of the quilt immediately came to me.  Deep in my scraps were some leftover triangles from a previous quilt in red, gray and navy.

Design

My vision had these triangles looking like pendants or flags along with a minimal design.  The design challenge came when trying to find the right background fabric.  I wanted a light blue polka dot on white and just couldn’t find what I truly wanted.  Do you ever have that challenge?  Luckily, I did find a print that worked with my vision.

Laying out the fabrics beside the coordinating prints was really helpful.  Plus, the ladies at the quilt store gave me some valuable feedback.  The polka dot is great, but it would drown out the white prints sprinkled in.  The lighter blue print still showed off the navy and the white prints.  Done!  Designing the rest of the top was pretty easy.

The backing is a Lotta Jansdotter print I stocked up on a few months ago.  Doesn’t it look like fish scales?

 

Adding the sailboat was the customer’s idea and it really pulls simple quilt together.  I was able to complete the top, put the sailboat on, press the back, baste the quilt, and start quilting quickly with this project.  For the quilting I went with waves.  I marked the quilt on the edges every couple of inches.  This trick really helped keep my wavy lines straight across the quilt.  Then I filled in more lines along the way.

The texture the wavy lines created is perfect.  For the binding, I went with the remainder of the top print.  Doesn’t provide a frame of the quilt, but gives and infinity edge.

My smaller Brother machine decided to have electrical issues right before making this quilt.  The sailboat is just sewn on with straight stitches, I would have preferred zig zag.  The quilt is currently at it’s new home enjoying snuggles.

 

Woodland Strings Baby Boy Quilt

Woodland animals have been a trend for some time in nursery decor.  Amazingly, this is the first baby quilt I have made with that theme.  My husband says it doesn’t look like woodland creatures and I’m okay with that.  It’s there, but you have to look closely.

woodland strings baby quilt, baby quilt, string quilt, scrap quilt, gender neutral baby quilt, woodland animals nursery decor, nursery decor

Inspiration

Scrap packs from Crimson Tate were purchased months ago.  When my client suggested outdoors and animal for a boy, these fabrics immediately came to mind.  I had envisioned a string quilt when I first picked up the bundles and the idea had not faded.

Posing on Point by MyTeaandBrie was quilt design inspiration.  While I didn’t use her tutorial, I use more of the general layout.  Note:  the mailing list request is for My Tea & Brie, not my site.

Beyond Patchwork: String Piecing Tutorial

 

Piecing

I pressed and starched all my fabrics before cutting.

For my blocks I cut the following string sizes:

Center white strip:  2 inches

Grey strip:  3 inches

Other fabrics 1.5 or 2 inches in width

Ready to chain piece this batch

Chain piecing the blocks made it pretty easy to bust the top out.  I worked in 30 minute chunks then took a break.  Tip:  keep the iron nearby to make chain piecing more efficient.

Layout

In laying out the quilt top I was not overly picky about where things went.  An effort was made to keep too many colors from the same square.  Overall, it turned out great.

After completing the top, it was time to rip off all the little papers from the back.  My mother-in-law was in town for Fall Break.  I asked if she wanted to help and she joined in.  It was great to have someone help out, this part was going to take forever and I was on a deadline.  If I could get it to the client by X date, they could hand deliver.  Well, I had to get this sucker quilted and bound quickly to make that happen.

Quilting, Backing, and Binding

A couple of backing options were auditioned but this black and white dot ultimately won.  Doesn’t it play well with the front?

In the effort to meet my looming deadline, free motion quilting with loops won for quilting.  Seriously the quilting took an hour.  My mother-in-law and husband were watching something while I knocked this out.  They were surprised when I entered the room with the quilted piece.  I was pretty proud of myself.

However, while I was quilting, I found an error in my quilt.  Can you spot it?  If you’re a quilter probably, but most didn’t notice it.  There was a frantic post to my guild’s page and texts to a couple of friends.  The consensus was it’s a design element.  Ha!  If I wasn’t almost done with the quilting when my eye caught it I would have fixed it.  Sometimes you have to let the little things go and accept them.  It wasn’t the way I envisioned the quilt turning out, but it works.

Deep in my stash was the gray houndstooth flannel.  The piece I had was just enough to bind the quilt.  Everything to make this quilt was scraps or stash fabric which is a positive in my book.  Makes working against that looming deadline even better.

After thoughts

Pretty sure I want to remake this quilt in a bigger size to keep.  The colors are lovely, I am digging the jade.  Despite a tight deadline, the quilt made it to CA in time to be hand delivered.  The precipitant loved it.  Making a baby quilt that doesn’t scream baby is always nice too.

If you like the quilt, save it Pinterest for future reference.  I have it under Scrap Busting Projects.

 


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Scrappy Postage Stamp Baby Boy Quilt

Scrappy Postage Stamp quilt #scrapquilt #postagestampquilt #babyquilt #quiltytherapy #boyquilt #modern #quilt

Are you looking for an easy scrap quilt?  Don’t hesitate to look at a postage stamp quilt as an option.  Since I keep my scraps cut into squares, making a postage stamp quilt is quick and easy.  Let’s jump into how I make a scrappy baby postage stamp quilt.

Sorting Scraps

Creating a color palette that works together with a good amount of variety is my first priority.

From my 2.5″ scrap bin I grabbed yellow, neutrals, green, aqua, navy, brown, orange, and gray.  Mixing in prints, novelty, and solids.  If I think they coordinate, they make the piles.  As the colors and prints are spread out you may not notice that one that didn’t fit.

Chain Piecing

When working on a postage stamp quilt, I find that chain piecing is the best way to go.  I’m striving for a random layout on the quilt top.  Grab from yellow and gray, then brown and green, and just keep going around.  Once I have 10 sets (20 squares) pieced I begin pairing them up yet again.  Ultimately I’m just sewing one long strip of 20 squares.  Repeat that 18-24 times for the top.  18 rows is a smaller baby quilt and 24 rows is a better size.

Pressing and Sewing Rows Together

I grab the starch and spray each row.  Next I press all my seams the same direction and then flip one row to create nesting seams. Sew the nested rows together and repeat 3-4 times.  From there begin flipping and turning rows to nest together and get to the desired length.  Some colors and prints may line up next to each other over the rows and I think that is okay.

Finished Top

Once all the rows are sewn together, head back to the ironing board.  Spray starch the entire top.  At this step I like to press all my sewn rows the same direction on the back of the quilt top.  Then, I turn it over and press again on the top.  This helps to flatten the top and smooth things out.

Thank you for the comments when I posted the top.  A comment was made about the concentration of brights in the middle.  That’s what happens sometimes when I got for random.  I didn’t really see it but I do now that it was mentioned.

Backing and Binding

Polka dot explosion?

Within my stash I found a green and blue variations on polka dots.  Maybe they are circles, but does it really matter?  They coordinated well and used some pieces I had leftover from other projects.  The binding is a blue polka dot I have had stashed away.  You’re going to see it again on an upcoming quilt.  I thought why not just make up some binding with this.  Done!

Quilting

I prefer straight lines in a coordinating thread on the diagonal of each square.  With this method I can keep quilting as I get to the end of a line, just flip around and start a new line all the way to back to the edge.  Quilting takes no time, unless I run out of bobbin thread.

QAL interest??

Since I love creating scrappy postage stamp quilts, I’m mulling the idea of hosting a QAL later this fall.  Would you be interested?  Let me know in the comments.


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Easy Baby Quilt with Solid Strips

Need an easy baby quilt?  Dig into your scraps and let’s get started.

Easy Scrap Strip Baby Quilt by quiltytherapy #scrapquilt #stripquilt #babyquilt #scrapbusterquilt

If you have been a reader for a while, you may know that I keep my scraps in tubs until it’s time to sort them.  Well, my solids are kept separate and they were getting out of hand.  The drawer could no longer even be stuffed close.  It was time to make something again.

Inspiration

Nothing was really speaking to me, so I headed to my Modern Quilting Inspiration Pinterest board for ideas.

https://www.pinterest.com/quiltytherapy/modern-quilting-inspiration/

An older quilt from Red Pepper Quilts caught my attention.  Rita’s version can be found here.  This is a step by step guide on how to create my version.

 

Design

Tip:  Without different hues and saturation, the quilt could run together.

Off to the scrap bin I went to start gathering strips to make my version.  I was able to collect many strips and have the variety of colors/saturations I desired.  However, I didn’t have many long strips like the inspiration quilt.

Based on my scraps I could create strips in 2 inch width to get the most from my pull of fabrics.  The lengths would be 5, 7, and 9 inches.  Feel free to create based on what you have in your scraps.

Each size stack was sorted yet again by color.  Orange, yellow, blue, green, brown, black, neutrals, and gray.  Sorting will help when piecing.  I wanted to avoid having too may of the same color right by each other.

Piecing

Grab randomly from each pile and begin piecing two strips together of the same size.  Rows include 28 strips, or 14 pairs, to make a baby quilt size.  Piece all 5 inch strips first.  Starch and press the seams all going one direction.  Next the 7 inch strips.  Starch and press the seams all going the same direction.  Finally, the 9 inch strip set.   Sew and press in the same manner.   Nestle the seams of the 5 inch row and 7 inch row together, pin if needed.  Sew the rows together.  The outcome is randomly placed colors without overthinking the process.

My version goes in this order:  5 inch, 7 inch, 9 inch, 5 inch, 7 inch, and 9 inch.  If you wanted a little larger baby quilt, you could throw another 5 inch row after the last 9 inch row.

I starched the top and pressed my row seams open.  The backing is a blue print I picked up a few months ago when a local quilt shop was closing out their inventory.  With this size quilt, I only needed a yard of the fabric.

Quilting and Binding

The quilt is randomly pieced, but I knew for the quilting exactly what I wanted.  Straight lines in a light gray horizontally in the middle of each row.  A few lines in the middle 5 inch strip vertically.  In your version quilt as desired.

The secondary shapes created with colors being close together was an unintended effect.  They could have been moved, but then the random process is lost.  That was more important to me as I just wanted to create.

Finally, I grabbed Corn Yellow Kona Solid I have had forever to create the binding.  The binding was 2.5 inch double fold and completely machine bound.

Final Thoughts

Love all the crinkles in this quilt after it was washed.  Wonder what the rows would look like in an ombre?

This quilt is currently on the way to a new home.  Check out my other quilts using just solids below.  The solids scrap bin is still too full.


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Quilting is more fun than Housework

 

Halloween: Spooky Ghost Pumpkin Quilt

It is time to start planning my Halloween decorations.  Halloween may trump Christmas in my house as a favorite holiday.  Seriously, the kid is wearing a Halloween shirt and pirate pants in July.

Since P is still little, we prefer spooky over scary.  As we acquire new decorations, I let him set the boundaries on what he’s comfortable with.  He has created an idea of a Spooky Ghost Pumpkin.  We have no idea what that is, but try to run with that.  If you have any ideas, please share.

With decor in mind, I turn to Pinterest.  Maybe I should add more ideas to my Halloween board?  Do you have any family fun activities you like for Halloween?

https://www.pinterest.com/quiltytherapy/halloween-creations/

This year I will be adding a quilt to the decorations.  My wonderful bee mates of the Blossom Heart Bees made blocks for this quilt last year, using the Tic Tac Toe block.  My theme was Halloween in orange, lime green, purple, and teal for the X’s.  Also black with white prints for the corners.  The blocks turned out great and better than I would have imagined.  My bee mates had some good prints in their stashes.  P loved getting them in the mail.

A few more are needed to finish the top.  From my stash I pulled more green, purple, and teal to balance out the top.  Even a fun zombie print.

 

There are a couple more blocks in the works then I can layout the top as I want.  It’s going to need some balance from all the orange.

 

P was excited each time a new block arrived.  He realized they were for him and gasped with excitement.  Hopefully he’s still as excited about the quilt as I finish it.  Maybe we can watch scary movies and snuggle on the couch under it?


Links

The rocket above is from Amazon, best money we have spent on a toy.  He loves it and exploring how to make the rocket go faster, higher and aiming at things.  Great gift for a four year old.

Check out #tictactoeblock on Instagram for other versions.

Confessions Of A Fabric Addict

 

Scrappy Unicorn Rainbow Sprinkles Finished

Scrappy unicorn rainbow sprinkles by quiltytherapy #scrapquilt #paperpiecing #modernquilt

Scrappy Unicorn Rainbow Sprinkles is finished and ready for her next adventure.  It would be great if this quilt left a trail of rainbow sprinkles everywhere it went.  Instead it just brings lots of color and brightness to a room.

Scrappy unicorn rainbow sprinkles by quiltytherapy #scrapquilt #paperpiecing #modernquilt

It was fun to watch scraps from friends become something cohesive and lovely.  Thank you again Lisa, Erika, and Lindsay for sharing your scraps.  I would love to hear your thoughts below on the quilt and any of your scraps you recognize.

When it came time to pick the backing on this quilt, I was sure I was going to make a scrappy one to flow with the front.  I wondered if I would have a vintage sheet that would work and began digging into that stash.  I did find a sheet that could have worked if the blue was a little more aqua.  While the vintage sheet would have worked, it didn’t feel right.  I would have wanted to change it after quilting it.  Instead I found this solid green sheet that coordinated with the greens on the front.

Remember the purple polka dot binding from Thistle Storm?  I had so much of it left that it ended up being enough to bind this quilt.  Everything on this quilt is either a scrap or stash item I had not used in awhile.  Feels good to finally give some of these fabrics a new purpose and use.

Scrappy unicorn rainbow sprinkles by quiltytherapy #scrapquilt #paperpiecing #modernquilt

As I finished the quilt top, I realized there were a few errors that I hoped to work out in the quilting.  One or two were too big to ultimately just quilt closed.  I had to go back and zig zag stitch over them.  While it’s disappointing that this quilt isn’t perfect, it now has it’s own flare and design elements.  After my IMQG meeting they couldn’t really see the issue.  If a group of quilters can’t see it, then there is no use in stressing over it.

For the quilting, I went with wavy lines again.  It’s a simple method that I want to keep building my skills on.  The waves add a softness to the overall look.

Look at all the crinkles post wash.  I want to take it on a picnic or snuggle under it on the couch.  If you’re looking for a quilt to add color to a room, you can find this quilt here on Etsy.

Scrappy unicorn rainbow sprinkles by quiltytherapy #scrapquilt #paperpiecing #modernquilt

 

You can read about the process of the quilt below.

Scrappy Unicorn Rainbow Sprinkles 


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