Jesus and Me - Take three

This baby quilt top is the third baby quilt that I have made with the yellow novelty print fabric "Jesus and Me".  The first one (featured in this post) was for an old high school friend who was having a baby.  The second one (featured in this post) was a Project Linus quilt I made a few years ago.  All are very different patterns, but they all three use the same novelty print and striped fabric.

This quilt top was made using the "Go Baby!" pattern in the January/February 2013 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine.  It finishes 40 inches square.  The stripe fabric will be used for the binding, but I haven't chosen a backing fabric yet.  I'm thinking I may go with something predominantly yellow and quilt it with yellow thread.

At the moment, this one is intended for donation.  My quilt guild periodically makes baby quilts to give the church where we used to meet.  The church gives the quilts as gifts to babies when they are baptized.  I thought the "Jesus and Me" fabric was very fitting for a baptism gift quilt.

Country Harvest Pillow

Today is my mother's birthday and I decided to make a quilted pillow for her. The print fabric in the corners is called country harvest, thus the name. I bought the fabric several years ago and absolutely loved it. I actually made the block shortly after I bought the fabric, but I couldn't decide how to quilt it. I got it back out the other day and decided to finish it as a pillow for my mom.

Below is the quilted pillow top.

The quilting actually shows up much better on the backside.

Here is a close up of the quilting.

Here is the finished pillow.

I really enjoyed doing the quilting.  I'd have to look back to see exactly when I last did any hand quilting, but I know it has been quite a while.  My best guess is that it was my last Project Linus quilt, which was probably close to a year ago.  Now I kind of want to do some whole cloth quilting.  I'm sure it, too, would be something small, like a pillow or wall hanging.  We'll see.

Butterfly Row

 Here is my completed butterfly row for the guild row swap.  It is a row of pieced butterflies inside a 6 inch snowball block.  The heart fabric is the focus fabric for this quilt.  Below is my row along with the other rows so far.

Quilt Blocks for Sandy Block Drive

I signed up at Quilting Gallery to make 6 quilt blocks for the quilt block drive for victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Above is a picture of the blocks I made for the drive.  If you are interested in taking part in the block drive, click on the icon over on the left with the cute little puppy.  I'm sure Michele would be happy to have more volunteers.

Butterfly block

The row that I got this month for our guild row swap is butterfly themed.  The heart fabric in the corners of the block is the "must use" fabric.  The block above is the pattern that I have decided to go with.  I've only made the one block so far, but I actually have until the January meeting to finish this time because of the holidays.

The block below was my first attempt at a butterfly block.  And while it is legitimately a butterfly pattern, and traditional at that, the other members of my household didn't think it looked enough like a butterfly.  In fact, one of my kids suggested that it looked like a couture vampire.  LOL!  So we decided to go with the above pattern instead of the one below.

Kitty in a Pumpkin, take two

After looking at the block for a while, I decided to make another block with the kitty in the pumpkin pattern.  The other one, featured in this post, didn't have enough contrast between the background fabric and the pumpkin to suit me.  I like this one better.  I still haven't made any more blocks toward completing the quilt, but I think I will be sticking with this background fabric.

Christmas stocking

This is the Christmas stocking that I made for our guild Christmas party.  Now I just have to figure out what to put in it for the gift exchange.  I have no ideas, yet.

Apple Row

This is my finished row for the apple quilt in our guild row swap. It is 6 blocks that finish 6 inches each. The block is a King's Crown block with apple fabric in the center and in the corners. The green fabric is the "must use" fabric for this quilt. I thought that the red fabric was a good compliment to the green and a good match to the red in the center apple fabric. I hope she likes it. Below is a picture of my row with the original row.

Kitty in a pumpkin

I made this little block this evening after dinner.  It will finish 6 inches square.  I found the pattern at http://www.caroldoak.com/free-quilt-patterns.php and I thought it was irresistible.  I didn't actually download the pattern, and I'm not even sure what size block the pattern there makes.  I just looked at the picture and drafted out the foundation pieces from that.  I'm planning to make a Halloween wall hanging with several different pumpkin blocks arranged in a nine-patch layout.  This is the first one and I'm thinking it will probably go right in the center of the nine-patch.

Daffodil block

This is a daffodil block that I made for a group project my guild is working on.  It measures 9 1/2 inches square (to finish 9 inches square).  The pattern is a modification of a block from a Quiltmaker quilt, "Daffodils" from the Mar/Apr 2001 issue.  The blocks in that quilt range in size from 6" x 10" to 6" x 14".  I had to scale it down, which meant redrafting the foundations to match the new size.  I also left out the center applique circle and just made a (proportionally) larger yo-yo.  I made the yo-yo the traditional way,  not the way described in the pattern instructions. 

Tree of Life Row

I finally got my row for the row swap finished.  As you can see, it is 3 Tree of Life blocks set on point using setting triangles in a fall leaf fabric.  It technically measures a little wider than 36 1/2 inches, because I am not super consistent with my 1/4 seam, but it should be fine.  I'm pleased with the way it turned out.

I hope it doesn't take me as long to do the rows for other people's quilts as it did for me to do mine.  Anyway, it should be fun and I'm really looking forward to seeing what everybody's rows look like on Tuesday.

Tree of Life block

My guild is starting a row swap next month and I chose "fall" for my theme.  Today I worked on the first step of my row for my row swap quilt.  I really went around and around in my head on what to do for my row.  I thought about leaves, and I thought about pumpkins, but I finally decided to go with trees.  This is my first tree, which has green and yellow leaves on the tree.  I will need to make 2 more tree blocks to complete my row.  The plan is to make one tree that has yellow and orange "leaves" and one that has orange and red "leaves".  To set the trees on point I plan to put fall leaf fabric in corners to square it up.  I haven't decided if I'm going to use the same fabric to square up all three blocks or if I'm going to mix and match.  But at least I have a start.

The tree block itself finishes 8 inches, but once I put the corners on to set it on point it will finish out at 12 inches square.  Three of them will make a 36 inch row, which is what the row is supposed to be.

Minecraft Zombie Pillow

Here is the second installment of my Minecraft pillow trio, the Zombie face. It is not quite as striking as the Creeper face, but it still reads like a Minecraft Zombie to me.  Below is a picture of the actual face from the minecraft wiki.

Below is a picture of the face on my "design wall", which is actually just some quilt batting pinned to the wall. The zombie face was actually much more difficult to design than I thought it would be. The different colors and shades of green were so hard to choose between. I bought several colors of green and cut out way more 2 inch squares than I needed, but I think it finally turned out pretty good. It makes me wonder if the skeleton is worth trying. I'll have to give it some serious thought before I dive into it.

Creeper Pillow

This is the first in a series of pillows that I plan to make.  If you are familiar with the computer video game Minecraft, I'm sure you will recognize the iconic Creeper face.  I also plan to make a Zombie face and a Skeleton face pillow to complete the set.  The graphics of the game are intentionally highly pixelated, so it translates very well to quilting/sewing.

The pillow is 14 inches square.  The face itself is a 12 inch square and a 1 inch border, of the pillow's back fabric, was added all the way around the face.

So far the Creeper pillow has been a big hit with my three sons.  But I must confess, the pillows were actually my idea.  All those pixels were just begging to become a quilt square.

This is a picture of the creeper face it is based on in case you aren't familiar with the game.

Bow Tie Cat Pillow

This is a little throw pillow that I made for the living room. I have made a few pillow covers for this pillow insert that are seasonal, but I wanted one that could be used for those times of year when I don't have a seasonal cover to match. The pillow is 14 inches square. The cat square in the center is a 12 inch square. I made the block from a combination of two cat blocks that I had in a quilting book, "501 Quilt Blocks".  The basic shape of the cat came from one pattern and the face came from a different one.  The back of the pillow is a split back to easily remove the pillow insert.

Pillowcases

My latest project was inspired by Memorial Day. I wanted to do something for soldiers/veterans on Memorial Day to celebrate the spirit of the day. I decided to make some pillowcases (pattern from Quiltmaker July/Aug '06) to be donated. I woman in my quilt guild is collecting them to donate to either active soldier or veteran, I'm not sure which. I didn't get too far into the process on Memorial Day proper. I bought and washed the fabric that day. I've worked on them when I had time between then and now. I just finished them today (with much complaining from my sewing machine). The guild meets tomorrow so they should be ready to donate then.

Patchwork Pillow

This is a pillow that I made to donate to a silent auction. The pillow is 12 inches square and features a "Crazy Ann" block from the 1930s. The pillow ended up going to a little girl who fell in love with it as soon as she saw it. Her mom bid on it for her. I'm glad that it went to someone who would really be happy to have it.

Pinwheel Pin Cushion

This is a little pin cushion that I made the other day (probably 2 weeks ago at this point).  I got the pattern at my monthly quilt guild meeting.  I thought it would be a fun little quick project.  It was pretty quick to make, but it was a little more difficult than it looks.  The center pinwheel is actually somewhat dimensional, as it is formed by layering a folded 2 inch square on top of another 2 inch square. 
That creates a lot of bulk in that center seam.  In fact, it was so difficult to sew through that I broke the needle on my sewing machine and had to sew the very center of the pin cushion top by hand.  I think it turned out really cute though.  I like the fabric and I love that color of blue.

Valentine

This is the valentine that I made for my husband for Valentine's Day. I designed it myself. I'm a little disappointed in how the binding turned out. It didn't fully cover the 1/4 inch that it was supposed to, so the hearts ended up a little misshapen in places. But my hubby was happy with it. He was actually quite surprised.

The finished size was about 4x6. It is machine pieced, using paper piecing, and machine quilted. I also made the envelope, which is the red fabric that the card is laying on in the picture.

Snowmen on Parade

This is my most recent project. I finished it last night. My husband actually suggested the name, "Snowmen on Parade". When I was describing it to him, I said that it wasn't really made of blocks, it was just strips of snowman fabric. Then he said, "oh, so it just snowmen on parade." I thought that would be a cute name for it, so I went with it.

The quilt is machine pieced and hand quilted in simple straight lines. The batting is a high loft batting, so the quilting is kind of far apart, but within the manufacturers recommendations (between 2" and 4"). The finished size is 36 x 42.5 inches.

I made it to donate to Project Linus for make a blanket day. I need to get it in the mail on Monday. Although it doesn't really matter too much on the timing. Project Linus accepts blankets year round, if I'm not mistaken.