Cyndi Mini

This is another shop sample that I'm piecing for Melanie at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe.  It's hard to tell from the picture, because there is nothing to show scale, but this is a miniature version of the Squares for Cyndi quilt.  It is made with Moda candies (pre-cut 2 1/2 inch squares) and about 1/8 yard of solid color fabric.  This sample is made with an April Showers (by bonnie and camille for moda) candy and Snow Bella Solids by moda fabric.  It finished at just over 13 inches square. 

More Squares for Cyndi

This is another shop sample of the Squares for Cyndi pattern.  This time we used a colored background fabric.  The charm pack is Mixed Bag by Studio M for Moda.  The background fabric is Simply Color by Vanessa Christenson of V and Co. for Moda.  I think it would make a darling little quilt for a baby boy.

Squares for Cyndi

Back during the Iron Quilter challenge, I made a quilt. Some of the ladies at my local quilt shop said that I should write up a pattern for the design. So recently I wrote up the directions and got them printed.  The pattern is named "Squares for Cyndi" because Cyndi, at the quilt shop, really encouraged me to write the pattern and would ask about it most times that she saw me in the shop.  The pattern is now for sale at The Front Porch Quilt Shoppe, as a printed pattern, and at Etsy as a PDF download.

This is a shop sample for the pattern.  It is made with daydream fabric by Kate Spain for Moda.

Butterfly Trails

I finished the baby quilt made from the February Moda blocks (featured here) today.  It finished 38 inches square.  I machine quilted in the ditch between the blocks and through the center of each block in both directions.  I also quilted in the ditch on either side of the white border.  The binding is also done by machine.  It is top-stitched down with a star decorative stitch.  I named it "butterfly trails" because the fabric is butterfly fabric (including the backing fabric) and I thought the pink and blue patches sort of made trails across the quilt.

Pixie Stix

 I finished sewing the binding on this one on Tuesday.  The quilt top is originally featured in this post.  It is the third top that I made from the jelly roll, but I finished it second.  Mostly because the uninterrupted straight-line quilting meant fewer threads to bury than in the second top I finished. 

I decided to name it Pixie Stix after the candy in the paper straws.  One of my sons said that the fabric made him think of candy.  Once I was thinking about candy, the long strips in the pastel colors made me think of Pixie Stix.

I sewed the label on yesterday. For some reason, the date that I put on a quilt is always the date that I finished binding it, even if I don't sew the label on until the next day.  I guess it is because the quilt is finished and usable at that point.  In fact, my grandmother and father don't even put labels on their quilts.  I've told my dad that he should, but he still doesn't.  He has started quilting his initials (and I think maybe the year) into the quilt, so that is something.  My grandmother doesn't quilt anymore (she's 97 years old), so the best I could do is label the quilts of hers that I have.  I may do that, at least with her name.

February blocks in a baby quilt

I really like the pattern that these blocks make when they work together.  I did have to fudge just a little bit on this one.  It is actually the two blocks we got in February for the Moda Size Matters quilt, but it also includes the mirror image of one of the blocks. 

I just used fabric from my stash on this one.  I like the fabric, but the pieces are so small that the butterflies on the fabric doesn't really show up that well.  It probably would have been better in different fabric, but I used what I had.  The fabric that I have for the backing, also from my stash, is multicolored with butterflies on it.  I'm not sure yet how I want to quilt it.

February block - guild quilt

This is my Santa face block for our guild sampler project.  For right now, his eyes are just dots, but they will eventually be buttons.  I'm not adding any embellishments until after it is quilted.

The original pattern that we were given was assembled as 16 squares in a 4 x 4 configuration, but I redrafted it so that it had fewer unnecessary seams.  I had heard that several of the guild members were having trouble with one of the sections (the square where there was background, hat, and hat trim all coming together in one square) so I decided to avoid the problem all together.  Other than the fact that it has fewer seams, the finished block looks the same as the original.

Ellie Ann quilt

When I first saw this fabric, I fell in love with it, but it has given me fits as to what to do with it.  When I bought it, I had a plan of exactly what I was going to do with it.  However, once I had the layer cake in hand, I didn't think it would look right in that pattern, so I went back to the drawing board.

I decided to go with fence rail blocks, but then I wasn't sure about the layout.  For me, the issue is that the variety of colors in the collection are not equal, so it makes it hard to design around.  I think that I'm going to go with the general layout pictured above.  It is mostly symmetrical, so I think it works.  I also considered a layout where the colors moved diagonally across the quilt, but my kids thought the symmetrical layout was better.

Now I need to sew it together and order some fabric for the borders.

A New Bag

I made this bag as a gift for my daughter-in-law.  Her birthday was on Sunday, but I just made the bag today.  Her purchased gift didn't arrive until today either, so she can get her gift in a homemade gift bag. :)

The bag is made from some of the left over fabric from the wedding gift quilt.  This time I decided to try using 2 1/2 inch strips instead of 5 inch squares to make the bag.  The dimensions turn out a little different, but it is basically the same as the other bags I've made recently.  I hope she likes it.

February blocks - Size Matters

Here are my blocks from February's meeting of the Moda Friendship group at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe.  I did them both as 12-inch blocks this time.  I really like the block on the left.  It is a simple block, but it has good motion in it.

I haven't come up with neat combination for these blocks yet.  But I'm still working on it.

Autumn Splendor

I finally finished my row swap quilt from last year's guild project.  I got it back from the long-armer last month, I finished sewing the binding on Tuesday, and I made and attached the label last night.  It is made for a twin size bed, but it is shown here on a queen size bed.  You can see the whole quilt better on the queen sized bed because almost none of it hangs off.

Even though all the rows were made by different people, it really blends together very well.  I really enjoyed working on the row swap project.  And, it is nice to have a quilt that was made by the combined efforts of so many friends.  It is a good memory to cherish.

Bear Hug

It's finished with time to spare.  Last night I finished sewing the binding on it, and this morning I made and attached the label.  I decided to name it "Bear Hug" because of the bear paw blocks in the corners and the circle (the Hug of Xs and Os) in the center.  I also thought hugs were appropriate for the Valentine theme of the fabric.

It finished 20 inches square and is machine pieced and machine quilted.  I quilted it in the ditch around the main elements of the blocks - the bear paws, the diamonds (including the line across), and the circle in the center.

January blocks in a wall hanging

I was playing around with the Moda blocks that we got directions for in January (see previous post) and I came up with a design using just those three blocks.  I really liked the design, but I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.  I considered using 12-inch blocks and making a baby quilt out of it.  I considered using 3-inch blocks and just making a 9-inch block out of it that I would then use as part of a larger quilt. 

However, after looking around at the fabric at the quilt shop, I finally decided on some cute Valentine fabric from Basic Grey by Moda (Kissing Booth, I think).  I thought it would work best as a small wall-hanging.  I used 6-inch blocks and then put a 1-inch strip of border around the outside.

I'm hoping to get it quilted and bound before Valentine's Day, so that I can hang it up this year.  I really need to plan these things further in advance.

Size Matters blocks - January

This year I decided to join the Moda U (I think that's what it's called. Update: apparently if is officially called Moda Friendship) group at the Front Porch Quilt Shoppe down in Ozark.  We will be doing the Size Matters blocks from the Moda blog-hop back in the fall.  Each month we will be getting the directions for two or three of the blocks and making them in whatever size we like.

There are 27 blocks in the series and I only wanted to use each block once, which creates something of a challenge.  I also liked the idea of using more than one size of block, since we would be getting directions for multiple sizes.  After much consideration, and much sketching, I came up with a layout and a size that I liked and figured up how much fabric to buy.

I went down to the quilt shop and wandered through the various fabric collections.  I had originally considered something bright and spring-like, but couldn't settle on anything that I liked well enough for the design I had chosen.  I finally decided to ditch the bright/spring idea and went with a layer cake of "Sweet Pea" fabric from Kansas Troubles.  They have great lights and darks in the collection.  However, I ended up getting my background fabric from the "Icicle Kisses" line, also by Kansas Trouble.  I really think that anything from Kansas Troubles would work well in the quilt, and I plan to pick up a few fat quarters from some of the other KT lines the next time I'm in the shop.

Here is a picture of the blocks I made from the January instructions.

Two are six inch blocks and one is a 12 inch block.  As the diagram above indicates, I will be making 15 blocks in the larger size and 12 blocks in the smaller size.  After making these blocks, I'm thinking that one layer cake may not be enough fabric for the blocks anyway, so I'm really likely to need those extra fat quarters before all is said and done.  And, of course, making blocks that I'm not happy with and starting over doesn't help matters any either.

I liked the idea of using a dark and a medium fabric on this block instead of a dark and a light.  I thought that having the lighter colored background in the fabric would give enough contrast, but I just wasn't happy with it.  It is much more striking in the dark and light fabrics.

January block - Guild Quilt

Our block for January was a Christmas Tree block.  I used four different green fabrics for the tree, graduating in value from darkest at bottom to brightest at the top.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to put any embellishments on it.  If I do, it won't be until after it is quilted, most likely.  If I decide to have it quilted, I would have to take the embellishments off first anyway.

Sunshine & Flowers

Last night, I finally finished the first of the stacked coins baby quilts that I made from the Riley Blake jelly roll.  I decided to name it "Sunshine & Flowers" because the fabric line is called "my sunshine" and the main fabric of the quilt has flowers on it.

I machine quilted it in the ditch around all of the "coins".  As it turns out, that makes for a lot of thread ends to bury.  I may try to come up with a different plan before I quilt the other stacked coins baby quilt.  I really pleased with how the quilting turned out, though.  No puckers at all.  The combination of a new sewing machine, with a good walking foot, and spray basting adhesive really worked out well.

I also machine bound it.  I used green thread to match the border and binding fabric and used a feather stitch to sew it down.  It is not as neat as if it were hand turned, but it looks okay and it should be very sturdy for regular use.

The final measurements on the quilt were 38 x 38 inches square.

A race to the finish

This is the final baby quilt top from that Riley Blake - My Sunshine jelly roll that I ordered from Missouri Star Quilt Co.  Instead of doing stacked coins, I made this one into a race quilt, which had actually been the intention for all three quilts in the beginning.  This one measures 40 inches square.  I think that this one would also make a nice little quilt for a baby girl.  So many tops, so few finished quilts. . .

Stacked Coins in Pink

This little quilt top is made from the same jelly roll as the last quilt top.  (There is a third one yet to come.)  It measures approximately 38 inches x 38 inches and uses 13 jelly roll strips, just like the last one.  I'm not sure yet which baby girl will be getting this quilt once it is finished.  I have two cousins expecting baby girls and there is a new baby girl at our church.  I guess only time will tell.

Stacked Coins baby quilt top

This is my latest project.  I worked on it on Tuesday, but never got around to posting it.  It is a baby quilt that I am making for one of my husband's colleagues whose wife just had a baby.

The quilt top is made from 13 jelly roll strips, for the coins and inner sashing, and half a yard of matching yardage for the border.  I plan to use the blue polka dot fabric for the backing, and the dark green floral (from the border) for the binding.  My intention is to machine quilt in the ditch between each of the coins and between the coins and the sashing.  Then I will probably quilt one or two straight lines around the whole quilt in the border.

Christmas Stocking

Today I made a Christmas stocking for my new daughter-in-law.  I wanted her to have a stocking here at my house so that hopefully she will feel like part of the family.  Her's will be a little different from the guy's stockings, because theirs have white fleece at the top, but I don't think she will mind.  I don't know what happened to my white fleece. . .

Anyway, the stocking is made from poinsettia fabric with a solid green lining.  The top fabric is quilted to the batting.  Then the lining and outside fabrics were sewn together wrong-side out.  Then the whole thing was turned pillowcase style.