Little Apples-Baby Quilt

Forgive me for my quietness through August. I have been working hard on a baby quilt for my dear friends who are due with their first baby in mid-September, but my friend also happens to be a dear reader (thank you!). Therefore, secrecy was a necessity. But we gave them the quilt last night, so it's with great relief that I can finally share with you all this sweet baby quilt made with Aneela Hoey's most adorable Little Apples collection.

I was so thankful when my small group at church agreed to let me make a quilt for our friends for part of their group gift. I was dying to get my hands on Little Apples and this was the perfect opportunity. Our friends have decided to not find out the gender of their little one beforehand which I admit made things a bit more difficult, but I think this fabric collection, with its aqua, olive, gray, and red, keeps things pretty gender neutral.

The best part about Aneela Hoey's prints are these little drawings which make fussy cutting such a pleasure. There are kids playing Ring-around-the-Rosie, cute back-to-school outfits, turtles, snails, squirrels, apple trees, and hula hoops. All the things that remind us of the fall when we buy new pencils, pull on our sweaters, and look forward to jumping in piles of raked leaves.

It seemed that when our friends received this quilt last night that this little white block was the most special part. Everyone from our group signed it for them. This was such a fun way to remind these new parents of our love for them and their new baby and to let them know how excited we are to help raise this newest member of our family.

About this Quilt:

Fabric: Little Apples & Medium Gray Kona Cotton

Binding: Michael Miller's Dumb Dots in red

Size: approx. 36" x 36"

Pattern: Windmills and Pastures (designed by me)

Quilting: Hand-stitched with Perle 8 in red

Now, I just can't wait to meet the little baby who will get wrapped up in this quilt! I know I'm not the only one :)

Picket Fence Quilt Finished

After more than a month, my Picket Fence quilt is finished. This quilt reminds of country summers with its breezy colors and flower fields, just like looking over a picket fence into a vast meadow. These fabrics by designer Joel Dewberry are from the perfectly named Modern Meadow collection in the berry pallette. The colors range from raspberry to pink lemonade with mossy greens and warm beiges. I want to drag this quilt out to my imaginary wrap around porch on a cool summer night while watching the fire flies dance in my beautifully blooming (I must be imagining!) wildflower garden. *Sigh*

If you have a wrap around porch and a beautifully blooming wildflower garden with dancing fireflies, this quilt will be available in my brand new Etsy shop as soon as it's washed and dried. (Oh yeah, my country dream house also has a clothes line that's just perfect for drying quilts.)

About this Quilt:

Fabric: Joel Dewberry's Modern Meadow and Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton White

Binding: Pieced binding of various Modern Meadow prints

Size: approx. 50" x 66"

Pattern: Pendant Pattern inspired by Joel Dewberry's Pendant Quilt (though I didn't use his pattern)

Quilting: Hand sewn using pink and  green 100% cotton thread

I'm extremely pleased with the finished quilt. It's so satisfying to see it finally come together. I think the pieced binding finished it off perfectly and it gives the quilt a lot of character. 

The back of the quilt mainly features the Dogwood Blooms print but also showcases the Majestic Oak print (a personal favorite) along with the Nap Sack and Flower Fields prints.

Check back soon to see my first Etsy item posted! 

Work in Progress Wednesday

I realize I've been bad about sharing my work-in-process quilting this summer. I've been taking it slow as summer seems to permit me to do with little guilt. But I would be lying if I said that I'm not sick of seeing this unfinished quilt sitting around my house. I'm certainly not sick of the quilt, no, I love it, but besides my first quilt during which I got a serious case of quiltophobia after finishing the quilt top, I'm used to cranking quilts out a little bit faster. So I've set myself a goal (is that allowed in the summer?) I'm going to have this quilt all finished by the end of the day this coming Sunday.

So as not to deceive, this quilt is not a bed-sized quilt, it just perfectly fits on top of a full-sized bed for picture taking :)

I finished my Jane Brocket-style hand-quilting this weekend and I love the simple lines with the pop of pink and the subdued green. It gives this gorgeous quilt another layer of texture and more handmade character.

So binding's up next. I'm thinking of doing a scrappy pieced binding which will be my first of that kind, but I think it's the right choice for this quilt. I can't wait to share my finished quilt pictures with you!

Hand-quilting Jane Brocket Style

Not too long ago, Rita of Red Pepper Quilts, referred to Jane Brocket’s, The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking , in one of her posts and, as I was on a putting-things-on-hold-at-the-library kick, I added it to my queue.

When I received it last week, I quickly flipped through admiring the bold, color-rich, floral explosion of Jane’s quilts and then got down to reading. I love the way this book is set up with a story behind each quilt. Jane finds her inspiration in her garden, in beautiful dresses, in hammocks and beach huts, and then makes these wonderfully simple yet intensely colored quilts. If you want to quilt, but are afraid it’s too difficult or that you have to be too precise, read this book. Jane’s keep it simple, keep it fun approach to quilting is very refreshing if you spend most of your time drooling over intricately pieced, delicately stitched quilts. 

While I can admit, I hope with no offense to Jane, that I prefer fewer floral prints and more negative space in my quilts, I was quite inspired by her hand-quilting technique. She keeps it so simple by quilting with colorful thread in 2-3 mm stitches instead of fussing over the more accepted tiny pin-prick stitches of more traditional hand-quilting. She actually made me want to try it. And on top of that, she usually just does linear quilting, pretty much in the same way I’ve done my machine quilting in the past. So guess what, for better or worse, I’m going to try it on my Modern Meadow quilt. I was a bit nervous at first since I have in mind that I want to post this one on Etsy and I’m not sure whether hand-quilting will make it more or less desirable. I’d appreciate your input. But really, it can’t hurt too much to try, right? I need to be willing to push myself into new territories if I want to grow and learn. So I’m going with two different colors (the obvious pink and green) and am going to get right to work. Anyways, after a few rows of quilting, I love the way the stitching pops and it makes it look even more cute and summery than before. My stitches aren't perfect yet, but for a first attempt, I think it's turning out beautifully. I'm so excited to see it all finished!