627handworks

This is my current work in progress – I had to take a break from the quilt I started.  It’s a bit tedious and making me crazy.    This fabric is Hello Betty by Chloe’s Closet for Moda, it has a retro 50’s vibe and I love it.   There are forty-four 1.5″ strips. I’ve hung onto it for a while – honey bun patterns aren’t as common as jelly rolls, charms, etc.

I decided just to sew them all together. I realized the size was perfect for a baby quilt,  I love the stripey one inch look but I want this fabric for myself!     So I’m going to make a table runner and place mats. There may even be enough leftover to make another scrappy dish towel.

After you sew all the stripes together it’s a little larger than a yard of fabric – since I took out the 6 solids I ended up with 38″ x 42″ piece of fabric.

Oh jeeze, finally!  After we got moved back in the house it took me a while to get back into these.  Tori and Lizzie’s birthdays are next week so that gave me the motivation.  I had Tori’s quilt top finished and the majority of Lizzie’s done, but still had quite a bit left with backing, stippling and binding.

These were made from Make Life by Sweetwater for Moda. I used a couple of charm packs and some yardage from the line for the back and binding.  I think the white paisley print is my favorite – wish I had used it for backing rather than binding.

Designs were fairly simple and turned out to be around 49″ x 60″ each. I needed them to be roughly the same size but different enough so the girls didn’t think they were too similar. Tori and Liz are at the age (going to be 11 and 12) where they don’t want  anything their sister has, but I wanted them both to have this fabric!  What to do? I attempted a pinwheel style for Tori and  a simple 9 patch cut up and sewn back together (no clue what it’s called) for Liz.  I accented them with their favorite colors – that’s why the green and blue. After this experience, I know I will NEVER try to make a pinwheel quilt. Never.  No way can I get all my points to match up and it was entirely too frustrating for me.

Tags – finally found a way to label my quilts in a manner that is quick and still looks good.  Spoonflower!  Just design some generic labels so you can fill in the blanks later, a simple logo or create a bunch of custom labels.  When it’s all said and done you can fit several on one fat quarter – so it’s very inexpensive per label.  I printed on the heavier canvas but I think for future labels I’ll be using the quilting weight fabric.  The reason I didn’t use the lighter weight to start with was because I had some space leftover on something else I was having printed, so I threw a few quilt labels on there.

This is my own design!   I drew it up in Illustrator, uploaded to Spoonflower.com and received it in less than 2 weeks.  Very happy with fabric and the entire process.

Fairly simple to make- I backed it with an orange and white pattern fat quarter fabric, put a piece of scrap quilting batting in between.

To sew place your batting down, lobster fabric on top (right side up), then backing fabric face down.  Sew around leaving about 6 inches to turn it back to the right side.   Then sew up the hole.

Quarter inch edging around the sides – not the top where the tie goes.

Tie: Cut and sew together to form one long piece.  Fold in half and iron > open > folded the edges to the iron line > then fold in half again and iron. The result is 1/4″ inch strips.  Then sew along down the middle and attaching to the front of the bib. I did take photos along the way and will get those uploaded shortly.

Finished this up yesterday!   I wanted more classic colors for my Dad’s quilt and found Holly Taylor Classics for Moda in a layer cake.  My Dad loves fishing and lives on a lake so these fabrics were perfect.  It took me a while to decide which design to make… I wanted it kind of manly so went with this pattern.

First I went through and paired up each dark fabric with a lighter fabric. Using a tip I saw by Missouri Star Quilt Co for Fast & Easy Pinwheels I put them right side together and sewed around all edges. Then I cut from corner to corner and ended up with a light triangle and dark triangle sewn together.  After they were all done it was just placing them in the design I wanted.

Since I’m a little crazy I had also divided the stacks in red, blue, green and black – then after they were cut I put the 4 cuts into stacks.  So each 1/4 of the quilt has the exact same fabrics and I knew the colors would be more evenly spaced out.  You can actually see 5 of each color block if you divide the quilt along the middle and across.

There is a 3″ border and the binding is in a black design.  I didn’t feel like doing the stipple style of quilting for these so I ‘stitched in the ditch’ around the diamonds.  This turned out roughly 56″ x 66″ if I remember correctly.

The quilts for Tori & Liz are still in progress – I have to work on those when they aren’t around.

I am SO in love love love with these fabrics.   It’s the City Weekend line by Liesl Gibson for Oliver + S for Moda (that’s a mouthful).

I’m still working on the Make Life quilts for Tori and Liz, but when this fabric came in the mail on Friday…  I had to make something with it.  Immediately. It’s probably my favorite fabric ever and I can’t wait for yardage to become available this fall. I may try to make a duvet or some skirts and shirts for the girls. Or just buy a bunch of fabric to admire!

Since I only ordered one charm pack I had limited options for a quilt. I decided to make a baby quilt using the tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! for the Charm Squares Baby Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!   This makes my 4th finished quilt.

I used Kona Ash for the edging, white for the sashing and a light aqua cotton for the back. The remaining charms were pieced together for a little strip along the back.

Machine quilted using free-motion in a stipple pattern.  It’s freshly laundered – heavy on the fabric softener and is all nice and crinkly.

I seriously can’t get enough of this fabric!

Please ignore the grass! Our lawn has lost the battle against the heat wave we’ve been having this summer.