Complete at last!!!

I realize I had a blog post a few weeks ago stating the Quilt is complete at last, which it is. But it was a quilt from my class....not THE quilt. 

This is THE quilt. 

Little Miss O's REAL quilt. And it is done. finally. After almost 2 years.  

Let me explain.

I have professed my love of all things Basic Grey in blog's past (They of the amazing scrapbook papers and stickers and such) I made my little girl a baby scrapbook using their paper collection called Blush, which features beautiful pale turquoise, pinks, whites with a little brown and brick red thrown in featuring different flowers and little birds - it is perfection! I loved using their papers, they were perfect for talking about my baby girl.

Then I found out that Basic Grey made lines for fabric for Moda ....and that the Blush collection of papers was made into a collection of fabrics! That the colors of the fabric line perfectly matched the rug in her room was a complete bonus! 

I did not know how to quilt at this time, so I bought a cute jelly roll of Blush fabric. A jelly roll is 2 1/2" strips cut the width of the fabric (usually 42"-44" in width) rolled up into a cute little roll. There were 40 strips in the roll. I thought  that would be good for a twin size quilt right? 

Now, I am good at math, but I didn't do the math then. If I had, I would have seen right away that this was nowhere near enough... But I didn't do the math. I think I was too taken in with the cuteness of the jelly roll. Look how cute it is!!

I found the perfect quilt pattern in Elizabeth Hartman's book, The Practical Guide to Patchwork: New Basics for the Modern Quiltmaker. (Highly recommend this book and Elizabeth's blog Oh Frannson by the way...) The quilt is called Small Plates and it was perfect for working with a jelly roll. And it was when I read the fabric requirements for the quilt that I realized I needed more, A LOT more fabric! 

That was when I was completely thankful for the inventions of the internet, Etsy and Google, as I was able to track down more pieces of my dear Blush fabric. Plenty to make the quilt. And two pillowcases (made to hold her over while I worked on the quilt!) And I have more...but I have plans for more accessories....we'll see...

As you can see from the quilt, it is made up of 80 blocks, with a 5" square piece of fabric framed by a different fabric. 40 blocks have the same color frame, the "main" color of the quilt. I knew I wanted the pink to be main color of the quilt, but I needed to figure out which fabrics would be framed inside those pink borders as well as what fabrics to choose to border and frame for the other 40 squares. That was a lot of planning.

Luckily, it was summer and we had lots of play dates and my friends were awesome about helping me and giving their feedback. I plied them with baked goods to thank them.

I sewed the blocks by hand, since my sewing machine was not working at the time and I was eager to start. All 80 of them. Luckily, the blocks were portable, so they went everywhere with me! To swimming lessons, piano...stitch, stitch, stitch!

After that, I had to figure out how to lay them out. Thankfully, my amazing quilt teacher Judy and the awesome ladies in the quilt class helped me with this daunting task! Judy advised me to make diagonal stripes of each border color, which I loved! Unfortunately, this meant I had to make 11 more blocks in the colors I needed. (which is fine, because I made a sweet quilt for my dear cousin's baby girl out of some of the other squares- see below - cute, right?)

After that, I used my machine to sew the blocks together. 

Now, it was time to make the quilt back! 

Something I love about Elizabeth Hartman's designs is that she is very thoughtful. Her back design is beautiful AND uses the leftover strips from the front on the back middle panel. I picked my favorite two fabrics for the large pieces and used strips of grunge turquoise to break it up. So pretty, right?!

For you that do not quilt or haven't thought much about them, quilts have a front, a back and batting in the middle. Once you put all the layers together, you have to pin them all together (Again, my quilting friends helped with pinning using a LOT of safety pins- THANK YOU LADIES!!) 

Once you have all that done, THEN YOU QUILT IT! 

The "quilting" part is actually the process of sewing a design while joining the three layers together! The rest of the work is actually called piecing. I had never quilted a quilt this large and used my machine to do it. It was a challenge to maneuver such a huge amount of quilt through the machine, but I got it done with a lot of helpful advice from Judy.

After all that, there was still the bias binding to make and then apply to the quilt. I used the chocolate colored grunge fabric. The binding is the edging part that makes the quilt look polished and finished. You sew it on by machine and then wrap it around and sew the other side by hand.

And there it is. After almost two years since I started accumulating Blush fabric and planning, it is done. Now, I have made MANY other things in these two years, but I practiced with my class making the class quilt and built up the practice and skills before I did it on this quilt. I wanted it to be perfect! 

And it was so worth it! Look at what Little Miss O did when I gave it to her. 

And then, she broke it in with a handstand. 

I just love it. And so does she!

When I put it on the floor to take a picture, Boomer walked right over and sat down on it, so I guess he likes it too! 

Here is a close up of the back quilted. Judy helped me figure out what design to quilt on it. The pattern called for free motion all over loop pattern, but I haven't ventured into free motion yet. I LOVE the design she suggested. And look how beautifully crinkled it got after I washed it. 

Quilting is a LOT of fun but a tremendous amount of work. I am in awe of people who do this all by hand!

Thank you again, dearest Judy and my fellow quilters! This quilt would not be done without you!

Quilt on!

Happy Mother's Day!

To all you moms out there, may you have a fantastic day enjoying your loved ones!

I was treated to a yummy breakfast of crepes! I received beautiful cards, drawings and specially planted seedlings decorated by my little ones.

LMO also decided to spell out MOM for me with her Magformers. Magformers are incredible blocks that have neodymium magnets encapsulated within the super strong plastic. Unlike other magnet toys, you can connect the Magformers regardless of the orientation of the north or south pole of the magnet, which lends to more creative building opportunities....Will show other creations they have made at another date.

Even our dogs were wearing cute little collars which read Happy Mother's Day (the idea of our little miss) Thank you for making me feel so loved!

Since my mother has not received her gift yet (since it is still in progress- sorry Mom! You know it's coming!) I thought I would show you what last years mother's day gift was for my mom. A little quilt.

It was a quilt we were making last year in my spring quilting class. It was called a twister quilt, and I was amazed when I saw it!

For our little twister, the first step is to select the size and amount of squares. As you can see here, we had 25 squares arranged five by five. You then sew these squares of fabric together and then add a border. That's what is shown below. Of course, you can spend A LOT of time picking out which fabrics to use and where to place them.

After you sew the boarders on, you use this tool called a Twister tool, which is an acrylic block with lines on it.

You put the block on top of the piece you have made using the lines as your guide (the lines go on your seams) and then use the block to cut it into pieces (again!) This pattern started by using the seam on the border, so the new pieces you cut have the border in them. 

You have to be very careful to keep the pieces in the right order and then you sew them together again. To this a border was added and after quilting it, added a bias strip edge and viola! Isn't it cool? I just love the pinwheels it creates.

And here is the back. A pieced one of course!! used up some of the leftovers from the front and a few new pieces. I just LOVE it!! Mom did too! 

I used Basic Grey for Moda's fabric line called Eva. The colors are incredible- deep plums, all shades of purple and amazing limes with touches of pinks.The center square features a beautiful peacock while others feature paisleys, stripes and other pretty patterns. 

 Crafty side note: I am totally obsessed with Basic Grey. I have been using (hoarding?!) their scrapbooking papers and embellishments lines for years now and when I started quilting I discovered they put their amazing designs on fabric! SWOON! Now I am using (collecting! stashing!) their fabrics too. Their "solids" are actually a grunge version of a solid, just like they did for their papers. It adds interest while still being "read" as a solid within a quilt. 

Funny side note- my hubby walked in as I was working on this and he said "So you bought fabric, cut it up, have sewn it together, and then cut it up again just to sew it again? Why are you making this much work for yourself?" I replied a resounding "Yes! Isn't it cool!!??" You get it dear reader, yes?

Once the current Mother's Day project is complete, it will be up here. Luckily, my mom isn't a stickler for due dates ;)  

Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother-in-law, my family and friends and to all of you! 

Create On!

The Quilt is Finally Finished!

Our town offers many continuing education classes, and a few years back I found an introduction to quiltmaking class and signed up! I have been sewing since I was very small, and have had been wanting to learn how to quilt for a long time.

I am SO glad I signed up! Our teacher, Judy Wilhelm is incredibly talented. Her tips and tricks she has taught us along the way are invaluable! I often see something online or in a book and think, if they only had Judy to show them an faster/better/easier way! Her work is inspiring, her hand quilting is impeccable! Needless to say, I have continued with her classes ever since!

Over the course of the last few years, our little group of quilters in our class has become a little oasis of creative friendship for me. I look forward to Wednesdays with the ladies and how we learn and share from each other. We all make the same quilt at the same time, but with fabric choices, alternate stitch patterns and little twists, they all come out as incredibly different works of art. 

Our quilt from LAST semester I just finished up yesterday, halfway through current semester. So much for deadlines ; ) We made an Irish Chain quilt, which we were supposed to use three fabrics to make. I had a different idea and Judy being the amazing teacher that she is, helped me achieve my vision of using a beloved half yard bundle of Sherbert Pips by another amazingly talented individual, Annela Hoey for Moda fabrics.  I had splurged on the bundle for my birthday and was trying to find the right fit. The wide open blocks of the Irish Chain seemed right for highlighting the beautiful illustrations of little girls on tree swings, little dogs and girls on scooters. If you have not seen Annela's work or fabrics, do check her out! She has a new line called Posey that is super sweet as well!

Having half yards of the fabrics meant I would need to use many more than three fabrics, but Judy and my fellow quilters helped me figure out a pleasing way of mixing and matching the prints. 

Here is the finished quilt. I just LOVE it! 

I had to fussy cut the squares with the girls and dogs (that means to cut them out one by one to ensure I was getting the right part of the fabric print in the piece and ensured I didn't decapitate a little girl or dog!  That would NOT be the look I was going for : )

I knew I wanted to do a pieced back. Many quilts have backs that are all the same piece of fabric, but there is a new group of Modern Quilters that make the back as interesting as the front! I love the idea, and have been quick to embrace it on my quilts. My dear friend Sylvie had the brilliant idea to make a 9 patch back to mirror the 9 patches in the Irish Chain on the front! A nine patch is a square made up of 9 fabrics, kinda like a tic-tac-toe board. I had no idea quilting had so many terms and patterns before I started!

It looks perfect right?

Guess who couldn't wait to try it out? The quilt was declared snuggle worthy!

What do you think?

Quilt on!