A Quilt for James

Ah, my third and final nephew of the year.  My sister – as you all know from her previous post – gave birth to her sweet baby boy, James, in December.  I had picked out the fabric for this quilt before knowing what gender she was having, but I based in on colors she was featuring in the nursery.  I think it turned out adorable – if I do say so myself.

James’ Quilt

It actually took me quite a while after purchasing the fabric to decide on my final design of the quilt.  I wanted each nephew to have a different pattern, so I picked rectangles and spent hours doing calculations to pick just the right size.  Each rectangle was cut 3″ x 7″.  This used the fabric so efficiently I had to NOT use one row to ensure my backing fabric fit!  All-in-all, the quilt came together better than I expected.  Especially because this was also the first time I made my own binding – which I LOVE on this quilt.

James’ Quilt Back and Binding

I had a great time making all of these sweet nephew quilts, and I’m excited to watch them grow up (with the quilts, of course!).

Until next time…Enjoy.

Sarah

A Quilt for Carter

Hey Everyone,

As you may notice, I have a bit of a theme going on here… I was blessed with three new nephews last year, and they each got their own quilt.  My other half’s sister had her sweet little boy in November – Carter Lee.  Below is the baby quilt I made just for him.  I used a combination of fat quarters and regular cuts of fabric as well as a sweet, faux satin baby quilt binding to finish it off!

Carter’s Quilt

Carter’s Quilt Back

Enjoy.

Sarah

Quilt for Kemett

Hey Everyone.  Sorry I’ve been MIA for quite some time.  Lots going on, but I thought I’d take some time and update you on a few projects and meals I’ve tackled lately.

Our oldest sister – Melissa – had her first child a few months back.  The sweetest baby boy – Kemett.  In true fashion, I waited til he was already entering the world to start and finish his quilt.  BUT – it turned out adorable.

In progress

I used a charm pack and backed it with a soft flannel which wrapped around the sides to bind.  To add some textures (and hide a couple flaws), I added felt squares scattered across the front.  Enjoy the pictures!

Adding Felt

Finished!

Thanks for reading!

Sarah

 

Furlough Quilt

Hello friends,

For those of you who do not know me personally, I am one of those people furloughed due to government shut down.  I have decided to embrace the time off and be crafty!  (As you can tell, I’ve been blogging, which I’m so excited for!)  I’ve been maintaining a clean home, cooking, and crafting.  I decided late last week that I wanted to quilt.  Nothing big or extravagant.   I’m not completely with it during this pregnancy, so I decided on a color blocked quilt with pretty quilting.  I dug through my fabric stash (not the new stuff) and found some big pieces of fabric that would make for a beautiful, and patriotic, furlough quilt.

I made the quilt roughly baby quilt size.  I’m such a fan of americana colors, it’ll be the perfect addition to our baby’s already bright and happy nursery.   Baby’s grandma already made a bright striped quilt so this will be a second quilt for baby to enjoy!  You can never have too many quilts, right?  🙂

What do you think?

Cut.Bake.Stitch: Furlough Quilt

Cut.Bake.Stitch: Furlough Quilt

Furlough Quilt

Cut.Bake.Stitch: Furlough Quilt

 

I chose to do rounded edges on the quilt because I have never done that before, and I thought it might be easier.  It wasn’t too difficult really.  I found this how-to and then went with it.

Cut.Bake.Stitch: Rounded edges

I hope you like the quilt as much as I do.  I will admit, my edging is not perfect.  It could’ve been better if my back didn’t hurt so much while I was trying to hand stitch it.  I resorted to top stitching, which doesn’t always turn out nicely.  I’m very happy with it though and can’t wait to use it!

Happy quilting,
Amanda

Fabric Stash

Hello Friends!

I haven’t been up to much crafting lately, but I have been adding to my fabric stash.  I decided to share some pictures of the great fabrics I recently picked up from my favorite fabric store when they closed their storefront.  I am so excited about these fabrics because they are modern and bright and some are solids!  If you follow me on pinterest you’ll know I pin quilts like a crazy person.  I’m pretty sure my board has close to 900 pins of just quilt ideas I’d love to do myself.  Some are completely within reach of me doing and others are far from anything I could ever accomplish at this point in my life.

So check out the newest addition to my fabric stash:

Fat Quarters

Fat Quarters

Amy Butler

Solid Yardage

Amazing Fat Quarters

Ombre Bright Colors – Fat Quarters

Aren’t they beautiful?  What would you do with them?

Here are a few quilts I pinned that I’m thinking I may try…. of course I have to decide if I’m making this quilt for someone or just for me.  (Probably me and baby, right?)

http://www.thesweetersideofmommyhood.com/blog/art/2013/05/modern-log-cabin-cross-quilt-finished/

http://mypoppet.com.au/2013/07/the-haphazard-quilt-a-scrapbusting-project.html#more-6126

Or just about any quilt on my pinterest board!

Happy quilting!
Amanda

Stitch in Time: Progress

Hello!

We find ourselves at a good time to update the antique family quilt progress.  A couple weeks ago I went out and made some purchases of supplies to help mend the quilt.

What I bought:
-4 yards of natural muslin
-Heat N Bond
-pink fabric to match
-Orchid fabric to match
-1930s replica fabric for dresses

I instantly washed the muslin to take out any sizing that might be in it and dried it without a fabric softener.  I don’t want any chemicals to damage the original fabric the muslin will be touching.

Then I trimmed the quilt.  It was scary to think about cutting this beautiful old quilt, but I know it’s for the best.  I channeled the thoughts of the original quilters and how much they would want their quilt to be preserved and last even longer.

Tattered and Torn Quilt Edge

Cutting Quilt Edge

Once I cut the fabric off, I could tell the original color of the fabric isn’t as pink as I thought it would be.  It appears to be a shade of purple-pink rather than solid pink.  I ordered some 1930s replica solid fabric off the web in both Orchid and pink.  The orchid is perfect to the original fabric color.  I have decided to use it in to bring to life the original color scheme.

The next step I took was to remove the little girls who were damaged or needed to be completely replaced.  Below you can see some images of removing the girls.

Yellow Sue Bonnet Sue

Pink Sue Bonnet Sue

I knew each girl was well stitched by the detail and precision of the black blanket appliqué stitching, but once that was removed, I found each girl was sewn down delicately and so well it was hard to find the stitches.

Close up of stitches

The other neat part about cutting apart the quilt was to find the original, unchanged colors in the fabrics.  One little girl’s dress looks like red bubbles, only to uncover there were originally blue dots in each red bubble!

Red Bubble Dress

Here are a few images of the quilt in it’s current cut apart state.

Quilt Progress

Quilt Progress

Quilt Progress

I’ll update soon as the quilt begins to return to a complete state!

Happy quilting,
Amanda

Homemade Baby Quilt

Hello!

Ok guys, this is another project I have been dying to blog about, but like the wooden sign, it was a gift – for the same person! I decided early on to make my future niece a custom quilt just for her to roll around on, snuggle in, and have for life! I picked the fabric before I decided on the pattern or shape of the quilt and then ran across an adorable quilt I just had to try. The pattern is from the book Little Quilts 4 Little Kids by Heather Mulder Peterson.

Finished Quilt

The pattern is called “Oh Baby” and it feathers a name and could be done in a couple different ways.  I chose to make it with yardage rather than a charm pack.   I bought fabric called Vintage Modern from Moda because it has a more grown up little girl quilt!  I also chose to back the quilt with a minky fabric so it would be soft and snuggly for my sweet future niece to cuddle with.

Quilt top and Green minky

Process:
-I followed directions according to the pattern for the top of the quilt.  (I don’t want to outline them here since the book is for sale.  Pretty sure that would infringe on copyright. But buy the book, it’s cheap an has some great patterns!)

-I also encountered an issue with the fabric I chose: I used a beautiful houndstooth, cut all my pieces, then realized it wasn’t printed on the grain and all my strips were twisted.  I pretty much had to start all over and re-sew the top, but in the end, it was worth it!

-I used a die cut machine for the letters in the middle, which meant I needed a wider strip of fabric for the middle.

-For the letters in the middle, I used Heat N Bond on the back of the grey fabric before I cut out the letters on my die cut machine.  After they were cut out, I attached the letters to the middle strip of the quilt.

-The next step was to iron tear away stabilizer on the back of the houndstooth where the letters were ironed on.  This helped during the embroidery process.

Tear Away Stabilizer

-I do not have an embroidery machine, but I do have a fantastic sewing machine with lots of different stitch styles.  I picked a beautiful X stitch to outline each letter in for the finishing touch.  I used a dark grey thread to highlight the lighter grey letters.

Embroidered Edge of Letters

-After finishing the quilt top, I cut a square of the minky green fabric and batting.  I basted all three layers together before quilting it.

Basted Quilt

-I decided to tie the quilt with embroidery thread rather than machine quilt the blanket.

-I went with an eyelet ribbon for the edge to play up the girly, baby fun. I folded the top and bottom layers into the middle and inserted the ribbon between the two layers.  I then top stitched the edge to finish the quilt.

Finished Quilt Top

Quilt Back

I was very happy with how the quilt turned out.  I haven’t made a lot of quilts for other people, but I am so excited to be able to give a homemade gift to family!

Happy Quilting,
Amanda