Wonky Stars Finish

I finished my last baby quilt this week. This one is for a colleague who is expecting his first baby.

The weather was terrible here yesterday so I couldn't get a nice outdoor picture. :-(. The colours are so much better in person.

The pattern is a free one from the Michael Miller website. I used a variety of fabrics, including some Kona solids and a Riley Blake chevron print for the binding.

For the quilting, although I had some grand ideas about FMQing some stars in the negative space and echoing the bright ones, I ran out of time and had to settle for straight lines with my walking foot. I do like the texture of those lines, each about 1/4" from each seam.

The finished size is about 38" x 45".

The baby shower is tomorrow... I hope the new parents like it! :-)

Have a great weekend!

Izzy

Linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF and My Quilt Infatuation again this week... Why don't you check them out?!

 

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WIP Wednesday: Small Things

I have a confession to make... The NHL play-offs have started and so I've been watching hockey games pretty much every single evening since last week. Watching TV = no sewing. :-(

I did finish my colleague's baby quilt and will post pictures later this week. Besides that, I only managed to sew up this cute little coin purse.

I was reading A Quilter's Table earlier this week and Debbie posted pictures of coin pouches she made. They were so nice, I just had to try one.

I grabbed some scraps that were big enough, some batting scraps and a zipper and within about 30 minutes, the coin pouch was done!

If you want to give this free tutorial a try, go here.

Linking up at Lee's for WIP Wednesday.

Izzy

 

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A New Addition Finish

I finished my Plus quilt this week! Yay! This cute little quilt is going to a friend of my son's who is expecting his first baby next month.

I used some Riley Blake prints and Kona solids for this project. I really love the Russian dolls!

I quilted it with a soft meander in Aurifil white 50 wt. thread and used scraps from the top for the binding. The back is a print I've had forever.

"A New Addition" measures about 35" x 40", perfect for a sweet baby to snuggle under. :-)

I think I might try to make a few more Plus quilts... Maybe even a full size bed quilt with scraps. Wouldn't that be great?

I feels wonderful to finally have a finish to share. Work has been so crazy, I really haven't been able to spend much time in my sewing room. But this week, I am on vacation so have been playing with fabric!

Thanks for stopping by and for those of you who celebrate - Happy Easter weekend!

Izzy

Linking up this finish at TGIFF, Crazy Mom Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation...

 

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WIP Wednesday: A Plus Quilt in the Making!

I have been wanting to make a Plus quilt for a long time. A few months ago, Keera who blogs at Live Love Sew posted a tutorial for an adorable baby Plus quilt and I bookmarked it, swearing to myself that I would make that little quilt one day.

My son's best friend is having a baby in May and Max asked me to make a small baby quilt for the new little girl. I decided it was time to dig up Keera's quilt design and make this little girl a Plus quilt.

I pulled a few Riley Blake and Kona solid fat quarters, plus some white solid...

I pressed and cut a bunch of 5" squares and before I knew it, I was down on my "design floor" laying everything out into a really fun plus quilt!

The lighting is really bad in this photo, but I think you get the idea. :-)

I also finished piecing my wonky stars baby quilt this weekend so hope to have the full reveal for you soon.

Linking up at Lee's for WIP Wednesday.

Izzy

 

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WIP Wednesday: Wonky Stars

I'm working on another baby quilt... I know, I know... I feel like I'm repeating myself!

A colleague is expecting his first baby in early May and it has almost become custom now that when people have babies where I work, they get a baby quilt made by little old moi!

I'm making a pattern I found on the Michael Miller Fabrics website.

I've got the rows ready and started sewing them together last night.

The top should be all done within a week or so and then I have great plans for the quilting!

Linking up at Freshly Pieced for WIP Wednesday.

Izzy

 

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A new tool in my toolkit: Frixion Pens

Back in December, I signed up for Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along. I signed up because I want to learn new piecing techniques, but most of all, I want to work on my FMQ skills. As an added bonus, through the BBQAL, I will learn how to use the Quilt As You Go method of assembling a quilt.

Most of the FMQ designs to be quilted on the blocks each week had to be marked however and I am not a huge fan of marking.

And this where the Frixion pens come in. I was shopping at a local craft store when I spotted them and decided to give them a try. My experience with marking designs had been limited to disappearing ink, which disappeared before I even finished the quilting, and the "wash out" ink which i used to mark half square triangles, but was a little worried about using on a quilt top.

I have to admit - I was a little skeptical at first. But these Frixion pens work like a charm!

Here is one of my squares all marked and ready for quilting. I am using a blue pen for this block and you can see there are a lot of marked lines.

Here is the block once the quilting was all done. You can see the marked lines are still very visible and quilting this block was super easy because of these clear, dark lines.

Once the block was all quilted, I turned on the iron and applied heat to the block for a few seconds... And just like magic, all the lines disappeared, leaving only the quilting! Some of my blocks were quilted weeks ago and the ink hasn't re-appeared on any of them.

I bought a package which includes 6 different colours, but I have only tried blue so far. Will let you know how the others do!

Have you tried the Frixion pens? Do you like working with them?

I would love to know! :-)

Izzy

 

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It's another baby quilt finish!

I have another baby quilt finish to share! This is my 5th baby quilt since the end of December. Babies are all over the place!

I actually finished it on Monday, but I was too lazy to blog until tonight. :-)

The pattern is by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs and is available on the Moda Bakeshop as a free tutorial. I used a bunch of leftovers from other baby quilts I made - this pattern is perfect to use up some of your scraps. If you need a quick and easy quilt pattern, I highly recommend it. It would look stunning in a bunch of different color and fabric choices.

I quilted a big meander all over with Aurifil 50 wt thread in white.

The backing is a really nice flannel print... Sooooo soft!

And I chose a solid in orange for the binding.

This little quilt will be brought to my daughter's school early next week and offered to a very special teacher who is expecting her first child soon.

I'll be partying it up at these linkies this week:

• My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
• Quilt Matters for TGIFF

Thanks for stopping by!

Izzy

 

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