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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WIP Wednesday and a Goal for March

Things have been pretty quiet here. After I finished my Modern Crosses quilt, I didn't feel like jumping into another project until my sewing room was back to its organized self. So I spent a bit of time cleaning up - the room and my sewing machine, put my scraps away and then I stayed away from the sewing machine for the weekend.

And then Monday night, my sweet daughter reminded me that I had promised a baby quilt for her favourite teacher. I wasn't provided with lots of direction other than it's a boy and the mother does NOT want a blue quilt.

So I went to the Moda Bakeshop and grabbed the PDF for a quilt pattern by the wonderfully talented Cheryl Brickey of Meadow Mist Designs.

I decided to use fabric scraps and leftover pieces from other baby quilts I worked on recently.

Within an hour or so, I had all my pieces cut and ready to sew...

I started piecing this evening and I am making really good progress! If you have a baby quilt in your future, I highly recommend this tutorial. Lots of fun and it comes together super easily.

I will be linking up at Lee's for WIP Wednesday and since this little project is A Must Finish before the end of the month, I am also linking up for A Lovely Year of Finishes and making this my goal for March.

I should be back soon with a finished top!

Izzy

 

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A Modern Crosses Finish

Well, I did it! At the beginning of February, for A Lovely Year of Finishes, I said I wanted to finish Modern Crosses this month and I had to stay up a little late this week, but it's done.

And I LOVE it! :-)

There are numerous different fabrics in there, as well as some Kona Snow. The blocks finish in three different sizes: 3", 6" and 12". The quilt was designed by Elizabeth Hartman who blogs at Oh, Fransson! Elizabeth also teaches this particular quilt pattern in her Craftsy class (which I really, really like!).

The backing is a more traditional print which I have had in my stash forever. I also used a few of the leftover blocks to piece the label right into the backing.

The binding is a really cool chevron print.

I quilted spirals in different sizes. I like the curves of the spirals against the sharp lines and angles of the piecing. And the quilting was really quick and easy with my FMQ foot. They are not perfect, but they are good enough and they give the quilt a really nice texture.

Modern Crosses measures 60" square and will most likely live on the living room couch, just waiting for someone to snuggle with while watching TV.

Linking up at Crazy Mom Quilts, My Quilt Infatuation, Mila and Cuatro for TGIFF and at ALYOF.

Have a great weekend!

Izzy

 

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Alexia's Quilt is done!

The first of the twin baby quilts is all finished! I tried to have both done for today, but my sweetie offered to take me out for sushi tonight so I only had time for one quilt. :-)

I plan on getting the second one done when I get back from the cottage Sunday night.

So here is Alexia's quilt...

I'm really sorry about the crap photo, but I won't be able to get a good picture until the weekend and I really wanted to tell you about this finish.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I used a MBS tutorial for this baby quilt and it was super quick and easy to put together. I went with a Deb Strain charm pack (Always and Forever) and a very small print for the background (can't remember the collection unfortunately). The binding is Kona Bubblegum.

The back is a super soft flannel by Cloud 9. It is absolutely divine! It measures 40" square before washing.

My sweetie and I spoke to the twins' mother tonight to see when we could visit and we found out baby Olivia came home today, but Alexia is still struggling... So if you are the praying type, please say a little prayer tonight for baby Alexia. I know their mother is really anxious to have them both home.

I'll be back on Sunday with Olivia's finished quilt!

Linking up at these wonderful blogs this week:

• My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday
• Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish It Up Friday
• Amy's Crafty Shenanigans for TGIFF

And then I'll spend a few hours getting inspired by all the wonderful projects in the linky parties! You should too! :-)

Have a great weekend!

Izzy

 

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