March 3, 2010
Pillows

Urban Nature Pillows

Jen asked me to make her a throw pillow that coordinates with the Urban Nature quilt, and I happily obliged.  I loved having the creative freedom to design something unique.  She asked me to make 1, but I am a lover of throw pillows, so I couldn’t resist, and I made 3.

Pillow 1 – my favorite! Measures 18 x 18 with straight line quilting on the solid cream

Another view of pillow 1

Pillow 2  is sage green- Measures 14 x14 with straight line cross over quilting

Pillow 3 – Measures 12 x 16 pieced with no quilting

All 3 pillows together – love them! 🙂

February 24, 2010
Finished Quilts

Spring Flowers Recap

Spring Flowers is done! :)  And I LOVE it!!!!!!  For starters I used Camille’s Baby Mine pattern.  The pattern is a great deal because you get 2 patterns for the price of 1–a girl quilt and a boy quilt.  I wasn’t 100% sold on the flower applique pieces that go with the girl quilt.  So I hunted through my library of patterns and found one that I love…it’s called French Roses by Heather French.  Some day I’m going to make an entire quilt of French Roses (I even have the fabric for it), but since that’s down the road I figured I give the French Roses a whirl by substituting these flowers for the ones that came with the Baby Mine pattern.

The French Roses pattern  uses the soft edge applique technique, which I thought is perfect for a baby girl’s quilt.  I’m certainly in love with soft edge applique!

I’m so glad I made this modification.  I think the French Roses flowers are softer, more feminine, and just downright adorable.

The quilt measured 40 x 50 prior to washing and measures 37 1/2 x 47 1/2 after washing…perfect size for a baby.

Front

Back

Polka dot binding matches the inner border

Label: I used a piece of muslin, cut the edges with pinking shears, wrote on it, then soft edge appliqued it to the quilt

Fabric: Butterfly Fling by Me & My Sisters Design for Moda, the white is a white on white design with butterflies, the polka dots and some of the fabrics in the flowers are from my stash.

Side note: I started working on an improv project tonight.  I got everything out and set up (machine, ironing board, started cutting fabric etc.), then went to sew, and my sewing machine won’t sew! Grrrrrrr!  So I’m bringing it in tomorrow to get serviced, because one can’t have a non working sewing machine when one NEEDS to sew! 😉

February 21, 2010
Binding, Quilt in Progress

Date with Spring Flowers

I haven’t posted much about the Spring Flowers quilt, but it’s now pieced, quilted, and bound.  I had a date with the quilt tonight to finish the binding, and I had success!  It’s such a great feeling to finish the binding!  I still have to bury all the threads, then label it, then wash it, and then I can send it to its new home.

The colors in this quilt certainly remind me of spring, and I can’t wait for the new mama to open up this quilt for her baby girl!

When I finish this quilt up I’ll post about the changes I made to the pattern.

January 27, 2010
Binding, Quilt in Progress

Spring Flowers

My next project is a baby quilt for my cousin’s first baby.  She’s having a girl and is due Feb. 11.  I’m so excited to work on a baby quilt!  I’ve been working on such big quilts lately that it’s going to be nice to work with one that is relatively small…quick to piece, quick to quilt, and quick to finish.  Baby quilts are so satisfying!

One of my favorite fabric lines is Butterfly Fling by Me & My Sisters Design for Moda.  This is the line I made my very first quilt (other than the wall hanging I made in my beginning quilting class).  This fabric is so fun and cute and it’s not babyish.

The pattern is Baby Mine by Camille Roskelley.  This pattern is a great deal because you get 2 patterns…one for a girl quilt and one for a boy quilt.

baby-buttefly

January 25, 2010
Finished Quilts, Label

Bowl of Cherries: Done

I finally finished quilting and binding the Bowl o f Cherries quilt.  I really do like the way this quilt came out, and I sure hope my Aunt Ann likes it.

bowl-of-cherries-front

bowl-of-cherries-front-2

bowl-of-cherries-front-3

See the cherries

bowl-of-cherries-back

bowl-of-cherries-label

Instead of using a separate label, I decided to simply write on the back of the quilt.  I’m really liking this idea….it’s simple, it’s easy, and it’s permanent.

bowl-of-cherries-binding

January 14, 2010
Binding, Quilt in Progress, Quilting Adventures

Urban Nature: Binding

urban-nature-binding

I’ve had the quilting done for the Urban Nature quilt for some time now.  The next step was binding.  Admittedly I was a nervous to do the binding mostly because at 95 x 95 working on the outer 1/4 inch of the quilt all the way around really made me nervous.  Today I decided to take the plunge.  And it really wasn’t all that bad.  Dare I say no more challenging than the 60 x 70 quilts I’ve done.

I’ve noticed lately that if the presser foot pressure is the same as it is when you sew or piece the top when you are trying to sew the binding it creates too much pressure causing the binding fabric to shift in ways you don’t necessary want.  (I realize I didn’t explain that well, but I’m not sure how else to explain it).  So I decided to experiment with the presser foot pressure, and I found that if I decrease the pressure just a bit the binding sews on beautifully.  For example with regular sewing on my machine the presser foot pressure is set to 6.  When I free motion quilt I set the presser to 2, and with the binding I set the dial between 4 and 5.  Anyway, I’ve never heard of decreasing the presser foot pressure for binding, but for me it made a big difference.

January 12, 2010
Quilt in Progress, Quilting Adventures

Bowl of Cherries Quilting

I decided to quilt the Bowl of Cherries quilt top with cherries.  I thought that would be cute.  And it is.

bowl-of-cherries1

But it was way more work than I anticipated.  Stippling/meandering is so second nature to me that I really don’t have to think while I’m doing it…my hands just know what to do and it flows smoothly.  This was the first time I tried the cherries, and admittedly I probably should’ve tried it on a small quilt first, but I guess because I’m so comfortable with stippling/meandering I didn’t think it would be a big deal.

It was so much more time consuming than I thought it would be.  I had to really think about what I was doing and where I was going.  I’m sure it didn’t help that I was attempting this new technique on a quilt 67 x 74.  That’s pretty large and challenging to maneuver, and with quilting the cherries, I really needed to be able to move the quilt sandwich around so that the cherries wouldn’t all face the same direction.  One thing that I’m so glad I did was quilt from the back.  The backing (above) was just one fabric and far less busy than the top.  I’m glad I thought ahead to do that because with this technique being able to really see where you’ve been and where you’re going is critical (at least for trying a new technique).  So, it was a challenge, nonetheless, and I’m finally done—I’m so excited to be done with the quilting.

Now on to the binding and hand stitching it to the back.

December 24, 2009
Quilt in Progress

Bowl of Cherries

It must just be this time of year, because I seem to have very little time to sew and quilt.  When I do find time in the evenings, I’m just too tired to do anything other than curl up on the couch under a quilt and watch some tv.

Even with the motivation to want to get this quilt started and completed on a pretty quick schedule, I’ve had a hard time actually doing it.  I need to get it done though, because it’s for my aunt who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and I’d like for her to have a cheerful quilt to help keep her warm during her treatments.  I also need to finish so that I can start and finish a baby quilt for my cousin who’s daughter is due to arrive in February.

Needless to say, I need to get busy.

For my aunt’s quilt, I’m using one of my all time favorite patterns: Jelly Filled.  I’ve had a jelly roll plus some yardage of Recipe for Friendship by Mary Engelbreit for Moda for about a year…just sitting and waiting for me to do something with…waiting for the perfect occasion.  I thought the cheerfulness of this fabric would be a good choice for this quilt.

recipe-for-friendship

friendship-layout

December 15, 2009
Giveaway

Dear Santa,

The ladies at Jolly Jabber have the fast track to Santa and his elves, so I thought I’d share my letter to Santa.

Dear Santa,

I know you’re super busy this time of year

but have no fear

I have only one wish.

I’ve been waiting patiently for the arrival of Blush,

you see, I have a HUGE crush

and fabric and fabric oh how I love thee,

so I ask with childish glee,

pretty please?

p.s.: here’s a picture of exactly what I want–1 Blush Fat Quarter Bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop

blush-bundle-450

♥ Rachel

December 15, 2009
Dish Towels

Christmas Gift For Ethan’s Teacher

dish-towels

I remember as a kid that some kids gave their teachers Christmas gifts.  I don’t think my mom ever did that…if she did I don’t remember.

A friend of mine reminded me that in the school’s directory there’s all sorts of personal info about each teacher like their favorite restaurant, favorite place to shop etc.  Kind of like a huge hint on what to give them for Christmas.

Well, I didn’t want to go out and get a gift card (I’m sure sometime in the future I will), and I wanted to give something homemade.  I decided that dish towels would be a nice festive gift.  The idea comes from Moda Bake Shop.

I originally bought the flour sack dish towels, but after washing, drying, and ironing them, I didn’t like the way they looked, so I bought a 2-pack of microfiber white dish towels instead.  I also didn’t use jelly roll strips…I just used some cute red and white fabric I already had.  To keep the fabric from fraying I cut each strip 1 inch wider and 1 inch longer than I wanted the finished strip to be.  I then pressed each edge 1/2 inch down (so if I wanted a 2.5 inch finished strip x 16 I would cut a 3.5 x 17 inch strip and press the 1/2 inch down all the way around the strip).

I love the result.

Don’t you just love ric rac?

dish-towels-1

dish-towels-2

Southern Quilter - Theme by Grace Themes