This is the third Christmas gift quilt I'd planned for this year, and I am proud to say that I got them all done and in the mail by the first of December. Being due with baby #2 in early December proved to be great motivation!



All three quilts ended up using mostly Riley Blake fabrics. This one is mostly Feeling Groovy, since the recipient loves peace signs and pink. Perfect!



I absolutely love the rainbow binding. Definitely my favorite part of the quilt. The design is inspired by this quilt on Ashley's site. I get so much inspiration from her! I do hope all three of these quilts get a lot of use and are well-loved...

Labels: 2011 Quilts, quilting, sewing

Why do I have so much more trouble designing masculine quilts?



In the end, I am quite happy with this one. Most of the fabric is Riley Blake, All Star 2, and I kept the design really simple.



I just did straight-line quilting for the first time in a while. I love how it compliments the simplicity of the quilt design. It is backed in chocolate fleece.



This is the 2nd of three Christmas gifts, and I hope it is well loved!

Labels: 2011 Quilts, crafts, sewing

Just a quick picture of the tree skirt I sent my sister and her family as an early Christmas present. The main skirt is green wool felt, with Alexander Henry Christmas owls as a border. The lining is a striped home dec fabric, though if I had it to do over again I would choose something that wasn't directional. I started out following this tutorial from Amy Butler, but since the owl fabric was also directional, I had to improvise. Overall I'm quite pleased with the final product!

Labels: crafts, sewing

This quilt is a Christmas present, but I'm pretty sure the recipient has no idea I even have a blog, so hopefully it is safe to share it. I love this quilt!



You might recognize the design, I used this tutorial from Ashley. The tutorial was perfect, but I'll admit the quilt top took a little longer to come together than I had planned.



I did meandering quilting, in a variegated green thread, though the quilt top is so busy you can't really tell the thread changes color.


Winter makes for tough quilt photos, ugh.

The back is chocolate fleece, and there is an in-binding label. Still loving doing the label that way. Now I have two more Christmas present quilts basted and ready to quilt; I need to get them done soon in case this baby makes an early arrival!

Labels: 2011 Quilts, quilting, sewing

Some friends of ours got married... last September! So this quilt is either a very late wedding present or a slightly early anniversary present. In fact, looking back, I posted some progress on this quilt last October so it's been a long time coming.



Fabric is all Hope Valley by Denise Schmidt, with sashing in Kona Snow. The sashing is only 1" finished, just to set off the blocks. I really love this simple way to highlight a beautiful fabric collection.



Quilting is free motion directly to chocolate fleece, since these are fellow Houston folks who need air conditioning blankies, not heavy winter blankies.



And of course an in-binding label. This is totally my go-to label right now. It preserves some identification and timing for the quilt without putting a big label anywhere on it. I hope the happy couple gets some good use out of this blankie!

Labels: 2011 Quilts, quilting, sewing

I think in my very sporadic recent blogging, I've neglected to mention that we're expecting baby #2! I'm due in early December, so the clock is starting to tick. We are so excited!



A dear friend of mine is due about two weeks after me, and her first baby shower is this afternoon. I plan to make her a lap size quilt that matches her nursery for snuggling in the glider, but won't have that ready for a while. I took last Monday off to relax and sew, and on a whim, started this little chevron quilt for her. I love the colors, I think they really go with her style. She doesn't know if she's having a boy or girl, but I think this will work for both!



The pattern is inspired by this post on Allison's blog Cluck Cluck Sew. Fabric is some Heather Bailey, some Amy Butler, some Sandi Henderson, etc, all from my stash. I straight-line quilted it for a change, and added some light bamboo batting instead of quilting directly to the minky back.





Since I just folded the minky around to the front as the binding, I had to come up with a new label plan, so I sewed this little guy in there. You see the hearts most of the time, but if you flip it back, it's got my name and the date.





I wanted a little more for her shower gift, so I got this diaper caddy she wanted and filled it with useful changing table goodies and almost a dozen embellished burp rags. I hope she and Baby C love it!!

Labels: 2011 Quilts, quilting, sewing

I finally made my sister a proper quilt! I made her one back in 2005 that I won't even link to - it wasn't really pieced or quilted, just big pieces of fabric attached to a fleece backing. I had no idea what I was doing.



I was much happier to send her this one! It is almost all Kona solids, with one striped red print in there if you look closely. It is quilted to chocolate brown fleece and the binding is mostly the stripey red fabric except where I embroidered the label.



It is free-motion quilted in kind of a boxy pattern you might be able to see in the detail shot. The pattern is inspired by one of the ones shown in my City Quilts book, though there isn't a pattern for it and I had to make up my own measurements.



It is super snuggly and it goes very well in their modern style ranch house, if I do say so myself!

Labels: 2011 Quilts, quilting, sewing