Baby F Quilt {a finished quilt}

Remember this quilt I was working on?  I finished it back in mid-August just before baby arrived on August 22nd..  The new mom and dad, family of my husbands, commissioned me to make them something special for their first baby, a boy.  

The new mom has a great eye for color and suggested a color palette of Mint, Aqua, Navy, White, Grey, and Apple Green.  We looked at a few patterns so that I could get an idea of what she liked and didn't like and then she basically let me run with it from there.

I used a simple equilateral triangle pattern, cutting my pieces at 5 inches tall.  Once I was done cutting I had a quilt top done in less than a day.  I quilted it the next day using a simple light blue thread echoed along the diagonals.  It's bound is a solid dark green that picks up on some of the darker fabrics in the quilt itself.

The quilt is backed in this beautiful wood print fabric.  I'm not sure who the manufacture is but it was too perfect to pass up for this quilt.  I snagged it a few years ago at a large fabric de-stash sale in Manchester, NH at a great price.   The grey of the logs coordinates perfectly with their gray crib and the overall feel of the piece really helps play into the woodland themed nursery.  

I also made a coordinated bumper for baby's crib to match the quilt.  I didn't get a ton of good photos of it before it was gifted though.  I used a solid minty-aqua for one side of the bumper and a piece of Lotto Jansdotter for Joann's Fabric on the other side.  Out of everything I made, the bumper took the longest.  It was over 160 inches long and was quilted using my walking foot roughly every quarter-inch.  I used scraps from the top to make the ties.

I'm so happy that the new Mom and Dad asked me to make something to be a part of their son's life.  It was a lot of fun to work on this quilt for them and I hope that they will get many years of use out of it.  

Linking up with Caroline at Sew Can She for Show off Saturday.

Two Birds, One Stone | A finished quilt

Warning this is a picture heavy post!

I was very exited when Adrianne and Anne announced the 2015 Pantone Quilt Challenge using this year's color: Marsala.  A lot of people aren't thrilled with the color but I really like how warm and versatile it is.  Just check your fabric stash, I bet you'll find some as a secondary color is quite a few of your fabrics.

official Marsala Swatch

Luckily for me, the announcement of this year's challenge coincided very nicely with the beginning of a design concept for my local quilt guild's yearly challenge.  And I, being the ever practical and logical person that I am, decided to combine them!

I have been sharing sneak pictures of this quilt since I started working on it but because our local challenge is supposed to be blind voting I couldn't share a picture of the finished quilt...  However, we had our presentation of the challenge quilts on Wednesday and our guild meeting and now I can!

Many thanks to my good friend Jenn and her co-worker Jason for holding up my quilt for me in a few of these pictures!

This quilt uses fabrics from a variety of designers, including Cotton + Steel, Kaffe Fasset, Anna Marie Horner, and many others!  The solid I found closest to the official Marsala swatch was American Made Brand in Brick Red.  Not exact, but close enough for me.  The background is a from Carolyn Friedlander's newest collection, Doe.  It's the Ladder Lines print.  I love how this print gives the whole quilt warmth and is less aggressive than a stark white print would have been.

I quilted on the diagonal on my home machine, a Janome Horizon Memory Craft 8900QCP, using my walking foot and a brandless pink-red thread I picked up last year at Vermont Quilt Festival.  I love the pop of color on the backgrounds and how it blends into the prints.  I also really like the texture it gives the back of the quilt, just enough to be structured but still soft and cuddly.

The background is pieced, half with a nameless print I picked up at a clearance sale last spring and half with this adorable animal faces fabric... blanking on the name of it right now.

I used a fun purple/orange/marsala triangle print... again blanking on the name... and leftover scraps of the American Made Brand brick fabric to bind the quilt.

Despite it's size this quilt, when it's done hanging in our local quilt show, will become a couch quilt for my husband and I.  It measures a hefty 84" x 68"!  My husband gets genuinely upset when he can't find a large enough quilt to cuddle with on the couch so I have been given strict instructions not to make anymore lap quilts!  This ought to fit the bill though.

I'm calling this one: "Two Birds, One Stone"

It uses two different birds in the air blocks, two main color-ways, and will be entered into two different challenge quilt competitions.  You can see my previous progress post on this quilt here: Instagram Progress | Challenge Quilt


Linking up with Caroline at Sew Can She for Show off Saturday.

Northern Lights Quilt Guild Raffle Quilt | Local Quilt Guild News

Are you a member of a local quilt guild?  If not, I definitely recommended becoming one.  There are so many out there and the members have so much information to share!  The online community is great but there is something extra special about being able to sit and share and learn directly from other women in my community.  I am a member (and current President) of the Northern Lights Quilt Guild in Lebanon, NH.

We meet on the second Wednesday of each month at the Lebanon Methodist Church, Lebanon, NH from 6:30-9:00 PM.  If you are local to the upper valley we'd love to have you join us as a guest.

Every two years our guild hosts a quilt show in the community to show off the community service work that we do and the quilts that we love to make.  This year's show is scheduled for:

Saturday, April 18th and Sunday, April 19th 

at the Richmond Middle School in Hanover, NH  

We have local vendors, a mini quilt silent auction (I've donated this quilt to the auction), demos (I'm doing two: machine pieced cathedral window blocks and how to add fast triangle hangers to your mini quilts and wall hangings.  I will also have three quilts hanging in the show.

As part of the show each year we make a raffle quilt to help raise money to support our guild, its mission, and our community service projects.  The Quilt for this year was made by members of Northern Lights Quilt Guild with many, many members making the half square triangle that make up the majority of this quilt. Then three of our members worked together to piece the hundreds of half square triangles together to make this amazing quilt.

finished 2015 NLQG Raffle quilt.  Tickets are 1 for $1 or 6 for $5

The quilt is made up of a scrappy mixture of blues and white-on-white fabrics with small pops of yellow thrown in for good measure.  It was custom quilted by one of our guild members using a gorgeous light blue thread.

quilting detail

The backing is a fun blue and white print.  It was bound in a dark navy with some yellow piping to accent.  The quilt finishes at 96" x 96" and would make an amazing addition to anyone's home.

quit before binding, picture of backing fabric

If you are interested in purchasing raffle tickets comment below with your Paypal information and the quantity you'd like and I will send you an invoice  Tickets are $1.00 each or 6 for $5.00.  You do not need to be present to win and we will ship the quilt to the winner if they live out of town.

You can find the Northern Lights Quilt Guild on our website at: http://www.nlqg.org/ or on facebook. Hope to see you at our show in April or at one of our guild meetings!



Linking up with Caroline at Sew Can She for Show off Saturday.

Triangle Quilt Along - Choosing Fabrics

Have you met Paula, The Sassy Quilter?  No?  Oh you should!  She's got some serious sass and some very cool quilts too!  She's also leading her very first Triangle Quilt Along!

We will all be joining her in making an equilateral triangle quilt (where the sides of the triangle are all the same length!) There will be some great prizes along the way too from Cotton Bliss, Fort Worth Fabric Studio, and Pink Chalk Fabrics.  Way to go Paula for rounding some great sponsors!

Well yesterday was the official kick off party and our chance to share our fabric selections.  I had pulled a really lovely bundle of oranges and yellows and greens and purples inspired by this photograph.

It's fun right?  I pulled some of my favorite Heather Ross and Japanese fabrics as well as some nice blenders.  But for some reason I wasn't absolutely itching to make a quilt with it.  So I played with the fabrics some more, took some colors out add some colors in and came up with this palette of emerald, yellows, pinks, purples and some black and white.  Also really fun!  But I'm still not sure.....

So I need your help.  Which one do YOU like better?  Let me know in the comments by voting for #1 (the first pull above) or #2 (the second pull)!  And be sure to check out Paula, The Sassy Quilter's fun new QAL adventure on Flickr and her Blog!

Happy Quilting!

Linking up with Caroline at Sew Can She for Show off Saturday.

March Bee Blocks

I finished up my March Bee Blocks today.  I think they're pretty cool!  I will tell you though, having made 9 versions of this block, each with 24 - 2" half square triangles, that I'm over HST for awhile (if you were doing the math in your head that is 216 HST). I signed up for two spots this month, which means I'll get 8 blocks back instead of the usual 4.

You've seen my test block:

Hive 1:

Teal, Coral/Orange, Navy on Low Volume
For Jennifer

Black, White, Various Grey with Hints of Color
For Tiffany

Pink, Red, Teal on White
For Debbie

 This one was hard to photograph.  The background is a beautiful deep purple.

Yellow, Orange, Red with Dark Pink or Purple Background
For Terri

Hive 3:

Sunny Reds, Pinks, Orange, Yellow with Berry Tones on White
For Jocelyn

Red and Grey on White Low Volume
For Tamara

Purple, Cobalt Blue, Kelly Green on White
For Jenn

Coral, Aqua, Mustard on Low Volume
For Renae

I think they look so fun together too.  What do you think?  If you want to make a similar block Amy Friend did post a tutorial awhile back.  She calls this block a "Winged Square".

Linking up with Caroline at Sew Can She for Show off Saturday.