Hexagon Ambitions

Ever since I saw my first English garden quilt, I have had the desire to make a hexi quilt. They are time consuming because they are done pretty much completely by hand and time isn’t always something I have a lot of. The other night, on a whim, I started cutting out a bunch of hexagons from all my scraps. I have done several baby quilts lately with similar color schemes and thought it would be a great way to start clearing them out.

A bunch of hexi's ready to go

My very first ever hexi flower block

And my second

I set a goal of doing one block a day, but that is overly ambitious of me. Honestly, if I get the quilt done by the end of the year, I will be happy.

Angela’s baby gift

After having three boys, a very dear friend of mine will be having her first baby girl soon. I am so excited for her! I jumped on the opportunity to make some fun girly baby stuff.

Skirt, embellished onesie, headband, and burp cloth

Dress, diaper cover and shoes



I LOVE the shoes!

Bib

Hairclips


Of course I had to make a quilt.

Close-ups






Back of the quilt

The fabric is “The Simple Life” by Tasha Noel from Riley Blake. I hand quilted it with Size 8 Pearl Cotton Thread

Scrappy Blues and Tans

I started this quilt in the spring. My goal was to finish it by the time summer break was over. That didn’t happen but at least I finished before fall break started. It’s a fairly big quilt (72 x 88 inches) so I used up a lot of my blue and tan/brown scraps. I even did a scrappy binding. I hand quilted it with #8 Perle Cotton thread with the same big, chunky stitches that I used on this baby quilt. While the hand quilting is what took me forever to finish the quilt, I love it.

I’m linking up at:

http://tatertotsandjello.com/

Memory T-Shirt Quilt

I finished the T-shirt quilt that I’ve been making for my grandma out of my uncle Mike’s t-shirts. He passed away earlier this year and I asked her for some of his old shirts so I could make her a memory quilt. She  is one of those people who is always cold (I can totally relate), but soon she will be able to wrap herself up in a warm, snuggly quilt filled with memories of her youngest son.

I used a featherweight fusible stabilizer on the inside of the t-shirts  before I cut them out. This helped the squares keep their shape while cutting and piecing them. Some of the leftover backs were used to make the superhero capes for my nephew’s birthday.

I used flannel for the sashing, backing, and binding so it is extra warm and cozy. I had to hand quilt it because it was too bulky for my cheap-o sewing machine to handle, so I kept it extremely basic and just quilted around each square. It’s a simple quilt filled with lots of love and memories.

Dr. Seuss Teacher Quilt

As an end of year “Thank You” gift for the twins’ kindergarten teacher, I decided to make her a quilt. Months ago, I went in during lunch time and traced all the kids’ hands without the teacher knowing. I used the tracings to make blocks that consist of each kids name and handprint. I used a Dr. Seuss font I found online to print the kids names on printable fabric. The rest of fabrics are all from the Celebrate Seuss! By Dr. Seuss Enterprises for Robert Kaufman Fabrics line of fabrics.

There are 19 kids in the class so I was one block short of being able to make a rectangle.  I wrote a poem and printed it on fabric to make the final block. It was the first poem that I have written in about 20 years. I attempted to make it Dr. Seuss-ish. The twins thought it was great, but they are 6, so please don’t judge me on my poor poetry skills.

The front of the quilt:

My attempt at poetry:

Payton’s block:

Taylor’s block:

The back of the quilt:

Close-up of the fabric on the back:

I’m going to have the kids present it to her at Kindergarten graduation next Friday. I can’t believe the year is almost over. I’m more than ready for summer break, but sad that Kindergarten is just about over for my girls.

I’m linking up at:

Pinwheels and Prairie Points

A really good friend of mine back in Las Vegas is getting ready to welcome a new baby girl into her family. I am so sad I can’t be there for her baby shower, but I enjoyed spending some time these last few weeks making her baby gift. Here is the coordinating onesie, skirt, shoes, and burp cloth I sent her.

Gotta love the shoes!

Here is the blanket/quilt I made. I don’t know if I can technically call it a quilt because it only has a top and a backing, but no middle batting layer. I used a nice warm fuzzy backing so I didn’t think batting was necessary. The top is pieced and I bound the edges like I would do a quilt.

I have never done prairie points on a quilt before and I absolutely love them on this quilt. They were definitely worth the extra effort.

 

Her baby shower is a book shower and everyone is supposed to bring books for the new baby. I love the idea, especially for a mom who is not a first timer. Although I never pass the opportunity to make fun baby items for my friends, I also wanted to stick with the theme of the shower. I found this vintage book from 1960 at a little bookstore near downtown Orlando. I loved this story as a kid and it didn’t hurt that the colors/fabrics in the quilt totally remind me of Raggedy Ann and Andy. Other than a little wear on the corners it was in amazing condition, there is no writing or torn pages in the book, and the colors in the photos are still vibrant. It was an awesome find!

I'm linking up at:

Baby Girl Gift and Chevron Striped Quilt Top How To

Another friend is getting ready for the arrival of a baby girl and I’ve just finished her gift. I did a simple burp cloth and onesie and made a couple of headbands too. My favorite part is the chevron striped quilt I made. I love the way it turned out.

So cute, right? I did a scrappy back because I didn’t have enough of one fabric to do a solid one. I just used the fabric strips I had left from the front mixed in with some white flannel that I had lying around and I think it turned out really cute too. You can kind of see from the back that I just outlined the chevron stripes for my quilting.

I didn’t have a pattern for the chevron stripes, but they are really easy to do. Here is a basic rundown on how I did mine if you are interested and already familiar with the basics of quilting. It would be an easy beginner project.

• Cut your fabric into 4” strips, then cut the strips into 4” squares. Obviously you can make your squares bigger or smaller if you want bigger or smaller stripes. You will need at least 2 different contrasting colors of fabrics.

• Cut your squares in half to make half-square triangles.

• Sew the light triangles to the dark triangles, right sides together, along the long side of the triangles. Press your seams toward the darker fabric.

• Arrange your newly sewn squares into the layout as show in the photo below:

• Sew the top two squares together for all of your blocks. Then sew the bottom two squares together. Press the top seam in the opposite direction that you press the bottom seam.

• Sew the top rectangles to the bottom rectangles, press the seam, and you have your finished quilt squares.

• Sew your squares together to make rows. Make sure you keep the squares all facing the same direction when you do this or the pattern won’t turn out right. Press all your seams for each row in the same direction, but alternate the direction of the seam for each row.

• Sew your rows together, again making sure that the rows are all facing the same direction, press your seams anyway you want, and your quilt top is done.

Now the real work of actually quilting and binding the quilt begins. Have fun!

I am linking up at:
http://tatertotsandjello.com/2011