Bloggers' Quilt Festival

This is my favorite quilt I've made this year, so even though I already posted about it just a few weeks ago I want to feature it as my entry for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival

She's called Little Leaves.

Pattern: Little Leaves by Elizabeth Hartman
Time to complete: 7 Months
Fabrics: Kona white and various blues and green prints, many from Amy Butler Soul Blossoms
Quilting Style:  Hand quilted using 4 colors of perle cotton
Recipient: My sister Jen

For the story behind the making of this quilt please check after the pictures!

The Story:
I love my sister Jen.  She's five years older than me but we've always been really close.  This is the first quilt I've ever made for her since I'm relatively new to quilting, and I knew I wanted it to be spectacular.  The first time I cracked the spine of my copy of The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman I knew I had found the perfect quilt pattern to make for my sister.  Something fun and truly worthy of her.

I said above that the quilt took 7 months to complete but that's not entirely true.  That's how long it took once I had the fabrics and actually got started.  It takes me a while to be satisfied that I've gathered the right fabrics-- my husband calls me a "fabric snob".  They have to be right.  There needs to be a balance of tones and print sizes, it just has to be perfect.  I probably gathered fabrics for this one for 6 months before I was content that I liked what I had, and the 16 different prints I used were edited down from probably more than 30 that I had gathered.

The process I came up with for making each block was relatively simple.  After enlarging the template to the correct size I made a layout block that had marking where each of the 12 large and 12 small leaves would go in each block.  I then laid my square of Kona white on top of that and since I could see through to the layout block I was able to lay out the leaves following the design.

After carefully tweaking the placement of fabric of each of the leaves I fused the design down and then started on the next block.  16 blocks later I machine appliqued each leaf down on the blocks, a process that took approximately a half hour for each block.

Once I had all the leaves on the blocks appliqued I pieced them all together and then made my quilt sandwich, using Kona white again for backing.  I'm not 100% sure but I think I used Warm & Natural cotton batting for the batting.  I basted the quilt for hand quilting using orange thread.  I don't know why but I always seem to have an abundance of orange thread, so I always use it when basting quilts together.

And then came the hand quilting.  Quite possibly the best part of the quilt.  This is the part that took me so long.  I hand quilted around each leaf with one of four shades of blue perle cotton.  Quilting each block took upwards of 7 hours.  I worked madly to get the quilt done before Christmas (I had started in October) but it wasn't meant to be.  I had to take a break and get all the other gifts I had planned made.  My sister flew in from Hawaii for Christmas so I gave her the quilt as it was and she loved it (at the time I was about half way done with the quilting).

After she left I worked on it occasionally, until I ran out of two colors of the blue.  It probably took me 2 months to remember to take scraps of the threads with me when I went to the store so I could get replacements, but I finally did.  After that I think it only took me another two weeks to finally complete this quilt, and once it was fully quilted putting the binding on was easy-peasy.  There's something about putting on binding that I love.  Maybe it's the feeling of accomplishment, but every time I sit down to hand sew binding I just feel so good about what I've made.

When it was done I washed and dried it and then went outside for its photo shoot.  Let me tell you it's kind of hard to take a photo of bright colors on white that accurately show each color.  So yeah, the photos don't do justice to the quilt, but I remember how beautiful it truly was so I'm okay with that.  And It's already arrived at my sisters house in Hawaii and she's in love with it, and that's really all I could ask for.

I hope you like it!

-Stephanie

Floating Stars Quilt for Olive

I made this awesome star quilt about a month ago for my godson Joe's first baby girl, Olive.

When I found out he was having a girl I knew that my Timeless Treasures Going Places Pink Vespas fabric would be the perfect as a focus fabric.  At the time I really wanted to try out some floating stars, so I made a sketch and then turned it in to a plan.

Since I decided on having five floating stars I added two additional star fabrics: an orange heidi grace fabric with yellow bursts on it that I picked up at Joanns and a light pink with white polka dots that I also got at Joanns.  For the background I went with my go-to background fabric, Kona white.

It took me some time to get around to adding the white all around each star to make them "float", but once it was all together it was well worth it.

The fun part (and the long part) was the quilting.  I echo quilted around each star 1/2 inch apart from each other.  Quilting time probably took around 6 hours.  The back wasn't perfect, but for me it never is.

I gave Joe Olive's quilt at Pascha, the Eastern Orthodox Easter celebration.  It's traditional for families to share Easter baskets, and at our church you'll see baskets for kids full of bunnies and chocolate right there next to baskets for their parents full of wine and cheese.  We made Joe's family a basket this year that had beer for Joe, the quilt for Olive, reversible capes I made for Olive's two older brothers, some easter candy, and a children's book about Orthodox monks.

Olive's older brother Paul loved his cape and promptly put it on and ran around.  His other son Henry didn't come to the celebration since it's from 11PM to 5AM, and he's a little young to be out that late.  Joe loved the quilt, and I'm sure Olive loves it too.  So all in all the evening (and the quilt) was a huge success!

A Ghastlie Mother's Day Gift

Last summer I was introduced to Alexander Henry's Ghastlie collection and fell in love.  When I saw the three crazy ladies knitting in "A Ghastlie Night" I knew that I would eventually make something for my Mother in Law who's both a crazy lady and an avid knitter.

It took me until this Mother's day to figure out what to make, but while browsing through my pinterest board "bags to make"  I saw a tutorial from 2 Little Hooligans for an Organizing Tote Basket and knew I had found a winner.

The tutorial from 2 Little Hooligans made a bag with a finished size of 9"x7" and I knew I wanted it bigger so I adjusted the measurements so that I would end up with a bag that was 14"x8.5".  I also added a hidden zippered pocket to the inside of the bag using instructions included in Noodlehead's Envelope Clutch pattern,  and changed the long side pockets so that instead of being one piece of fabric doubled over to make the outside and lining I used two different fabrics, one for the outside and one for the lining, and just had the seam be the edge of the pocket.  I also left out the bias tape on the pockets since it would have interrupted the images on the sides.

I gave the bag to her yesterday at my husband's aunt's yearly "Mother's Day Lunch" and she loved it (but then again how could she not?).

Fabric: A Ghastlie Reunion in Natural

 

 Fabric: A Ghastlie Reunion in Natural
 

 

 Fabric: A Ghastlie Night in Natural

 Fabric: The Ghastlies in Natural

 Fabric: A Ghastlie Night in Natural

 Fabric: Ghastlie Knots in Natural, Kona pink, Kona grey

 Fabric: A Ghastlie Night in Natural, Ghastlie Knots in Natural

 Fabric: A Ghastlie Night in Natural

The quilted bottom.
Fabric: Kona grey

Happy Mother's day to you Harriet!

edit:
I had to wait until my mom received her gift in the mail before I could post about it, but since she got it today I can share with all of you what it is!

an "outhouse" birdhouse made by Swampy on Etsy

And the Audubon Society field guide to the southern states, which includes Tennessee, the state she lives in.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!!  Love you

-Stephanie

p.s I'm linking this post to Clover & Violet's On The Go Linky and both Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday

A Manly T-Shirt Quilt

I've made t-shirt quilts before and to be honest, I've never really been a fan.  The ones I've made have all been simple, mostly just consisting of a bunch of square t-shirt fronts sewn together in a grid with a piece of fabric for the back.  They always just feel so... blah.

Anyways, I was commissioned a while back by a friend to make a t-shirt quilt for her husband for his birthday.  It was a challenge for me both in that I didn't want to make the same old "blah" thing, it's just not my style, and in that I only had 11 t-shirts to work with.  Sashing was definitely going to have to be on the menu for this quilt.

After much pondering this is what I came up with:

The tricky part was to figure out sizing.  I settled on a set width with varying lengths.

 

I pieced together this block from sleeves of the t-shirts

 

One shirt didn't fit on the front so I added sashing around it and pieced it into the back.

I had a lot of fun quilting this, though it was very difficult to keep the lines in the plaid on the front straight while keeping the quilting straight and even.

The backing is a dark grey flannel that matches the plaid flannel I used on the front.  The binding is made by me out of black flannel, and for the quilting I selected a black thread.

I hope they're both very happy with it and that it gets a lot of use in the future.  I'm also happy to say that my stance on t-shirt quilts has changed, and that now I might need to dig through some of my husband's old shirts to make him one too.

-Stephanie

p.s. I'm linking to Manic Monday and Fabric Tuesday.

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day- May 21, 2011

Hi Everyone! 

This May 21st is Giveaway Day on the Sew Mama Sew blog and I've decided to participate this year!  I think I'll be doing two giveaways this year.  One a fabric giveaway and one a made item giveaway. 

Be sure to check back here May 21st to see what I'm giving away!!! Can't wait!

Little Leaves Quilt finish!

It's been a long time coming but I finally finished the Little Leaves quilt I've been working on for my sister Jen.

This one started out as a birthday quilt for her birthday in October, then because a Christmas quilt, and now in May it's finally done and can be shipped to her in Hawaii.  The hand quilting is what took forever.  Stitching around 384 leaves in pearle cotton takes longer than you would think, but it makes a beautiful effect.

Enjoy the pictures!

-Stephanie

(edit: To share my joy of finishing this quilt I'm linking to a few linky parties.  Manic Monday, {Sew} Modern Monday and Fabric Tuesday to name a few)