Tuesday, March 19, 2019

March Table Runner


I was able to put together a green table runner to use this month.  It was all from stash except for the backing.  I quilted it with an open leaf design on my domestic sewing machine. 


You can see the leaves a little better on the backing.  (Although the backing is brighter than it appears in the pictures.)


I'm so pleased with how it turned out. 


I love how it looks with my March mantle. 


I don't know if I have mentioned it or not, but making quilted seasonal decorations becomes addicting.  ;)

XX,
Jasmine

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Queen Size Minky Blanket


As you know, my family absolutely loves minky.  Actually, that is probably an understatement.  Even our puppy, Oreo, has his own minky blanket or two.  He needs one while the other is being washed, right?


The striped minky blanket shown above is the one I originally made for my husband.  Evidently, 60 x 84 inches isn't big enough.  He wanted one even bigger.  Big enough for our queen size bed.

I bought over three yards of 90 inch wide minky for the back, and two 90 inch pieces of 60 inch wide minky for the stripes.  The backing was loaded onto the longarm and it was pieced using the channel locks.


Piecing this on the longarm was definitely the way to go.  It sewed together in less time than it took to cut it out or vacuum up all of the minky fluff.


Once it was off the longarm, I trimmed the edges and bound it in the leftover backing minky.  While it is usually folded at the foot of our bed, it does look pretty as a bedspread.  It finishes about 90 by 106 inches.


I'm sure it is only a matter of time before my children ask for minky bedspreads.

XX,
Jasmine

Thursday, March 7, 2019

HST Quilt ~ Finished!


I am thrilled that my Half Square Triangle Sampler quilt is finally finished.  If I am being honest, I would say that I started it three years ago while sewing in my mom's basement.  For some reason this quilt was hard for me to finish.  I sewed the HST by sewing around all four sides of a square and cutting an X through the square.  First I put it aside because I had to square up every 2.5 inch finished HST.  Then I put it aside because all the HST were on the bias .  One thing led to another and I finally finished it.  Perfect isn't flawless, perfect is finished.  Right? 

I quilted it on my Tiara with large flowers.  It was the first time I had used the Tiara in 10 months.  It deserved some attention. 


Bunny tested it out for me right after it was quilted. 


The binding was sewn to the top, clipped, then stitched to the back by hand. 


It is the same binding as the original quilt this was the leftovers from. 


It is also the same backing as Dancing Daisies. 


Dancing Daisies, with blocks hand pieced, actually took less time start to finish than this one 


From a plan...


To a reality...


I'm so glad it is finished.  This one will hang upstairs on the landing for the month of April, or in my studio whenever I feel like it. 

XX,
Jasmine

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Falling Leaves


This is my Falling Leaves quilt which will hang by my stairs for the month of November.  I drafted this quilt over a year ago.  It feels good to have it made.  Maybe sometime I can make the other two I planned at the same time. 


My quilt was heavily inspired by this beautiful quilt made by Carla at Grace and Favor.  Hers is a queen size quilt with mostly large leaves.  Mine is a wall hanging (finishing at 34 by 46 inches) with six inch leaves.  Many of the leaf fabrics were scraps from other projects, so I used the Easy Angle Ruler to make the HST out of 2.5 inch strips. 


I pieced it in November 2018, but it sat on my design wall like this for awhile.  There were too many leaves facing the bottom right.  A couple months later I finally rotated one of the leaves. 


I liked it a lot better that way.  After the unpicking and re-sewing was done, it was easy to get it on the longarm to quilt. 


I quilted it with spirals because that feels like wind to me. 


My favorite part of the quilt is the binding which mimics the changing colors of the leaves.  That was my own design decision.  Carla's quilt has the same binding as her background. 


I pressed the binding away from the quilt before stitching it to the back by hand. 


The backing is a cute print which contains many of the colors of the leaves and binding. 


I'm so excited to hang it up this year, but for now I have been enjoying it in my studio. 


XX,
Jasmine

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Handmade for Bunny


The first item I made for Bunny after she joined our family was this cute crocheted doll blanket.  It is much smaller than the ladybug one I crocheted for a baby girl when Cheetah was little.


Good thing the ladybug blanket is finally getting some use. It was in my cedar chest for years.  It works well for bigger dolls.


My little girl plays so differently than her brothers did at the same age.  :)

Early this year I made her a minky blanket.


It might not be the most girly, but both pieces were in my minky stash and Bunny loves how fuzzy it is.  It looks good on the rocking chair in her room. 


I also made a quilt/weighted blanket for Bunny.  It has pink minky on the back and poly pellets inside each quilted square.  It is soft and soothing.


I followed the Charming Stripes tutorial I made while Cheetah was working on his eagle project for strip piecing the top.  I used Rob Appell's YouTube tutorial for adding the pellets.  Now my sons are asking for weighted blankets.  It wasn't super difficult, it was just very meticulous to quilt the rows without hitting any pellets with the needle.

It looks really cute in her toddler bed. 


Her room is coming together.  :)


The princess quilt on her wall may or may not be one I originally made to donate and then decided to keep.  I'm glad I decided to keep it now. 


I look forward to making more handmade gifts for my family.  (I just don't feel like wrestling another weighted blanket yet.)

XX,
Jasmine

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Alissa's Quilts


While it was hard for me to finish my own projects at the end of 2018, I was able to help my friend Alissa finish three quilts in time for Christmas.  I helped her with the design, cutting, layouts, quilting, and some of the binding.  Bunny loved it when she came over, because they would play together while I quilted. 

This first quilt was a gift for her father-in-law. I quilted it with spirals. 


It has black minky on the back. 


The second one was for her family. 


I quilted it with a large stipple because the minky on the back was so plush. 


Bunny really liked the back on this one. 


The third one was a gift for her mother-in-law. 


I quilted it with spirals and paisleys. 


It has lavender minky on the back. 


I believe all three of these were made with Benartex jelly rolls.  They were a big hit on Christmas day. 

XX,
Jasmine

Friday, February 22, 2019

Scatter Sunshine


Things have been very busy in the Quilt Kisses household, but I did manage to finish one more quilt last year.  Not only was Bunny settling into our family, but we added a Shih Tzu puppy.  Yeah, I'm still in shock that we have a dog.  Cheetah and Bunny absolutely love him. 

What was amazing was that I was able to make this quilt start to finish in less than three days.  A cause can make things happen.  Scatter Sunshine was a gift for a friend  just about to start chemo therapy. 

This was my fabric pull.  The yellow is actually an ombre fabric.  I didn't use the lightest portion of it, because I wanted it to contrast with the white backgrounds.  It was all from stash and scraps.  The minky backing was also from my stash.  (When I see good minky on sale I buy it.)


My inspiration for the quilt was from the Covered in Love disappearing nine blocks a couple years ago.  In one day I had a finished quilt top. 


I loaded it on the Q24 for some free motion quilting.  I used the spirals and paisleys combo again. 


I love how they look together.


This was such a fun quilt to make.  I have almost enough fabric to make another.  One may be for me in the future.  ;)


It is crazy to think that it is the same pattern as the pink one I made last year. 


That just goes to show what a difference fabric choices make in the overall quilt!  My favorite fabric in Scatter Sunshine was an alphabet print (Best in Class Letter Toss).  It makes for a fun game of I Spy. 




You can see a portion of the binding in the picture above.  It was a black and white heart print.  I love how it turned out.  


I think it is ready for a good snuggle, finishing about 60 x 72 inches. 


I hope to share some projects I made for Bunny soon. 

XX,
Jasmine