Trading with a Friend

Cheetah will hopefully be going to university very soon.  (His university is doing a hybrid approach to classes.  Any classes over 50 people will be online.)  I wanted to get his name embroidered on his new towels, but that is not something I do.  Luckily, my friend Mischelle frequently embroiders for other people.  I asked her if she was interested in a trade:  I would quilt a quilt top for her and she would embroider the towels for my son.  She was happy to trade services.  

This is her quilt top made with the Varsity line by Sweetwater.  She told me to quilt it however I wanted (knowing I like all over quilting designs).

I loaded it on the frames and pondered how to quilt it.  

I noticed that the Varsity fabric had a lot of stars, even stars in circles.  

So with Mischelle's approval I quilted loops and stars all over her quilt in an off-white thread.  

It went surprisingly fast.  

I even trimmed the quilt for her.  

Then I folded it up...  

And I put it in her amazing wire framed basket.  

I love that her basket matched the quilt.  She told me that she got such a good deal on the Varsity fabric that she will be using it for a lot of projects.  

I'd share her embroidery, but it has Cheetah's name on it. ;)  I'm so pleased with the result that I'd love to trade with her again.  It was fun quilting another one of Mischelle's quilts.  See the first two here.  

XX,

Jasmine

Squirrel!

I really should have  been working on one of the wedding quilts, one of the quilts cut with the AccuQuilt machine, or one of the other two quilt tops in my studio.  Instead, I followed an outdoorsy squirrel and spent a week piecing improv log cabin blocks.  (Although this is an outdoorsy quilt, there are no actual squirrels on the fabric.  Hehe.)

I was really missing camping this year.  It is much too hard with a baby and we had some other complications as well.  So my outdoorsy scraps kept calling to me from their box.  I estimated that there was about 6 yards of fabric in there from eight quilts and some other projects.  I hoped I could make a twin or queen size quilt.  I started with some 5.5 inch fussy cut squares mostly left over from my husband and father's quilts. 

I fussy cut more scraps for a total of 50 blocks centers.  I used medium sized scraps to sew the first round of logs around the fussy cut square.  I just used scissors to cut the pieces to size.  Then I took my small scraps and sewed them end to end like a big binding.  That would provide some pieced logs for the improv log cabin blocks.  

After that I cut my remaining fabric into strips from 1.25 to 2 inches wide.  I continued sewing the like sized strips together like binding so I could keep sewing logs on the blocks.  Sometimes the same fabric was sewed together and sometimes different fabrics.  That helped me use up every inch of the fabric strips.  I kept adding logs until I could square the blocks up at 12.5 inches.  Then I laid them out on my design floor.  

I didn’t spend much time rearranging the blocks because it was pretty crazy to begin with.  I made sure to orient the blocks in different directions because I didn’t want there to be a specific direction to the quilt.  Then one day I sewed all the blocks together into a quilt.  I had darling visitors that day.  

The girls were so good I was able to finish sewing the blocks together in one day.  

It was a great use of my scraps.  This is all that I have left from the box.  

I was even able to use this weird border print by cutting it into three strips. 

 

I think it is funny that some of my logs have actual log fabric.  

I laid the quilt top on Cheetah’s bed to see how it would fit on a queen size bed.  (He is the tallest person in our family now and needs a big bed.)

The quilt top used 49 of the blocks.  One will be for a pillow.  It finishes at 84 by 84 inches.  That’s not bad for one box of scraps.  I think I will add a small dark brown border to make it a bit bigger.  

My husband loves this quilt.  Cheetah likes it too and offered to let me keep it in his room when he goes to college.  

I had so much fun piecing my camping quilt.  It was very therapeutic to me.  Scrap quilting is wonderful.  

XX,

Jasmine

Nephew Quilts and More

I have three nephews getting married this year and one who got married last year before Kitty was born.  I have asked each of them what colors they would like for a wedding quilt.  They all asked for a variation of black and white.  I was in the mood to cut out quilts, so I started on them all at once.  The fact that they used some of the same fabrics definitely helped with that decision.  

This one is for C and K.  It was made following instructions from Simple Girl Simple Life found here.  

This one is for T and J who were married last year.  It is inspired by Canoe Ridge Creations' Sliced Cake Quilt.  She has provided a video tutorial for making her quilt, but I cut my pieces out at 4 x 10 inches because I was using stash and wanted a bigger quilt.  

This one is for T and S.  It is my own design inspired by the work of his favorite artist, Piet Mondrian.  

This one is for T and M.  It was inspired by a woodland baby quilt I saw on Etsy made by Jaded Spade Creations.  

By the time I had two quilt tops pieced and the other two cut out, I really needed some color.  So I pulled out my Kona White scraps and some rainbow 5 inch squares.  I borrowed my mom's AccuQuilt for the first time and cut out another lap quilt.  

I loved all the color and thought it was a great way to cut out the scraps of white fabric.  I didn't have to square it up or anything.  

I used the 2.5 inch square multiple die and my mom's Go! Big.  It was so much fun I decided to cut out another quilt with the AccuQuilt Machine.  

I had this pretty fabric for a long time.  (It is one of the fabrics my sister-in-law bought.)  I cut it into strips parallel to the selvage.  

Then I paired it with Kona White and ran it through the machine.  

I used the four inch finished half square triangle die.  I have heard that the AccuQuilt is amazing for making half square triangles and I wanted to try it out. 

Here are all the pieces waiting for me to sew the pinwheel blocks.  I think it will have a great colorwash look from just two fabrics.  

That is how I went from one work in progress to six in less than ten days.  

I will give more details on the wedding quilts as I finish each one.  But I have learned something from the experience of asking what colors they would like for their wedding quilt.  I still like making quilts in their favorite colors and combinations.  It just seems like there is a certain expectation for a "wedding quilt" and I feel a lot of pressure.  My original intent on making wedding quilts was to make a quilt for each of my nieces and nephews.  I have 49, yes forty-nine, nieces and nephews.  Making them quilts for their wedding seemed like a good way to logically spread out the making of niece and nephew quilts.  But now I am wondering if I should just make some "Aunt Jasmine loves you quilts" instead.  There seems to be less expectation for that.  Besides four out of my five oldest nephews are still single.  It doesn't seem fair that their younger cousins and siblings get an Aunt Jasmine quilt first.  

What do you do for wedding quilts or niece and nephew quilts?

XX,

Jasmine

Hearts for Kitty

Right after the ultrasound when we found out Kitty would be a girl my husband took me to the quilt shop.  We found this darling pink heart minky on clearance and bought it for our baby girl.  

I planned to use it on the back of a baby quilt.  What could go on the front except more hearts?  I used the nine inch finished heart block from Cluck Cluck Sew because I could use some five inch scrap strips to make some hearts.  

I started with twelve hearts and could either add a border or more blocks to make it big enough.  More blocks won.  I tested out some more colors on the design wall.  

I liked it so I sewed them up.  

I chose an ombre layout and tested it in gray scale. 

Lets just say that there was frequent switching of blocks for a few days.  This is the layout I ended up liking the best.  After awhile I added the one inch finished sashing.  

Then it got loaded on the quilt frames.  I decided on simple stipple quilting, hoping that the hearts on the backing would still show.  

Most of the time I load minky on the frames with the selvages perpendicular to the roller bars.  This time I loaded the minky with the selvages along the bars.  I didn't realize how stretchy this minky was that way, so the edges rippled once I took it off the frames.  

Oh well, Kitty doesn't care.  The hearts made her happy.  (She really does like brightly colored fabric, just like her mama.)

I added a light pink cotton binding (late at night) and called it good enough.  

The hearts are hard to see on the back, but it is my hope that over time the quilting will sink into the plush minky and they will show some more.  

The quilt looks darling in Kitty's mostly pink bedroom.  

I am happy it is done and can be enjoyed by Kitty now.  

XX,

Jasmine

Kitty's Pony Quilt

A couple weeks ago I shared a sneak peek of the pony blocks my mom made for Kitty.  Cheetah helped me come up with the layout.  These ponies are an Anita Goodesign embroidery applique.  My mom had made them in traditional horse colors before.  I requested colors inspired by My Little Ponies for Kitty.  My mom had so much fun embroidering the blocks and texting me pictures each time she finished one.  

My mom did the embroidery applique on fourteen inch minky squares, and I squared them up to 13 inches.  Bunny enjoyed helping me by handing me one block at a time to trim.  Pretty soon all twelve blocks were trimmed.  (The Pinkie Pie inspired block is my favorite.)

Then the blocks were pieced together with a half inch seam allowance.  

And a border was added.  

It was loaded on my frames and I quilted it the same way as Bunny's Princess Quilt. 

I love how the loops fill the space and draw attention to the ponies.  

Once it was quilted I added a dark pink minky binding to finish it off.  

The backing is the same dark pink as the border and binding. 

My mom was very happy with the finished quilt.  

Kitty likes it too.  

We got her all dolled up with her unicorn skirt for the pictures.  Her extra fluffy unicorn from her other grandma also made an appearance.  

I love helping my mom finish her projects, especially when they are for my own family.  ;)

XX,

Jasmine