Quilting update

I haven’t done a proper job of updating this blog. I told you guys awhile back that I was working on Connor’s tie dye quilt. I finished that several weeks ago. A long while after I had said I would. Whatever, it’s done! It’s not my very favorite thing I’ve ever made but that’s probably because it’s loud & kid like. Hello Natalie, that was kind of my goal all along to make it loud & kid like. I guess I hit the nail on the head. I didn’t make it for my tastes, I made it for Connor. And guess what??? The kid loves it! He sleeps with it over him every night. Although, he’s lucky he got to keep it. His father almost stole it from him because he loved how minky soft the back is. It’s ok Garrett, I’ll make one for you soon. Although I do detest working with minky fabric. It stretches, the “fur” gets EVERYWHERE & it just kind of has a mind of its own. But I do love my husband. Maybe I’ll be willing to work w/ THE MINK one more time, maybe.



After the tie dye quilt, I had something a little different in mind. A fun little quilt for a very wanted baby boy due on Halloween. I gave myself an obvious deadline of 10/31/11 for this quilt. Although in the back of my mind I knew I wanted to have it done before Mom’s baby shower. I immediately fell in love with this quilt & finished it 2 weeks before the baby shower; about a month and a half before the ultimate deadline. I simply couldn’t step away from this one. My original inspiration came from this tutorial for an easy charm pack baby quilt. Just rows of 5” squares. I used the mom’s registry as my color inspiration. Just looked at the bedding that they had registered for. It ended up a little brighter than the original inspiration but I still love it. I wanted to start with a color in one corner & then have it fade into another color. One corner started taupe which faded into orange, which faded into yellow which faded into green. Once I had decided on the fade idea I knew the squares needed to be smaller to achieve a more gradual fade. I decided to cut those 5” squares down to (4) 2 ½ “ squares. The added seam allowance made the quilt a few inches smaller but still big enough for a tiny babe. I backed it with a really subtle white on white fabric & used some random bamboo batting I had in my sewing stash. This is the first quilt that I spray basted. The others quilts were basted w/ safety pins. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that I’m a spray basting convert. It works so well! It sticks together like it should but is easily adjusted, no more pulling out pins as you’re quilting, NO SHIFTING, & washes out very easily. I quilted diagonally through each line of squares; corner to corner. I then bound it with a simple quilt binding. After a quick wash & dry it came out with the perfect amount of pucker. I really wanted to keep it but knew its true home was with Mr. Halloween. Can’t wait to meet him!



What’s up next you ask? Well, this self-proclaimed Christmas Nerd is making a quilt from Moda’s Jovial fat quarter collection. 32 different Christmas prints in the most yummy colors imaginable. I’m planning on doing a subway tile pattern. It’ll be a large lap quilt. One that I plan to put out every Christmas season. I am making at least one of these quilts but I have enough fabric to make at least 2. I’m thinking maybe a Christmas gift is in order. I’m giving myself a deadline on the 1st quilt of Thanksgiving. That gives me 7 ½ weeks. I’m thinking that’s pretty doable. The deadline for the Christmas gift version will obviously be Christmas Eve. I’m planning on doing all the cutting in the beginning so the 2nd quilt shouldn’t take me as long as the 1st. I’m super-duper excited for this quilt. We’ll see how excited I am in the middle of cutting 32 fat quarters into little subway tiles. Wish me luck.