Old blog, same Sam

 I’ve made a handful of quilts in the years 2017-2023 but hell if I can remember them. In those years, quilting became more about time alone and the opportunity to be creative than about documenting the finished product. Or, it’s possible that I finally joined Instagram and documented things there. That sounds about right. 

I’m finishing the first BIG quilt in a long time and I actually want to document it. I miss my little wrap up that I write to finalize its creation. And I miss seeing all my quilts in one swoop.

Quilts that I can kinda sorta remember finishing :

2021 Quilt for Yoseline

2022 Quilt for Baby Ángel

20something quilt for Becca and Vicente (but I used a quilt top that someone else made so this one is barely in my memory)

Christmas quilt for my family ( hella busy. Very scrappy)

Did I post about my colorful Mexican print one? I ended up keeping that for myself

My forever pink quilt- definitely documented that one on Instagram

2020 Baby Welliver 

Baby Abeln

Japanese lap quilt

Mont and Mary's Quilt

44 in. X 44 in.

I am so proud of this quilt. I have many weaknesses as a quilter and strip-piecing and accuracy are top among them. You know how when you're new to a hobby, you don't really know what you can or can't do because it's all new? Well, I've been around quilting enough now to recognize what I can't do. And this pattern is something I recognized as a high difficulty level. But my friends asked me to make this project for their parents' 50th wedding anniversary. And I wanted to challenge myself and to make the time to quilt again. (I've been pretty much in the weeds 

In October I received the fabric and pattern from friends to make this in time for Christmas. And I worked on it a bit in October, but mostly worked on it in November. And then as I lay in bed on the night of December 17 I sat up with panic and dread. Oh my gosh, I still haven't finished the quilt yet! I had been working regularly here and there, but had not really paid attention to my timeline so it had seriously snuck up on me. Okay, in 7 days I needed to finish the front (all the parts were done, but not yet one front piece), cut the backing and batting, make the binding, and QUILT the quilt. Holy cuss words. 

Thank goodness for grandparents (free daycare), takeout, and a forgiving husband. (Our house was a mess during this week of last-minute busyness.) I was a frantic little elf working in small chunks during my lunch break, and a couple hours at night. Zack took on baby duties every night which even encouraged me to still go to my evening exercise classes. The project came together rather quickly. And when I finally got the sewing on the binding, I took myself and the quilt to the local bar for drink. (P.S. Binding is one of my favorite parts of quilt-making. I know it's a least favorite thing for others, but I really enjoy it. Mostly for the reason that I can travel easily with it.)

I love the quilting on this. I decided to make "hashmarks" in groups of 5 lines and space them just here and there as I saw fit. My new pattern recently has been to hand-quilt and I think I'm sticking with it. I love the looks of it. 

More about the quilt:

The Ms are taken from the parents' signatures. The quilt pattern called for cherry blossoms, but the daughter asked for leaves so that family members could sign their names. 

Quilt label

Beer drinking and quilt making

Sashiko-inspired hand quilting

Closeup of the appliqué and chunky quilting around the shapes

City Blocks Quilt

*Boom shakalaka* Finished this City Blocks quilt. Years ago I took a photo of my friend's dog leash because it had this awesome cityscape-esque pattern. I hunted down an online pdf pattern that closely resembled it. I'm not sure where the link is anymore, but it helped me create my vision of what I saw.

And this is that: City Blocks

Transparency Quilt

When I first got started with quilting, a friend asked for me to sew a quilt for her friends getting married. I jumped at the chance to get paid for making a quilt. I bought the book Transparency Quilts by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. I bought a sampling of fabrics to try out some color blending techniques. As I tried it out, I just wasn't satisfied with the general look. So I scrapped it, and I made this one.

And here, three years later I finally revisited the pieces I had previously sewn and finished it! Woohoo!

Check out the mixed binding fabrics

It's the rare backing where it's mostly solid/ one fabric.

This and That

This and That Quilt

For Beth and Erik

Kept some selvage for added interest

 Last summer I started working on these awesome layered triangles. I loved them. A lot. And then I added some goldenrod fabric to make them into rectangles. And I liked them a lot less. So I folded them up and set them aside. I'd get back to working on them later... much later.

Then I read The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood and was struck with the idea to adapt some of those techniques to my triangle-rectangles. So I cut off lots of the golden rod and began adding strips of scrappy beiges and yellows. I tried to not be too picky about symmetry, about the "perfect" colors, about wonkiness. I was just going to go with the flow. 

Used up lots of scraps for this small bit 

Three triangle-rectangles managed to get this treatment and then I just didn't have the energy or the heart to cut into the last one. It looked perfect now. I hadn't necessarily ruined the others. I just altered them. Significantly. 

Again, I folded them up, set them aside, and hid them from my view. Out of sight out of mind.

THEN I came across this Instagram link-up party called a Finish-Along. The goal was to share a any projects in the works that you wanted to finish by a certain date. If you met your goal you would be entered in a raffle for lots of nifty sewing/fabric prizes. Done. I was sold. The raffle would be great motivation, but really just the easy encouragement of publicly sharing my goal was what lit a fire under my tush. 

I finished one quilt, Modern Elegance, in January and then in March I finally finished this random, nearly-chaotic, scrappy gem. 

Whole backside

Closeup of scrappy addition

Recipients:

Throughout the entire process I knew this quilt would be for my friends Beth and Erik.  They work with their bodies. They work long hours.  They feed us. They are some kickass farmers! 

Now they have a quilt with lots of prints and busy-ness so if it becomes a comfort quilt out at their farm and gets dirty that is a-okay by me. ;) Please, quilts are a useful form of art. 

Modern Elegance

Modern Elegance

for Megan

The front

The back

My new fave quilting style: squares on point

Color choices
I chose a bold navy blue and rose fabric and paired it with a gorgeous near-white print. The ladies at Boersma's helped me choose the white fabric. We were pairing pinks, purples, greens and a soft yellow all because I was against using white. But when we paired the "painter's canvas" white with the navy blue, this very elegant tone was set. I was surprised to love the combination.

Process
When I chose to teach a couple friends how to quilt, I needed to make the quilt myself so I knew what they'd be getting into. This was my sample quilt. I took notes along the way to gauge how long it took me to do each step. So much time for squaring those half-square triangles! The backing used up scraps-- something I always feel is "true to quilting." Making do, you know?

As always, a label

Result
I love love love this quilt. Thanks to a sewing day with a friend I managed to finish the quilting in one day, followed by a day at home in which I watched movies and hand sewed the binding on.

Recipient
Megan, one of my best friends also quilts. She's given me two quilts which I use and love. It's been on my mind to eventually make a quilt for her and my "Quilt Camp" was the best excuse to do it. I'm so proud of the finished product.

Girls at Play

Happy November! I finally finished a quilt. I have not finished a quilt since July!! I've been busy in my sewing room (check instagram for proof) but I've been wandering from project to project. And of course, the real problem is that I dread that final step of quilting.

Thank goodness that a friend requested a baby blanket or else I might not have finished any quilts during the second half of the year.

I've used this pattern before... all with the same line of deer fabric. See my list below
Deer No. 3 in 2014
Deer Crossing in 2013
Deer in the Woods in 2013
So it was a delight to branch out of that fabric scheme.

The white fabric is from Sarah Jane Studios. The other fabrics are all from my stash. I collect a lot of those colors so it was easy to select what I wanted. If you zoom in, one of those orange fabrics has little bicycles and tricycles. Adorable, right?! There are also itty bitty strawberries!

The backing really excited me. I can't remember where I bought that blue fabric but I love it. I have to force myself to buy blue or green fabrics normally because they don't automatically draw my attention. And the triangles on the right side are from my first or second quilt that I made. You can deduce my introductory sewing level by looking at those blunt triangle points. I'm happy to see that early work get brought in with a more recent project.

Girls at Play 

38 in X 38 in.

(stamped and handwritten label included on back- added after the photos were taken)

The front

The back

The quilting

My first quilt from which the back triangles originated