Finish-Irish Flag Quilt

 I love how this quilt turned out.  I loved that it used up a lot of scraps and that I actually made something with scraps!  I backed it with a super soft fabric that gave me terrible fits.  It was plush and soft on both sides and made for a lot of broken needles.  I wanted to give up at one point, but I am glad I didn't.

Diaper Bag and Baby Blanket

 I don't know how many times I have made this bag, it's such a convenient diaper bag.  This one is made with Madrona Road fabric, I love the way it turned out.  I had just enough of these prints to make this bag with hardly any scraps. 

I also made a little receiving blanket.  It is flannel and cotton.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out the baby had a nursery decorated in a space theme.  The orange rockets fit right in!  It's a self-binding blanket.

Works in Progress

I have been sewing quite a bit this past month, just not blogging.  I am terrible at taking pictures, which may be the main reason for this blog.  It forces me to record the things I have made.  I give a lot of stuff away and a few times I have seen a friend with a blanket and almost asked where they got it!  I think it's outta sight outta mind.  And it's usually been quite a long time since I gifted the item when that happens.  Anyway I don't usually do a lot of WIP's, but I have a lot right now and I want some motivation to stay on task and some progress shots.

I have seen a lot of flag quilts hanging around these days.  Mostly they are Union Jacks, which I love and will try one day.  In the mean time I decided to get out a bunch of orange, white, and green scraps and put together an Irish Flag quilt.  I haven't quite decided on what to back it with quite yet.  I love the way it turned out though.  I am shocked at how many scraps I have left in these colors.  I am not great at scrappy quilts and this is really my first true attempt.  I will be making more!

My third baby turned five this past week and I made her a new coat for this winter.  The pattern is by Favorite things and I have had it for quite some time.  I made Jack a coat from the pattern seven or eight years ago.  I used the Sophie fabric by Chez Moi by Moda.  I lined it with some minky and have batting between the  layers, it is super soft and super warm.  She loved it!

 I cut the name off the selvedge and sewed it onto the front and on the inside. 

This is a Halloween quilt kit I bought years ago at Deseret Book when they had a Mormon Handicraft section and the store was inside the mall.  I finally decided to put it together and now I just need to get it ready for quilting.  I have been wanting to try basting spray and I think this is the project I am going to start with.

This quilt has been coming together slowly over a long time.  I posted about it long ago before I had the borders sewn.  Well, now it is all pinned and ready to quilt.  I just want to make sure and get the quilting right, so it's a bit slow.

The Broadbent's Modern Quilt group had a patriotic stripe swap over the past session.  For three months everyone exchanged eight inch striped fabric blocks.  I cut the blocks into two and a half inch strips then pieced them together with white.  I offset each row to get a feel that it's waving.  You can see the large striped fabric peeking out on the bottom, it's also pinned and ready to quilt.  It is what I would call a plus sized throw.  Not a full twin sized, but pretty close.

I have a lot of projects I want to start on the horizon, but I really need to finish these up first.  September was a busy month.  I have hope that October will afford me a bit more sewing time.

Brick Quilt

 

 For the Broadbent's Modern Quilt Group we had a challenge of working with bricks.  For the second session we got a packet of black and white bricks and had to choose what to do with them.  I decided to add a Kaffe Fasset fabric to them.  My inspiration was the wall in my grandmothers garden.  As a child I remember thinking how her back yard was a garden paradise full of color and life. 

This picture was taken in mid-April.  When I was a child I visited in June and July.  The pavers used for her garden wall were my inspiration.  I love how the moss creeps between them. 

I quilted this one using a side to side ripple pattern, it reminds me a bit of camouflage. 

Mod Pod Quilt

I really loved this quilt while it was on display at Broadbents.  I picked up the kit a dozen times and put it back.  I don't buy kits very often and was pretty wishy-washy about it.  Then one day after our Modern Quilt Group meeting I noticed the kit was on sale and I couldn't resist.  The pattern is Mod Pod by Carolina Patchworks.  The quilt goes together really quickly, which is nice and gratifying.  The fabric is a Momo fabric by Moda.  I seem to love all the lines by Momo, wish she had more of and internet presence.  They didn't have quite enough of the fabric I wanted to use for the back, so I framed with some shot cotton by Kaffe Fassett.  I just quilted vertical waves in various colors of thread to finish it off.  I really love how it turned out!  It may sit on the back of my couch all summer, if I can keep the kids from confiscating it!

A few baby quilts

Isabella's teacher was expecting a baby boy just after the school year ended.  So for end of year teacher gift I made her a baby quilt.  Bella helped pick out the pattern.  She liked the idea of some nautical fabrics.  Because we moved at the beginning of June, I tried to keep this one pretty simple.

The fabric is by Dear Stella for the most part.  I am always a sucker for binding with stripes.

The next baby boy quilt was for some dear friends who had a baby boy also in June.  The daddy is a big VW bus enthusiast.  I knew Heather Ross did some fabric and pj's, so I scoured etsy until I found some.  Then I took my time trying to decide on what to do, I didn't have a lot of the fabric, so in order to maximize I did a square withing a square.  I wanted to give it a read beachy feel. 

I pulled colors from the vans and used those as my outer squares.  I went with a minkee backing in a sand color.  I also used four squares on the front with the minkee.  The mom and dad loved it, which is what I was aiming for.  

I Swooned and Swooned and Swooned again!

I loved the Swoon pattern the moment I saw it.  I bought it as soon as it was available and then hemmed and hawed over what fabric I was going to use to make it.  Then I came across some Kumari Garden by Dena Designs while I was reading a book that was set in India.  I added a few other prints and some solids and before I knew it I was piecing together three swoon quilts.

Now, I don't know that I would advise doing it this way, I cut out all the parts for each quilt, pieced all twenty-seven blocks, and put the tops together in succession so they would all be finished at the same time.

I quilted them on my machine, and then bound them all at once.

They now live with three lovely ladies who have given a lot of their time and support to me over the past few years.  I loved making them and loved seeing them go!

Quilt as you go table runner

I put together this little table runner for a Super Saturday activity at church.  I used the quilt as you go method.  This made it a really fast and easy project and almost everyone that signed up has finished their table runner. 

In other news-I haven't stopped sewing, we just have been in the midst of moving over these past few months.  We put our house up for sale around Thanksgiving and sold it just before Christmas.  January was spent packing and getting ready to move.  We are building a house, so we are currently in a rental until the end of the school year.  So I have been still sewing and working on projects, just at a much slower pace.  However, as much of our stuff is in storage, I only brought a few projects with me.  It's been kind of nice to focus on just a few things.  It would be lovely if they were all complete before the house.