Eli's 2D Zoo

As a child, I was part of a big brother/big sister program.  Every Sunday after Hebrew school, my PAL, Marcia, and I would go toiling around the suburbs of Atlanta.  We kept in touch even when I "graduated" from the program, moved away for college, and never returned.  She has always been an important part of my life (and I can't imagine that I was an easy kid to get along with - very moody and non-communicative), so when I learned she and her husband were expecting their first child, I couldn't have been more excited.  Naturally, I immediately started planning something special.  I was unable to go to their wedding a few years ago, so I felt that this had to make up for that absence as well.

After harassing Marcia about the color scheme for the baby's room and scouring the internet for ideas, I settled upon a minimalist approach using this quilt as inspiration. I wanted something subdued and classy that didn't scream BABY, but also had a bit of fun and whimsy.  The Alexander Henry fabric was perfect. The colors were just right and, based on the registry, the nursery has some nods to jungle animals. I paired the focus print with a few shades of brown, as well as some blue and green for accents. I didn't want bright white for the background, so I used Kona bone, which compliments the different shades in the quilt really well.

When it was time to piece the back, I had just watched Elizabeth Hartman's Creative Quilt Backs class on Craftsy, so I was feeling inspired to try something festive.

For the quilting, I kept with the square theme and practiced my FMQ, inspired by Angela Walter's book.  It's not perfect, but it improved over the course of the quilt.  Though I definitely had a sore back and arms by the time I was finished, especially trying to wrangle this quilt through my machine's 5 inch (if I'm being generous) throat space .

To really make this quilt special and personalized, I tried my hand at embroidery for the first time. I used #5 DMC perle cotton, which I really liked, though in retrospect I probably should have used stranded floss instead just so I could have made the lettering a bit thinner.  Next time...  Anyway, I think this simple label with the baby's name and birthday, plus my initials, is the perfect touch.

Finish with some Madrona Road to pull in all the colors for the binding, and that's it. My fifth completed quilt! Marcia and Eric, I hope you love it and Eli gets some good use out of it!


Quilt Stats:

Quilt Name:  Eli's 2D Zoo (I'm bad with quilt names...)

Quilt Size:  43" x 43"
Pattern:  Improvised by me, inspired by this quilt

Fabrics used:  Riley Blake Small Chevron; Robert Kaufman Spot On Tiny Dot and Small Dot; Oliver + S Roundabout Dots; Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow Herringbone; Violet Craft Madrona Road Haystack;  Kona Bone and Navy; Bella Platinum

Binding:  Violet Craft Madrona Road Broken Herringbone in blue
Backing:  Design by me, same fabrics as above

Quilting:  All over meandering square FMQ done by me on my home machine

Mr. T got a little impatient during the photo shoot.

Check out the awesome backdrop (you might need a magnifying glass)!

This is my first finish for FAL 2013 Q2! Much better start than last quarter!

WIP Wednesday

The one where I can actually share stuff.  With the holidays, I really haven't been able to share much of what I've been working on.  But now the holidays are over, and I've started new, shareable projects, so I can finally participate in WIP Wednesday again.

Lucky Star BOM
First up is the first star in the Lucky Star BOM hosted by Elizabeth from Don't Call Me Betsy.  This was my first paper-pieced block, and I think a did a pretty good job.  Only a few slightly mismatched seams.  Much better than my normal rate!

Fabrics: Dear Stella, Birch, Joel Dewberry, Kona

 Stanford iPad Case
After my success with the star, I decided to jump 14 leaps ahead and write my own paper-pieced pattern.  After seeing these iPad cases I made, a friend requested one as a gift for her mom with the Stanford "S" on it.  So this is what I came up with.  I'm simplifying it a bit and not doing the white outline, so we'll see how it goes.

Fabrics: Kona red and white

iPad Mini Case
These are all the rage these days!  It's a "manly" case for Mr. T's new toy.  I used quilt-as-you-go for the first time.  Not sure how I feel about that technique.  More on that in the full write up once I finish this (hopefully later this week).

Fabrics: Kona in several colors, Joel Dewberry, Dear Stella, Alexander Henry, Madrona Road and a small unknown swatch thrown in as a bonus with an order from The Intrepid Thread.

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Simply Quilt

Disclaimer: I apologize for the bad photos (and will until summer, most likely).  I finished this late at night and had to deliver it the next day, so there was not time for day shots. 

Here it is - my first-ever commissioned quilt!  My good friend Sabrina asked me to make a few gifts for some of her family members.  Apparently she's shown some of them my blog and they really like it (and might even check back semi-regularly...).

Anywho, this was a bit of a late request, so we decided to keep things simple and go with a (mostly) wholecloth quilt.  After scouring the interwebs, we narrowed it down to Simply Color Dotty Ombre from V & Co. in blue and Nature Elements in Ocean Breeze from Art Gallery.  Sab picked the dots.  I have to admit, I was pushing more for the nature elements.  I love the color and the pattern, and though the simply color is great too, I was nervous about making a primarily white quilt.  I'm still a little concerned about the white part - dirt is going to shine on this thing - but I have to say, I take back my hesitations otherwise.  I really like the wave effect of the pattern.  Also, the selvedges have a ready-made binding, so I didn't even have to worry about buying extra fabric for that.  So great!

For the back, I really wanted to use flannel.  This quilt is for Sab's grandmother, whom she mentioned gets cold easily, so I thought flannel would add a nice touch of warmth without making it too heavy.  I did some searches and couldn't find anything I liked or that I thought would work well with the front...until Black Friday.  Despite the fabric buying ban imposed on me by Mr. T until I use my entire stash, I couldn't help combing through the sales.  That is when I stumbled upon Greenhouse Flannel.  Not only was it a perfect fit with the front of the quilt, it was 50% off and an additional 25% with the Black Friday sales. What a steal!  Also, despite my ineptitude, it pieced together really well so the seams don't stand out too much (I can also thank the busy pattern for that).

By the time I got this thing basted, I only had one day to quilt and bind it before I had to deliver it (Sab was getting on a plane to India the next day to visit her family).  With so much white space, I had a really tough time deciding how to quilt it.  I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do very little quilting to keep it extra soft, but otherwise I had nothing.  At first I was thinking randomly spaced straight lines in blue and green thread, but that just didn't feel right.  The front feels so dynamic, and I worried that straight lines would detract from that movement.  So, with some trepidation, I grabbed my free motion quilting foot and consulted this tutorial by Elizabeth Hartman.  I've had my FMQ foot sitting around since September, but haven't had the nerve to try it out yet.  Well, I'm hooked!  It was so much fun!  Definitely difficult, but also fun.  I originally had grandiose plans of doing a swirly figure eightish design a la Denyse Schmidt, but after a few practice rounds I realized that was a bit too ambitious, especially with my tight deadline.  Instead, I did some simple wavy lines (thus, the name of this quilt - simple - which also ties into the name of the fabric).

The quilting is hard to see because I used white thread (by design. I don't need those uneven stitches standing out too much), but I like the overall effect.  It was a challenge wrangling the quilt through my tiny machine, and I have no idea how I'll ever quilt anything larger or with any sort of intricate, non-linear design, but it was a good first FMQ experience.  By the end there was a marked improvement in my stitch length and the evenness of my waves.  I even rearranged my sewing area a bit to better support the quilt (well, I just moved the chair and the machine to the short end of the table, but that's about all my limited space allows).

As mentioned above, I used the selvedges for the binding.  This was a hint too short, so I added a short strip from the yardage as well.  Then I machine bound it for a quicker finish.  It ended up being about 54x55, so a decent lap quilt, especially for Sab's petite grandmother.

Overall, I'm very pleased with this quilt.  The quilting is by no means perfect, but I'm happy with my first attempt.  And unless you study the stitches, it's not overly obvious. Now I just need to figure out the best way to add labels to my quilts.  Suggestions are more than welcome.

WIP Wednesday

In addition to the few projects I mentioned in my update on Monday, I have one other almost WIP.  I say almost because I have the plan, but I'm still building up the nerve to make the first cut.

The goal is to turn this stack of fabric:

Heaven and Helsinki by Patty Young, plus some coordinating solids

 Into this quilt:

Thanks to Mr. T for all of his help in figuring out Illustrator (first time user).

Using this pattern from Elizabeth Hartman's The Practical Guide to Patchwork:

 We shall see...

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced