Soulshine and Daydreams Quilt

I made this quilt for a work display and I am so happy with how it turned out!

It started with the Soulshine and Daydreams fabric collection; we got the big central panel and three of the coordinates in at Treadle and I was immediately smitten. I looked for a pattern online - usually fabric companies release a pattern when they have panels like this - and found Beautiful Dreamer on the Benartex website.

I am really glad I found a pattern I liked, because making stuff up from scratch is not my strong point, especially in quilting. Since we didn't have every single fabric in the collection, I added a few others from the store and a few from my stash.

There's a Kaffe Fassett print and an Anna Maria Horner print that are both current at Treadle, and a lot of my stash pieces came from my trip to Gruber's a few years ago.

I did have Quilting Math Problems, probably because of the changes I made. Around the central panel, I modified the dimensions a bit, so I had to take in the side pieced units a tad, and add an extra square to each top & bottom pieced unit. 

I free-motion quilted it myself on a regular machine. Most of it I did in a curlicue pattern, but I wanted to give the face a little more attention. Spirals in the cheeks, a defined nose and brow, and more details and curls in the hair. 

The backing is an organic cotton print from Treadle. It has a blue tone in the leaves that's darker/cooler than anything in the quilt top, so it's not a perfect match, but I really love it and I am trying to tell myself it's close enough.

I do like the scale of the backing with the quilt, and the floral motifs, and the pinks and yellows. I wish the teal green came through a bit more.

I could not decide on a binding fabric so I just pieced all my scraps. 

I don't think I have ever made a quilt this fast! I wanted to get it done to hang up in the store. I can't wait to take it home, though! It's going to live on my living room chair and be all for ME!

Unicorn Quilt

I made this quilt for The Girl's 10th birthday! I realized last year that I'd been making quilts for everyone in the family, but I haven't made one for my own kid since she was a newborn baby!

It is 100% UNICORNS! I spent almost a year collecting a bit of every unicorn fabric I could find, plus a few coordinating prints. There's one with glitter, one with glow-in-the-dark, rainbows, candy sprinkles, and at least 6 different unicorns.

It is absolutely the simplest pieced quilt I've ever made. There are two patchwork panels along with un-pieced strips of the fancier fabrics. I love the big chunks of unicorn print; it seemed a shame to cut them up too much.

The back is made of pink flannel with more unicorns, with a strip of coordinating cotton (because I ran out of flannel). I rounded the corners, because I like the look, and I hate miters. The binding was eked out of the scraps of rainbow print.

I free-motion quilted it in a swirly curlicue design.

The Girl and her unicorn!

She loved it! She got right into bed in the middle of the afternoon and wouldn't get out again!

Baby Quilt for a New Niece

Over the summer I made a simple quilt for my sister's new baby.

My sister picked out the color scheme entirely. Normally I'd go for brights, not pastels, so I have to admit it was a little tough for me to design with these colors. But by the time I was done, I liked it. 

The pattern is just 3" squares, with every other square alternated between a print and a light grey solid. I had about 18 fabrics, but I could have had way more! I was hoping for a very scrappy/charm look and I was hoping for fewer repeats.

The binding was made of pieced scraps. I rounded the corners off - I love the rounded look on a baby quilt! Plus there's no miters to have to sew!

A little detail of the quilting. Just an allover meandering pattern like I like!

This is the first time I've ever bothered to do a pieced back, and it was purely out of need! I ran short of the grey solid but I had plenty of little printed squares leftover, so here we are. I was extra cautious laying out the quilt sandwich so that the pieced row remained straight.

I made an inscription block with her name and birth date. (I blurred out her middle and last name here.) I made the text in Word, picked a pretty font, added a little graphic, and printed it. I taped the printout to my work table and taped a piece of white cotton over it. Then I used a Tee Juice permanent fabric marker to trace around everything. I turned the edges of the block under and hand sewed it to the quilt after I quilted it.

So far it's getting plenty of use!

Amy Butler Quilt

This quilt started out as a charm pack plus a few pieces of the Gypsy Caravan collection from Amy Butler. I've always loved Amy Butler's style and thought it would be fun to do a quilt with all the fabrics from one designer, for a cohesive look. Here's how it turned out!

Math: There are 36 blocks. The charm pack had 9 3/4" squares, so I cut my other fabrics the same. Each print has a solid colored border. The block finishes at about 13 1/2", with the inner print square finishing 9 1/4", and the solid borders about 2 1/8". The white sashing finishes at 1 3/4", with borders about 3". The whole quilt finishes about 96" x 96".

Process: So simple. First I sewed all the borders, then I had fun with layout. It was a challenge to get the blocks into a pleasing, random-looking order!

The finished top felt so huge! I hung it by one corner to get a picture. 

Then I set the finished quilt top aside for a few years while I got distracted by other stuff. When I decided it was time to finish it, I bought some extra-wide 108" muslin for the back (no piecing! yay!) and wool batting. I free-motion quilted it in a large meander pattern.

 I went through almost 4 big spools of white Gutermann quilting cotton for this. I really love doing the free-motion meandering, it's so hypnotic!

I did get a few sad spots on the back where little tucks got sewn down. I don't care much though because it's still cute, and it works! Take that, perfectionism!

Love the way it looks on my bed!

Here it is again with a kid!

Christmas Box Quilts

Last christmas, I collected up a bunch of my favorite holiday fabrics, a boatload of white muslin, and a simple pattern, and made a few gift box lap quilts!

I made 32 blocks total, though I didn't use every single one. I found coordinating solids or monochrome prints for the "ribbons." The piecing was super simple as you can see below!

The first quilt I finished had 12 blocks. I shipped it off to my sister on the west coast. It's about 56" x 62".

The next two had 9 blocks each. I gave one away to a dear friend, and kept the other for myself! They both finished at about 47" x 56".

I did the same free-motion meander quilting on all of them, with a few random loops and curlicues thrown in. I used Quilter's Dream cotton batting for all of them, which I like because it's soft and fluffy, not hard and dense like some cotton battings.