Bonne Maman Quilt

I'm just getting around to showing some of my Christmas projects.  This was a Christmas quilt I made for my brothers family for Christmas.  I grew up in a big family, so we have always rotated who we give gifts to.  I'm starting to feel a little unoriginal giving quilts.  I guess as long as I'm not disappointing anyone, I'm okay with unoriginal.  

I cannot remember where I first saw this pattern, but I loved it.   It's called Bonne Maman, which means grandma in French--(I just learned that).  It was inspired by the crocheted granny squares.  

I was going for a Christmas quilt, but I wasn't sure if it was totally clear, so I used this cute tree print to  make sure there was no confusion.

I quilted with loopy cursive e's or l's.  I do like quilting this pattern, it's pretty easy and flows so well.  Plus, you end up with a pretty soft and crinkly quilt once it's washed.

Candy cane stripe binding also makes it more Christmas-y.

pivots quilt

Oh, boy.  This is a colorful quilt, and I love it.  My first Christmas gift finish!  Yay!  I used my drunkards path die for my GO! Cutter to cut it out, and it went together so quickly and easily.  Curves aren't my favorite to sew, but I love the way they look. 

When I started cutting out this quilt, I knew that I wanted to use only solids, but my solids stash is embarrassingly small, so I quickly ran out of variety and color and added in some almost solids.  The overall effect is basically the same and I didn't purchase any new fabric for it.  Yay!

With the front so bright and bold, I knew I wanted the backing to be muted and mellow.  I really wanted one piece for the whole back, but didn't have the yardage, so I pieced a few together.

 I quilted the circles free motion in spirals, and I cannot bring myself to show you close ups, they are terrible.  It's a shame, I know nobody really notices, but I wish they were better.  I know that spirals are much better done with a walking foot, but I could not bring myself to push this quilt through my machine that many times. I also stitched in the ditch between each circle, so it's still soft.

 Black and White binding.  It was the best option with all that color!

 p.s.  bonus points to anyone who gets the pivots reference...(farmers will know)

teepee quilt

My daughter just finished up a unit in school on Native Americans, so this quilt naturally looks like a teepee city. I had no reason for making this baby size quilt, I pulled fabric and just started cutting triangles. I wanted to do an isosceles triangle this time instead of equilateral (here and here), and I like them both. The equilateral is definitely easier to cut out (with a ruler). To cut the isosceles triangles I used this ruler.

I never really know how to quilt triangle quilts, I always feel like they need some curves, but I still want the triangles to be the star.  

I decided to do wavy lines, about 1/2-1 inch apart.  They work great, gives it texture, but still soft.

 Words for binding.  I debated binding for several days, and then finally went for it with this text-y print and I think I love it.  I thought it might be too much contrast with the cream next to the grey/black, but it works.

I heart you!

I finally finished a quilt.  Feels like I haven't finished one in a while.  I think I'll blame the heat...it's just been too hot.  I baste my quilts in the garage, and just cannot bring myself to go out there unless I absolutely have to.  We had one day last week when it was kind of cool, and I got this quilt basted (my least favorite part of making a quilt).  

I've loved the idea of this quilt since I first saw Jolene's here.  It would look really cool on a bed too.

The quilt goes together really quick, once the squares are cut out.  I used 3 inch squares, so my quilt finishes at about 40in x 45 in. 

Quilted diagonally through each square, backed in pink, bound in black and white stripes.

t-shirt quilt

My kids swim team coach retired after this summer's season, and I was asked to make her a quilt with the t-shirts from all the previous years.  They told me it would count as my volunteer hours, and I jumped at the opportunity.  It was a no brainer...any swimming families out there?  You know all about volunteering at swim meets.   Making a quilt felt like such a treat.  

I had never made a t-shirt quilt before, so I searched around pinterest to get an idea of what needed to be done.  Basically all you have to do is stabilize the knit t-shirts before you sew them all together.  I used the thinnest suggested stabilizer, Pellon #906f.  I cut the collars and sleeves off the t-shirts, then ironed on the stabilizer, then trimmed to the size I wanted.  Mine were 15.5 inches (I think).

Inspiration came from this quilt, (it was even the same colors).  I found this polka dot for the backing at Hobby Lobby.  Matched our team colors perfectly.

Our coach has several phrases she uses all the time, so we used them on a block.  We talked about having them embroidered (but I don't have a machine that embroiders, and the turn around time at a shop was too long), we talked about doing it by hand (but my hand embroidery skills are seriously lacking), I ended up free-motion quilting it on my machine (I stabilized this piece of fabric too).  I didn't trust myself to just free-hand it, so I printed out the phrases and pinned them to the fabric, then I just sewed over them 3 or 4 times.  It worked out really well, a bit of a pain picking off all the paper, but not terrible.  I wish I'd used a darker color.  Black.

 black and white stripes for binding

a plus quilt finished!

This is the first time I have made a plus quilt, and I am really liking this pattern.  It's so simple (just squares), but I love that it creates a design too.  

I just now realized that this is actually another pixelated quilt, to go along with the other two I'm working on.

When we moved back to Texas a year and a half ago, I was naturally very worried about my school age daughter.  I worried more about her than anything else.  

As it usually goes, her adjustment to new school and new friends was a breeze.  I owe most of that to her teacher last year, we really lucked out.  That same teacher just had a baby, so this quilt is for her baby.  I love her so much.  She helped my daughter to blossom and brought out the best in her. 

I quilted it on either side of the seams, and I love the texture it has, so soft.

 Bound in blue and white stripes (this might be my very favorite binding ever, it's just so clean and crisp).  Binding is from Sarah Jane's Out to Sea line for Michael Miller 

copycat quilt

years and years ago (seems like another lifetime ago), I made a quilt almost exactly like this one.  It just kinda came together unexpectedly, and I really liked it.  I ended up selling it in my etsy shop, and over the past 6 years, it is one of the quilts I get asked to duplicate the most often.  

So, I finally made a copy, it's not exactly the same, but definitely similar.  It's not made with Dick and Jane fabric, but similar fabric I bought when I was brand new to fabric stashing.  

I made this quilt top a while ago--I felt like I just wanted to use up fabric.  Then the top sat and sat and sat until I finally finished it this weekend.

 Black and white stripes were begging to go on this quilt, and I think it makes the quilt.  It finishes it off so perfectly.

 It also works perfectly with the backing (an old Denyse Schmidt from Jo-Anns)

 This one is listed in my shop.

girlie pow wow

It's MAY!  Holy cow, this year has just flown by.  My kids have 2+ weeks left of school, and we are all feeling the itch to be done...I love when my kids are in school, and I love having them home in the summer.  The seasons seem to change right when you need them to.

Okay, I think this is my last pow wow quilt for a while...not forever, but for now.  I've mentioned many times before how much I love this pattern.  It just goes together so fast.

Color inspiration came from the backing fabric.  Orange, pink, yellow and a tiny bit of blue-ish green.

I didn't get a great picture of the quilting, but it's quilted in flowers (you can see better here).  It gives the quilt a nice crinkly look, but still soft.  I didn't quilt my flowers very dense--I like to keep my baby quilts soft.  Less quilting, usually results in softer quilts.

I started out with piecing the blocks with a white fabric I had on hand, ran out, so purchased some Kona Snow from Hobby Lobby, got home, made a few more blocks and realized they are different whites.  I have no idea where the brighter white came from, I'm a Kona Snow purist, but rather than pretend like I didn't do it, I added in a few polka dot pieces to make it look planned.  A happy accident, and I actually love the effect, it's very subtle.

previous pow wow posts here, here and here.