Simple stripes boy quilt from Bijou lovely...

Holly from Bijou lovely has a truly great blog of quilting, crafting, sewing, and decorating among other things, but mainly quilting.  A very talented, creative and fun girl she is! Just check out Bijou lovely creative Quilt finishes , be sure to visit these great tutorials, I have pinned a few myself! What a fun baby boy quilt this turned out to be...

Here's the simple stripes quilt I spent most of my time working on this past week.  Our friends Sara and Ryan are having a baby boy in April, and their baby shower was this past Saturday.  Of course I waited until six days before the shower to start making their gift!  Why I procrastinate so much, I'll never understand.  

Yes, this quilt has a mustache on it!  My husband made me do it.  When I told him I was making a quilt for them, he asked if I could add a mustache to the quilt.  This new baby boy has a grandpa that is known for his mustache.  The baby shower even had a mustache theme, so this fit in quite well!

I used lots of basic yellows, grays, blues, reds, and greens in this quilt that were slightly desaturated.  The backing is a Denise Schmidt print from JoAnns.  I bound it in some Kona Medium Gray.  I quilted it with wavy lines (my new favorite!) in a light gray thread.  The wavy line quilting is so fast and gives this quilt a little bit of texture.  I appliqued the mustache on after the quilting was finished.

So there's my first finish of February!  It definitely won't be the last.

Handmade Retro's Double Wedding Ring Quilt!

Today's feature is from Kristy of Handmade Retro...and it is so beautiful!!  I love when we get a great quilt with an even better story!!  She thought out every bit of this project and it is so thoughtful.  Kristy is part of Sew Australia, a great bee with some fun photos to look through and for them she recently shared this great tutorial.  Also she had her first recipe on Moda Bake Shop this summer, can't wait to try it!

It is finished - and I couldn't be more pleased with how it has turned out. 

First a little explanation about the recipients which will make some of the details about the quilt make more sense. The quilt is for my brother, Justin and his wife since last November, Amy. And yes, I realise that makes this a very late wedding present. Amy's blog documenting the planning of their wedding was called Polka Dots and Sunshine, she wore a dress with small dots on the overdress fabric and the flowers at the wedding were yellow. Justin's favourite colour is green. They married in a garden in the foothills of Perth and marked the aisle with handmade pinwheels from scrapbooking paper.

The quilt measures 55" by 65" and is 4 rings by 5 rings making the quilt a lap size. It is the size I had planned from the beginning to be used on the couch or at the end of the bed but if I had several more months I might have gone for a bed size as the piecing is time consuming and, at time tedious, but once I got the hand of it it turned out not to be so hard.

I didn't use a 'pattern' as such but cut everything using templates from Matilda's Own, the set I bought coming with a handy book detiling fabric requirements for different quilt sizes as well as some very detailed and helpul piecing directions and the template designs to square off the edges. The holes in the templates to mark seam intersections was also VERY helpful.

So to the fabric choices and placement. The intersecting squares bringing the rings together were the two colours that represtented Justin and Amy, the green and the yellow. The other prints in the rings included a number of spots as a nod to the wedding's 'shape' theme as well as some other prints to balance these out.

The backing fabric was chosen as a contrast to the front, stripes and spots but the print could have been a little overwhealing without being split. The double pinwheel blocks down the centre is reminicinet of the aisle at their wedding ceremony which was marked by homemade pinwheels made using scrapbook paper.

I echo quilted the rings on my machine. I love the way it looks but it took a lot longer than I thought and really took a lot out of my neck and shoulders. I enjoy quilting all my own quilts but the basic domestic machines certainly have their limits.

Of course it is labelled on the back - the quote is one that came to Amy when planning ceremony readings for the wedding but didn't feel is appropriate to include in the ceremony itself. And of course their names and the wedding date. On the way home with them tomorrow.

Other Posts about this quilt

A Project (with a capital P)

HandmadeRetro: Double Wedding Ring Progress (or procrastination)

HandmadeRetro: A deep breath....and start - The Double Wedding ...

Arc, Melons and Centres - The Double Wedding Ring quilt

A curvy Weekend

Mr Roboto quilt from My Little Gems

Meet Sharla the mind behind My Little Gems...if you haven't already.  This is one of those blogs that has it all, recipes to fun kid activities, craft ideas and more!  I think my boy's and I are going to make this tomorrow, so cute!  And who doesn't love a ruffle pillow...especially when there is a tutorial for it!  Sharla made this darling Mr. Roboto quilt for her third son:

A few years ago, while in Utah, my home state, I visited American Quilting. I loved just about everything in the store! The fabrics for this quilt were on the wall, and they sold a little quilt kit to make this quilt. I was pregnant at the time, and planned to make this quilt for my baby, and use it as an inspiration to decorate the nursery. I bought the kit and backing fabric for this quilt- along with several others. :) Well things did not go as planned. Shortly after that trip, I found out the baby I was carrying had some complications. He had some unknown kidney problems, which would probably mean an early delivery so that the specialists could figure out what was going on.

Sure enough, after many tests and ultrasounds, we had our baby at 37 1/2 weeks, early for me.  Obviously the quilt never got finished. After our little boy was born (my 3rd boy), we immediately had to see specialists, get tests done, etc. He ended up having surgery at 2 months old, and was hospitalized from an infection at 3 months old.

Finally, months later things calmed down. Mr. Robot was calling me to finish him, but because I waited so long, I decided to add more to the quilt. After seeing this same quilt done with a striped border instead of just striped binding, I went on a search for more of the striped fabric. It was hard to find. The fabric was out of print and basically sold out everywhere. When I finally found some, I was able to complete the quilt. yay! Thanks to the cute ladies at American Quilting, and Amy from Diary of a Quilter, for the inspiration! It was actually a good thing that I wasn't able to finish this quilt any sooner, because I love it even more- with the extra striped border. This quilt is one of our favorites. My children play on this just about everyday. It was my first attempt at off-set squares. I have made several quilts from this same design since then. I have really grown to love quilting, although it isn't my forte, there is something wonderful about completing a quilt, and seeing your children love it to pieces.

As for our baby, well he is just fine. He has managed to maintain his health, and will be having another surgery at the age of two. Hopefully his last surgery. And in the meantime, I have several other "boy" quilts to finish. ☺

Thanks so much Sharla for sharing this darling quilt.  Glad to hear that adorable baby is doing well, and we will pray that the next surgery will be his last.  God bless!

Linking with AmyLouWho.