Baby quilt done!

What, you didn't know I was working on a baby quilt? 

Well, I whipped this one together in a week, when I found out at the last minute that the shower was in one week. (Hey shower planning people: Did you ever hear of a little advanced warning for the poor sewing lady?)

I bought this cute set of printed blocks late last year and had it on hand, knowing the baby was due in May.  My niece found out she was having a girl, and the new mom really likes pink, so I thought it would work well.  It could really work with many colors of sashing.

I usually don't buy printed panels, but this one was so darned cute! It is "Hello World" from Cori Dantini. I cut the blocks apart, squared them up best I could (they are 10.5 by 11.5 inches), added the sashing and cornerstones, and simply quilted it.

Birdie block

Lion block

And this Lenten Rose had better get it's act together and bloom, because Lent is almost over! It usually blooms early to mid-March.  Actually, this poor plant in my rock garden was still covered with over a foot of "roof snow" just 2 weeks ago. What is roof snow? That's snow that gets hurriedly shoveled off the roof in a big pile after you hear report after report of multiple home and business roofs collapsing due to excess snow weight.

Baby quilt blocks have arrived!

Here is a sampling of most of the blocks from each of my co-worker sewists. I have not yet trimmed them to size, but at least you can get the gist of what the quilt will look like. We have 48 blocks total, some to be used on the back.  Our pregnant co-worker is doing her baby room in grey and yellow because she doesn't want to know the baby's gender, so I complied with yellow and grey, but also threw in a bit of other colors for fun. I'll be sewing these blocks together and piecing the back in the next 2-3 weeks (after our taxes are done), then off to the quilter and then the binder. Baby is due in June, so I think we're looking good so far!

Yellow and Grey, Oh My!

A new secret group baby quilt in the making for a coworker.

A sampling of fabrics used.

Mom and dad don't want to know the baby's gender until it is born, and so mom decided on a yellow and grey color scheme. Of course, I couldn't leave that alone (plain grey and yellow? Boring...to me.)
I threw in some Kaffe prints that have the requisite grey and yellow, plus other fun colors.

I picked out the fabric, with 6 yellows and 6 greys.  Theses yellows and greys will be 6.5-inch blocks surrounded by 2.5 inch strips (grey strips on yellow, yellow strips on grey). I'm hoping it will look sparkly and fun.

We have 6 baby quilt sewers this time, including me, and a quilter (I hope). Not sure who's going to do the binding, now that Nancy has retired.  Everyone (except the vacationing Deb) got their assignments this morning at work.

Will show you some layout fun when I get the blocks back in 3 weeks.

Baby quilt zig zag bound and awaiting delivery

These colors are pretty true (early morning light).

Here's the bound and labeled zig zag baby quilt. Love that blue batik used for the binding (you can pick 'em, Nancy!) It just ties the whole thing together.

Now we have to wait for mom and baby to get past the 3-week-don't-bring-the-baby-out-of-the-house waiting period. (It's sort of a retro rule that OB doctors are using lately; I'm not totally sure why, but some of my co-workers tell me that the same rule was imposed 30-40 years ago and then went away. Now it's back.)

Another shot of the back with the binding.

Baby quilt nearly done

Margo completed the quilting with an overall squiggle using multicolored thread.  The quilt goes to Nancy next for binding (multicolored batik). As soon as Nancy's done, it's ready to give to our colleague, who had her baby last week (by C-section, cuz that baby did not want to turn around for nothing!)

Outside shot of our zig zag or Tennessee Lightning quilt. Our lighting goes sideways.

Back of quilt. Label to be completed by me tonight!

Don't forget, if you want to make this quilt pattern and have the zig zags go straight across the rows, you have to make mirror image blocks.

Baby quilt top done

Here are some quick, very early morning photos of both the baby quilt top and the back (sorry they are fuzzy; will get some better pics once it's quilted.)

Back made with leftover blocks.

Famous last words ("Oh, it's easy")

I got the completed blocks from everyone last Friday, and said I would whip them together and have them back on Monday, sewn together and ready for the quilter.

Hah.

A few oopses got in the way:

• An oopsie block that needed to be resewn.

I wonder what someone was drinking when they sewed this one!

• The discovery, when laying out the blocks on my "design floor" that something was terribly wrong. The zig zag was not going horizontal or vertical in a straight line; the zigging line was going diagonally.

Buddy with the uphill zigs.

• After sketching the block out again and studying the quilt that inspired this one, I realized there are two distinct blocks in the Tennessee Lightning quilt. So, in order to get the zigs to zag correctly, I had to reconfigure half of the blocks. That took a good part of the weekend.

Two separate blocks in the properly zig zagging quilt. No, these do not flip around and become the other block. Ask me how I know.

I think I jinxed myself when I told everyone who was working on blocks (most of them less experienced than me) that this block was "easy". What could go wrong with simple half square triangles?

I finished sewing the Tennessee lightning baby quilt top together last night and handed it off to Deb P today, who will bring it to our quilter.

I'll show photos of the completed quilt top and quilt back tomorrow. Can I have a nap now?

Baby Quilt progress

Two of my completed Tennessee Lightning blocks. The multicolored batik really adds a glow.

Here are the leftover half square triangles to give you a hint of all the color combos used in the group baby quilt. The darks aren't quite as dark as they appear in the photo.

It will be fun to play with the finished blocks to make the top (hopefully everyone will turn their blocks in to me by the end of this week). Besides the baby due date (early August) we have vacations to work around to get this thing done!

Trimming tedium

Not much happening here other than trimming over 400 3.5-inch squares!  I am the coordinator of the top-secret group baby quilt project, and no, I am not normally anal. But when there are 6 different quilt block sewers, there are 6 different quarter-inch seams. If we want to have a prayer of these blocks fitting together nicely, these squares need to be trimmed to a consistent size.  

Picture me with my 3.5-inch square Creative Grid ruler, turning and cutting, turning and cutting, turning and cutting. Whew!   

This is the Step 2 directions I wrote out for my sewers when I return 8 blocks-worth of trimmed half square triangles to them.

By the way, the baby is due early August. I still feel we can get it done before the baby gets here, but then I have always been an optimist. We already gave her an i.o.u. at the work baby shower today.

Seven equals six?

Tennessee lightning block

When does seven equal six? When you are making the Tennessee Lightning block with half square triangles via this method. Why? Because you get 8 half square triangles per subdivided square.

Click photo to see cutting and stitching lines.

And to make the Tennessee Lightning block, you need nine half square triangles.

So, in order to get six Tennessee Lightning blocks from the same light and dark colors (in my example, red and tan batik), here's the math:
Seven blocks times eight half square triangles equals 56 half square triangles.
56 half square triangles divided by 9 needed per completed block equals six completed blocks.
Are you still with me?

We need 48 completed squares for the baby quilt. We're using 4 different light and 4 different dark fabrics, and there are six sewers.  Let's see if I did the math right when the completed blocks come back to me for assembly (yikes).

I have to say, that despite the mental gymnastics, the half square triangles came out decently square using this method.
(And of course, if you are doing a different method of half square triangles, or if you want your blocks to be more scrappy rather than planned, then you are on your own for the math.)

Baby quilt packets ready!

I finally got the batik squares cut and marked for my co-workers to sew half-square triangles.  We have six sewers including me.  We are making Tennessee Lightning blocks for a co-worker's baby quilt. Baby due date is early August so we have no time to spare!

Here is the tutorial link for this method of half-square triangles. More to follow!