A hexagon quilt for Rowan

I'm sharing a project today that has been in the works for a YEAR.  Last summer my family relocated from California to Michigan.  On the way we stopped to see lots of family and friends, and would often spend several days at each place.  I decided I wanted a project to work on during my down time, so I hit the fabric store while visiting a brother and gathered fabrics for a baby quilt for my youngest.

 

This quilt from the Blueberry Park blog had made a splash on Pinterest and I was immediately in love. 

 

The hexagons, the colors, the patterns on the fabrics, the pop of yellow on the border-- I LOVED it!!  So I basically set out to copy it.  :)  If I could have gotten my hands on the EXACT SAME fabrics she used, I totally would have.  LOVE.

 

By the time we got to Ann Arbor I'd gotten all of my pieces cut, then laid them out in a pattern I liked.

Then it sat in a bag in a closet for many months while I summoned the courage to sew them together.  I was just so afraid that it wouldn't work!  A couple of months ago I decided to just go for it and held my breath that it would turn out.

 

I stitched each little half hexagon to the one beside it, making long narrow strips.

Those strips were then sewn together forming - GLORY BE!- full hexagons!

I decided I wanted to add more interest to the front, so I purchased some of this magnificent faux bois print fabric from my friend at HBFabrics on Etsy, and it was just what I was looking for!

I bought a piece of natural cotton batting, sewed up a backing using some more of the Faux Bois and a cute aqua oval fabric (also from HBFabrics), and brought it along on our trip to Virginia over Spring Break so I'd have something to do in the car.  I've come to really love hand quilting.  It's so relaxing to hand stitch, don't you think?

Joann Fabric carries a lovely mustard colored linen, which became the perfect binding.

This quilt has been done for a little while now, I just kept forgetting to share the finished product!

I mainly quilted on the solid colored hexagons so the stitching would stand out, and chose a different kind of design for each color. 

The strips of Faux Bois on the back were a happy accident, as I forgot to account for shrinkage and didn't buy a big enough piece of the aqua backing fabric.  But I'm so glad it happened this way!

See how I cheated and rounded the corners so I wouldn't have to miter them?  I. AM. A GENIUS!!  Seriously, though, I don't think I'll ever make a square-cornered quilt again.  I love it!!

I have to say, I really REALLY love this quilt.  I get compliments on it whenever it goes out with us.

 

And now this little mister has a Mama-made quilt of his very own.

Curtain turned blanket

Sometimes it's fun to just walk through Target and see what kinds of deals I can find. Recently I came across this curtain by Dwell Studios that had been marked down from $19.99 to $5.06. It had been opened and taped shut again, but otherwise there was absolutely nothing wrong with it.


I love, love, love that big, fun polka dot print and even considered buying this very same crib set for my baby way back when. But since I ended up making his bedding and don't need a polka dot curtain panel in any of my kids' rooms right now, I decided to turn it into a blanket instead.

The edges were already finished and it had a liner for the backing, so that cut out several steps for me.

I laid the curtain out on the floor, then placed a roll of cotton batting on top of that.

I trimmed down the batting to be the size I wanted...

...then tucked it in between the two layers of fabric and pinned it along the edges.

I sewed the batting in place on all 4 sides, then used some safety pins in the middle to keep all 3 layers together while I hand quilted some of the circles. I really like the bunchy look you get when you pull your running stitch tight.

And here it is all done! I don't know if you could call this a quilt since it isn't made up of lots of little pieces of fabric, but I did enjoy doing the hand quilting on it. It's really relaxing and gave me something to do while I watched movies on the couch.

Here's the other side with the stitched circles.

This little girl asked me before I was even done if the blanket was for her, and since I didn't have anyone in mind to give it to I decided she could have it. Besides, I haven't made her a blanket in a long time. She deserves a new one.

Finnley's quilt

Don't worry- this is a non-chair-related post. Are you sick of that chair project yet? Heehee, sorry. :)

I was feeling pretty tired yesterday, but with 5 kids running/crawling around my house I couldn't nap like I wanted, so instead I sewed. Remember the quilt I started for my baby last month? I finally finished it.

I was waiting for Joann to restock on binding in the color I wanted, and quite honestly kept forgetting to look when I'd go. During a trip there the other day I actually remembered and they actually had it!

Binding this quilt was frustrating. I don't know what it is, but me and quilt binding do not get along. There's some hard feelings and baggage and, well, we just don't understand one another. This time it surrendered- it would bind my son's quilt, but in a very sloppy, lumpy, twisty sort of way. The backing was my old shower curtain.

I had to take the bumper off of Finnley's crib since he'd just stand on it and make it all squished and flat. Even though the teething guards are still on, I'm glad he's got his quilt to add some color back to the crib.

A little weekend quilting

Made a runner for my kitchen buffet...

...and began a quilt for Finnley.

Latest projects

Over the past couple of weeks I've been in major project mode. Just one right after another, and sometimes a few at once. Here's what I've finished recently:

Finally, some art on the walls of my son's room.

An alphabet sampler made using this tutorial from Orange Flower Sketchbook.

A little applique and embroidery interpretation of this sweet Japanese fabric.

Using fabric to reverse-matte prints and photos is a great (and inexpensive) way to add color and texture to your art. Just cut a piece large enough to cover the frame's back plus about an inch on all sides, then fold the fabric behind the back and tape it down. Add some double-sided tape to each corner of your art and center on the fabric.
This is a pen and ink reproduction I did a couple years ago of a page from a beautifully illustrated book of my favorite poem, "Winken, Blinken and Nod", also reverse-matted on fabric.

I bought this piece of American Jane Wee Play fabric back when I was working on Hakan's quilt and never did anything with it. I finally decided to turn it into a wall hanging for his room.

I added some padding and a backing, then stitched between the printed panels to make it look a little more quilty and bound it. Can you spot the cute little buttons I added?





Just finished this baby girl quilt about an hour ago for whoever might have a girl next at church. Everyone's been having boys lately, so I have no idea who'll end up with it!

Red, white, yellow and green- reminds me of strawberries and summer! (Don't tell, but I wish I could keep it.) The backing was cut from a nice white cotton tablecloth that I found during my last thrift store visit. It was pretty big, so the rest of it may turn into a picnic quilt.

I just had to use some more of that sweet Amy Butler fabric from my wall art, so I covered a panel of cork and put it in a thrifted frame to make a little message board.

The pocket in the corner was originally intended to just cover a hole in the floral fabric, but it turned out to be a handy place to stash note paper.

I'm also working on bringing this antique dresser back to life. I am sooo excited to get it finished!

Here's a peek at my progress. Isn't that wood gorgeous?! Who could paint that?

I've still got lots of work to do on it, but I'll definitely be posting lots of "after" pictures here when I'm done!

Confessions of a non-quilter

Well, it's finally done. After much difficulty, struggling, silent cursing and grinding of teeth, Hakan's new bed quilt is finished as of a few minutes ago. (Yes, his bed has been moved due to his bedtime window shenanigans.)

Confession #1: I am lazy.

Once I got all of the strips stitched together I went searching for an appropriate batting. I found this "fusible" type that I'd never heard of before and thought, "Brilliant! No pinning!" I snatched it up and took it home. I laid a fleece blanket on my rug to work on, since using my skinny ironing board didn't seem realistic and I didn't want to melt my carpet. Down next went the backing fabric, smoothed and perfect. Batting next, then the top. The directions on the batting package told me the iron setting and the direction to start ironing in, so off I went. Half an hour later I'd managed to get the top mostly adhered to the batting, but the backing was still loose. Grrr.... It said all 3 layers would fuse if ironed & steamed enough. Not so. Flipping seemed necessary. Over it all went, now with the backing face up. More ironing, on my knees, bent over this increasingly annoying quilt. I managed to get a few spots fused, but it just didn't want to stick. Finally, after about an hour, I realized that pinning was looking like my best option after all. Down to the dining room table I go, and after a good wipe down got the quilt laid out and pinned. Just like that! Should have done it that way in the first place. I guess that's what I get for trying to take a shortcut.

Confession #2: I am impatient.

Thinking that I've got all the layers pinned together well, I took the quilt back upstairs and laid it out on the floor to mark out my stitching lines. I was planning on using my machine, because a.) I've never learned how to hand stitch a quilt, and b.) it would take too dang long (see Confession #1). I drew vertical lines that go perpendicular to the strips, about 6" apart. Then, over to the machine to start. This, as it turns out, is waaaay more difficult than anticipated. First of all, trying to maneuver this quilt through my machine with both hands while trying to stitch a straight line was a nightmare. The bottom layer didn't want to stay put and things just kept getting all bunchy and askew. GRRR! Eventually I managed it, but after lots and lots of growling.

Confession #3: I thrive on instant gratification.

The fabric I bought for the binding was perfect and I was growing more and more excited to see the finished product. I wanted a wide binding, so I cut it so that it'd be 2". Stitch the pieces together, iron the whole thing in half lengthwise and I'm ready to roll. I decided to cut a straight grain binding instead of on the bias because I liked the pattern of the dots better that way. And this time, instead of just winging it like I've done in the past, I looked up an online tutorial on how to apply the binding to a quilt. Corners have always baffled me. I found one that seemed clear enough and started along. I followed the instructions to create a mitered corner precisely, and stitched around the entire quilt. It wasn't until I went to turn the binding to the other side that I discovered that my so-called mitered corners were anything but. There was a small pleat at each corner, but that was about it. The binding just kind of curved around each corner and didn't make anything even remotely resembling a squared corner. GGGRRRRR!!!!! I had to put the thing down for a couple of days until I could figure out what to do about it.

Confession #4: I like shortcuts and don't care if they're "the right way".

Instead of pulling out the stitching I'd just done clear around the whole quilt, I decided to do something else. I finished turning and stitching the binding, clipping the it almost to the stitching at each corner. I realize that this is where hand stitching would have made the binding look a lot neater because the stitches would be hidden, but, hey- have you been paying attenion to my Confessions? Also, this quilt is going to take a beating, so I really don't want to worry about my carefully hand sewn binding being ripped off at some point. Doesn't look that bad, does it?

For the corners I cut 4 strips of the other orange fabric I used on the quilt and used them to cover the botched corners I'd attempted before. It ended up being a bit time-consuming, and they don't look super neat and tidy, but I think it's okay.

Confession #5: I feel exceeedingly satisfied when I finish a project.

Thankfully, all of the washable ink did wash out (which it sometimes doesn't), even the stains my iron left when the steam holes got drippy. I think it looks cute on Hakan's little bed. Now I need to start thinking about that pillowcase idea... Oh, and Pyper thinks now it's her turn for a new quilt. *groan*