Giant Willow Star

A friend from our church had a baby in September, and I was honored to be able to throw a baby shower for the two of them at our house! It really was fun to plan the shower, but my favorite part was that there was a sweet baby girl to make a quilt for!

I found some fat quarters of Riley Blake's organic cotton line, Willow, at a quilt shop in Winthrop, WA when we were camping this summer, and they were perfect for this quilt. I also found Jeni Baker's tutorial for the giant vintage star, and wanted to try out this pattern. I love the idea of a quilt block enlarged to be a giant size. It was simple but I think it turned out really pretty!

I added a Moda solid, but forgot the name of it, as well as the green which was a fat quarter that I got from my mom. I'm not sure where I got the white, or what it is, but it's really soft! With a small scrappy border and scrappy binding, I think it turned out really well!

I did all straight line quilting which really isn't my favorite to do, but I love the final look of it! This quilt ended up having a vintage look that I didn't really anticipate. 

For the back, I ordered a yard of one of the prints from the Willow line off of Etsy, and got a half yard of the solid from my local quilt shop. 

I love how this quilt turned out, and now I want to make another, maybe even larger, for myself!

Orange and Teal Quilt

When I started planning the quilt I'm making for Micah's bed, I bought a bunch of gray, blue, green and orange fabric. Once I had it all together and had finished cutting, I didn't like the orange with the other colors.  So I set it aside and figured someday I'd use it.

In December, I got the sudden inspiration to piece together a quilt top using the orange squares I had already cut, and some extra blues I decided not to use in Micah's quilt. I also had some scraps (dots and a ___) that would coordinate alright, so I threw those in too.

This top has been sitting around in our house, waiting to be finished, as has a teal twin sized sheet that would coordinate perfectly. So, on Monday (I think... the days blur together a little bit), I sandwiched the quilt up, and I've been quilting it all week. 

I didn't have a piece of batting that was big enough for the entire quilt, so I improvised and used two separate pieces... so far I can't tell a difference, and there doesn't seem to be any lumps or anything where the seam is, but time will tell. I figured that since we were just going to use this for going to the park and around the house, I wasn't too worried about it.

I had fun with the quilting, using this as an opportunity to try some new techniques. I tried pebbling, which was pretty fun, but it sure used a lot of thread! And I also tried quilting words - I chose scriptures that are ones I really love and feel like our kids should know, and quilted them over the squares. It turned out alright. You can't read the words very well unless you spend a lot of time looking at it, but I like knowing that they're in there. From the back you can see the words a little better, but backwards.

Edited to add: Audrey started to cry and I forgot to type out the verses I put on the quilt! They are: 

Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! - Psalm 34:8

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord  - Joshua 24:15

The Lord is gracious and compassionate.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall have everlasting life.- John 3:16

Audrey made sure to try it out too. She seemed to like it!

We'll put it to use for the first time tonight at our softball game!

Baby Franklin's Gray and Yellow Quilt

Here are a few pictures of the most recent quilt I finished. It is a baby quilt (but kid-sized) for our friends' new baby, due in June. The gender is a surprise, so I wanted to make something gender neutral. Our friends chose gray and yellow for the nursery, so I used that theme and ran with it.

I used a Riley Blake line of fabrics - Maritime Modern by Marin Sutton, which I ordered online from Hawthorne Threads. I really like their website, and the more fabric you buy, the better price you get! I also used a few Free Spirit solids, Arctic White, Jade, and Lemon.

For the pattern, I ordered the 'Bizzy Kid' pattern from Allison Harris of Cluck, Cluck Sew. I frequently read her blog, and I enjoy her take on modern quilting. Her version is very bright and colorful, so this is a different take on the pattern. 

When we went to my dad's house for Easter, I took my mom's sewing machine - which used to be my grandma's machine. It's one of the first computerized sewing machines, from the 90's. It's a Pfaff, and it's amazing! Much better than the Kenmore machine that I bought a few years ago. 

I used my machine to do all the piecing, and my mom's to do the quilting. It was fun to try free motion quilting again - it took a little practice to get the circles to seem somewhat circular!

I had so much fun making this quilt! I loved working on it, knowing that it was going to go to such a special little one. And I can't wait to share more of the projects I've been working on.