Mod Baby Quilt with Fluorescent Geese

Inspiration

While shopping at Modern Domestic, one of my the local quilt stores haunts, I came across this wonderful gauzey fabric:

I loved the fluorescent pop and paintbrush effect of the pattern. I had no idea what I was going to make with it, just that I needed to have some. I knew that I wanted it to be a quilt backing so I wasn't going to just get a 1/3 of a yard (my standard cut for "I love it but I don't know what I am going to do with it", because you can get a 10" square). Given that it wasn't an inexpensive fabric, I opted for one yard, knowing that I would be able to make a small, stroller sized quilt from that. I didn't want to take away from the lovely backing with a bunch of competing prints, so I proceeded to get a stack of solids that matched the colors in print to use in my quilt top.  Part of my draw to this particular fabric was that I knew I had fluorescent yellow fabric at home just waiting for the right project to be showcased in.

It was suggested that I take a photo of the stack so I could reference the color names later. Glad I did!

Decision Time

Unlike so many of my fabric stacks, this one did sit for too long before I was ready to start sewing it up. This meant that I was going to have to find a pattern so I could get going!

I grabbed a healthy number of my quilting books and the few magazines I have purchased and started combing through them.

I knew I had a winner when I saw this one:

Fresh Quilts. Fall/Winter 2014

However, there was a problem. It is a common problem when you don't buy fabric with a particular pattern in mind. This quilt was big, way too big for the one yard of backing that I had. Generally, I have the same response to this problem, scale the quilt down. And while this can be an easy task, it can also involve an immense amount of math. For this one I did a lot of maths and a little fudging :)

Wrestling

This little quilt fought me the whole way, from a tricky pattern to scale down to my color choices, it was rough going. First, I realized that for the pattern I was going to need another color in addition to what I had purchased. Instead of heading straight to the store, I looked through my stash of solids. This was a lot easier than it would have been in the past. Moving from my craft room, since it is now the nursery, into the dining room had the huge advantage of forcing me to sort through and organize many things. And guess what, I found something!

Then, (and I'm sorry that I don't have progress picks on this one) had decided to use this forest green fabric I had in my stash for my main color since I had a whole yard. It was on sale and a good color, so I bought a bunch. Somewhat unlike me, I decided that I trusted my instincts and just cut everything out without making any kind of test piece first. The result,? After sewing two rows together I HATED it. And not just my usual "I don't know if this is going to turn out" dislike, this was disgust. I was going to ruin my beautiful backing fabric with this atrocity.

So much wasted fabric!

After being really annoyed with myself for one, wasting fabric and time and two, going against my normal cautious, methodical approach, I headed off to the fabric store to find a more suitable choice for my main color. I decided on the dark royalish blue, Mediterranean was the way to go. This time, I was not wrong. So I forged ahead.

The rows with just the rectangles went together very quickly. Then it was on to the geese, or half square triangles (HST), depending on how you look at it. And things got sticky again. Ah maths. In order for the HST to line up with the rectangles, they couldn't actually be square. I was pretty tired of math at this point, and decided to handle this in a lazy way. I would make HST triangles that would be tall enough and then I would cut the back of them so they would be the right width. Again, because it was too much math to come up with the exact size I needed for the height, I just over sized them a bit and planned on cutting them down. This turned out to be a very smart decision :)

I have never really trimmed anything while quilting before. It seemed tedious and unnecessary. If everything is cut the right size before you sew it together, why would you need to trim? Well, I am learning there are lots of reasons. First, your seam allowance is unlikely to be perfect. Second, and this is especially true with triangles and bias edges, things get all shifty and come out a bit funky shaped. So as I sewed together my trimmed and a bit hacked off "flying geese" together, I realized that this whole process had given me some wonderfully perfect points. Ah, the little things.

Half square flying geese with pretty points.

The End is in Sight

At this point, pretty much everything went smoothly. It took me a bit to decide on quilting and thread colors but that is pretty par for the course. I also opted for some really awesome bamboo batting in this one. Again, because this is a pretty small quilt, I was willing to splurge on the expensive batting. The drape came out so nice on this quilt that there may be more bamboo batting in my future!

I am very proud of this little finish. One, it is for my boy and it was the first thing that I finished for him and two, it took so much persistence to get through this project. I stuck to my guns, didn't compromise and in the end, got exactly what I wanted. Always a great feeling!

Nursery Reveal!

A Room for Tatum Noah Taylor

After a brief tussle over the idea of a dual purpose nursery/craft room, we set about re-arranging the house to accommodate my hobby AND our growing family.

We decided early on the bright green walls. Before we  knew if we were having a boy or a girl. From there I added colors, lots of bright colors: deep blue, orange-red, sunny yellow. Grey accents would calm things down.

Originally, the theme was hot air balloons and elephants. Mostly, because I had seen these amazing hot air balloons in Dundee, OR when we were out there on one of our wine tasting adventures with my dad. They were my reward for participating in the annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage despite not being able to partake in the festivities.

After this great start, I did a little more shopping and decided that my theme was too disjointed and narrow. I decided the remedy was to broaden the theme around the balloons to be an overall travel theme. This would also allow us to incorporate Buddy's love of airplanes. I don't know why I was surprised when he told me that he had a set of painted, steel airplanes in the attic from when he was a kid. I loved them and I loved the idea of incorporating them into the nursery. The new theme was winner!

Worried that the planes would get lost on the bright green walls, we mounted them on burlap and framed them in bright white.

With the planes and the hot air balloons in place, it was time for the fun stuff!

The Handmade Bits

When visiting the amazing Holly of Marshmueller at a craft show at Laurelhaurst school, I found this great print with the raccoon by Marika Paz. Since it wasn't a big print, I knew I wanted to do a mini collage. We added the wooden "T" but more was needed to complete the look.

I found the quote in a stamp pack that I had and knew I wanted to use that. I went looking for things to complement it. I ended up with this cute little windblown bunny from one of Cricut cartridges and am very pleased with how it came out.

The last piece to come about was the "EXPLORE" sign. Ingredients were: online inspiration, a Martha Stewart tutorial, scrap wood, Mod Podge, Cricut cut letters and a perfect map print paper.

The changing pad cover was made using this tutorial. Something went awry with my math/cutting and there is less fabric around the bottom than ideal but it is certainly functional. I adore this print and the fact that it isn't overly matchy with the rest of the nursery fabrics.

The overall look = LOVE

I was inspired by this pin to do the airplane, banner and clouds over the crib. I was very thankful for the applique foot my mom bought me last year for Christmas for my Bernina. It made creating the banner a breeze and gave it a very polished look.

The clouds are felt stuffed with polyfil and hand sewn with red embroidery floss.

I wasn't originally going to make a crib skirt, but after looking at buying one and discovering what a plain grey one was going to cost, I figured taking the time to do it was worth it. It also meant that I could customize it with Tatum's nursery fabrics.

Bizzy Kid Quilt

Last but not least, of course there had to be a quilt! Not out of the norm for me, I had purchased a large stack of fabrics prior to settling on a pattern. I was on the hunt for something simple and not too fussy, but also a little more than just squares and rectangles. The Bizzy Kid pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew, hit the nail on the head. It required a few additional store trips to secure all the necessary fabric but overall the quilt went together easily and most importantly, turned out exactly like I wanted.

The back on this one tripped me up a bit. I changed my mind a few times and ended up needing to stretch my yardage. Incorporating the squares to create the cross pattern allowed me to add some super fun prints and stretch my yardage. Win!

I know it on the big side for a baby, but I am looking forward to snuggling under it and reading Tate a story very soon!

Now all we need is a baby! With my due date looming, I know we won't be waiting too much longer :) :) :)

And the Kitchen Sink: An Update/ Year in Review

A Pretty Good Year.

I have tried to keep up here with all the things that I have made and what it took to actually get them made. For the most part, I have done really well. Due in part to the fact that I didn't make that much stuff this year. Instead, it was about me and Dexter getting out and doing our thing.

We made great strides in agility this year and it is something of which I am very proud. We attended a couple of seminars which I think really helped me gain confidence in my skills and in my dog.

Ditching Dexter to get in position for a blind cross.

I had the opportunity to run a friend's dog on some very advanced courses which taught me a lot about myself. Plus, Dexter and I started competing at the Master's level ourselves which really pushed us. All of this culminated in getting four tournament Q's in one weekend (Grand Prix, Steeplechase, Master's Challenge Biathlon)! Lastly, I was awarded best new member by my agility club at our Annual Christmas/Awards dinner. I was totally shocked and honored!

On the Family Front

At the end of July, after copious amounts of begging, cajoling and pleading with the Husband and a slight scare with the US/Canadian border, we brought this guy home.

Cute doesn't even begin to cover it!

At nine months, I am hoping he is almost all done growing. He is quite a bit taller than what I expected!

He really is a handsome guy.

He will be my future agility partner. The husband did an awesome job helping with teaching him good manners and now we are working on baby dog agility stuff. Three dogs makes for a very full house but we figured we could manage until our move in Spring 2016. Then, only five days after bringing Fractal home, we found out that we will be adding a two legged member to our family!

So the time quickly flew by, helped along by the fact that I slept through most of August and September and then BAM! it was the holiday season. And now, just like that, Spring is upon us.

Sewing Whirlwind

After a first failed attempt, we found out that we are going to have a little boy! I was so relieved to finally know the gender. So much planning could finally start: names, nursery and, of course, things to make! Let me tell you, gender neutral is a myth people. I have a lot of respect for families who wait to find out what they are having. I couldn't do it.

Me at 31 weeks and Fractal at 8 months old

I went on a total fabric buying binge at the Black Friday sales but when I got home I didn't actually dive in to sewing things from those giant stacks of fabric. Instead, I made the decision that I was going to try and sew up nearly all of my works in progress. Eep! The goal was to be done by the end of the year and while that didn't happen, I made darn good progress. I knew that there were a few things that I wasn't going to include in my list, for various reasons. Still, this was not a short list. However, I figured that since I would have a long break from agility over the holidays (Dexter and I did our last competition two weeks ago when I was 35 weeks along), that I would have plenty of time to sew. And sew I did. Here is what I have made/finished between September and mid-January (bear in mind that most of these were already started):

Zombie blanket

This was originally going to be a crate blanket for Fractal, but it was just too cute to give to a dog!

Triangle quilt

This is for sale in my Etsy shop

Drawstring tote

You can read more about this project here.

Penny patch

You can read more about this one here and here.

Critter quilt

This was one of those quilts where I decided I could no longer resist the fabric line. The critters were just too darn cute. I bought fabric and backing with NO pattern in mind. It's always a little tricky coming up with something that will use only what you have, but this one came out great! I can see myself revisiting this pattern in the future.

As you can see, my pattern was a little off in the sense that my top ended up just a little too big for my backing. Luckily, I had plenty of scraps to use to stretch the yardage.

Originally, this was going to go up for sale in my Etsy shop, but my mother was desperate for me to keep it. In the end I caved in and it is now at her house.

Cherry charm baby quilt

Some friends of mine also recently welcomed a little boy into their home and I wanted to make Mr. Hayes something.

Echo Star pillow

This little 10" x 10" pillow gave me lots of trouble but I do like the pattern. This is one where you want to think very carefully about the values of the different colors you use. Mostly, for a quilt, I think monochromatic would work best.

I was pleasantly surprised when this pillow blended in beautifully with my nursery color scheme and it now lives on the glider.

Mostly, pillows are not my friend because the backing and binding process does not go well. I won this round, but just barely. I am sworn off pillows for the time being.

The BEAST

So the truth is, I never got a finished pic of this one. With pretty good reason. I finished it in the dead of winter so photo ops were few and far between. But mostly, it is SO big that I needed two people to hold it up. Fractal is a good helper, but not quite what I needed.

At any rate, it was delivered at Christmas to Brother and , let's be honest, his dog. I think Cormac may use it more than he does. Although I requested a picture of the quilt from him, my guess is, that it isn't real high on his priority list!

Thread catcher

I randomly decided that I really should have a thread catcher. I was completely inspired by this Pin and had this done the very next day.

As you can see, I really did need one and quickly put it to good use while I continued to churn out the finishes!

Mom quilt

This was another Christmas delivery. As you can see, not the kind of thing I would normally make. Beautiful, but not my style :) My mom chose the pattern and most all the fabrics. I really struggled with how to quilt this one. In the end, this was my second quilt with free motion.

The arches were the free motion part. Some of them look good, others, not so much. However, the overall effect of the quilting turned out even better than I imagined. I dare say it looks fancy!

Make-up bag

Another make-up bag for my Etsy shop. One day, eventually, I will actually make one for myself.  I really like the color/fabric combo and was almost sad that all I had were tiny scraps to work work with.

Hourglass quilt

I love this quilt! The colors are so bright and fun! It is for sale in my Etsy shop.

I'm not actually sure if I started this quilt before this one or not. At any rate, this one, though much smaller, took me a lot longer to finish. I struggled with my design choice to use the newspaper print as my background fabric, especially when I realized I didn't have enough of it and couldn't get more. Eventually, I decided to just go with white for the rest of the squares. I love the effect that having both created in the end.

I knew I was going to do simple outline quilting on this one. It only took about two hours!

This backing may look familiar. That's because I also used it on my Penny Patch quilt. I love prints like this that are tone on tone but so much more interesting than a solid.

Phew are you tired yet? I know I am. BUT, now I get to do my sewing for the little boy guilt free! It is an amazing feeling to have made all this progress and really lifts a huge weight not having so many projects hanging over your head!

Here's to a productive 2015!

Up next, the baby makes! Hooray for more pictures!