Frances has two good friends graduating from high school this spring, so we decided to make each of them a lap-size quilt to take away to college. I don't think either one of them knows about this blog, so I think I can get away with showing them here. (Girls, if I'm wrong and you see your quilt here first, act surprised at graduation.) This is the first one -- Frances asked Jenna for some favorite colors and chose this combination of mint green, brown, and cream -- at Baskin Robbins last night I had the mint chocolate chip inspiration.
The pattern is one I got at the Road to California quilt show earlier this spring. It's the first time I've used a published quilt pattern and I have to say that what it might have saved me in preparation time, it more than cost me in general familiarity with what I was doing. Like failing to notice until everything was cut out that I would be working with 1.5 inch strips! Hello, that's way too small. I am not patient or precise enough to work with pieces that small. That gave the quilt what I'm going to refer to from here on out as a charmingly wonky look. The pattern was designed to use a "honey bun" (I'm sorry, that's just too ridiculous to say without quotes around it) so it wouldn't scale up neatly. In the end I probably spent enough time trying to change the pattern that I would have been ahead if I'd just made it up myself anyway.
All of that having been said, I think it turned out pretty cute. Frances chose a pretty selection of fabrics and laid out the top the way she wanted. We added an extra row and column of blocks to bring the whole thing to a good lap size and included a brown border. When it came to the quilting I realized that I haven't done anything with a border since I started machine quilting. It seemed to suggest a different pattern over the border than over the blocks -- what to do? So this is what I made up. After doing this one, I think I prefer really simple quilting, at least with my present machine and skill level!
On the back I used the 4 extra blocks and 2 strips I didn't need for the blocks. They were just right to add the width I needed to make up the difference between the width of the bolt and the width of the quilt. Hey, is that why people starting piecing the backs of their quilts? I mean as long as you have to sew it together, why not stick in some of those leftovers from the top?! If anyone is out there reading this, they're probably having a big "Duh." moment.
Ok, on to the next graduation quilt -- something from a different case at Baskin-Robbins!
Here's my second go at the scrappy rainbow plus quilt -- the first one is shown in this post. In the first one I made each plus out of 5 different fabrics in a single color. In this quilt I made each plus from a single fabric. This time I used a light gray for the background solid and a very dark navy (it looks black here) for the binding.
Here they are side by side. I do think that the single-fabric pluses are much bolder, particularly when you see them in person.
I particularly like the way the gray crinkled up so nicely when I washed it. I also figured out to position the point at which the lines of quilting crossed a seam-allowance-worth away from the edge so the point would line up with the edge of the binding, rather that being covered up by it. You know what I mean, right?
Here's the back, with a giant scrappy rainbow plus and yet more of that bolt of black/white calico. Still some left though.
I would like to point out how I even got the quilting lines (almost) lined up with the squares on the back. Pretty darn close -- we'll call that a win, right?
Ok, I think I'll consider this quilt accomplished and move on. Even though I still have a lot of 3.5 inch squares left...
I loved this quilt by Ashley at Film in the Fridge so much that I wanted to make one for myself. I liked the scrappy color combinations and I thought I could probably pull the whole thing from fabric I already had.
The hardest thing about it was because the pluses fit together, you can't piece each one and then join them together to form the whole top. I had to lay the entire thing out on the bed (some quilters have a "design wall" -- I have a "design bed") and then break it into sections. There's not a whole lot of intuitive order to each section, so I had to pay attention to the pattern as I was sewing. I will admit that there was some swearing and ripping involved.
I used some extra squares (and oh, I have plenty) for the back, along with this cute black and white print -- Nana left me a whole bolt, so it appears frequently in my work. To be honest, I didn't give much thought to the binding -- I had plenty of this blue floral and I think it turned out fine.
I like it, but it didn't actually turn out the way I thought it would. When you look at it up close, the pluses don't really show up very well. I think the fabrics I chose didn't have saturated enough color. Interestingly, when you see it in a photo from a distance, the design is much more apparent. As the quilt was coming together I started thinking about how I would do it differently -- I am already about halfway through version #2! (Like I said, I have A LOT of extra squares.)
Fortunately, I feel about quilts kind of like I feel about pizza -- there is good pizza and better pizza and really awesome pizza, but I'm not sure I've ever had bad pizza. With quilts, I think if you use pretty fabrics and cut and sew them carefully, the result will look nice, even if it doesn't end up looking like you wanted it to. Stay tuned for Take Two!
Why exactly? Because you can, of course.
I was intrigued by a tutorial by Anneliese at Aesthetic Nest. It looked so cool to turn flannel into something so different and dimensional. Lots of steps but nothing too complicated. Would it turn out like hers?
Well I'm here to tell you that it did! Soft and raggedy, multicolored 3-D chenille! But I am also here to tell you that it was a ridiculous amount of work for a 40X40 baby blanket. And expensive, to boot. Three yards of flannel and another yard of quilting cotton.
Then there was the quilting. That is a lot of diagonal lines, people. And each and every one has to be cut, but regular sewing scissors do not fit down that skinny channel. Enter the less-sharp scissors from my knitting bag, requiring each channel to be cut TWICE. That's right, twice.
This one is a baby blanket for some graduate school friends expecting their first. I wish I had used a more monochromatic group of flannels. I hadn't really anticipated how they would look cut and frayed. But I think it turned out looking cute and lively. And I couldn't have realized how fun the blanket would feel when it was done--not just the nubby-ness of the the chenille, but the combination of the weight of the heavier strips of flannel and all that quilting to the quilting cotton gave it kind of a wiggly, rubbery feeling--very hard to explain but Frances knew what I was talking about right away.
She immediately wanted one for herself--but all that work was for a baby size! A lap size?! No way! So I decided to make her a pillow--the perfect little showcase for that fluffy chenille goodness.
I got everyone out of the house to work and school.
Now there's this.
And this.
But first, this.
I checked another project off my list of things to try! This is a tote bag I made for my friend Shelley for her birthday. I used another pattern from Anna at Noodlehead--her Madras Tote. I had this combination of fabrics bought on a whim from the clearance area at M&L (and previously seen in a couch pillow and a flouncy apron).
Because my fabrics were pretty light I added medium-weight fusible interfacing to both the main bag and the pocket. I also added a line of stitching right down where the side ends and the bottom of the bag begins. That way things in the pocket can't slip down to the very bottom. If I make it again I think I'll make the pocket taller also. What I really think I would do is to use some of the features of this pattern to alter my basic tote bag pattern. I do like the outside pockets!
I was supposed to be working on this.
But instead I decided to make this. I scooped up a bunch of blouse patterns the last time Joann's had a 99-cent pattern sale and yesterday I found a remnant of this silky animal print.
This is Simplicity 1915 and I think it turned out pretty well. It was quite a lot of gathering--good thing I don't mind that. The serger sure made hemming that ruffle easier, and the inside looks beautiful! (I have been borrowing a serger from a friend. Whoever told me that once I used one I'd never go without again was dead right.)
I think this will be cute with a black or maybe a pale blue cardigan (the background is actually a light bluish/gray--hard to see) and some dark jeans or the black pencil skirt I scored at Target for $6.44!
Ok, back to the dance dresses... (Right after I cut the string hanging from that sleeve!)
