the panda quilts: #8 & #9: a tale of two monsterz

A few weeks ago, I was able to complete 2 baby quilts in a few days' time (as you can see, the basic design of these two is really simple, which made that accomplishment even possible). I had some of the Cloud9 Monsterz fabric squirreled away and was just waiting for the right babies to come along so I could use it.

I made this one first. I cut 6" pieces of Monsterz (Adventurez - Mint and Monterz Mash - Orange) and matched it up with some stuff in my stash: Kona School Bus (that's the orange solid fabric) and Aneela Hoey "Cloud Dash Stripes" from the collection "A Walk in the Woods". I made a triangle template to trace out my quilting marks; 2 rows in I realized that if you quilt a bunch of triangles, it'll look like chevrons (duh!). I used some of the leftover "Adventurez" fabric for the binding. This quilt went to a "we're not finding out" couple, and today, they gave birth to a little boy.

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The next quilt went to a little baby boy who lives up the street. His mom & dad are old high school pals of my husband. Little Henry has an older brother & I figured he'd end up with a lot of hand-me-downs, so I wanted to make him something special. I used the same methodology, except this time I cut 10- 5" strips and pieced them together. Aside from the Monsterz and the "Cloud Dash Stripes," I also used one of the new Lotta Jansdotter Bella prints (the orange squigglies) and another grey print (from the "Quilt Blocks" collection). For this one, I did horizontal straight quilting lines between all the strips.

autumn steel cuts oats with pears - recipe (vegan)

on chilly mornings, i prefer i warm breakfast rather than my usual bowl of cold cereal or yogurt. it was 41 degrees when i awoke, so i decided to autumn-i-fy my version of rice cooker steel cut oats.

autumn rice cooker steel cut oats & pears recipe (vegan)
makes 2-3 servings

ingredients:
2/3 cup steel cut oats (this kind can be found at trader joe's & it's cheaper than mccann's)
1 red bartlett pear (or apple) - peeled, cored and chopped 
2/3 cup almond milk
1 cup apple cider
1/2 tsp cinnamon
dash salt
dash pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp vanilla
3 tsp pure maple syrup
3 tsp ground flax seed meal (optional)


directions:
combine/stir all the ingredients in the rice cooker and set to "cook".  it'll take about 20-25 minutes.

the panda quilts: #7: playing with ponies quilt

It's nice to be able to finally share some of the projects I've been working on over the past few months! When I heard that this lovely couple was expecting a baby girl, the quilt train in my mind started chugging. I immediately thought of this Heather Ross print and promptly ordered a yard of the coral-colored fabric:

Something about the little girls and their cowboy boots reminded me of the mom-to-be.

I got out my Kona color card and tried my best to match the yellow ("Lemon"), the green ("Peridot) and the light peach ("Light Parfait"). I also ended up getting some of Lizzy House's Guising Twinkling Stars in Sherbert.
Once I had all my fabric, I had no idea where I was headed. All my past baby quilts had been simple patchwork squares, but with this one I wanted to do something that showcased the girls/horses. I found this block tutorial and decided on that.

Once all 12 blocks were sewn, I played with the layout a bit & decided to use the green sashing strips to break up the pinky-pinkness of the quilt.

horizontal AND vertical strips?

nah...just vertical

All done! Straight line quilting around the blocks...

quilt back...all the leftover "guising" + lemon + light parfait

you can really see the quilting detail in this one

I had the pleasure of hand-delivering this quilt to the parents-to-be in Denver, CO last week. I was just going to mail it, but what's the fun in that?! (In actuality, I was already plotting a trip out there anyway...) And unbeknownst to me, the quilt matched the color of the nursery. Baby girl is due in a few weeks!