the panda quilts: #23: triangles for C.P.

This was the last quilt finish for 2013. Because I went on vacation right after Christmas, I had to finish this one up in time for the mid-January baby shower I was co-hosting with 4 other gals. The mama is one of my dearest friends and I wanted to give her something she and the baby would treasure. It was (kind of) a custom quilt - she looked through my pinterest pins and pointed me in the triangular direction. She also let me know she wanted a lot of white and pinned some fabric choices as well. I wanted to surprise her A LITTLE and thought I was doing so with the Joel Dewberry Navy Herringbone fabric. Unbeknownst to either of us, she chose that very fabric to make window pelmet boxes! So...that worked out well!

I used my standard triangle quilt count for this one (9 rows of 11 triangles, plus the 18 half-pieces for the ends) but was a little more scientific with how many of each i used (to give a little more balance & to make sure white was the most predominant 'color').
 9 Raindrops, 27 light blue, 27 Herringbone, 18 Gray, 36 White = 117 triangles. I outlined the triangles to create a diamond quilting pattern and used gray for the binding.

basting on the kitchen floor

The back of the quilt was a single piece of a really interesting navy & white print - the company is based in Denmark & I've only seen it on Hawthorne Threads and a few shops on etsy, so I don't think they have wide US distribution. It's a very scandinavian print, for sure, and I enjoyed using something not as widely recognized in the fabric world.

My friend cried when she opened the quilt, so... mission accomplished! Baby boy was born in February and I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon with the family a few weeks later.  I fed him a bottle and (tried to) burp him. I didn't know I could feel that sort of love for a friend's baby; I thought such a feeling was only reserved for my own family.

the panda quilts: #22: half-square triangle sampler quilt for my in-laws

Since I have made quilts for everyone in my immediate family [still need to do one for my nephew though], i decided to make one for my in-laws for Christmas '13. I chose the fabrics right away - a few older Cloud9 prints + a few others - thought the colors were perfect for them. I had 5 YARDS of Kona Stone sittin' around (ordered a bunch for a different project and the shade wasn't right), but thankfully it matched perfectly with all these prints.

I had bookmarked this pattern awhile ago and went to work.  I HAD SO MUCH FUN MAKING THE BLOCKS. Working on a Sampler Block quilt really reminded me of the first quilt I made two years ago.

I've been doing lots of all-day marathon weekend sewing sessions as of late, but making these blocks reminded me that I can sew for an hour or two after work, too. I used slightly larger sashing strips than recommended in order to make the quilt just a little bigger. I quilted straight lines around the blocks, but also ditch-stitched some of the geometric shapes within the blocks (it really shows up on the quilt back. Big thanks to my quilting buddy Lana for that suggestion!)

I also used my little quilt labels for the very first time and sent the quilt off to Indiana just in time for Christmas.

Schminkey: Master Quilt Inspector

the panda quilts: #21: animals for arlo

Just counted and there's SEVEN finished quilts I need to write about! So forgive me if I'm short on words, but I have a lot of catching up to do! I started this one in late Autumn for a baby boy named Arlo. a baby named Arlo needs a quilt with animals, so that's just what i did. i scrappy-cut little bits of various animal fabrics (many of these made appearances in other baby quilts! i see something from Holden's quilt, the doggies from Beau's quilt, the turtles from Gregory's quilt, an elephant from Raylee's quilt, etc. I guess it pays to save scraps...)  i used grey, red and green as the basis for the animal blocks, then alternated with the bold blue. i truly enjoy making patchwork quilts and this one was no exception. I love catching glimpses of the quilt whenever I look through my instagram feed. and Arlo happens to be extraordinarily adorable so I love catching glimpses of him as well. 

Schminkey and Baltimore inspect the quilt. They approve. Don't worry, I immediately washed it after this photo was taken.

the panda quilts: #20: lotta jansdotter california king quilt for our bed

we got a new california king-sized bed when we moved last march, and since then i've wanted to make a quilt for the bed. i've hoarded most of lotta jansdotter's windham fabrics since they first debuted in 2011. at one count, i had about 40 (!!?) different yards of her fabric from the 3 collections (echo, glimma, bella). So...it seemed perfect to use her fabrics for the bed quilt. the thought of seeing the fabric each and every day on my bed just seemed like the natural thing to do. she's by far my favorite designer (fabric and otherwise) and i don't imagine ever growing tired of the patterns or the colors.

a lot a lotta

i decided to go pretty simple design-wise for the quilt. because of the large size, i didn't want get too involved in something that would take me months and months (who has time for piecing intricate blocks with so many gift quilts on the horizon?!)  i chose about 30 of the fabrics (most of the ones in my stash, except the pinks and oranges) and cut strips 8 1/2" in length. from there, i cut random-sized widths and pieced the rows that way. it was as random and improvisational as i've ever been, and the strips came together surprisingly fast. i ended up with 9 rows, each about 120" long. i played around with a few layouts (horizontal stripes? vertical? sashing or no?)

 i decided on horizontal with sashing strips (i used kona snow). i used all lotta for the back, as well (picked up extra yardage of a few prints during a mega fabric.com sale!)

all along, i knew i didn't want to quilt this one myself. but i also knew i wasn't 100% pleased with my outsourced-quilting experience from before...but as luck would have it, i talked to a girl at this baby shower who told me about her mom's local quilting business, all sewn together. i am SO very pleased with the whole experience. nanette showed me all the quilting options & was incredibly patient with my indecisiveness. i even changed my mind about the design after sleeping on it (from 'overlapping arches' to this one instead) and she was receptive and understanding. because she's also a fan of more modern-style quilts, she understood where i was coming from and what suited the look of the quilt.  she did the binding for me, HAD IT FINISHED IN ONE WEEK, and was affordable. if you happen to need quilting services in the nashville area, i wholeheartedly recommend this place.

close up of the quilting

after i picked the quilt up, i snapped these pictures, threw it in the wash, and we've been snuggling with it ever since. i love it!!!

the panda quilts: #19: turquoise & peach circle quilt

looks like i'm finally back on track and blogging about these baby quilts in real time. i finished this one up last week & presented it to the mom-to-be at her baby shower last saturday. i realized that i've shipped away more quilts than i've given in person...and this made me aware of the fact that i get butterflies whenever the recipient opens the gift. i wonder if i am alone in this, or if this is a common phenomenon when people give handmade gifts? regardless, i believe it was well-received by my sweet friend & i hope her baby girl snuggles on it for years to come.

knowing full well that i'd make her a quilt, i had my friend look at my fabric stash while visiting my house to see what sort of colors or prints she was drawn to. with that in mind, i decided to go with turquoise and peach as the main colors for this one.

back when i took quilting 101 with alexia abegg, "the saucer block" was one of the ones we learned in class for our sampler quilt.   the sampler quilt lives on our couch (it's the go-to tv-watching lap quilt around here)...the saucer block has remained my favorite block, so i thought i'd re-visit it for this quilt.

alexia has a pattern for a similar circle quilt in her book "liberty love," so that also proved to be a source of inspriation. (it's called the "goodnight fairy tale quilt" in the book). however, in class we made 12" squares, so i used that template rather than the one she provides in the book (which yields a 10" square).  alexia uses subtle cream/neutral prints for the background, so i did the same (a cute moda fabric + some leftover heather bailey from my first quilt). i pulled the various turquoise and peach prints from my stash bin for the saucer centers.

the blocks came together with relative ease (although those curves were a little trickier than i remember!) i added a border (kona snow) & i think it ended up around 40"x40".  good ole straight horizontal lines for the quilting, and lizzy house pearl bracelet for the binding.

the panda quilts: #18: little emelia

this quilt is for emelia elizabeth, who came into this world just two days ago. emelia's mama tommie is my sister carrie's best friend & i've known her for 25 years.  this is baby #3, and once again i didn't do this whole quilting thing when the first two were born (sorry, ellie and reuben).

i picked out the purple dandelion fabric during textile's annual sale (it's an older alexander henry print). i used kona amethyst, aloe and snow to coordinate, as well as this denyse schmidt print from joann:

i didn't know what sort of pattern to use for this. i trolled flickr and pinterest for inspiration, and finally decided on fresh lemon's greek cross block from this tutorial). i found this tutorial for a quick-piecing method very helpful & time-saving.
greek crosses are another one of those things that seem to have hundreds of different layout possibilities. these were just two i tried out:

option 1?

option 2?

 once i sewed the top together, i decided to add a border to make it just a little larger.

i straight-line quilted on the inside of the squares & also around each of the crosses.

 

back

the quilt, just chillin on the swing

the panda quilts: #16: the mister's quilt

after making quilts for both of my sisters, my dad, and countless baby quilts, i was beginning to feel a little guilty about not having made one for my husband. i kept my eye open for fabrics he may like and patterns he may find appealing, but the quest for the perfect combination of both kept this quilt un-made for a quite awhile. plus, i know how particular he is about EVERYTHING, so i wanted this one to be just right. i can't even remember how the decision was ultimately made, but i pulled a stack of some kona solids (windsor, sage, yarrow, chocolate and medium grey), asked him if he liked the color combination (he did), and ordered 2 yards of each.

from there, i set out cutting a bunch of triangles with my trusty creative grids 60 degree triangle ruler. (i cut them at 6").  i played around with different layouts and asked for his input. i love the hundreds of permutations that occur with triangles...

we decided on organized rows, double brown. (no go on the moon print, but i was able to use those in tracey's baby quilt). i spent the month of february sewing row-by-row whenever i'd get a chance (our house had sold but we weren't closing/moving til mid-march, so i had some spare sewing time again). i finished about half the quilt top before the move.

schminkey the cat, keeping tabs on me

new sewing room floor (and the quilt top 2/3 complete)

i can't remember when i got back to work on the other half, but it was well after we had moved in and unpacked. 17 rows of 21 triangles = 357 triangles. it's about 60" wide by 90"long, approximately the size of an extra-long twin quilt.

straight-line quilting, of course.

for the back, i did something a little cheesy, but i incorporated championship racing stripes, a nod to the mister's love of cycling. and kind of a bianchi celeste back there, too (it's the kona sage from the front). you can really see the diamond-shape quilting on the back.

says he: "i love it." he plans on taking it out on tour with him, so this quilt will see the likes of a stinky 15-passenger van, lots of states, some drippy taco bell fire sauce, and maybe some laundromats on the way. it's ready for adventure.

side note: i used quilter's dream wool batting for the first time; normally i use the natural select cotton. i've washed and dried the quilt a few times and i'm seeing crazy amount of "bearding" with this. i didn't even know this term existed, but when i googled "wool batting fuzzy problems" (or something like that) i learned that this sometimes happens.  it has to do with science! and molecules!  (if i think of it this way, i feel slightly less disappointed). i'll definitely stick to using regular cotton batting from here on out.  

the panda quilts: #17: moony triangles for baby brandon

Skipping #16 (a special quilt for the Mister....years in the making) to tell you about the 17th quilt I made: a triangle quilt for my cousin Tracey's baby boy (Brandon, born on July 30). I didn't know how to quilt when her first two kiddos were born (sorry Mairead and Connor), so I was excited to make a quilt for baby #3.

I had cut the moon triangles (part of the Lizzy House "Constellations" collection) as a "maybe" for Quilt #16, but I didn't end up using them. So I thought they'd be perfect for this quilt. I had some leftover grey & navy triangles, and I used the beautiful white starry fabric & a Lotta Jansdotter turquoise stripe as well.

it's always fun testing out various layouts

finished product

This one was a lot of fun to make. I loved the way the fabrics blended together - the colors are so calming; I am happy it went to a familial home. I still haven't met the 2nd child in Tracey's brood & I am hoping I get a chance to visit them all soon. If we lived in the same state, I know I'd hang out with them all the time. 

more Lotta for the binding

the back...used scraps to make the "shards"...

the panda quilts: #15: one for Maddox

Hey-o, it's been awhile. I suppose selling and buying a house will do that to a person. In an effort to chronicle all the quilts I make, I went back in my time machine to revisit a quilt made for Maddox, Holden's baby brother.  I can't even remember when I started this one - was it December of '12? January? Again, selling and buying a house will make your mind mush.  Regardless, Maddox was born in March, and I know I mailed it off before then, so....

Maddox's family lives near to the beach & his dad can surf, so I went nautical for this one. I chose a few prints from Cloud 9's Seven Seas collection. I'm an absolute sucker for Michele Brummer Everett fabrics (I was a fan of her Monsterz collection, too)...all those critters! They're so strange and awesome and adorable!  The flags seemed very Newport Beach to me, which then made me think about Arrested Development.... All the while Echo and the Bunnymen's song "Seven Seas" is playing in my head.... and then this quilt is the result.

The colors are bolder than I'm used to/drawn to, but it works. A beachy blue and yellow and red to go along with the elements in the prints. I quilted sideways V's jutting from one of the sides.

the panda quilts: #14: Dad Quilt

borrowed the neighbor's fence for this photo

Since both of my sisters got quilts for Christmas 2011, I wanted to make one for my Dad for 2012. I had bookmarked the pattern for this quilt when I saw it about a year ago - the simplicity of the solids always struck me - and I figured it would suit my Dad quite nicely. He has shades of browns and maroons in his living room, and a really pretty comforter from anthropologie (!) in his bedroom (he has fine taste for a 60-something-year-old man), so I thought this quilt would match well wherever he decides to use it.
I got a kona cotton fat quarter bundle ("merlot") and used most of those (along with some other kona solids I had)...and the main background/sashing fabric is kona stone.  Merry Christmas, Dad!!

squares. you wouldn't believe how much i played around with the color arrangement.

quilt top, pre-basting