Sunwashed Stars Baby Quilt

 

I made this quilt using the Sunwashed fabric line by Corey Yoder for the colorful pieces and a variety of low volume prints for the backgrounds. 

The pattern is inspired by this tutorial by Diary of a Quilter. Her pattern is for one big star, but I made this baby quilt with four smaller ones. My half square triangles and squares are 4.5" each. 

The backing is a cozy flannel gnome print I found at Joann's. 

This quilt is my 135th quilt! You can view them all on this page. 

Rosemary Cottage Quilty Stars

 I was super lucky and snagged one of Camille Roskelley's scrap bags of her new Rosemary Cottage fabric line. I made this pillow the day the fabric arrived and then started another Quilt Stars quilt (you may recognize this pattern... I use it to make my Little Women quilt last year). 

This is a fun pattern and a great use for small pieces of fabric. The points use 5.5" squares and the inside squares are only 2.5". 

Because I wanted my quilt to be a little scrappy, I added some fabric from the Lighthearted line. The colors from these two fabric lines are perfect together. 

The backing is called "Library of Rarities."

I really love these prints and can't wait until their October release. I will definitely be buying some yardage of the florals and those little swoons. There's also a white/pink swoons and a white/navy swoons that I neeeeeeed in my life. 

You can see my all of my quilts here. 

Pastel Bookshelf Quilt

 

I made this quilt in March, but I couldn't share it because it was a surprise for my sister. I finally gave it to her so here it is! I made another bookshelf quilt. I LOVE the one I made in 2020, but my sister wanted softer pastels. Bookshelf quilts are so much fun to make and such a fun way to use scraps. 

Some of the books are made with fabric from my kids' baby quilts, which I love so much. 

I don't use a pattern for my bookshelf quilts, I just sew each book to be 12 inches tall and varying widths. I like to use a mix of wide and narrow books in a variety of colors. This is a quilt that having a design wall is super helpful so I can see the color distribution as I make the books (I don't have a fancy design wall, I just hang a piece of batting on the wall). I do try and use wider books for the left and right ends of each shelf, so once I sew the rows together I can trim them to be equal widths. 

You can see my rainbow bookshelf quilt here and all of my quilts here. 

Strawberry Season

 

Since I was a little girl, I have looooooved strawberries. We now live in Central California in a farming community and the fresh strawberries here are the best I've ever had. These giant strawberry blocks were fun to make, especially during strawberry season. 

I used Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book, although I made the blocks much bigger. I used 4.5" squares and half-square triangles instead of the 2.5" squares in the book. 

You can view all of my finished quilts on this page. Thanks for looking! 

Berry Table Runner and Sweet Land of Liberty Quilt

I finished two little projects this weekend. First up is this wall hanging/baby sized quilt made with a  panel from Lella Boutique. It is approx 36" x 44". 

I also finished this little table runner. It is made using the Berry Basket line by April Rosenthal. I love these prints so much!

It wasn't the plan, but these two look very cute together and I love the patriotic and summery vibes. 

Rosemary Cottage Pillow

 

Camille Roskelley has a new fabric line coming this fall called Rosemary Cottage. She offered a package of scrap fabric on her instagram and I was lucky enough to snag it. The day it arrived, I used some of the smaller strips of fabric to make this little pillow. I LOVE these prints so much! I have already started a large quilt (coming soon!) and I cannot wait to buy some yardage when the fabric is available in October. 

Baby Quilt Donations

Over the years, I have made a lot of quilts. And when I have small pieces of fabric leftover, I cut them into 5 inch squares and toss them into a basket for future projects. I love 5 inch squares and I love patchwork quilts. My basket has a ton and I decided to make a bunch of baby quilts to donate to my local NICU. I've been volunteering there for a couple of years now and I love it so much. There's nothing like a tiny baby to put things in perspective and I love being able to offer them some comfort and love. 

Baby quilts are my favorite to make because they are just so cute and so easy to make. Here are a few made from my scrap basket. I also love that these will be going to good homes and also remind me of some of my favorite quilts and favorite people over the years. 

This one is backed in hedgehog flannel and is so cozy.

Most of these purples are made from my daughter's 2nd and 3rd birthday quilts and a purple quilt I made for my sister years ago. 

These two were fabrics from a Sew Sampler box last year. The NICU sees lots of twin babies born early and I had a set of twin boys in mind with these two quilts. 

I've made quite a few black-and-white quilts over the years (linked here and here and here) and I know babies are drawn to high contrast colors. 

These dots were leftover from a baby quilt I made in 2020. 

I hope and pray the babies who receive these quilts will grow up strong and healthy and have lots of sweet dreams! 

You can view all of my quilts here! 

 

Oh Pumpkins

My best friend from childhood (we met at age 7) loves Halloween. This year, I decided to make her a pumpkin quilt for her birthday. I gave it to her last weekend, so I can share photos now!

We grew these pumpkins last year and they've held on through winter! So they can be our spring pumpkins now and a prop for my pumpkin quilt in March. 

The pumpkin pattern is from Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book. Every single time I sew from her books, I am reminded how well done her patterns are. SO good!!

The fabrics are scraps saved throughout the years, including some from her baby's quilt that I made in 2010!

One thing you should know about me, no matter the weather, if I go outside to take photos of a quilt, the wind will pick up. My quilt holder was not amused. 

This is my 124th quilt and you can view them all here! 

Books I've Read & Loved

 I read a lot and always love sharing my favorites. Here are a few of my 5-star picks from the last few months. I will note - these are affiliate links, which means if you purchase, I will receive a very small commission from the seller (*you will not pay any additional amount by using my affiliate link). 

I'll start with some of my favorite recent quilt books. Welcome to Woodberry Way is adorable an is a serious bargain at only $13! I have made a bed runner using a pattern from this book and the instructions were clear and easy to follow. 

This Barn Star Sampler is GORGEOUS. I haven't made the quilt (yet), but it stops me in my tracks every time I see it. I also love these kinds of patterns because I could very easily choose any one of the blocks to make a whole quilt with just that one block, so the possibilities are endless. 

I love Lori Holt's books and this Scrappiness is Happiness book is beautiful. I love a scrappy quilt. I am working on the main quilt from this front cover. One little thing I love about her books is they are spiral bound, which is so convenient so the book stays open and stays flat. 

Another Lori Holt book... Quilters Cottage one is little but the instructions and photos are so clear. I think I will probably make a table runner out of just the house and trees. 

Alright... on to non-quilt books. This new Kristin Hannah book, The Women, is SO good. I could not put it down and loved it so much. It's about the often overlooked role that women played in the Vietnam War and it was so well done and such amazing characters. I also have heard that they are making it into a movie, and I'm sure it will be great, too. She also wrote The Nightingale, and if you haven't read that yet, you should - it's one of the best books ever! 

The Library Book was a really interesting read about the history of libraries and how they have modernized with the times. There was a bit of true crime mixed in and a really interesting look at how the staff of libraries make such a difference in their communities. I loved it and - bonus! - it's under $10!

The Many Lives of Mama Love was not my usual read, but it was really eye opening about how normal, every day moms get involved in addiction and what happens during and after going to prison and rehab. I've mentioned before that I volunteer at my local NICU and have held and helped a lot of babies who have been drug exposed. This book gave me a new perspective. I've often said I started volunteering because I didn't know what to do about homelessness or drug problems in our communities, but I know how to make quilts and hold babies so that's where I will start. I think we all need to do something - anything! - to imrpove our communities in whatever way we can.

On a lighter note, The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks was a much lighter read about a small town book shop and a newcomer who comes in a shakes things up. I almost always love a book set in a bookstore or library and this one is also under $10!

Generations is a non-fiction book that's heavy on statistics, but absolutely fascinating, especially if you are in a position of being in between multiple generations in your family. This book seemed like they interviewed my parents and my kids, it was so spot on in describing them both! I am somewhere in the middle of being a millennial and a generation x, so I didn't fit so neatly into one of these categories, but still found a lot I could relate to. It was particularly interesting to read the author and researcher's opinions on the futures of each generation. 

Hidden Potential was another interesting non-fiction read. I have two teenagers who are getting ready to launch, so I loved reading this book with them in mind. I also got the honor of being on a zoom video call with the author, which was SO cool! He was really fun and funny and clearly loves his job. 

Ann Patchett is one of my favorite authors and she writes beautiful books. Tom Lake was one I listened to on audiobook (while quilting, of course) and it was narrated by Meryl Streep. AMAZING to listen to her voice. So well done!

Speaking of... The Dutch House is an older Ann Patchett book and this one is narrated by Tom Hanks. Who doesn't want to listen to Tom Hank's voice for 10 hours?! The book was great, too, but honestly I could listen to Tom Hanks read the phone book. 

And last but not least, Stars in an Italian Sky was a beautiful book set in both 1946 and 2017, with beautiful characters and lots of twists and turns. I loved this book. 

If you'd like some of my older book recommendations, check out blog posts here and here and here and here. 

These post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting my small business. :)