Scrappy Quilt for Melody

One of my oldest friends welcomed his first child a few months ago. I made this baby quilt using my favorite string blocks.

They didn't know if they were having a boy or a girl, so I started by making the blocks gender-neutral. Once the baby was born, I added lots of pink and purple to make it a little more girly. I love the result! Lots of colors, and lots of memories, too. I see scraps from my own kids' quilts and lots of projects I've loved over the years. 

I was also able to do some fussy cuts around cute prints. Love! 

The binding is solid gray, as to not compete too much with the busyness of the quilt. 

And the back, oh! the backing! I love this fabric. I saw it at Hobby Lobby and knew that I loved it, but it is SO perfect for this quilt because the baby's father is a photography teacher! Perfect! 

I hope baby Melody loves her quilt and uses it for many years to come. I think babies sleep better under homemade blankets. 

Welcome to the world, Melody!

You can view all 70+ quilts I've made by clicking this link:
http://sew-handmade.blogspot.com/p/completed-quilts.html

Thanks for visiting!

Newest Addition to My Sewing Room

I made a scrappy fabric wreath today! It will be added to the door of my sewing room and I LOVE it (although it was quite tedious to make!). It is a combination of some solid cotton fabric and scraps from my many vintage sheet quilts. 

A Tree & A Rainbow

My daughter's teacher asked for one of my tree pillows, with an emphasis on orange leaves. (You can see all the tree objects I've made by clicking here and here and here and here).

 And also a rainbow pillow, inspired by this quilt. 

 The square and rectangle scraps are attached with matching thread. Love love love me a rainbow! 

I hope she loves her new pillows! I really enjoy making pillows - it's a fairly quick project (well compared to a quilt, anyway!) and a fun way to add color and comfort to a room. 

A String Block Pillow

{SOLD}

This little pillow is about 12" square and is made from some of my most favorite fabrics. 

I love making string blocks... they are really quite addictive. 

This pillow is for sale - please comment or contact me if you'd like details. {SOLD}

Birthday Tree

My friend Elizabeth is having a birthday today and I made her a little tree pillow to celebrate. I hope she loves it!

I'm not tired of making these trees yet! You can see all the tree objects I've made by clicking here (pillow #2) and here (pillow #1) and here (pillow #3) and here (pillow #4) and here (table runner).

Scrappy Rainbow Quilt

On St. Patrick's Day, I made a little rainbow quilt. I loved my little piles of colorful scraps. 

It's about 20 inches square and will be a wall hanging, although I'm not sure where yet. 

Am I the only one who feels like there's zero breeze until I attempt to photograph a quilt? 

The colors of the rainbow are made with small squares (about ¾- 1 ½") and quilted with matching thread in an arch shape. 

Above the rainbow is quilted with big loops (to look like clouds in my mind). 

And below, the quilting mimics the arch of the rainbow and some little hills and landscape shapes. 

The back is rainbow polka dots on white and it turned out to be pretty fun with the colors of the thread I used for the quilting. 

I think the back is almost as fun as the front... 

... almost...   ; ) 

My love of rainbows goes back to when I was a little girl. I love this quilt and I think (?) I am done with rainbows for a little while, after several projects in a row! We will see!  : )

Bee Vintage :: March Block

This is a March block for the Bee Vintage quilting bee. Yes, you read that right - the MARCH block. I'm early! Woohoo! And since my block is the 2nd block of the month, I'm done with my bee blocks until April. Weird...

I'm in a very motivated, inspired mood today. Unfortunately, all of my own projects require white fabric and I'm all out. I didn't realize until about 10 minutes before my son's nap time, so running into town (20 minutes one-way) was out of the question. And when Nikki posted her request for these blocks and they required colorful solids, it was meant to be!

The tutorial for these blocks is here: filminthefridge.com/2011/10/12/scrappy-triangles-a-quilt-... Super easy to make and I can imagine this will be a lovely quilt.

My Turn for Bee Vintage

March is my month in the Bee Vintage quilting bee and I’m excited to share my idea with you. I want to make a tree quilt! Below are some photos I've found for inspiration. 

My “rules” for the ladies are simple: I've asked for a plain white cotton for a background the finished block to measure 12.5.” Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the trees do not need to be all green! I’d prefer they use a variety of sheets – I love blues, purples, greens, and pinks. I’m not crazy about yellow, orange, red, or brown. 

Here's the tree I made for my soon-to-be quilt (the trunk is charcoal gray, although it looks a little dark in this picture):


And here are some examples of completed quilts and the idea I am going for:






And some ideas for individual trees:

These two have to be my favorites – I looooove these!


Here’s a bunch of cute ideas:


Another cute idea:


This one is so cute with little circles:
pointlessquilter.blogspot.com/2012/07/whisper-challenge-q...

I am SO excited to see what everyone comes up with!! I was so impressed with the wonky house blocks that were made a few years ago.

Vintage Sheets String Quilt

I finished my string quilt this week! It's made from vintage sheets and is an unbelievably soft and snuggly quilt. 

This quilt is for my nearly-seven-year old's room and is 60"x88" - a perfect fit for her daybed. 

Her favorite color recently changed from pink to blue, so I used a lot of my blue sheets for her. 

I don't know about you, but I can look at these fabrics for a long time... the colors and patterns are so lovely. The pastels of them all together look familiar and comforting and beautiful. 

After much deliberation, I decided to back the quilt in plain white. This way, I can use whatever fitted sheets and pillowcases I like without anything clashing. And if she changes her favorite color to something other than blue, we can compliment the quilt with a different sheet. For now, she has a soft blue and white fitted sheet and some of my most favorite vintage sheet pillowcases. 

 Tell me - am I the only one who wishes this was my bed to climb into?! So pretty. 

 I also used white fabric for binding the quilt. 

And made a pillow to match.  : )

 ...Now it's time to figure out what to do with the wall above her bed. I know what I'll be looking for on Pinterest! 

 Thank you to all the kind ladies who helped with these blocks in the Bee Vintage sewing bee! And... if you are a collector of vintage sheets, we are just about to begin another round and still have a few spaces left!

Merry Christmas Quilt

Last month, I took a class at a local quilt store and made this Merry Christmas quilt from the pattern in the book I Believe by Nancy Halvorsen. It was a fun class and a nice treat to sew, uninterrupted, for several hours. Here's my finished wall hanging!

 Each letter a different fabric, used from scraps from this quilt and other's I have collected over the years. The letters and shapes are stitched down with a blanket stitch. I love how it turned out, but it was a SLOW process. I joked that after all this work, it might be Christmas in my house all year long! I'm not sure I will want to put this in a storage box and not admire the time it took to make!

The white space around and behind the letters is quilting with a teeny-tiny stipple design. It was fun to do, but easy to get lost in between the letters. 

 I chose teal, blue, and red for my borders and green for the binding. I love how those blues stand out against the white and red.

 The back is pieced together with leftovers from my Christmas quilt from a few years ago. I was glad to find a good use for some fabrics I've been hanging onto for a long time now!

The quilt is hanging on the wall in between the kitchen, living room, and dining room. I love it!