Tall Tales Baby Quilt

I had intended to make more of these adorable foundation pieced blocks, but I cut things a bit short when I realized they would be perfect for my book loving friend's new baby. Using 20 blocks (8" square unfinished), I staggered the placement and added a quick border to make a 37 x 49 baby quilt.

The blocks, which use adorable Heather Ross prints, are just so cute for tummy time and story time - they would be great for any baby - but I know my friend is going to love making up silly tales about each one with her kids.

The background is a lovely, soft peppered cotton, and the backing fabric is a Alexander Henry print I have been hoarding for a while. A great black and white print goes with anything! I chose the texty binding print by Carolyn Friedlander which is a bit on the nose for the quilt theme. It made me chuckle anyway.

You can find the Tall Tales Quilt blocks by Quilt with Kate on Etsy. 

Quilt Blocks for a Book Lover

I have a small stash of special Heather Ross prints. The hand drawn quality and quirky subject matter of her fabrics is perfect for fussy cutting and quilt blocks that need a focal image. As I was thinking about the stories such images tell, I was reminded of a cute paper pieced book block I'd seen around the web. It is the Tell Tale block pattern by Quilt with Kate. 

The Heather Ross prints make perfect book covers, and I enjoy imagining the titles and subject matter of each one. The frog cover is of course Wind in the Willows, and clearly we have an account of the  the Princess and pea. The unicorn has to be a book of fairytales. The girl and her cat cover is a recent YA novel full teen ennui. Maybe this book is memoir about Woodstock. 

No More Fussy Baby Quilt

This sweet baby quilt is from the slice and insert section of Improvising Tradition.  I pulled out some of my favorite, treasured novelty prints for this project and paired them with a cheerful aqua solid.

Novelty prints are so much fun, but they can be hard to use.  Slice and insert is wonderful technique for novelty prints and fussy cuts.  With improv there is no more cutting the tail off that puppy or having to choose between the cute little moon or star to fit a prescribed pattern size; you can tailor your fussy cut to the image you want to feature!  Just match the surrounding strip to the dimensions of your fussy cut, and you're all set to add it to your row.

I had the pleasure, last month, of seeing one of the first projects a local quilter has made from the book.  Cheryl Brady made this cute version of the quilt using a Good Night Moon print.  She even quilted stars in the center. 

Thanks for letting me share your pictures, Cheryl!  I would love to see your Improvising Tradition projects.  Email me, upload them to my flickr group, or tag them #improvisingtradition on Instagram.

English Paper Piecing Revisited

I last wrote about this (very long term) English paper piecing project three years ago.  I can't believe it's been that long since I worked on it, but that's what the blog record  says.  I'd forgotten how fun it is to fussy cut scraps for the shapes.  I played around with the various effects you can get from fussy cutting stripes, dots, and other motifs on your fabric. You can see lots of individual pictures of the stars in my instagram feed.

I am still using the paper shapes from Paperpieces and the Sewline glue pen.  Making the jewel stars is relatively quick (I mean, this is hand sewing after all). I can make one, start to finish, including the fussy cutting, while waiting through one gymnastics class (about 45 minutes).  It's nice to have a portable sewing project, especially with so many sports practices these days.

Now that I have about ten stars made, I'm working on joining them to the low volume background fabrics and sewing them onto the group I made a few years ago.  This step is slow going and a bit of a puzzle.

Hopefully it won't be another three years before I have more to show you on this project.

Slow Growth

My latest paper pieced project is growing - very slowly.  I'm trying to decide how much bigger it should be.  It may be a pillow, or perhaps a wall hanging.  Not sure yet.

I can report that the papers are fairly easy to remove, using the Sewline pen, if you are gentle.  I eased the fabric away from the papers before pulling the papers out.  So far, so good!

Kidlet

The kidlet by Jennifer Casa has been on my to do list for a while now, and I had a few days between larger projects to fit in some sewing time.  Besides being quick to make, these are perfect for storing all the little toys and treasures that seem to collect in my boys' rooms.  The handle and small size make it easy for kids to carry themselves.  It's just right for toting all those little toys around the house.

I'm thinking these will be another go to gift idea for kids.

Summer Sunshine

The masculine version of Summer Sorbet is done.
I'm calling it Summer Sunshine because it has so many summer delights - tadpoles in jars, VW vans camping, a cotton candy vendor, your favorite tricycle and more. These are all prints by Heather Ross - super hard to find and so unique.

I finished this quilt with a new to me technique - faux piped binding. The tutorial was great. This type of binding is finished by machine, so while it was a little fiddly, it did end up being a bit quicker than doing a traditional finish by hand.I love that it allows you to use two fabrics for the binding! I think it adds a really fun detail to this happy quilt. The backing is a simple, linear print that includes many of the colors from the front of the quilt.

Summer Sorbet

I finished my first star quilt - I'm calling it Summer Sorbet, one of the many great suggestions I received from you all. I love how soft the colors and fabrics feel. It is 36 x 48.

Part of what has kept me away from my blog was finding the perfect binding and backing to finish off this lovely, girly quilt. I found this stripe from Michael Miller, and I can't believe how exactly it matches the colors in the front of the quilt!

I used the same allover quilting I used with my nephew's quilt, and I like how it sort of disappears to allow the fabrics to shine.
Sandi Henderson's Meadowsweet is so lovely, I just used two prints from the line on the back of the quilt. So bold and fresh!

Another project has been keeping me busy, and I'll be able to share it with you on Friday!

Guild Charity Project

My quilt guild, the KCMQG, is working on a charity project - 15-20 quilts for the NICU at a local hospital. I have two friends who are NICU nurses, and they have both said that there is always a need for handmade items for the tiny people they serve. In fact, there are never enough special things to go around. That, along with the fact that my younger son was in the NICU for two months after birth, makes me very excited to contribute to this project.

The assignments were color specific, and we were told to make square in a square or improvised log cabin blocks. I made two pink and green blocks using some great Hushabye and Full Moon Forest I was able to find (at Tula Pink's mom's store no less!!).

And here are the orange and blue blocks. I used up some of my Heather Ross scraps from past projects :).

Star Top #2 Completed

I've had so many great suggestions for names for the girl quilt of this pair (thank you - I'm really bad at naming quilts!), and I like how Citric Sugar's ideas for the names of both quilts go together :). I'll ponder my options. Here is the completed boy top.

And two favorite blocks:
I like how the knome looks like he's getting ready to load the van with mushrooms.

Star Top #1 Completed

Help me out here, I have no idea what to call these two quilts. The girly one is pieced, and the boy will soon follow.This is my favorite block. Notice the princess waiting patiently for the icecream truck!

Seeing Stars Again

I've pieced about half of the girly liberated/maverick star blocks for my second baby quilt using mostly Heather Ross fabrics.

I just adore the pink, red, yellow, orange and peach colors together. I'm thinking something from Meadowsweet in peach would be great for the back.With the boy blocks nearly finished, I've begun thinking of these quilts as fraternal twins.

Finish One, Start Two

I finished a project, so that means I get to start a new one, right? Or two? Here are some maverick stars I've made with fussy cut munki munki centers. Certainly not an original idea, as you can find some on flickr, made by Heather Ross nuts. Super fun though, and I'm planning on making a boy and a girl quilt in this fashion. So far I have nine "boy" blocks done, so just three to go on that quilt.
It's been fun to play with the small pieces of munki munki and other Heather Ross prints I have acquired. I've vowed not to get too hung up on out of print fabrics though - there is just too much beautiful new stuff coming out at every market to pay exorbitant prices for rare fabrics.

There is just nothing out there like munki munki though. Hopefully these quilts will get it out of my system! :)