Nicey Jane Baby Quilt

About a month ago, a friend of my mom’s asked if I’d be interested in making a baby quilt for her soon-to-be-born granddaughter. I jumped at the chance, and I was very excited when we decided on using the Nicey Jane line of fabrics.

We chose a fairly simple design to really highlight the colors and prints from this line. I continued the design through the back of the quilt by adding a strip of squares with sashing. I also made a string of bunting flags to go along with the quilt– although I haven’t found an easy way to photograph those yet. I’ll share a pic as soon as I have one!

In other news, I *finally* worked up the courage to start on some of the curved piecing for my single girl quilt this weekend, and I have my first square done! I’m making a queen sized quilt for our bed, so my official count is: 1 square down, 15 to go. I think this might take me a while, but I think I’ll try to pin a few curves every evening to make it more manageable. It’s a little gray and dreary here, so I haven’t been able to get a picture yet, but I’m hoping to share one soon!

And, finally, here’s my favorite Simon photo from this week: He’s so cuddly and loves to be near us, and one morning he curled up right behind J. He’s so silly!

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Lots to share!

Ok, ok, so I don’t think I keep up with posting things as fast as I work on them. But I realize this is because I have been spending my time at my sewing machine, and not as much in front of my computer. Anyway, as a result I have a bunch of stuff to share!

First up, I have an update on my single girl quilt. I set out to make a queen sized quilt for our bed (yikes! Biggest quilt I’ve attempted yet!). I’ve been following along with the Single Girl Quilt Along, and I’ve found all the tips to be VERY helpful.
I am *almost* done piecing my rings (hoping to finish this today!) and then I need to cut out the background fabric and start piecing those curves!

Second, a friend of the family commissioned a baby quilt made from Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane fabric. I pulled out this stack, which I quickly cut into 5 inch squares.

Now that I have the layout finalized, I’m going to try to finish this quilt top soon!

Also– a quick note here on keeping all these pieces straight– I once read somewhere (unfortunately, I can’t remember where, but if I could I’d give full credit!!) that using small stickers to label rows (or even pieces) of a quilt can help keep things straight when moving between the design board and the sewing machine. I use file folder labels that I cut down to size, and label the top square of each row, and sew the pieces together moving down the rows from there. It helps SO MUCH when I chain piece squares and cut them apart and can’t otherwise remember what goes where!

On a different note, I’ve also been working on organizing my stash. I had kept things sorted by fabric line, but then I also had some stacks organized by color… and everything was starting to look like a mess. So, following Jeni’s recommendations from her “The art of choosing” series, I have been re-folding and stacking by color. I probably shouldn’t admit that this is just part of my stash, but I’m well on my way to having this done, and I love looking at this stack of fabric on the shelf in my living room! Sometimes the fabric and I just look lovingly at each other. Is that weird?

Last up, another dose of Simon! This time, he had curled up on the couch with his little stuffed dog friend, and was using his stuffed dog as a pillow. As usual, I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos of him.

Look how he has his little paw under the dog, like he’s giving him a hug! Ahhh, the cuteness just kills me!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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