A Quilt For Justin

Wow, time has been flying by this Winter! We had a great break, and were able to take a long road trip to visit family. Before Christmas, I was sewing like mad to get all my hand made gifts done in time. I barely got it all done– had to finish some binding on the road! But it was totally worth it to be able to give the gifts I made to my family.

There was one in particular that I was so happy to make this year– a quilt for my wonderful husband.

Although we have a number of quilts around the house, Justin would jokingly say that I had never made a quilt for him. I knew I needed to remedy this, so while he was at work I pieced the quilt top and back, basted and quilted the quilt, and hand finished the binding– all in the course of one week! I was careful not to let him see the quilt pieces so he wouldn’t know this was coming.

I decided to make a quilt using solid fabrics in a half-square triangle design. To add a little visual interest, I also sewed some log cabin blocks that became half square triangles to sprinkle into the quilt top. I used my left over log cabins in the back of the quilt, and I love that it is reversible. I had seen some really gorgeous HST quilts in the last year, and I really wanted to make one myself.

I love to see Justin using the quilt, and I’m happy it’s sticking around our house. One of the perks of sewing for your family!

Read Full Post »

Who wants a color card?? A Sewing Summit Giveaway!

*** This Giveaway is now closed***

As I mentioned yesterday, I had sooo much fun at the sewing summit. One of the great things about it was all of the swag I got to bring home! I’m looking forward to trying some new thread, batting, and using other goodies I got! At the end of Jeni’s class on fabric selection, we were lucky enough to all get Kona color cards. These are so useful when trying to find solids for a project, and I love the one I already have. Now that I have 2, I thought this would be the perfect thing to share with one of you! After all, I can’t talk about how great the sewing summit was without sharing something with you all!

I found the Kona color card to be VERY helpful when working on a project such as this:

Matching all of those solid fabrics is SO much easier when you can see an actual swatch in person!
So, if you’d like to enter to win the Kona color card, leave me a comment on this post, and introduce yourself (that is, if I don’t already know you!). Say hi, tell me where you’re from or if you have a blog, or any little thing. I had so much fun meeting up with my bloggy friends this past weekend that I’d like to keep it going and get to know you all a little more!
I’ll leave the comments open until Sunday at 1pm, at which time I’ll pick a winner.

Read Full Post »

I won!

I was so surprised and thrilled to find out that I won the Robert Kaufman “No Prints Allowed” challenge held through the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild! There were so many amazing quilts made by members of the guild, it was hard to choose a favorite! There were 2 winners– my quilt was chosen by our judges, Marny and Jill from Modern Quilt Relish, and Jenna’s quilt was voted as favorite by the guild! I also loved Jenna’s quilt, and could definitely see making one like it in the future.

The judges provided thoughtful feedback about each of the quilts, and about mine they wrote “It is a remarkably simple, yet visually rewarding, creative quilt. There is a masterful use of value as a design tool. The negative spaces and the unique layout make a very modern statement.”
Thanks so much, Marny and Jill!

You can see all of the quilts made by the A2MQG on flickr. Just click here!

My quilt front:

And the back:

I also am linking up to Gen X Quilter’s summer fair. Head over there to see a great array of quilts and recipes!

Read Full Post »

Swap time!

I recently participated in my first sewing swap! It was hosted through flickr, and was called “spicing up the kitchen.” Everyone was assigned a secret partner, and a little information about your partners kitchen and favorite fabrics was provided to help when making a few kitchen items to send to them.

My partner wanted a kitchen mat that would coordinate with the orange accents in her kitchen, so I used a disappearing 9-patch pattern to whip this up. I used 2 layers of batting to make it nice and cushy, and home dec weight fabric to make it sturdy.

I also whipped up a set of coordinating kitchen towels. My partner seemed to like her things, and I was so happy!

Then… I got my package in the mail! My partner was totally awesome and made me a set of 4 placemats, using a combination of bright colors (and some of my favorite fabrics!) and linen. I also received a few linen tea towels, and a few small packs of fabric! I wasn’t so sure about the swap when I signed up for it, but it turned out great.

And, if that wasn’t enough, I found out that I won a bonus giveaway– anyone who had their swap package ready and sent on time was entered in a drawing for an apron, made by Erin (from two more seconds) who hosted the swap. I was so surprised that I won, and am very excited about getting my new apron. Thanks so much, Erin!

And then, because I couldn’t help myself, I signed up for another swap. This one is called “for the love of solids,” and I just couldn’t resist. I had so much fun making this quilt for the kona solids challenge for the Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild, and I have been building up my stash of solids. I’m excited to get to work on it! I thought I could squeeze in one more thing this summer!

Read Full Post »

Stacks of Books

One reason I have had less time for blogging over the last few weeks is that I’ve been trying to finish up numerous quilts I gave as gifts, and I’m happy to report I got every last project finished! There was one in particular that took a LOT of time and planning, and that was the Stacks of Books quilt.

I actually first had the idea for this quilt when I saw the chopped vegetable pillow pattern on Oh Fransson’s website. It occurred to me that those stacked strips of fabric looked a lot like books. So it took me about 2.5 seconds to decide I needed to make a stacks of books quilt for my mom. And that I wanted to embroider the titles of some of her favorite books onto the quilt. And I wanted apples or pears at the top of each stack of books. It’s like the quilt just jumped right into my mind, and I could see nearly every aspect of it and wanted to make it right away!

This quilt had particular significance, because my mom is an English teacher, and is a bit obsessed with books (she is a self-professed “bibliophile“). It always seems like she’s read everything, and she literally has stacks of books all over the place. It was easy to initiate a conversation about her all time favorite books (so I’d know what to add to the quilt), and she didn’t suspect a thing.

Of course it took quite a bit of time– I ordered kona solids in a ton of different colors (I was going for a rich and saturated look), and I wanted to feature a just a few print fabrics in between to keep things interesting.
I pieced smaller parts of each stack and embroidered book titles onto them, and then joined them together to make the larger stacks. This was a real adventure for me– lots and lots of piecing on a pretty large quilt, and I had never embroidered anything before! I found a lot of help on the internet– particularly in the awesome website sublime stitching. I definitely recommend it!

The back features large blocks of some of the kona solids from the front, and for the sashing on both the front and the back I used Kona ivory. After a while I began referring to the quilt as “the beast,” because it felt like such a huge undertaking. I was so, SO happy to see it get finished well ahead of the holidays.

Plus– best of all– my mom loves it. It was worth every minute it took to make it!

Read Full Post »

My favorite quilt (well, one of my favorites)

I think I’m in love with this quilt.

I made it as a wedding gift for our family friend who officiated our wedding ceremony.

I have loved the stacked coins since I first saw them– they look like the perfect blend of traditional and modern to me. I had a hard time parting with this one.

I am really happy with my decision to sash in the kona cotton in the color “wheat.”

I decided to quilt it with a blue thread. At first I was not a fan– I usually match my sashing color so the quilting really fades away. After quilting about a third of this quilt, I almost pulled it all out. It just showed up so much! But J said he liked it, and pointed out how it made the “puzzle pieces” of the stippling stand out. When it was all finished, I had to agree– I ended up loving it. Especially how it showed up on the chocolate-y brown on the back of the quilt.

Read Full Post »