Another Triangle Quilt {a finished quilt}

In the spring I participated in the Triangle Quilt Along and made a sweet Lizzy House Constellations triangle quilt that turned out amazing!  The pattern is simple, yet striking enough, so I decided to make my brother-in-law a Ravens quilt with the same pattern for the football season so he can cheer his team on in style!

My brother-in-law is 6’ 6” tall, so I had to make this quilt HUGE!  It’s the biggest quilt I’ve ever made, measuring 70” x 97” and it’s just big enough for a couch quilt.  I wish I had time to take photos of the quilt up close, but it was raining the day I finished it and he was only visiting for the day, so we took pics during a lull in the storm.  The fabrics in the quilt are really awesome—Julianna Horner prints in purple and slate, gold honeycomb dots and metro circles, and a large assortment of “manly” low volume prints. 

The quilt is so big it almost didn’t fit on our living room floor!

I like that the quilt doesn’t scream sports fan on the front.

But it does on the back!  I ordered this Ravens fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop.   He was pretty thrilled to get this quilt and had been hinting at wanting one for a while.  He said all his friends are going to be jealous, which is the best compliment a quilter can get!

Thanks for stopping by!

Applique Elephant {a finished quilt}

I needed a quilt for a friend’s baby shower, so I went to my copy of the book Quilts, Baby! for an idea.

This book has many inspirational and very original patterns in it, but I don’t recommend it to a beginner.  It’s more for an experienced quilter.

The elephant is raw-edge appliqued to the front.  After washing and drying, the edges of the elephant are softly frayed.

The background gray stars, the gray of the elephant’s body, and the pale yellow solid on the back are all Quilter’s Candy from Connecting Threads.  The brown for the eye and binding are from my stash.  And the blue plaid for the ear is from a recent trip to JoAnn’s.  It just called out to me from the fabric bolts as I was walking past.

The baby’s initials are embroidered with gray perle thread on the elephant’s neck. 

I wanted to make a matching basket for the baby’s room, using the same fabrics from the baby’s quilt.  The lining is solid yellow and the handles and bottom are linen.

I didn’t know what to put in the basket, but then I found a cute hooded towel (washcloths too) and onesies with elephants to carry on the theme and colors.

Too cute!

The finished quilt is 42” x 42”.   The batting is higher loft.

Thanks for reading!  Have a wonderful day!

Linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Two Turkeys Kissing

My daughter said, “Look, two turkeys kissing!” when she saw these pillows.

They measure 18”x18” and are made from Laurie Wisbrun’s  “Olive the Ostrich” (not turkey) line of fabric and various scraps.

I did straight line quilting about 1/8” from the seam lines with charcoal thread.  Then I did a bunch of lines around the ostriches to help frame them.

I used leftover fabric from other projects for the backs.  The closures are envelope style.  I haven’t got up the courage to do a zipper back yet.  Soon…

It feels good to have these done before Valentine’s Day.  Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes.

Getting back to sewing

We’ve been sick around here, and we’re not quite over it yet.  I did get a few precious moments tonight to get my bee blocks for April finished so I can mail them all out tomorrow.

We were asked to make 2 modern Gothic window blocks using gray/black/yellow background fabric.  I didn’t have anything that fit the bill, so I bought 3 fat quarters on Etsy right away, but then I ended up procrastinating until the very last minute to get these done.

These two blocks are slightly more rectangular than square.  One side is a 1/4 inch shorter, but if the queen bee is using sashing, these should be usable.

And once I get the hang of it and am ready to move on to doing my last two (hopefully perfect) blocks to send on to the queen bee, I make a move like this:

I wish I could say that mistakes like this are far and few between, but it’s more like every.time.I.sew.anything.  For real.

 

This block is my favorite.  It uses Washi for the background, and the yellow centers are a special-to-me yellow 3o’s repro that I’ve had for years.  Since this block only needed three 2 1/2 inch squares, I thought it would be acceptable if I cut into the fat quarter.

I also spent a little time cutting out fabric for my next quilt.  Everything is ready to chain sew.  I also got my Aneela Hooey quilt basted and ready to quilt. 

Hope you all had a restful and sewful weekend!