Saffron and Cyan {2 finished quilts!}

The DCMQG has a tradition of making quilts for new babies.  That’s a lot of baby quilts each year, so volunteers coordinate specific quilts. I always love making a block or two to contribute to a quilt, but this past fall I changed it up a bit by volunteering to coordinate a quilt for a little boy, which is exciting for me since I normally sew for girls. 

The mom-to-be gave me some specific ideas for color palettes and quilt design (she really likes Denyse Schmidt’s Hop Skip Jump pattern) which was so helpful since I was a little bit nervous about the responsibility of coordinating the quilt.

I tried a new quilting design from one of Angela Walters’ books in the center orange portion of the quilt.  Then I did my old stand-by of teardrops in the blue section.

After assembling the baby’s quilt, there were quite a few very usable strips of fabric left over, and I hated to waste them, so big brother (he’s two years old) got his own quilt too!  I think I enjoyed putting this quilt together even more.  Picking out solid fabric from my stash for the block backgrounds was my favorite part, along with figuring out how to make enough strips out of the leftovers once I’d used them up and still needed a few.  A couple of strips have orange and blue in them for that reason, but I think the mismatched strips add to the playfulness of the design!

This bigger quilt I stippled…I love the quickness and texture it gives a quilt.   Normally I go with one fabric for binding, but this quilt specifically asked for a scrappy binding and I was happy to oblige.

Both quilts were well received and I’ve already seen a few photos of them in use on Instagram, the best kind of thank you

Another baby quilt

Lots of my friends and family are having baby boys this winter.  I’ve made quite a few little boy quilts the past two months.  The latest is a little different than the log cabin quilts I’ve been making.

Of course the fabric is elephants!  The line is called “Bungle Jungle.”  I love the primary colors.  Each sashing strip is from a line by Jenn Ski that I just had in my stash.  The binding is a polka dot on blue by Connecting Threads.  The finished quilt measures 42 x 46. 

I was able to pick up some matching backing fabric at a great price at one of the many Black Friday sales events. 

I used the seams for a guide and quilted a 1/4” inside all the seams.  I like the look of the straight lines across the backing.

Who couldn’t use a ginormous bottle of wine and cute baby blanket to celebrate the birth of baby boy #2????

My daughters sang in church this past Sunday.  Bea stood by Esther even though that meant she had to stand with the preschoolers (which she wasn’t thrilled about because she is in first grade, don’t forget!). 

Thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day!  Linking up to Tuesday at the Table and Freemotion by the River.

Mod Mosaic Quilt Block

I just made this block from Elizabeth Hartman’s tutorial found here.  It was fun to make and I enjoyed picking scraps for this block.  Sometimes I have a hard time sticking to just using scraps for a bee block project, and usually end up cutting into my fat quarters and bigger pieces, but this time I stuck to only scraps and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.

Today was 1/2 price at the “Treasure Store” (aka The Salvation Army Superstore).  My daughter found this cute clock for $1.

A little bit of paint scratched off on the 3 when I removed the price tag, but otherwise it’s in great condition and works.  I have a little beef with the way the price tags are attached to everything in the store.  It would have been way better to stick the tag to the back of the clock, and many times the clothes have permanent holes from the price tags.  But it’s still a fun and cheap shopping trip.

WIP Wednesday

I don’t normally link up to this since I am never organized to have a blog post on a Wednesday, but I just finished up my Colorblock quilt last night and wanted to share a few pics.  The finished size for me was 40.5” x 55” exactly, which is the perfect size for Veronica.

I am going to use this quilt as my entry for the My Precious Quilt A long.  If you haven’t seen this on another blog, you should check it out.  You don’t have to make a quilt for an entry (pretty much anything sewn is fine), and the fabric doesn’t necessarily have to be HTF, just special to you.

This quilt is made from DS Quilts fabrics that I have been collecting and some Hello Pilgrim prints.  I bought a Hello Pilgrim fat quarter bundle recently, and after using up most of the butterfly prints for this quilt, I ordered a half yard of the dark blue and aqua butterflies to replace the ones I used.  Not the best practice if you’re trying to use up your stash, but I love them so much I don’t ever want to be without!

The back is one of my first sewing fabric purchases ever.  It felt good to finally use it (most of it).   I fmq’ed squiggles all over with light aqua thread on the front and back.  Currently my walking foot is out of commission and I need to buy a new one, but the $50 pricetag is holding me back.  Why is it that I *must* buy new fabric, but I can just fmq until I finally get around to purchasing a walking foot???

I can’t wait to look at all the WIPs on Freshly Pieced when the kiddos go to bed tonight.