Summer of Quilts!

Two whole months without a blog post.  Maybe it should be called a "bog"!  But there's been lots of sewing going on, and more to come.

An Irish Baby Quilt

You can't see it in the photo, but the label fabric has little storks all over it.  Sweet!

My niece's new baby, Miles, arrived in May, so of course I just had to make him a quilt.  And because he lives in Ireland, it had to be flannel.  Guess it could have been an Irish Chain, but I wanted something simple that would go fast.  Good plan, especially if one ends up making two quilts!

I started the quilt last winter, but decided that I didn't like the fabric at all (it will become a charity quilt that someone will love).

 

Cute fabric, but...

It just doesn't work as a Disappearing Nine-Patch (bleagh!)

So I started over.  Much better, I think!  And I got a great deal on a charm pack on the web :-D

Nice variety of light and dark.  I think he'll like it!

Isn't this cute?  (Yeah, this one's not too square, but Miles won't care!)

 The brown fabric is Minkee.  So soft, and I'll bet the babies love the bumps.  But what a pain!  It stretches like crazy, and it melts under normal quilt-pressing conditions.

Fortunately, I ran across the same fabric at Jo-Ann.  Some strategic ripping and Y-seams and the melted squares were replaced.  Found some of the blue snowflake fabric, too, so I used it for the backing.

 Best of all, I managed to churn out a nice big pile of four-patch units for the Easy Street Mystery Quilt, using the squares as leaders and enders as I stitched the baby quilt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wedding Bells!

My wonderful son became engaged in January to the Lovely Christine.  The wedding is in July!  Not much time to make an elaborate quilt, but thankfully, Christine's tastes run to the modern (i.e., simple).   I picked a geometric pattern (http://aquilterspath.blogspot.com/2013/01/happy-new-year.html) with a white and gray background and rich batiks as the focus fabrics.


This puppy is BIG!  Queen size -- thank goodness for my nice big sewing table -- just getting the final border on the quilt top was a challenge, never mind attaching the binding after it was quilted. 

Sneak peek!  The quilt top before heading off the the long-arm quilter, Janet at Farmhouse Quilts (she also has a Facebook page, Farmhouse Quilt Company).  Can you see the teal and green peeking out?

 Almost done -- I'm hand-sewing the binding to the quilt back now, then just need to add the label.  The next post will be the big reveal!

AND...  I'm spending that binding time dreaming about the quilt I'll make for my lovely niece, Molly, who is getting married in August!  (I told you this was a summer of quilts!).  She has requested a lap quilt for cool summer boat rides.  Fun!  I can't wait to get started.  Blue and yellow, maybe?  Maybe paper-pieced boats?  Anyone want to help me decide?