At this point in pregnancy, I’m very much against wearing real pants. Luckily my real job allows me to work from home where sweatpants are perfectly acceptable. (Though there are those times when I have to leave the house, and lately I’ve come to really resent having to put on jeans!)

My sweet friend, Phiona, knowing this, made me a fabulous pair of pajama/lounge pants recently. They’re super comfortable, with a great smocked waist, and of course, in a great fun fabric!

I wore them for days after receiving them, and then convinced Phiona to let me use her pattern to make up a second pair for a little variety. (Unfortunately, for those who might ask, there’s no pattern at the moment. Phiona created her own pattern based on a pair of her favorite pajamas from Anthropologie)

(31 weeks. Very fashionable, right?!)

Well, now you know what I’ll be sporting all weekend!

I’ve been wanting to make one of these plus quilts since I saw this one. You already know of my love of patchwork quilts and 3 1/2 ” squares, so it wasn’t too far of a jump to rearrange the squares into this fun plus pattern. My initial thought was that I’d use just one print, the Amy Butler pink coriander, and pair it with lots of solids in shades of gray. Turns out that the gray solids I have here don’t really play so nicely together, so instead I started pulling out various shades of pink solids. Then I discovered two lovely Liberty of London prints I had on hand that also included the same dark pink as the Amy Butler print. And from there it was only a matter of time before I had added in a whole variety of oranges, yellows and a light green. The end result is a bright, summer sherbet-y bunch of colors… perfect for August, I think!

It seems rather appropriate to have just finished this quilt, just in time for my 2 year blogiversary, since it’s one of the very first quilt tops I made. This happens to be another one of those quilts that I started way back when (according to the original post about this quilt, that would be in August of 2008), long before I actually knew anything about quilting. If I recall, I saw some version of this quilt on Flickr and decided I should make one. I wanted a scrappy quilt, so I used one piece of each fabric I owned at the time (I ended up having to buy a few scrap bags so as to not duplicate any!)

I do specifically remember that I wasn’t sure this sewing thing was going to stick, so I was really against investing in all the “quilting tools” which would have made my life easier. (Morgan finally talked me into a tiny cutting mat and a teeny tiny rotary cutter).

At this point in time I would look at a piece of fabric and would have absolutely no idea how to go about cutting it – either in a straight line, or in any shape I might want (even a simple shape like these rectangles!). I had my brother come over and cut several rectangular templates for me out of a file folder. Then I used my teeny tiny rotary cutter to cut around this paper template. The template got smaller and smaller as I kept trimming little slivers off each side (oops!). I convinced myself that wouldn’t really matter in the end, so I just kept going. Of course, we all know how that ended, right?

After I started sewing the rows together it clearly wasn’t lining up correctly and I got a little tired of it. I put it away for a while and then periodically pulled it out and considered finishing it. Each time I pulled it out I remembered why I hadn’t finished it. I was pretty convinced I wasn’t going to finish it and I almost cut it apart to get a few pieces of my favorite fabrics back.

Fast forward to about a month ago. I pulled it out (again!) and decided that it deserved to be finished. If for nothing else than to remind myself about how I started. So it’s done, and while it’s certainly not one of my favorites, I’ve decided to embrace it in all its wonkiness! And speaking of wonky, want to see that part?

Oh, here’s some!

Oh, and here’s a little more wonkiness… (and yes, those little slivers are supposed to be full rectangles. In order to square the quilt I ended up just hacking the bottom off!)

But if nothing else, this might show you how a little quilting and a trip through the washer and dryer can make things look a lot better. And once it’s all rumpled on the couch I don’t even notice how it doesn’t line up correctly!

I love Heather Ross’s Far Far Away fabrics, and I think they make a splendid quilt, due in part to the wonderful colors and prints, and also because the double gauze is so soft! For this one I cut 6″ squares of the prints (I think I managed to include all the prints from this line except one that I was missing).

I decided to make it extra girly, so the back is two pinks from Amy Butler’s solids, with a strip of some of the prints from the front… and another princess, just for good measure!

A little story for you – back in the day, (long enough ago, and when I was young enough that the story isn’t that embarrassing!) my life’s dream was to be a ballerina. I was kind of clumsy though, and not really ballerina material, so I had to come up with a new dream. My cousin and I decided that we should become house painters (I’m quite glad that never came to fruition!). We decided we would set ourselves apart by only painting houses pink and purple. (Did I mention this was my male cousin? Yes Zach, I’m talking about you!) Anyway, the pink and purple backing of this quilt immediately made me think of this dream.

But back to the quilt… It’s bound in a solid purple. I quilted this one with straight lines again, trying to keep the quilting to a minimum so it would stay as soft as possible. The lines run diagonally through the squares in one direction, and in the other direction I used two diagonal lines for a little variety and some extra interest. It makes a lovely pattern on the back. This one measures about 42″ x 52″.

It’s all washed, dried and crinkly and soft… and now for sale in the shop! Sold!

I had a few issues while quilting this one – I had to spend a little time with the seam ripper, and I ended up with a little fold on the back that I only discovered after I was all finished (of course!). Luckily, now that it’s washed and dried and crinkly all over, it’s hardly noticeable.

For the back I did some simple strips at the top and a pieced section near the bottom using up my remaining strips from the front. I purposely added in some white strips in that section to give it that sectioned look.

(you’ll have to ignore all those wrinkles – I have issues remembering to take things out of the dryer. Just ask Morgan…)

(Speaking of Morgan, he’ll be sad that I made him pose with this quilt this morning before work and then I ended up not using them)

Enough asides – here’s the start of my next project. Back to triangles…

In order to make the quilt large enough, I separated the 4″ squares into blocks of 12 (4 across by 3 down). I framed each block with white and then alternated this with blocks of white framed in a corresponding fabric. These prints are mainly from the Amy Butler Daisy Chain line, as that’s what I had available at the time.

(please ignore all the wrinkles – it’s been rolled up waiting to be quilted!)

In case anyone is interested, the measurements are as follows:

The patchwork blocks require 12 4″ squares, sewn together 4 by 3. For this quilt, I used 8 patchwork blocks, or 96 4″ squares. My squares were a little less than square, so once the squares were sewn together, I trimmed each block to 10 1/2″ x 14″.

I then cut 7 white rectangles of the same size (10 1/2″ x 14″)

The patchwork blocks were framed with 3″ strips of solid white, while the white blocks were framed with 3″ strips of the daisy chain fabrics.

Finished blocks measure approximately 15″ x 19″ and the quilt itself measures approximately 55″ x 73″. I expect it to shrink a bit, as my fabrics are not pre-washed.

I love the look of this one, and I think you may see it here again in the future with different fabrics!

I like it because it’s bright and summery, which is so unlike our current Vermont weather (snow, wind, and zero degree temps). Perhaps this is the wrong time of the year for such a quilt, but I’m hoping it will remind me of the nicer weather to come (can a quilt do that? perhaps I’m asking too much…)

I think I cut a flower from every piece of floral fabric I own. The flowers are all different sizes, then framed in white and cut to blocks of 10″ square. For those of you who have asked in the past, I used a solid white which I purchased at JoAnn’s. It’s a 100% cotton sateen. On the bolt, it appears to have a very noticeable pinkish hue, though luckily this seems to go away (somehow!) when used.

I need to figure out something for the back and maybe I’ll find some time for some quilting this weekend.

I’m looking forward to seeing this one finished!

I started thinking about his quilt right after Thanksgiving, and went through my fabric stash to pick out all the ‘guy’ fabrics. I selected fabrics in shades of green, orange and blues (nothing with flowers!). Then those fabrics sat in a pile for a couple weeks while I tried to think of a pattern to use.

I finally decided on this for the front – I love how the white brightens up these fabrics -

I used the orange Amy Butler striped fabric for the majority of the binding, and also pieced in a few other prints from the quilt top because I really do love a pieced binding.

(Once I finished quilting it I just couldn’t resist taking it outside in the snow)

Now I must tell you a little bit about my brother. We tease Ryan for his OCD tendencies – he really likes everything to be straight and to line up correctly, and he does love everything to be clean (let’s not tell him I had his quilt out in the snow!). We discovered that he has a real issue with blankets or quilts when he can’t tell which end is the top. In his opinion, you should always have your feet at the same end of the blanket so you’re never putting your face next to the side where your feet may have been. (Personally, I don’t care, and maybe that just means I’m the one with the problem!)

Maybe you have to know him to find this as funny as I do, but I really got a kick out of making the back of this quilt -

And it looks like he’s pretty happy with it as well…

Merry Christmas Ryan! May your head never be where your feet have been…

So what to do but have a giveaway!

There are some larger pieces here – a few fat quarters and one or two that may even be larger than that, as well as a mix of smaller scraps and a few pre-cut squares. Most is quilting weight cotton but there are a couple pieces of home dec weight fabrics as well.

Just leave me a comment – about anything, really! – and I’ll pick a winner on Monday night.

Edit: Comments are now closed. I’ll pick a winner and will announce it tomorrow morning!

I decided to make this makeup/toiletries bag because I had some vinyl coated marimekko fabric just perfect for the interior. I didn’t have a pattern, nor did I bother to look for one, figuring it would be quick and easy to whip up a little zippered bag. It all seemed ok until I decided to use french seams. Add that to the already thick canvas fabric, and I was left trying to sew through fabric that barely fit under the sewing machine foot.

I should have stopped then and just called it a loss.

Instead I felt I had to finish it.

I’m going to force myself to use it, though I’m definitely not in love.

You’ll see that the zipper can’t even close all the way, and for some reason, the shape of the whole thing seems to have gotten a bit distorted. Don’t ask. It was a good idea in theory, just lacked a bit in the execution.

I’m going back to quilting.

And with that being said, here’s a little peek at yet another quilt that I’ve started. What’s that, three quilts now that I’ve started and then abandoned? Although I shouldn’t say abandoned, as I fully intend to finish them all. I seem to reach a certain point and then I find myself already thinking about the next quilt design.

I think we’re due for snow here this weekend, so perhaps that will give me the time to get these quilts finished!