Just a quick and easy strip quilt! I’ve been hanging onto this great fat quarter stack of the newish line by Monaluna for Birch Fabrics, Circa 52, for a while, and I’m happy to have come up with a fun way to use them.

These prints are so cute (and organic, which makes me love them even more!). I love the trees, and especially that cute forest print with the fox and bunting.

I wasn’t quite sure what other fabrics to pair with these prints, but after pulling out and auditioning many options, I was surprisingly pleased with these calming colors paired with a little bit of hot pink.

With Max crawling around and into almost everything, I needed something quick and easy, and this was just the ticket. I went with stripes, limiting myself to just 2″, 3″ and 4″ wide strips. I staggered the lengths, and alternated the widths of the strips as I went along. As a happy accident, a few of my strips ended up not quite long enough, so at the end I added a few vertical pieces to add to the length.

This quilt makes me very happy – I love the simple look, and I’m loving these colors, along with the variety of fun prints!

I started this quilt the other day. The idea was to use up some of my Echino fabrics – in my mind I imagined larger blocks so you could really see the various prints. Of course, as it so often goes, once I started cutting and playing with the fabrics it turned into something else entirely!

So here’s what we have on the design wall -

As you can see, rather than those larger blocks showing the Echino prints, I chopped them up into smaller strips and sewed various sized blocks together using a bunch of colorful solids.

In the end, I think I’m glad it took this turn – I think the stripes are fun, and I think it will make for an interesting wall hanging – perhaps something fun for the baby’s room? (We certainly haven’t gotten to the decorating stage yet, so who knows!)

I’ll probably keep it this smallish size, and maybe work on some dense straight line quilting. And maybe in the future I’ll have a chance to use up some more Echino fabrics in a larger quilt design!

I showed you a glimpse of these fabrics earlier in the California Dreamin’ mini quilt, but here you’ll be able to fully see Jenean Morrison’s beautiful fabrics from her new line, California Dreamin’. She wanted a simple striped pattern to show off the fabrics, and I was happy to oblige! I had such fun playing around with the order as well as the widths of the stripes to make these two beautiful quilts.

I started with this one because I was immediately drawn to the pinks and oranges.

I was certain this one would be my favorite, and it was, up until I made the second quilt in this colorway -

I particularly love the back of this one… echoing the stripes from the front, but just in small sections  – (and yes, the solid is Kona Olive again!)

Once they were both done I couldn’t decide which I liked better! (Ok, I’ll just say it — I love them both!!)

Typically when I know that I’m making a quilt for someone else, I don’t usually have a problem letting go, but in this case I had a hard time. I procrastinated sending them to her, and even contemplated holding them hostage for good. (I’m kidding… sort of!)

Here I am pretending that they actually belong to me — oh wait, what? You don’t take your someone else’s quilts out for a stroll?

Ah… anyway, you’ll all be pleased to know that I did ship them off, and Jenean should be receiving them any day now. And then they’ll hopefully be making their way to Quilt Market. If anyone happens to be going and should happen to catch a glimpse, snag me a photo, will you?!

Thanks again Jenean!

This quilt was so fun to make. I actually forgot that I had bought this great Marimekko panel… I think I bought it while I was in Florida, right before our wedding (when I was spending more time than I should have been shopping for fabric rather than taking care of last minute wedding details!) Anyway, the other night I came across this same piece of fabric online and read this description of it:

“Karkuteillä can be translated to “being at large” and these animals certainly seem to be up to something. The elephant and the zebra are wearing funny boots in an attempt to disguise themselves.”

Suddenly I wanted to make a quilt out of it right away. The thought of the animals escaping the zoo in their fancy shoes just makes me smile, each and every time I think of it.

So I pulled some corresponding fabrics and came up with this fun stripe design for the other side.

And I know I told you these aren’t colors I usually like… so you might laugh when I tell you how much I love this quilt. And I do. Very much.

I stippled this one and then finished it off with a great red and white striped binding.

It measures about 50″ square, and I’m really, really tempted to keep it, but I know the look Morgan will give me. A look that sort of says “are you crazy?” (but in a nice way, of course!) So for now, I’m going to list it in the shop, but once again, I might secretly be hoping that it doesn’t sell! Sold! Thanks Caroline!

(oh, and the name? mainly because it reminds me of the circus, and so it seemed appropriate to name it after one of my favorite books, Water for Elephants… (if you haven’t read it, you should!))

This one’s done! It’s still busy and it still makes me a little dizzy, but as expected, I am liking it more now that it’s completed.

For those who may not have seen the original post about this quilt, this is my take on the bento box quilt. I thought it might add a little interest to add a few more pieces to each block and to change the width of the strips a bit. A tutorial is posted here on the way I constructed these blocks.

I quilted it with a random meandering, using a light gray thread. (I use Mettler thread, and I can only say good things about it!) Initially I wasn’t sure I liked the gray on this quilt – it ended up being quite noticeable on the lighter backing, but I decided I could live with it (I just couldn’t bear the thought of ripping it all out to start again!)

The binding is a great turquoise stripe from the Lizzy House Red Letter Day line. And I’ve already shown you the back, but here it is again.

I wanted something simple, since the front is kind of busy, so these wide solid stripes seemed like a good idea. Of course I couldn’t resist adding in just a few other pieces of some of the prints from the front!

This one is on the smallish side, measuring about 40″ x 54″. I kept it small so I’d have enough of these fabrics for the second version (coming soon!)

I made a strip quilt a while ago out of some Amy Butler Daisy Chain fabric, and I knew I’d want to make another at some point.

Then I came across this quilt at Anthropologie, and was instantly reminded that I had this in mind to make. I had already pulled out a stack of fabrics and thought they’d work perfectly.

I wanted this quilt to be wider than the last I made, so these strips are all pieced together to create a width just shy of 70″. I was a bit short on a few, so I pieced in some other fabric, then really liked the look and did the same for a few of the other strips.

As for the fabric — I used a lot of Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks fabric, and suddenly I realized that it ended up looking somewhat like this quilt she showed over on her blog… I guess using the same fabric line with a strip quilt design will do that! In any case, I love how well her fabrics pair with so many other fabrics. I can see that she mixed in some Katie Jump Rope and some of her older lines, while I added in some solids, Cake Rock Beach, Lush and Alexander Henry fabrics.

Maybe this quilt should be the new picnic quilt (though I can’t remember the last time I actually went on a picnic!). It looks pretty good on the grass!

Sea Flower Stripes!

Morgan picked the name – I never can come up with anything creative. I guess it’s obvious – it’s named for the fabrics used… lots of the Mendocino line – mermaids, fish, kelp and jellyfish – as well as a few of the floral prints from the Lightning Bugs line, and of course there are lots of stripes, so the name seems appropriate.

I finished quilting it over the weekend, and sewed the last of the binding on last night. This is my second free motion quilted quilt, and I’m pleased to say that it does indeed get easier. I actually enjoyed it this time (and no sore muscles!)!

I used the pink kelp stripe for the binding, but ran a bit short and had to add in a bit of another fabric (those orange seahorses). I actually really like that little bit of orange, so I’m glad it worked out the way it did.

The back is pieced – a couple sections of the larger pieces I had remaining, as well as a section of all the remaining strips.

This one measures 44″ x 63″… I think they just keep getting larger. Maybe someday I’ll work my way up to a queen sized quilt for our bed!

I’m considering entering this one into the handmade baby quilt contest here… does it have a ‘modern, hip feel’? Hmmm…

Here it is fresh from the dryer -

This quilt used random sized squares and rectangles framed with stripes of fabric. It incorporates a lot of my favorite fabrics (all leftover scraps!), and a variety of designers. Since I’m loving orange, and since many of the fabrics used on the top had some orange in them, I opted for the Amy Butler Full Moon Polka Dot in Tangerine for the binding. I think it gives it a fun look, and a change from the browns I’ve been using for other bindings.

The back is predominately white, with one section similar to the front, though made with smaller blocks.

This one measures about 60″ x 48″, so it’s a bit bigger than the other two I’ve completed.

Love that crinkly look!

You can bet I’ll be laying under this one on the couch tonight!