Scrappy Woodland Quilt...

Last Christmas we had a houseful of children and grandkids and one thing I noticed was that each one wanted a quilt to wrap up in when they were watching TV or relaxing. These particular family members lived in Florida and California, and they were not used to a northeastern winter. So, I decided to make a few more quilts for our house, so there would be more to pass around when we have company. This is one of the quilts I made to augment my supply. 

I adore this pattern of simple half-square triangles arranged in a chevron-ish pattern. I also love the woodland fabric in this quilt. I've made a number of quilts with woodland themes these last few years, and I had just enough to make this quilt from scraps I had left over from all of those quilts.

You all probably know by now that my favorite color combination is blue and coral, so this quilt with the orange and blue border makes my heart sing.

I chose a woodland paw print for the quilting on this blanket... so cute with bear, racoon, and other prints clearly visibly in the quilting.

And, I had plenty of fabric left over for the strip on the back of the quilt. All said and done, this little quilt is one of my favorite themes with some of my favorite fabrics!

Have a wonderful day!

Squirrels and Nuts Quilt...

There are only two camps. One camp loves squirrels -- the other calls them "rodents" does not. I could be the President of the Squirrel Fan Club in the U.S. of A. I love 'em! So when I saw this fabric with these pink-cheeked squirrely squirrels, I had to have it. I paired it with some more cute fall fabrics, and I knew I had the perfect fall quilt. 

I haven't sewed a lot since I moved into our new home in Massachusetts. I've had other interests, and my favorite time to sew is in the winter when it's cold outside. We've had another mild winter though, so it's cut into my sewing a bit. Our low is -3 degrees tonight though, so the machine has been humming today!

I've found that the posts on the railing in our loft are spaced perfectly to hang a quilt right in between the posts. It's great because it can hang there wrinkle free as I sew the backing!

I'm keeping this bad boy. He's going to be adorable when he's all quilted up, and when we had a bunch of family at our home over the holidays, I decided one cannot have enough quilts and comforters.

Have a wonderful weekend!

My Favorite Quilt...

I never thought I'd say I "found" my favorite quilt, but this one is definitely "the one." Several weeks ago our family had a family reunion and most of our children and their families were present. We had a wonderful week, but, for me and my husband, the highlight was being given this beautiful quilt by our children...

There are nine blocks in this quilt and each family made one, with the center block being an extra block. Our daughter-in-law Stephanie gave each family a bunch of block patterns and fabric to choose from. Each family choose the block they liked best and their fabric and a representative from each family made their family's block. I can't even begin to tell you how touched I was by this gesture...

And, the quilt itself is stunning and much more complicated than anything I've ever made, which makes me appreciate it even more. I adore the fabric choices both in color and pattern. Sometimes kids {which includes kid-in-laws} do things that take your breath away. This was one of those times. We're so grateful for this beautiful family heirloom.

Christmas Quilt...

There's something appealing about a bunch of pets dressed up in Christmasy frocks, scarves, knitted sweaters, and woolen caps. It seems to bring out the Christmas spirit in us all. This Ink and Arrow, "Mingle and Jingle Pets" fabric became the inspiration for my latest Christmas quilt.

I paired it with a few other coordinating and playful patterns...

... and brought them all together to make this fun and lively quilt!

I imagine this quilt will be appreciated by some of the little ones (who love puppies and kittens) in our family!

The back of the quilt is an entirely different fabric from those shown on the front, but the colors and theme of animals and Christmas blend nicely.

The quilting pattern on this one is the snowflake I've used on a couple of the other Christmas quilts I've made. Love this pattern...

Here's to another quilt waiting to be wrapped up and sent to a family I love for Christmas!

Christmas Quilt - "Ornaments"

I just noticed it's been a month since I last posted. Lots going on in our neck of the woods! I don't know if I've mentioned that we're building a home in Massachusetts. Last June we moved from our home of 30 years in Colorado to northern Massachusetts. My husband had been working for a company here for about a year -- flying back and forth from MA to CO every weekend. When they asked if we would be willing to relocated, we thought about it (for about two seconds) and jumped in with both feet. We've love it here! This has been a really fun adventure at this empty-nest-stage of our lives. Our home is a few months away from being finished, so we're excited to move into it and get more permanently settled.

In the meantime I finished another Christmas quilt. If you haven't guessed by now, I'm making these for each one of our kid's families for Christmas next year. A couple of years ago I made a quilt for every member of our family and a couple more to boot. It was exhausting and last year I couldn't look at my sewing machine without feeling queasy. I'm over that now, so I decided to make a Christmas quilt for each family and give them with a few other things I've picked up as a Christmas/Pre-Christmas gift for each family. We have 45 kids and grandkids in our family, so Christmas is beginning to get overwhelming. If anyone has suggestions on what we can do for gifts for Christmas for our kids and grandkids, please advise.

I've used a lot of aqua and red in the quilts I've been making because a number of our kids have those colors in their Christmas decorations. I love those two colors together anyway, so I'm drawn to them by choice also! The fabric for this quilt was built around this ornament fabric, "Vintage Holiday Ornaments Aqua, by Bonnie and Camille for Moda." The other fabrics are from the same line. Love all of the complimentary fabrics -- so crisp and clean!

I chose a poinsettia quilting pattern for this quilt. It mimics the red fabric on the border which is filled with poinsettias. Usually, I like the quilting pattern to fade into the background, but this time we chose a gray/silver thread and I love it! It makes the pattern pop a little more, and for this quilt it's a nice change...

I can't wait to move into the new house for about a million reasons, but one of those reasons is so I can take pictures of my quilts outside again! I always used to take photos of my quilts against my fence in natural light outside. It shows off the colors and patterns better. In the apartment it's easier to take the photos inside, and the pictures are pretty horribaaaalll... ugh.

Anway, Spring has sprung. Days are getting warmer and there are blossoms all over the place, so life is good! Wishing you a great day!

Christmas Chickadee Quilt...

At first when I finished the top of this quilt I was a little disappointed. I thought it looked waaaay too busy with all the small prints, but I have to say it is growing on me. I finished it the other night and decided I just might keep this one for myself...

When you look at all the fabrics up close, you notice that there's a lot going on, but when you give it a little distance, the inspiration fabric (gray background with berries) turns into a soft gray and melts into the background...

I used the inspiration fabric for the back of the quilt as well, and put a strip down the back of coordinating fabrics to make it big enough.

A leaf and berry pattern was used for the machine quilting. The pattern is more noticeable on the lighter fabric at the bottom of the picture below. This reflects the leaves and berries on the fabric...

It just goes to show that pretty much anything goes when you're quilting. Some quilts might be a little easier on the eyes than others, but putting colors and patterns together is part of the fun!

Have a wonderful day!

Happy New Year and a couple of quilts...

I hope you had a fun New Year's Celebration! I'm looking forward to 2019. Our home will be finished and we'll be moving into it in early summer, which will be wonderful. Till then we are in our little apartment. At this point in our lives I haven't minded being in a smaller place at all. Moving on I think I've gotten a little of my mojo back as far as quilting is concerned. Last week I was searching the internet and came upon two quilting stores I hadn't visited before. They both offered adorable Christmas fabric, so I decided to make us some Christmas quilts for next year. I guess Christmas came and went too quickly for me this year! The first collection of fabrics was found at the Etsy Store Sewcial Studio. It's from a line titled "Swedish Christmas" by Northcott Fabrics.

I love the combinations of these fabrics and those little birdies! I look forward to putting this one together.

The next combination of fabrics comes from LouLou's Fabric Shop. The fabric collection is called "Rustique Winter," by Emily Herrick Designs for Michael Miller Fabrics. I think they both have a similar woodland "feel." I think I'll keep both of these quilts and put them out at Christmastime each year!

First I'm going to finish "my" quilt. I've had that fabric since we left Colorado last June! I also have a grandbaby quilt I need to finish before I start these Christmas quilts. Priorities!

Little Girl Golden Quilt...

Here's the last quilt I'll finish before our move. Man alive peoples -- moving is not for the faint at heart. It's stressful! That's why I'm taking a few moments to relax by writing this post. I love these golden baby quilts I've made recently. I posted about a little boy quilt a couple of  months ago and now I have this little girls one...

I love this golden yellow color with gray. Once again I used the flower and bee quilting pattern. The little bee is particularly adorable with the gold thread.

This pattern is so simple. They are 11" half square triangles trimmed down to 10 inch blocks.

I added a 1 inch gray and a 4 inch golden print frame around the edge.

For the back I used one of the florals and some scraps from the front! Whaaalaaa!
Done. 

Pink Blossom Baby Quilt...

I didn't think I'd get this quilt finished for a couple of months, but Monday was a slow day with house showings (our house is up for sale), so I was able to sew the binding on a couple of quilts. I love the fabrics in this quilt. They are beautiful and perfect for a little girl...

These fabrics wouldn't typically be considered for a baby, but when you put the florals together with the polka-dots they have a more playful feel. Then when you add the bee and flower quilting, it's perfect for a little one...

My inspirations for the pattern on this quilt was a "barn quilt" I saw on Pinterest...

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I arranged the colors a little differently, but it's basically the same.

For the back of the quilt I used the large floral and then some of the scraps from the other fabrics...

Were having gorgeous Spring weather here in Colorado. I hope it's just as beautiful in your neck of the woods!

#22's Quilt...

I dislike calling grandchildren-to-be by a number, but when I don't know what the little muffin's name is going to be, that's what I do. We are expecting another grandchild in July -- our 22nd grandchild and our 14th granddaughter. We used to be pretty even-steven when it came to the ratio of grandsons to granddaughters, but recently we've had a run on girls. I've been making a few things for the little angel and hope to get all the items shipped off this week. Here's the quilt I made for this little one...

It's not particularly a girly-girl kind of quilt, but I think it's adorable. The inspiration fabric is this woodland print...

This fabric has a taupe background with white, cream and coral touches. I combined it with three other fabrics in coral, taupe, and white, and I decided on a daisy pattern for the quilting.

I used the woodland print for most of the back fabric with a strip of the other fabrics...

I hope one day to find this quilt trailing behind our granddaughter. I love well-loved quilts!

 

Border for little boy quilt...

Yesterday I asked a question on my blog and on my Just Another Hang Up Facebook page. I pieced a little boy quilt yesterday and needed advice as to what color binding I should use on the quilt, which looks like this...

Black was the most popular comment, but gray, white, and taupe/tan were also suggested. When I asked that question, I had no idea what color to use for the border. I had considered all of the colors that were mentioned, and I thought any of them could have worked with the "right" fabric. Unfortunately, I was considering fabric from my stash and (later) a fabric store, and I couldn't find that "right" fabric in those colors to compliment the quilt from those two sources -- both of which have an extensive supply available! If you look at the photo above at the colors around the edge of the quilt, they are mustard and mostly black. There wasn't enough contrast in the binding if I used black fabric for the border, so I moved on to other colors. Then I latched on to this combination, and I knew I had a winner!

I love the barely off-white with gray flecks fabric, and the mustard check fabric made the little boy quilt more playful than the other more subdued colors I'd been considering.

I've never tried a double border like this, but I learned that it can be really useful when pairing fabrics. The mustard check fabric didn't look nearly as good right next to the mustard squirrel fabric. It needed a little space between the two to make them both shine. With this technique a black border would have worked too, with the same white with gray fleck fabric between the quilt and border, but I like the more playful mustard color.

I love how this turned out and I can't wait to get it quilted. I think I'll go with an outdoorsy theme, like animal tracks for the quilting design!

Thank you for your input yesterday. I appreciated it!