Greek Plus Puss Quilt

I am so pleased to share this quilt with you today! A few weeks ago, Rossie at Fresh Modern Quilts asked for pattern testers for her new quilt design. I was lucky to be accepted, and I got started right away.

I ended up switching the low volume fabrics into the plus shape instead of using them for the background - I love the different look it gives! I used an assortment of solids from my stash for the puss in the corner blocks. All of the background fabrics are black and grey, and I love the pop of color from those solids! The pattern is well written, and very straightforward. The quilt came together very quickly once I had everything cut out!

I backed the quilt with Kona Raisin, and used the same great silver and white stripe for the binding that I used on my woven quilt. I quilted it using diagonal lines through each section of the block. 

Samantha (my oldest) keeps telling me how beautiful this quilt is, and how she wants a quilt like this for her bed. :)

Best part? Rossie gave me a copy of the pattern to give away! All you have to do is leave a comment, and if you feel like it, let me know what quilt you're working on right now - I love new inspiration and ideas! Comments close Thursday at midnight CDT and I'll choose a winner then! Please make sure you leave your email address if you are a no-reply blogger commenter, otherwise I can't reach you! I will also update this post on Friday with the winner, so check back!

**Edited to add** Trish - you are the winner of the pattern! Thanks for the comments everyone!

Sewvivor - knitnlit

Hi and welcome if you are visiting via Sewvivor! I have decided to throw my hat into the ring, and 'audition' for the Sewvivor: quilted edition! :) 

I had a very difficult time trying to decide what quilt to enter for this competition, and I finally chose this one I just finished up this week! 

I am so very very pleased with the way this one came out - it was many many hours of piecing, cutting and pressing! 

The pattern is Simply Woven from the Moda Bake Shop, and I had a good time picking some of my favorite fabrics to use in it.  

I did some simple straight line quilting (my favorite!) and I backed it with some of my favorite DS prints, and used this great grey and white striped binding. This one finished at twin size, and I think I will put it away to save for one of my girls when they are a little older. I can't bear to part with it! 

Crossing my fingers and toes I'm one of the 16 selected! How fun would that be?? 

Two new sweaters for the kiddos!

I finished up these two sweaters for Henry and Ellie during the Ravellenic Games as well. Ellie is so excited that mommy finally finished her sweater (I am making a promise to myself to finish hers first this fall!).



For Henry's I followed the Sanctuary for Baby pattern, and omitted the collar. I knew he would just chew on it, and it would get gross.



For Ellie's sweater I used the Korrigan pattern, which I made several modifications to (I didn't knit the sleeves flat as called for). I knit the 24 month size, and it came out perfectly! (She is a tiny thing!)
I think it came out really cute, especially given all the trouble I had keeping track of the cable chart (too many increases!)

Two new sweaters!

I am so pleased that I met all of my Ravellenic Games challenges! I finished up two more adult sized sweaters.



First up was my Must Have Cardigan. It came out lovely (apologies for the less than stellar picture), but alas, it is a bit too small to fit me comfortably. That's what happens when you start a project 4 years before you finish it!



I also finished up my Featherweight Cardigan. It grew a lot with soaking and blocking, and it is a great length on me! I wore it a bit on Sunday when it was a just a bit chilly outside, and it kept me very warm. I am looking forward to getting a lot of wear out of it this spring and summer!

Tangled Yoke: A New Knit Sweater for me!

I am so very very excited to have this sweater finished and to have it fit so well!



The pattern is Tangled Yoke from an old issue of Interweave. I am a bit ashamed of how long this one was a WIP, but I would stall out on certain sections (before the sleeves, after the yoke was joined, before the cable, in the middle of the cable). However, it only took a few hours of work to get her finished up! I am really pleased with the fit - it's a worry when you started the sweater before you had four kids!



I am a bit disappointed by the ladders in the sleeves - I'm chalking it up to not wanting to pull the yarn too tightly on my DPNs, since it has a tendency to break. I'm calling it a design feature now!

I can already tell that this is going to be my go-to sweater. It is just the right amount of warmth for most Texas winter days, the sleeve length is great, and it is comfy buttoned up.

Now I'm off to finish up two more sweaters!

2013 Wrap Up

I'm a bit late to this train, but I did want to talk about my favorite things I made in 2013. Of course, our sweet babe is the best thing I made this year. Isn't he adorable?



But my other favorite handmades are these.


I love my Tokyo Subway Map quilt. It was my last finish of the year, and I haven't even blogged about it yet!


I love hubby's Pigeon quilt!


Samantha's gingham shirt made me feel like I really knew how to make clothes now!






I can't believe I actually knit a sweater for myself this year! And one I actually wear quite a bit!


Hunter's Race Car Quilt got me over my fear of curved piecing!


And I love the way this simple patchwork quilt came out.

I can't wait to see what I get done this year!
The kids' backpacks came out so cute!
I really like the way my hat design came out. Maybe this year I will have time to knit one for myself!

Finished BOM Quilt

Last year, our quilt guild decided to do a Block of the Month Quilt. We started with board members choosing blocks for each month. We arranged the blocks to have 12 finish by November, so then we could assemble and quilt our top.



I used a few blocks that I didn't love on the back.



I quilted each block differently - it was fun to do something completely different from my norm. I didn't get a good shot of the quilting though. I had just enough binding left over from the binding of Ellie's big girl quilt to use on this one.

I decided to gift this quilt to Samantha - she hasn't gotten a new quilt in a few years, and Ben and Ellie both have. She loves it, and was so excited to have a new quilt for her bed. Success!

Wee Zip Pouches

Ever since I got started on my kick of making zippered pouches, I had tossed around the idea of making small ones for notions and things. Last week, after not sewing all weekend while I was ill, I needed a quick and easy project. I had grabbed some cute fabric at work on Saturday, so I matched some zippers and got sewing! 

I made these without a gusset. They measure about 5.5"x5 inches. They are perfect for holding my knitting notions and the thread, scissors and hexagons for my paper piecing project! And they're cute! :)

Hunter's Race Car Quilt

My nephew recently turned three, and moved into a big boy bed. I asked my sister if he needed a big boy quilt to go along with that bed and we got our wheels turning. Literally! He is big into race cars, and Lightning specifically. My sister found this quilt and another like it on Pinterest and asked if I could make something like that. Turns out they used a pattern from Denyse Schmidt Quilts, and I had the book! Hubby blew up the template pieces for me at work, and my sister ordered a bunch of fabric with race cars on it. We used a Michael Miller black and white pindot for the road, and a big rainbow dot print for the back.



This was my first time making a template with curves. I found it difficult to cut them out without cutting the template. After too many nicks in the template, I finally decided to trace all the pieces and cut them out with scissors. It definitely took longer, but was less stressful in the long run.



It took much longer to pin all the curves together than it did to sew them together, but all the pinning was worth it! They came out great and laid flat with no clipping and very very few puckers (that were entirely my fault).

When I trimmed the blocks down I did find that some parts of my road no longer matched up - the large corner curves didn't always match the 'straight' curves. I couldn't finagle them to fit either - the blocks are so large that moving one enough to make the road match meant that it didn't match up to the next side.



With hubby's help, we figured out how to lay out the blocks so that it was one continuous road. I had to make two more corner pieces for it to work, but that was no big deal! I quilted it with a wavy stitch to mimic the curves of the road.



I made a label using a Sublime Stitching transfer and put his and my names on it, with the year. I hope he loves it, and that my sister doesn't blame me when he is up past his bedtime driving cars on his bed! :)

Charity Quilts

As part of the FWMQG, we are collecting quilts for the kids at the YWCA daycare to use as napmats. Many of the children who participate in their daycare are homeless, and this is a nice way for them to have something handmade, with love, to rest upon. They are currently napping on towels, so I am so excited for us to be giving these to them!

I made two quilts - I had the girl quilt top done, then my mom of boys guilt got to me, and I had to make one for boys to use too!



The girls quilt features a number of leftover prints from Samantha's big girl quilt, and a lot of other scraps I thought were 'girly.'  I cut squares into different widths - 2", 3" and 4", and sewed vertical rows together. I quilted it using vertical straight lines.



The boy's quilt features a number of leftover prints from making Samantha's best friend's quilt (which I finally have a picture of - hopefully I will get a post up about that one this week!), and some other scraps leftover from taggies and burp cloths from my etsy shop. I trimmed all the blocks to the same height, and sewed rows together. I quilted this one with horizontal straight lines.

Both quilts measure about 24"x36". We had to machine sew the binding on for extra sturdiness, and it was good practice for me! I am glad to have these checked off my to do list!

Finished Quilt - Pastel Pinwheels

First, I love this quilt! I got my idea from a quilt I had pinned, that links to a no-longer-active Flickr account. I made my own measurements and chose six Kona solids.



Each pinwheel measures 4.25" (each HST is 2.5" finished), and there are two columns of each color, off set with white squares. Each column is sixteen squares/pinwheels high.



I quilted diagonally in both directions through the white squares. The backing fabrics are the leftover solids, plus a strip of Kona Ash, and a purple print that I also used for the binding.

I'm really pleased with the way this one turned out - so fresh and springy!

An Easter bunny

I made this bunny last year for Samantha. I won the kit several years ago, but was too intimidated to try it. I finally gathered my courage and set to work, and it wasn't scary at all! I actually really enjoyed making it, and sewing on her body parts so they would move. The pattern is extremely well written and clear. I think Samantha liked her pretty well!

The pattern is available from Annie at Bird and Little Bird here. Kits are not currently available. 

Shoo Fly Quilt

A dear friend of ours and his wife are expecting their first child this spring. I planned to make them a quilt, but wasn't sure what fabric to choose, or design to use. They like vintage things, so I ended up using some American Jane prints and an enlarged Shoo Fly block for a vintage feel.




I really like the way it turned out! I used some stashed fabrics for the backing, and had just enough left over brown binding from other projects to fit!



I hope they like it!

FO Friday: Modern Maples

I am so excited to have this quilt finished! I started it back in the fall, and then it was put aside while I made Christmas gifts. Cleaning up the sewing room after the holidays I came across it and wanted to finish it. I had the perfect backing and binding fabric in my stash too - it was kismet!  (And just enough batting to get it done without buying more!)



The pattern is by Amanda and appears in Pretty in Patchwork Holidays (which is a great book!). I modified the pattern to have the leaves come out smaller - I didn't have quite enough of some of the prints I wanted to use and I was trying to use things from my stash. My leaves finished at 9 1/2" instead of 12 1/2". I had to have my engineer brother-in-law help me do the math for the stem bit, but we got it figured out!

There are a lot of Denyse Schmidt prints in this quilt - she has such great oranges! I tried to keep to a fall color scheme, and I don't have really any red or yellow prints in my stash (I'm getting more!), so orange and brown with a bit of green it was. Some of my favorite prints are in here - and I used up almost all of them!



The backing is dots from Moda's Sweetwater Make Life collection from a few years ago. I had bought several yards when my LQS was moving and having a big sale, and I've been hoarding it since then! The chevron stripe and binding are leftovers from a custom order I made in December and I love them with the dots. (The chevron is Riley Blake).

I love this fall quilt - fall is my favorite season and this is a great reminder of that!

Finished Knit: Willow Cowl

I am so pleased with the way this project turned out!



This is the Willow Cowl pattern. I first saw this popping up on Instagram this winter, and thought it was so pretty. Then I looked at the pattern on ravelry, and knew why it wasn't more popular - the pattern pictures just don't do it justice. The busy yarn and pattern don't work well together.

Regardless, this is lovely when knit in a semi-solid or solid yarn - and takes about one skein of sock yarn!

I'm excited to be teaching a class on this project on Saturday - if you're local and you've always wanted to learn how to do a picot cast on and bind off, you should sign up! It's very simple but looks great!

Finish it up Friday!

I finished this quilt a few weeks ago, but haven't gotten around to blogging about it!



I used this tutorial as my inspiration and starting point, but I didn't want a quilt quite that big, so I cut my squares at 3.5" instead of 5". This made my nine patches smaller (9.5"), so I cut my white squares to match.

I used a selection of pink, aqua and yellow fabrics that I purchased at MadTosh and Kona Snow.



For the backing I went through my stash and pieced together three large pieces of fabric I had originally bought to make clothes for the girls, but I ended up not loving. They worked perfectly for this and I'm glad they were useful!

I quilted simple lines on either side of the zigzag 'seam'. I didn't want to distract from the prints and colors. I bound it using leftover pink binding (Kona something!) and a smidge of yellow from other quilts!

Such a cheerful and bright quilt!

Linking up with Amanda Jean!

Madrona Road Challenge

Our local quilt guild took part in the MQG's Madrona Road Challenge this winter. We were each given a stack of prints from the Madrona Road collection, and our guidelines were that we could add more of the Madrona Road prints, and up to three solids.



I used Ashley's tutorial to make my blocks. I made 30 blocks and sashed the blocks with 1.5" strips. I added 3" borders. My background print was Kona Snow.

For the backing I really wanted to use the cute truck/donkey print from the line. One of my local quilt shops had it in stock, so I couldn't resist. I mimicked the front block formation by inserting sashing of Kona Coal down the middle and across one side.



I quilted inside each block. I bound it with Kona Medium Grey. Used all three of my solids! :) I really like the way this one turned out! Now to decide who to gift it to!

Sampler Quilt

When I joined my local Modern Quilt Guild last spring, they were in the midst of working through the Sew Mama Sew Modern Block of the Month. I decided that I needed to join in and grabbed some Kona solids one day to use. (I didn't realize until I got home that they were sort of Mardi Gras colors - totally unintentional). I started doing the blocks in order, and quickly found some frustrations. I didn't like all the tiny cutting for each block - it was difficult to do from yardage of the fabric. Also, one of the first blocks is an improv block, and I have not had a lot of experience doing that. I also am a big lover of geometry, symmetry and clean lines - so this block made me twitch a bit!

I stalled out for a while, but was determined to finish (I can have 20 million knitting projects, but don't like lingering sewing projects - I'm strange).  I thought it would go well in my brother and sister-in-law's living room, and they like modern and vintage things.



I sashed the blocks with Kona White and used the leftover yardage of the gold and purple for the backing (I bought two yards of each color and I still have leftovers!) This was one I was glad to be finished with! I did enjoy some of the individual blocks and may make them again for different projects. Also, if I had really done one block a month, instead of four or five at a time, I might have enjoyed the process more!

The Cowl's the Thing

I have always loved scarves. I wear a scarf and sweater most of the winter in lieu of a coat (in all fairness, we usually don't need heavy coats here in Texas except for a few weeks). But the seduction of the Honey Cowl could be ignored no longer, and two skeins of Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Ruby Slippers came home with me one day.



I wish I had used a needle one size up to make it a bit more drapey, but I do like the size of it overall. It is very warm and toasty wrapped twice around my neck.


I then knit this for a class I taught this month - it is the Everett Cowl. I didn't enjoy the knitting of this (very long rows and very repetitive), but it came out so nicely after it was blocked. I'd almost consider knitting another for myself. It is a good length, and very pretty.



Why do I make such funny faces when I take my own pictures?

Grellow Garden Fence

Several months ago I pinned the link to this tutorial. A few months later, while perusing my quilt board for inspiration, I noticed that my sister had commented "Make me this!" on that pin (I don't always pay attention to pin comments - I will now!). I had happened to have just ordered a grey and yellow fat quarter bundle, so I set to work cutting it up.



I used Kona Snow for the 'paths' and the sashing. There was a lot of sewing, pressing, sewing, pressing, etc. in this quilt, but I think it turned out great.



I quilted 1/4" inside the big and small squares. At first I was trying to turn the beast under my machine at each corner, but I decided to do rows/columns and back stitch at the beginning and end of blocks. I'm sure that's probably 'not correct', but it worked!



For the backing and binding I used two prints that I purchased on separate trips to JoAnn's that coordinated perfectly! I was so excited that the looked so well together and with the quilt top.

She loves it, and I really love the way it turned out!