Postage Stamp Window Quilt

And the last finish of this series, I’m calling it a Postage Stamp Window Quilt.

I’m sure I’m not the first one to come up with this design, but I thought of it and didn’t follow a pattern to make it so I feel like I can call it an original. I wanted to make a colorful, rainbow postage stamp quilt with some white blocks in the design. It was a good idea but I think the white fabrics I chose were not low-volume enough in print to carry it off. I also wasn’t quite satisfied with the variety of fabrics. I have a large variety of pinks, blues and greens but not so much yellows, oranges, reds or whites. In the end though I think it was a successful experiment and I’m VERY happy with the seam matching, I think I’ve improved a lot on seam matching over the years and it shows in this quilt. I quilted in an all over stipple and it finished at about 46″ square.

I can’t remember where I picked up this owl fabric, mostly likely Joann’s or Hobby Lobby but I absolutely love it and this was the perfect quilt to use it on; I know mama and big sister will love it even if baby doesn’t! I was able to use the leftover backing to bind the quilt, love it when I don’t have to dive into my stash for a binding.

That’s the last of the three quilts I finished this month! I’m so happy to have these done and off my stack. I still have 8 weeks until my own baby girl is here, I still want to make a pieced quilt for her so I’m hoping I will have enough time. I’ve already started piecing so fingers crossed! Wish me luck!

Confetti Ombre Lattice Quilt

Another finish!

My husband helped me model this one, he’s much taller but still challenging to get a whole shot of it. V and Co released this confetti ombre fabric a couple of years back along with this pattern (you can find it here). I finally had a lull in my baby quilt schedule so I was able to make it. I’m so happy with how it turned out! It’s about 68″x85″. I quilted a star design in the white and black diamonds and a stipple on the ombre colors. I bound it in some black and white jelly strips I got from a quilt shop’s grab bag a few months back.

Again, backing is just some cotton scraps I had in my stash. I really love teal and turquoise colors so I was happy to put these on a quilt that I would get to keep for myself! There is also a rainbow triangle fabric and a beige fabric on there. Nothing fancy.

Here’s a picture of the top just after I finished piecing it. I truly love the colors! It’s one of my favorite quilts I’ve ever done. My husband’s, too: he’s slept with it every night since I finished it. So much for having a quilt to myself for once!

Milestone Baby Quilt

It’s finished! The milestone baby quilt for our baby girl.

My four year old was trying to help, guess he’s not quite big enough to be a quilt model yet!

That’s better. The panel is Milestone Baby Mat by Kelly Ventura for Windham Fabrics. It finished at about 54″x42″.All I really did for this quilt was piece a backing and do an all over loop-de-loop free motion quilt. I did a grid around the numbers. My husband had a great idea; we’re going to get fabric paint and put her hand print on each number as the months go by so we can mark which month we’re on and see how big she gets.

The backing is just a bunch of scrap pieces I had laying around: some adorable strawberries, swan princesses and some pretty black, red, pink and green vines.

This is my first finish of 2020! I have a couple more to share in the next couple of days, I can’t believe I finished three quilts at once!

Let this be a lesson…

Well, my site was hacked and I lost about a year’s worth of posts (which, given the infrequency of my posting, aren’t too many) and about two years’ worth of images. I didn’t have a site backup so those posts are gone, but I do have backups for the images. I’m working on getting those back into the posts, but it will be a slow and steady process!

In the meantime, I’m working on three quilts. One is a kind of postage stamp baby quilt I’m working on for a friend:

I tried for a kind of windowpane effect but it didn’t quite go as I expected! I’ve finished this top and the backing, just need to quilt and bind.

Next up, I got this milestone panel for my upcoming baby girl:

It’s the Milestone Baby Mat by Kelly Ventura for Windham Fabrics. I just love the flowers, I think it’s so cute. I’ve picked out some fabrics for the backing, I just need to put them together then I can quilt and bind.

Last up is the Ombre Lattice quilt by V and Co. They released this pattern along with their confetti ombre fabric line a few years back and I FINALLY had some time to complete it!

I’m really happy with how it turned out and it’s going to be one of the larger quilts I’ve ever done. I’ve got all the backing fabrics picked out. I just need to put them together and now that I have received the batting, quilt and bind it and then it will be complete.

I have a lot on my plate but I’m excited to soon have three finished quilts!

Baby Boy X’s and O’s Quilt

Another finish!

I used this tutorial from the Moda Bake Shop called X’s and O’s. Making this quilt sure was a journey! When I first finished the top, I hated it. I thought the colors blended together too much (and I still do) and somehow none of my points were matching and many of them got buried… it was a hot mess. I put it away for a while and made the three strings quilts. I came back to it because my fiance and I had a baby shower coming up in just a couple of weeks and I needed to make a quilt for it. I thought it would be faster to fix the problems with this one and finish it. I’m glad I did… one because it’s out of my hair, and two because it did end up cute. I made a ton of mistakes along the way and even left the iron on it too long and burnt it!! Dear lord. But I don’t think anyone will notice it.

I used Bella Solids Light Blue for the blue fabric and Hushabye Hollow by Lydia Nelson of Dreamy Quilts for the other fabrics on the front. I ended up using most of a charm pack AND a mini charm pack.

I had some fun flexing my FMQ muscles. I did the same kind of quilting on the center block that the tutorial author did. I also added a couple more borders to make the quilt a bit larger. That was another headache but even though the checkerboard border didn’t end up perfect, it’s still OK. I love the way the quilting looks on the back:

Here’s that fabric again! Told you I have a ton of it. That’s ok, it’s perfect fabric for a baby quilt and I’m sure lucky to not have to buy more fabric. The quilt finished at just about 41″ square. Not a huge baby quilt, but it will do just fine.

And Another Makes Three

Here is yet another version of this baby strings quilt that I love so much! I just made two of these for a couple of babies born in my family. When my mom saw them, she asked if I could make one for her neighbor who was expecting. And if your mom asks… you gotta say yes!

It’s a bit hard to tell from the image, but the white background fabric has a slight polka dot pattern with different primary colored polka dots. And the blue cornerstone fabric is the same as the fabric I used on one of the other baby strings quilts. I love the background fabric I found at Hobby Lobby earlier this year.

Again, I quilted with white thread in an all over meander. Gotta love those quick FMQ quilting! This one also finished at about 58″x58″.

So nice, had to make it twice

It’s been a while, but I’m back today with not ONE but TWO finishes!

It’s a very simple but super fast and fun strings quilt I found over at Crazy Mom Quilts. It started as a quilt-along in June 2017. Here is a link to the last post, which links to the previous posts with instructions if you’d like to make it. Originally, when Amanda Jean made the quilt she did colorful strings and a green and yellow polka dotted fabric. I thought it looked a little busy. But then I saw she did a version with low volume white strings and a red and white polka dotted fabric and fell absolutely in love with it. So I decided to try making both versions: a low volume strings version and a colorful strings version.

I really love how both of them turned out, I couldn’t pick a favorite! The best part is I used all fabrics from my stash for this project, even the backings. The tops came together so quickly and easily, in fact I need another quilt in a hurry and I made a THIRD version of this because it comes together so fast!

Here’s a full view of the quilt with the colorful strings. The white fabric is actually fabric my mom bought for my nursery in the 80s. There’s still a lot of it left so I was glad to use some of it up. The cool thing about these quilts is that they are both for little boys in my family, cousins born just a couple months apart. I love that these two quilts will complement each other for cousins born so close together. Here is the back of the colorful strings quilt:

I used up this Snoopy fabric I bought just about a year ago for the backing, and added some other blues from my stash since it wasn’t quite large enough. I used leftover scraps from the back for the binding. I love it when I can cut down on fabric waste!

And a full view of the low volume strings version. I love the blue fabric on this, it was a Dear Stella fabric I picked up last August. And the light green cornerstones I also picked up last August. Still have a lot of it left.

And the back of the low volume strings quilt. I love that centerpiece fabric. I think I bought it at Hobby Lobby at some point, but I didn’t log it in a stash post so I’m not exactly sure. I love putting dark backings on baby quilts or quilts for kids. That way Mom can put the quilt down outside, or maybe on a floor that hasn’t been mopped in a while (happens to all of us!!) and she doesn’t have to worry about it getting dirty or stained.

Both quilts finished at about 58″ x 58″ square and were quilted with an all over free motion stipple with white thread. I’ll tell you what, it was tricky keeping track of the quilting on that dark blue and white fabric! I messed up a couple of times but it would be hard to find them.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my finishes! I’m a lot more active on Instagram, feel free to follow me there!

Stash Report January 13, 2019

I’ve decided on which quilt I’m going to make for the baby boy my cousin is expecting I mentioned here. I’ve decided to make this X’s and O’s quilt from the Moda Bake Shop:

I have a charm pack of Hushabye Hollow I mentioned in this stash report… gosh, almost a year ago!!

I also have a mini charm pack of it that I’ll probably use to make a border to increase the size of the quilt. In going through my stash reports from last year I now realize I had a bunch of fabrics I could have used for the backing, but when I went out to find the background fabric for this quilt I ended up buying some backing fabric:

Sorry for the bad photo… trying to find a place with good lighting was difficult today!

It’s not a designer fabric, but it’s good quality and I got it on sale so I’m happy with it. Two yards of that along with two yards of light blue Bella Solids (I’m trying to branch out of using whites for backgrounds) and that’s it for my stash this week.

Used this Week: 0 yards

Used year to Date: 0 yards

Added this Week: 4 yards

Added Year to Date: 4 yards

Net for 2019: -4 yards de-stashed

I ended 2018 in the red and I’m starting 2019 the same way!