Hexagon Baby Quilt

Hexigon Baby quilt!

I recently got an order for a baby quilt from my friend's aunt- she has a new granddaughter and saw this quilt that I made for Angie and wanted to order one to match her granddaughter's nursery. The only pic I saw showed lilac walls and some embroidery hoops on the walls with blues, greens, whites, and browns. It was cute, and not a palate I normally work with, so it was fun to branch out.  

Half- hexis.... cheating?

I've also been wanting to make something with hexagons for ages, except they are usually hand pieced because of all the weird angles. I did briefly try hand piecing when I first moved to Nashville and was in my apartment for a week without any of my stuff. But... it did not go well. Then I remembered I'd seen them made by making rows, and each row is made up of a half hexagon. Then, when you sew them together they make the full shape. 

Close up

So I made a template that was 3" tall, which makes the finished hexagon 5" tall. It did take a while to make, but it was fun trying a new shape. I also experimented with using other fabrics besides just quilting cotton. I used that plus cotton lawn, voile, and double gauze. I must say these were not super easy to work with, especially the stretchy, shifty double gauze, but I like the look in the end!

CIrcle Quilting

I also had a lot of fun quilting this! I used my walking foot but did concentric circles instead of my usual stand-by of straight lines. I traced 3 circles in 3 places on the quilt, that did a circle 1.5" out from all of those, then just kept moving outwards until I liked how it looked. The 3-4 inner circles were kind of a pain to do, but after that it went pretty fast. 

Embroidered name and birth date

I also hand-embroidered the baby's name and birthday, which I think is really cute. I like that its inside a circle too :)

The back!

For the back I used one of the cotton voiles by Art Gallery and they are so luxuriously soft, so this will be a great quilt for a little baby to crawl around on! I also like how the circle quilting looks on the back, although my pics arent the greatest. Time to invest in a camera??

I bound it in Hoppy Dots by Tula Pink, which is kind of a grey-ish lilac polka dot fabric with little bunnies scattered about too. Can't wait to send this one off to its new home! Thanks for reading!

Ombré Half-Square Triangles

Ombre half-square triangles

My most recently finished quilt, which was ordered by a friend of a friend, is for a baby who lives in Bermuda with his parents who just moved there from Chicago. The pictures of the nursery showed it to be really modern, mostly white with dark, dark grey-ish blue walls.

Peak of the back

I didnt really have a plan going in other than that she wanted some fabrics having to do with the beach/ocean and some having to do with the city. The city ones were a bit harder to find, but there's a line from Art Gallery that just came out called Gramercy that has a cool black print with brownstone-type buildings on it.

After I had the fabrics picked out I grouped them into light, medium, and dark tones, then cut them into squares and matched them with a square in a similar color shade family. Then I just made a big stack of half square triangles!

I tried a few different layouts, and eventually had to make a few more light-colored squares. I tried having it light in the middle, radiating out to dark, but I think this way worked out a little better. And it kind of reminds me of the ocean too!

Embroidered initials and birthday 

I used teal thread to quilt with, and did my usual straightline grid. The aqua really only shows up on the light sections, and then it blends into the background. Its a good color though! The back fabric and binding are all Art Gallery prints, which are extra soft.

The back

This quilt is a little outside of my comfort zone, with all the dark colors, but I hope the recipients like it! I also thought it was fun to do the half-square triangles in a random arrangement, but with color as a guide. Just something new and fun to try! 

Star Patchwork Baby Quilt

Star and Patchwork Baby Quilt

Greetings! Well, fair warning, this post has kind of a lot of photos! I just really, really love this quilt and I was actually sad to send it away. My friend's cousin recently had a baby, and her sister ordered a quilt for me. I've known this family since I was in middle school, so it's always nice to make something for someone you know. The only directions I had were to use a little bit of green to match a nursery, still make it girly, and embroider the baby's name on it. 

Maybe my favorite section. Love that horse and carrot!

Honestly, I had some problems for a while coming up with an idea! I didnt know what pattern or fabrics to use, so I was stumped for many weeks. I did know that I wanted to use a Tina Givens print, "Elephant Flight," which is the center pink square in the bottom row above. It is pink with white elephants dangling from hot air balloons!! I've been wanting to use it in a baby quilt since I ordered it. I had also recently ordered some cute prints from the "Wee Wander" line , which are cute kids and horses and have some green. From there I gathered up 8 or 9 other fabrics from the store, and ended up with what I think is a really fun color palate. Though there is aqua in it, and grey, it still felt new and fresh for me to use, possibly because of the addition of yellow and purple, 2 colors I dont generally use, especially together. 

Embroidered Star

I hadnt made a patchwork quilt in ages, so I thought I'd go that direction, but and the last minute decided to ad a few stars in a light, contrasting print, and I'm really glad I did because it's my favorite part of the quilt now. I cut 4 1/2" squares, and then embroidered the name on an 8" square that would take the place of 4 of the regular patchwork pieces. 

Close-up

For the back I used the elephant print, which I love cut up but also love as a large print, and added one row of scrappy pieces I had left over from cutting the patchwork squares. I quilted straight lines on either side of every seam, which actually didnt take that long on a quilt this size, maybe 90 minutes, and then I also outlined each star, which was tedious and added probably another 45 minutes, but I like it so it's ok. 

The back

For binding I used a coordinating aqua polka dot by Dear Stella, which has a slight bit of stiffness to it that actually makes it really great to work with as binding. Although I have recently learned how to hand-bind, and dont mind it, I must say my machine-binding technique is getting pretty solid too! 

Machine binding

I also really like how the aqua binding looks next to the pink of the backing fabric. Its almost a lavender-y pink, and they look neat together.

More machine binding

I kept this quilt around the store for a few extra days before sending it out because I just didnt want to part with it! I was also able to use a few fabrics that I used in a wedding quilt for the mother of the baby, plus a few fabrics I used in the baby's cousin's baby quilt, so I like that they are all kind of tied together. 

In the harsh light of sunset. 

Also, I sewed these squares up in sections of 2 or 3 at a time, instead of piecing whole rows, and it made a big difference in getting the points to line up. Some still didnt, but a lot more did than normal. Check it out!

Beautiful point matching.... and above, point non-matching

I love every single fabric in this quilt, and I love that even though I've been staring at the same group of fabrics in my shop now for 6 months I was able to come up with a combo that felt new to me. It was a fun quilt to make and I hope baby Marie Elizabeth will love it for years to come!

Tumbler baby quilt

Baby boy tumbler quilt

Hello! Just wanted to pop in and share a recent quilt finish with you. An old co-worker of mine from Indy contacted me a while back because her best friend was pregnant (I also worked with said friend, briefly!), and she wanted to order a quilt. It is always really nice to hear from people I know, so I was excited to make her something. She sent me photos of the nursery, which was pretty clean, and modern, and decorated with orange, aqua, green, and grey, which I thought was a really fun color palate. 

Close up

It didnt take me long to chose the fabrics, which all came from my store, and I think are  nice blend of solids, polka dots, and fun patterns, but none of them on their own are really "baby"ish, which I like in a baby quilt. There is a little bit of Cotton and Steel, a few nice Art Gallery prints from the Safari Moon line, some polka dots, and some grey blenders. It took me a while to chose the pattern, and I debated making a "plus" quilt as well, but we ultimately decided on the "tumbler" pattern, and I'm glad was did. It's just a nice twist on patchwork, I think, and is just slightly more unique and interesting. And the fabrics can really shine through because the design isnt overly complicated. 

The back

I was excited to discover that I had a nice print in the store that used all the colors as well, this fun design by Michael Miller, so I used that with a vertical stripe of leftover tumbler squares. I made my own tumbler template that I believe was 6" tall, 3" wide at the top and 5" wide at the bottom, then just traced it out of cardboard and used it for cutting. 

The whole back, and binding. 

I quilted it with straight lines on either side of the angled tumbler pieces, which you can kind of see in the close up picture of the back. I thought that part turned out really nice, and then I used a nice green and white polka dot for the binding.

All her glory!

Although the mom/baby hasnt received the quilt yet, my friend was happy with it, so that's good news! It was a fun, simple, but really happy quilt to make. I may end up doing more of these in the future! What's your favorite easy go-to quilt pattern?

Triangle Wedding Quilt

Equilateral Triangle Wedding Quilt

I recently finished an order for my friend Angie, who orders a lot of quilts from me to give as a wedding gift. She just told me that she wanted it to be coral, pink, and green. Any shade of green! So I gathered a nice little bundle of fabrics together, added some gold and grey because I'm starting to think I can't make a project without gold, and cut up some triangles! Triangles, however, do seem to shrink up way more than squares to when you sew them together! Hence, the border I added in order for it to be big enough.

Close up

I used a triangle ruler this time, instead of just a homemade cardstock template, and what a big difference! Much easier. I really like the fabrics I used for this quilt, a mix of new fabrics and ones I found in my stash. I particularly liked this larger-scale print of peaches on a green background. It was kind of watercolor-y and vintage looking and unique!

Binding Auditions

I couldnt decide which fabric to use for binding so I posted this picture to Instagram for feedback and it was pretty much a unanimous vote for the watercolor fabric on the left (which is called Cascade Coral by Art Gallery). I think it was the right choice! I really like how to pops next to the white, and the green of the background fabric.

Binding

I accidentally cut the binding way too skinny, so it was a bit of a labor to attach it, and in all honesty it does not look great close up. Just crossing my fingers that the recipients are big-picture people, instead of detail people... and that there's no hard-core traditional quilters in their family!

Quilt back

For the back of the quilt I used a fabric from Tula Pink's Fox Field line, which is a fun print that looks like just a floral at first but there are little animals hiding in it, like foxes and bunnies and birds, and its a pretty mix of greens, aquas, and taupe. I normally do a bit of piecing for quilt backs, so making this out of just one fabric was so quick! I liked just having to do one seam. I also like how the quilting lines show up as a diamond pattern on the back, and also how on the front, the diamond shapes only really show up on the border.

Quilts in the wild

So, another one completed! This one did take a while so I am glad to have it finished and sent out in time for it to be a wedding gift, and I hope they love it!