Mosiac

Stitched in Color is hosting another mosaic contest.  I love seeing the different takes on a theme.  this time the theme is fall.  I didn't really have much of a "fall" growing up.  We went from hot to wet. To me fall is wet dirt and overcast skies. 

One thing I really love about living where I do now, is that my kids get a "real" fall.  The leaves change color and everything!  They even get snow in the winter.  I like having four seasons.  Go Fall!

Cathedral Windows

I've always loved cathedral windows.  They just look gorgeous...and really complicated.  I thought a quilt would be getting in over my head and decided to try it out on a mini for me.

The prep was a few steps, but it wasn't too difficult.  I used Love Patchwork and Quilting issue 6 for my instructions.  I actually bought this issue specifically for the instructions.

(next to the doll quilt my great-grandmother made)

I have to say, I absolutely love my little mini.  The binding took a moment to think over the how-to, but it turned out alright in the end.  The main work was the prep, filling the windows really went pretty quickly.

(it's in a weird spot, I couldn't reach any higher and I just wanted to see it up there)

I think I could totally do a whole quilt of cathedral windows.  Once I get over just how much fabric it would take, that is.

Katie's Quilt

My bestie is about to have a baby boy and of course I made him a quilt!  I made this quilt and the undies quilt at the same time.  They couldn't be more different.  I love making quilts for people I know because I get a chance to really personalize the fabrics and style to their tastes and personalities.  Some of me always shows through, but it's clearly for the recipient.  And I love when they love it.

 I went fabric hunting looking for something cute but not too babyish and it ought to have green.  I fell in love with the alligators and went from there.  I found so many great fabrics that played so nicely together.  I think the final tally was two blues, two greens (I even used a solid!) two blacks, a gray and blue/white lattice.

 I set them out in a plus quilt pattern.  I was even on top of things enough to remember to orient the plaid blocks the same direction throughout the quilt.

I bound it in a satin blanket binding.  I've done this on a few quilts and I just like it.  My daughter's quilt is bound this way and she loves it.  She is always recommending I bind every quilt this way.

The quilt has safely made its way to Mom and Dad and big brothers and will soon get to meet the new guy.  

The Undies Quilt

 That's right, undies.  I had so much fun with this quilt.  One thing I love about making quilts for people I know is that I can make them very specific to the recipient.  Of course, I always have a moment of almost panic that I will be wrong and they will hate the quilt, but so far that hasn't happened.  Or my family is just really good at sparing my feelings.  This quilt is for the same parents that received the Jungle Quilt.  It is so them.

My mother was so concerned that I was using old undies from my boys that she had to call and verify I was not.  I didn't.  I paper pieced these bad boys.  I got the pattern from the fandom in stitches site over at sewhooked.  It was my first paper piecing and it was so much fun.  There is no way I could have gotten the same accuracy along those leg holes without paper piecing.  

 I made five pair of undies.  Two different star wars, one marvel comic, a batman, and a superman.  I like the look of the high contrast undies binding(?), but the blue star wars pair is my favorite.  I think the Millennium Falcon is what does it.

 I did simple straight line quilting in blue, black, and red.  I left a lot of negative space in this quilt.  I didn't want to overwhelm the quilt with undies.  For whatever reason, I felt more undies would become gimmicky.

 I bound it in a scrappy binding of superhero prints.  I love the binding, it just completes it perfectly.

My Quilt

I suppose it's our quilt, but it's kinda girly.  My husband has always insisted that things can be girly as obviously a girl lives here, but I still try not to abuse that privilege.
A year ago maybe, I won a FQ bundle of madhuri by the quilted fish.  I really liked the coloring on this collection so it was great to win, seeing as I had contemplated buying it anyway.  The fabric was just asking to be diamonds and so it became a lonestar.

I EPPed this one and it was quite the process.  I started in October and have just now bound and washed it.  The diamonds took time but it was really satisfying.  I just really like hand sewing.
I did machine quilt this one though.  Just straight lines.  I only just started out with my walking foot and straight lines is all I'm comfortable with.  I can't go from hand quilting to FMQ in one step.  Maybe I'll get there someday.

It's a generous queen size, finished.  I had originally thought to make another quilt for our couch, but the star ending up being the exact width of our bed.  It was fate.  Now all our beds have a quilt I made, I feel accomplished.

bound in black and backed in the same gray as the front

A Sew Together Bag

I did it, I made one.  After seeing them pop up on Instagram, I was intrigued.  It looked like it held tons and was awesome, but I couldn't really tell what size it was and a lot of the chatter centered on how difficult it was to make...so I wavered.
I bought myself the pattern for our anniversary.  We're going out of town and I thought it would be great to hold my EPP on the flight.

And oh my goodness, it is officially great at holding my EPP.  No joke, this bag holds a ton.  I still have room and whole sections are empty.
I used mostly Crafty Chloe fabric by Heather Ross from Hancock Fabrics.  We're big Chloe fans here.

 I love the open spaces for my glued clamshells, I have around fifty in there and could easily fit more.  Easily.  Even basted they are fitting with room to spare.

 The three internal zip pouches hold my scissors, thimbles, glue and thread.  So nice not to worry I'll stab myself when I reach in.  Ditto for the needle landing.  I used one of the pouches to hold my binding clips while I bound a nephew quilt recently.  The pouch held all fifty clips, they are a useful size.

I love the way it all zips up and contains itself.  It was also just fun to make.  I honestly can't think of any reason I would need another but I want to make one anyway.  

Our Teacher Quilt

I've got another finish to show you.
Our school does looping, the kids and teacher from first grade moved as a unit up to second.  Mrs. VDL taught our oldest two years in a row.  Two years gets a quilt. My seven year old boy helped design it and I hunted her down on pinterest.  I think we're pretty safe on this one.  Even if we aren't and she thinks it's ugly, it's still a quilt and will keep somebody warm on a couch.  And when your last name is VDL, I imagine you don't have much personalized stuff.

It's backed and bound in a gray flannel and machine quilted on a diagonal.  We even included a label written by the kiddo himself. It's nearly six foot across and just over six feet long.

I have two more baby quilts in the works, as well, both boys this time.

The Niece Quilt

I had so much fun making this quilt!  It came to be known as the Gorgeous Quilt in my mind.  Cause it is.  So way gorgeous.  

My inner hand sewer loved the english paper piecing aspect.  I hand sewed each hexagon and then hand sewed them all together into a quilt top.  I think I used eleven or so different fabrics.  I let my sister pick a main fabric and obviously she picked her colors, and then I got to choose the rest.  She choose the coral/peach colorway of Les Amis.  I did run the idea of hexagons by her, I think.  

One thing I really wanted to do was jazz up the binding.  It had to have something special going on, just plain binding didn't feel right.  So I went jumbo ric rac.  Seriously, this is inch and a half ric rac.

 It was beyond nerve wracking to actually assemble the quilt.  I was so afraid I would ruin my gorgeous hexagons with a slightly off seam allowance.  But I went all OCD on it and it turned out perfectly.

I like to sign my name somewhere hidden.  Usually just my initials and the year, but my sister requested this one be signed Aunt Amanda rather than AKP.  I signed my name in the shadow at the base of the tree (you can see it in person) and carved my sister and brother-in-law's initials in the tree.  (Interesting tidbit: my husband and I knew our brother-in-law before my sister did.  She went to grad school where we had done undergrad and he was still there.  When she told us she'd gone on a date with him, our immediate reaction was "that'll work.")
Because she's my sister, and I'm the crafty one, I also made her a mobile. And a crib sheet, but that's not as exciting a pic seeing as I don't have a crib to model it on.  I used single sided scrapbook paper for the most part.  I used various grays, it's super cute when it twirls.  I also used a double sided peachy paper.  I dare you to find peach scrapbook paper.  Along with the scrapbook paper, I added some book pages.  I had already gutted a Nancy Drew and my Shakespeare book, so they found their way in.  Just some introductory pages of Nancy Drew, you know, the ones where we meet Hannah and Nancy drives off somewhere in her blue roadster.  From the Shakespeare I used the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet.  I sewed the circles together on my machine and just tied them to the metal hoops from Micheal's.  There's an inner circle staggered in the middle to get the cutesy tapered look.

The mobile is bigger than it looks.  My husband and I both thought it was a bit much, but decided for my sister, a bit much will always be our goal.  That's just how she rolls.

The Nephew Quilt

Onto the Nephew Quilt! For our last nephew, I made the jungle quilt. This time I went ocean. 

First, let it be known the thing in the bottom right is NOT a turtle. Its a moray eel. It has a fang.
Not that that's settled.

After an ocean brainstorming session I just went at it. I wanted texture and things to play with, so each element has something making it fun. A few of the fabrics are textured (the purple fish and the coral) and a few others I sewed to give texture. The seaweed is my favorite and worked just like I wanted it too. My cute little hand carved stamped schools of fish didn't quite work like I wanted them to, but I think it still added some depth to the quilt. 

I'm happy with the final result, but seeing as I was making this and the Niece quilt simultaneously, I'm glad to be finished with them. I got kinda tired of seeing this unfinished quilt mocking me. But now they are done.

After the jungle and the ocean I think I may be tapped out on over the top quilts. My husband and I decided we may want to establish a one texture/tummy time quilt per family.
Although I do still wanna make a dollhouse quilt someday. Maybe for a granddaughter.  I expect in twenty years I'll be ready for sure.

Sewing Night

I can't show the nephew quilt just yet, but it's finished. The niece sewing is nearly done, too. But of course that's not all I'm sewing.
Lately I've had Thursday nights to myself for some handwork. A friend and her husband both now have church responsibilties that keep them busy Thursday nights so I head to their house and watch their little ones. Seeing as the kiddos are all in bed when I get there, I've been getting in some major sewing time.
My EPP projects are a diamond lone star quilt and a bunch of hexies for fun. We've fallen in love with having a throw on the couch and the hexies will someday be the next throw. The lone star will probably be a throw sized quilt too, but it's kinda big so maybe it'll end up on our bed. We'll see. It's kinda nice making a quilt just for fun with no sense of needing to get it done or how big it will be.