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.

Niece Quilt Update

We have gender info on the other baby cousin coming, he's a boy.  I'm now calling them the niece quilt and the nephew quilt.  We bought fabric for the nephew quilt and I'll be posting some peeks on instagram as I get started on it.  I'm excited, I think it will be fun to make.
But onto the niece quilt.  While sitting in an airport, after being told her flight was delayed until 4am, my sister caved.  She needed to see it, so we all get to now, too.
Before all the Black Friday sales, I started emailing my sister links to fabrics I thought she would like.  She then poked around on the sites and choose colors and a fabric.
For the pattern, I wanted to do some EPP hexies.  I thought it would be fun for me, and a good fit for my sister.  Hexagons are just so crisp and orderly. 

I am loving the hexagons.  I need to make a hexagon quilt for me someday. 

 

I'm having so much fun piecing them together.  It's so satisfying to see it turn into a quilt top.  

The Baby Quilts

For the as yet undetermined niece or nephew, my plan is formulating.  I'm waiting on gender to finalize and determine colors, but I've got it mostly thought out.  I plan on machine pieceing that one, which will be a nice switch, seeing as I'm hand piecing the niece quilt.
Yeah, hand piecing.  Am I crazy?  Kinda.  I was feeling hexagons and the easiest way for me to do hexagons is EPP.  So, I'm doing it. 
I wanted to get started (my kids were sick on the couch so I may as well get some handwork in, right?) but I didn't know what to do about papers.  So after a lunch date with google and a consultation with my husband, I determined I was going to be brave and make a cereal box template and then trace it onto printer paper and cut out a bunch of hexagons.  I think I made 22 paper hexagons.  And then I went to it.

Aren't they just cute?  I feel so accomplished looking at them.  Of course I need a whole lot more, but it's progress.  The only slightly stressful moment came when I took out the paper.  I wasn't too eager to cut more just yet, so I took the paper out of two to see if I was actually capable of sewing two together without the papers to give them more structure.  It's not as intimidating as it seemed.  Turns out I really can EPP.  Must be the handsewer in me.

(and you aren't getting any real pictures yet.  my sister requested "part of his left elbow" with regard to pictures.  and if you know the movie, we should so hang out.)

20 Weeks of Sewing

My sister and one of my husband's sisters are both pregnant.  We have two new baby cousins coming in April (or thereabouts) and I'm in sew mode.  One is a girl and the other is as yet unknown.  I have free rein from my sister-in-law.  Ooooh, free rein could be really fun.
My sister knows better than to give me total free rein.  I know my sister's style, but I would never be able to resist adding a healthy dose of quirky or something just to bug her.  She is my sister after all, I have to do something to bug her.
I've already started on a few things for my sister; it's her first so she has to be fully stocked.  I like presents to be surprises and my sister is almost overly all about presents for her being surprises (which is a nice pairing) but it does present a blogging issue.
The solution to which is that I will be shipping as I go.  So once my sister has it, I'll let you see it. 

Until then, here's the fabric options she choose for Project #1.  Both from Joann's.

A Quilt For Me?!

I made a quilt for me! I know, I didn't give it away.  I think I just broke the quilters' code or something.
It was kinda an experiment quilt technically, but still, it was for me.  See, I have a few gift quilts in the works or just percolating in my brain and I needed to try out what size I wanted to make them and whether I could machine quilt them. 
THAT'S RIGHT, I MACHINE QUILTED! WITH A WALKING FOOT AND EVERYTHING!
As a die hard hand quilter, I knew my quilt agenda was not gonna happen on the time table I had, so enter the walking foot.  I was so intimidated by attaching it to my machine.  I had to use a screwdriver.  I was taking things apart!  This was way out of my pop the little lever in the back and swap from presser foot to a zipper foot comfort zone.  But I did it.  And I was almost embarrassingly proud of myself. 

I made a scrappy trip and since it's pretty much all my fabric, it is so me.  I super love it.  It's on the smaller size but works for curling up on the couch.  And it's backed in flannel, which is appropriate seeing as we had our first real snow last night.  Totally messed up my picture plans, we know how much fun I have throwing a quilt around.

Now on to the details I love on this one.  First up, my polka dot block.  Not all of my polka dots made it into this block, there are plenty others in the quilt top, but this block is all polka dots.  You can't tell unless you know, but it entertains me.

I did a rollover machine binding and just sewed it up fast.  At one point, I didn't catch the quilt top at all.  I noticed when I was moving the quilt to the dryer, so of course I hauled the wet quilt over to my machine.  I zigzagged it.  It is so not beautiful but I love it anyway.  It now has personality.  And it's for me and I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth!

Next up, a teacher quilt, a brother quilt, and quilts for the nieces/nephews that are on their way in the Spring!  And some more machine quilting.

 

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