Quilts From Earlier This Year

Around the first of the year, I made a couple of baby quilts for my cousin.  She had two new great-grandchildren, a boy and a girl, and asked if I would make a quilt for each of them.  I was happy to do that!

For the little boy's quilt, she said "no pink, please."  That made me chuckle.  I hadn't intended to use pink, but I had sent her an idea for a cute baby quilt I'd seen online which did have some pink in it.  Maybe she thought I was going to try to replicate that quilt exactly.

Anyway, I used a cute animal print and some coordinating fabrics from JOANN in shades of navy, gray, rusty brown, and aqua.  It turned out nicely.

The tutorial I used for it is by Amanda, aka Jedi Craft Girl, and can be found HERE. 

The second quilt, for the baby girl, was a lot of fun to make, too.  I used the Farmhouse Charm pattern by Jedi Craft Girl. 

I wanted a fabric that had a cozy, cottagy, nostalgic feeling to it.  I came across a line at Connecting Threads called Cascade Meadow.  Buttery soft fabric and sweet calico-like florals worked well in this quilt. Imagine them a little brighter and happier looking than they appear here.  My living room on a dreary winter day doesn't lend itself to good pictures. 

After the commission quilts were done, I felt like starting something to use up some of the overflowing thrifted plaid shirt scraps in the sewing room.  I used the tutorial for Scrap Filled Stars found over at Quilted Twins and thought I'd give it a go.

But instead of using square blocks in the sashing strips, I used the bonus half-square triangles left over from making the stars.  They made perfectly sized hourglass blocks, no trimming necessary.  Serendipity!

Once I got the top put together, I sent it to Jo at Jo's Country Junction.  She has a group of volunteer quilters who finish and donate tops, and sometimes she finishes them herself. 

It felt good to use up some stash and scraps and move the quilt out into the world where it will be enjoyed by its final recipient, whoever that may be.

So that brings things up to what was happening in the sewing room through the end of February.