Polka Dot Patch Quilt

Earlier this year I got word that another teammate from my AmeriCorps Team was expecting her first baby, gender to be reveled at birth. I then went looking for a gender neutral but adorable quilt pattern. I found this Polka Dot Patch Quilt on Craftsy and knew it was the one.

The back is a simple but colorful polka dot print. 

The front is bright and colorful, perfect for baby Charlotte who joined us just a few weeks ago.

Zig-Zag Baby Quilts

I have had a pattern from Moda Bake Shop for the Zig-Zag Baby Quilt for quite some time, waiting for the right opportunity to come along to make it. Earlier this year one of my coworkers announced she was pregnant with twin boys and this seemed like the right quilt to make x2. I used Moda solids for the front and binding. Katie picked out a cute whale print for the back.

The first quilt had a grey binding.

The second quilt had blue binding. It also has a small whale patch.

The boys are expected to arrive any day now and we are all waiting to meet them!

Wildflower Meadow Stacked Coins Baby Quilt

A coworker announced earlier this year she was pregnant so it was time to make another baby quilt. I went to my go to pattern Stacked Coins Baby Quilt. After much deliberation I chose Wildflower Meadow by Riley Blake Designs for the fabric. 

Here is the quilt.

A closer look at the front, I love all the little animals, especially the hedgehogs.

She was having a girl but did not want too much pink but I thought the pink binding really set the quilt nicely.

The back has the accent row and the animal print.

A closer look.

And here is the front and back.

Wrens & Friends Stacked Coins Baby Quilt

This is a quilt pattern that I have made a few times before. This time a baby was coming, gender unknown, my AmeriCorps team mate was having a baby and was six months along, this was the first quilt I thought of. When discussing colors with her she said she was decorating with greens and oranges and of course Snoopy. I saw the fabric set Wren & Friends by Moda and it fit perfect.

The back was a brown print and the binding orange.

The back also had a strip of coins across it.

Here is the wide view of each side.

Baby is due December 3rd and has not arrived yet but we cant wait to see him/her!

Rainbow Party

When discussing her birthday about a month ago Katie said she wanted a rainbow cake, not the awesome seven layer cake where each layer is a different color but one with a rainbow on it. I thought this was a good idea and so we went with it. I browsed Etsy and Pinterest for rainbow ideas. I was still considering throwing a large party and found some great ideas. In the end I decided to go small. Grandma, Papa, Uncle and their doggies were invited for Katie's 4th Birthday Rainbow Party.

One item I saw in my research was a rainbow twirl dress. It is a dress with the ROYGBIV colors in each layer down the dress. I thought this would be pretty easy to do. We looked and found Simplicity pattern 2377 which was the closest I could find. I figured I could break the two ruffled layers into as many as needed. When we went to pick fabric we found some new broadcloth fabrics with built in sparkles. The fabric looks like it has glitter in it but it doesn't fall off, it was perfect. My mother helped with the gathering but other than that I actually made a dress! It is a size 5 so is a little big but she has some room to grow into it.

Katie loved the dress and wore it all day. She got many complements and we were even asked where we got it.

For decorations I found a few rainbow things at Party City like these hanging flower like things.

Inspired by what I saw online I decided to make bunting. I got the rainbow colors of felt and added pink. My brother cut them into triangles then I used bias tape to sew them together.

It is a great reusable decoration and it came together really quick and easy

You can also see the rainbow streamers I found at Party City. They were pretty awesome and made the picking of streamers much easier.

Of course we had to have balloons, lots of ballons.

I asked my mom to make a few things as well. She made this rainbow scarf which Katie wants to wear in the snow. She also bought rainbow beads and made a matching necklace and bracelet for Katie which I did not get a photo of. With the leftover yarn she is now working on a rainbow blanket.

Katie's original idea for a rainbow cake changed at the last minute, like I am getting ready to pour the cake in the pan last minute. She changed to wanting dots on a cake, no rainbow.

I made a plain rectangle cake and used Wilton's basic buttercream icing to decorate it. First I frosted it white then had Katie choose four colors for spots. Katie picked yellow, pink, red and violet. She was pretty happy with the results.

The cake was chocolate and accompanied by none other than chocolate ice cream. BTW you can see the rainbow bead necklace in this photo. 

I can't believe my baby is 4! It seems like just yesterday I was holding this:

Receiving Blanket Quilt

Katie's Receiving Blanket Quilt is a project I started about a year and a half ago. I wanted to make something useful with her blankets that she could still use even though she has outgrown them. My project got waylaid by packing/moving/broken sewing machine/etc... A few months ago I got around to finishing cutting the fabric. 

We have here large squares and small squares.

The small squares we sewn together in sets of two...

Sets of two became sets of four...

Sets of four were attached to the large squares...

These became rows and the rows became the top and bottom of the quilt. Due to the amount of blankets Katie had the front and back of the quilt are the same pattern. I have a set of three blankets with a slightly different color scheme of pink and brown which I cut and was going to use as a border but ultimately did not. I did use a few of the pieces in this quilt to get even numbers.

Now, Katie knew this blanket was being made for her and she wanted nothing more than for me to put it on the floor so she could use it. 

Here she is showing us her flexibility.

I think she likes it.

After Katie went to sleep I laid the quilt out. Instead of doing the binding method I went back to my old method of sewing it inside out and flipping it.

Here it is flipped and ready to be sewn up. I sewed around the border (which also closed it) and then sewed lines half and inch on each side of the seams of the large blocks. I then tacked, using the bottom of a button hole stitch in the center of each large square. This should hold it together better, I hope. 

This blanket is super soft and warm, I really like how it turned out.

Baby Blanket

My friend and former coworker Gwendolyn is having a baby! When I was pregnant with Katie she was just three months behind me with her son Sinjin. We were just a few of the many pregnancies in a short period of time at LHQ. She announced late last year that she was pregnant with another one and after seeing her at my housewarming party I knew she was going to have a girl and started looking for a girl looking quilt and fabric. A short while later she confirmed that it was going to be a girl.

I made this quilt along with the Stacked Coin Quilt Doing each step on that one first) and used the same techniques. The pattern I selected was from the Moda Bake Shop Baby Blanket. I really liked the colors used so I went with the Aviary line, I did change the pattern of fabric used for the binding and backing. Here is part of the completed top.

And here is the completed quilt. Those are Katie's feet there on the side.

Here is a look at the completed binding along the edge.

Here is a look at the back and corner of the front.

I am really happy with how it came out.

Current Quilting Projects

Since I have finished my last quilts I am picking up with two projects that I last worked on over a year and a half ago. I started them but then went back to work, moved, put my stuff in storage, etc and so I am now getting back to them.

The first is a blanket for Katie. It is being made from her receiving blankets. I wanted to put them to another use after she had outgrown them. It will be a combination of 7 inch squares and two by two squares. It will be interesting to see how it will come out. 

These are what has been cut so far.

These are waiting to be cut.

My second project is a quilt for my bed. It is being made from Moda's Sent with Love print. I selected it because I liked the red but it actually has a lot of hearts which usually is not my thing but I think it will turn out ok.  So far I just have strips that need to be sewn together, it should come together fairly quickly.