Cat Nap Quilt

This Cat Nap quilt for our granddaughter’s 14th birthday was created around a Cats in the Library panel made by Timeless Treasures. She loves kitties and recently rescued a cat from a shelter, so I wanted to make her a quilt to cuddle with “Griffin” the kitty.

Griffin

Close-up of some of the cat panel blocks

I was able to cut 8 blocks from the cat panel and had originally intended to make these Scrappy Susannah blocks to surround them, but I decided to do regular 16-patch blocks instead. In retrospect I wish I had done the Scrappy Susannah blocks or at least placed the white squares inside the blocks for more interest, but I still like the way it turned out.

For the back I framed blocks of leftover fabric in navy.

The quilt shrunk 2 inches in width and 4 inches in length when I washed it

Quilt size: 46w X 61h
Fabrics: Pool and Moutarde Grunge, an orange Grunge (Burnt Orange?), PB&J Daisy Mae Picnic in floral yellow, and white and navy grunge-like fabrics purchased at Hobby Lobby (I will find the names and update them here). The white reminded me of Basic Grey Grunge White Paper, but it is soft and almost gauze-like.
Backing: Mostly white “grunge” by Hobby Lobby plus leftover fabrics from blocks
Binding: Navy “grunge” by Hobby Lobby
Quilting: Diagonal straight lines on two corners and wavy lines for the remainder
Thread: Superior So Fine #50 Genoa Gray
Things I Learned: Washing a quilt prior to giving it away is important. I haven’t washed a quilt prior to gifting it since 2013, when the bright fabrics on a quilt I intended to give away “bled” badly onto the white fabric. I kept the quilt and tried in vain to remove all the spots of color. I don’t even notice the spots now! So I washed this quilt first and was very happy with the result. There was “no bleeding”! The navy softened to a dark faded denim-look after laundering and the quilt became very soft and snugly.

Sewcial Bee Sampler Block #1 – Patience Corners

UPDATE: I have changed the photo on this one to show the changes I made to the original block!

The other day I happened to see a post about a new sew-along starting Feb 1 hosted by Art Gallery designers Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell. I normally don’t give sew-alongs more than an interested passing glance, but this one really appealed to me so here I am on block one!

The first block is Patience Corners and is composed of HSTs (half square triangles). It has been awhile since I made HSTs, and boy did it show. I cut and sewed a total of 3 times before I got it right. There is a reason for instructions, and I obviously did not read and comprehend. I won’t detail the errors, but let’s just say I was amused the first time and disgusted the second time until I did it right the third time.

I spent part of the day choosing fabrics. I already had a color scheme in mind based on a a palette of Kona colors in bright tangerine, orchid, buttercup, turquoise, gray, and cream, and the “dot” part of Carrie Bloomston’s Bird Dot in cream (Windham) will be the sashing. The tentative backing is Flight Patterns by Tamara Kate (Michael Miller). It is pretty busy, but it has the colors and might be a nice contrast to the solids on the front.

This is the original block – I have updated the block as you can see in the first picture

You will find the downloads for the blocks here.

Little Joys Quilt Completed

I started this little Christmas quilt as a quilt-along back in July. Yes, life and distractions ensued, but better late than never!

I finished quilting last night, sewed the binding on this morning, and immediately boxed it up and mailed it to my sister-in-law, before I could fall in love with it and keep it like I did this one that was intended for her!

Each of the three designs – Christmas tree, wreath, and gift – was pieced from scraps. I enjoyed quilting a different design on each block. For piecing and quilting, I used Superior Threads So Fine 50 weight Genoa Gray (my favorite thread for everything), and for quilting the sashing I used metallic 40 weight in Raspberry.

The back was pieced with fabric from Basic Grey’s Blitzen collection and an pretty white solid.

I had sewn a pieced binding early on, but last night I decided to use a fun print from Riley Blake’s Postcards for Santa collection instead. I love the dots!

I’m linking this to Crazy Woman Quilts Finish It Up Friday and on Sunday to Quilting is More Fun Than Housework’s Oh Scrap!

Christmas in the Canyon Table Topper – A Gradient Quilt

Cindy of Live a Colorful Life recently blogged about a quilt that absolutely captured my imagination. She named it Christmas in the City, and it is gorgeous! I have reread her post and gazed at that quilt dozens of times {stalking!} Click on the picture of her quilt below to read her fascinating post on how it was made. She made blocks from Tula Pink’s City Sampler: 100 modern blocks (I bought my own this week!)

Cindy’s Quilt – Click on it to read her post!

I love the gradient style of the colors in her masterful arrangement and was inspired to try that method myself.

A table top seemed the perfect size to experiment with the gradient style. Although Cindy’s quilt is composed of sampler blocks, mine is a simple block design. I had a long-saved Christmas-themed mini charm pack that I combined with low volume creams and off-whites. I positioned and re-positioned until I had an arrangement similar to Cindy’s. I matched the pieced border to the color arrangement and added a dark red binding.

The result of the color composition reminds me of a river flowing through a canyon, so I quilted curvy lines with a metallic variegated thread on the “river” portion and straight lines with regular thread for the low volume “canyon sides”.

I love the fabrics in this little mini quilt. Sadly I can no longer identify many of them. My favorite was a dark red with off-white snowflakes

I do still have the selvage on the backing, and it is Tonal Cream from Minick & Simpson’s Lexington collection for Moda

Now for my shameful confession: I started this mini quilt with every intention of sending it to my sister-in-law for Christmas. But when I put it on my kitchen table this morning to photograph it with my Christmas glass, I knew it would never leave the house. I will (finally) finish quilting the Little Joys quilt for her (post to follow later this week), and she’ll never know the difference.

Now I want to make more gradient quilts in different colors!

Oh Scrap! – Offset Scrappy Log Cabin Blocks

I have an affinity for rainbow quilts, and when I saw a tutorial for a scrappy offset log cabin block on Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework done in rainbow colors, I loved it. I made one block, was hooked, then added three more the following week. Today I added four more colors to the mix.

I haven’t yet decided on my design or whether to add another color, but I would like to end up with a nice-sized lap quilt. Cynthia made 36 blocks in 9 colors and added 6 blocks of background colors for a 54″ by 63″ quilt, shown here. She is a very prolific quilter, and she keeps me inspired!

I am linking to Cynthia’s Oh Scrap! linky party

Farm Girl Friday SAL – Weeks 15 and 16

Every couple of days I see a new quilt pattern I’d like to try, and that makes it so easy for me to fall behind on my blocks for Farm Girl Fridays. I was complaining to Bernie of Needle and Foot about how tedious it is to cut the background for these little blocks, and her response was “Keep going with that Farm Girl Vintage. I am loving it and quilting along with you vicariously. It is adorable.” Bernie’s blog is so fun to read, she makes the most gorgeous blocks, and she is even writing a quilt pattern. I love the inspiration and encouragement I get from other bloggers!

Out To Pasture

Pumpkin Patch

Peas and Carrots

Pie Cherries

Here are all the small blocks so far

Farm Girl Vintage is my first experience in sampler quilting. Each time I make a block I am amazed at how all the little pieces of fabric are sewn together to create a “picture”. Lori Holt’s instructions are so well written, and I am more and more impressed with her creative mind. Be sure and check her blog for lots of ideas! Also view other participants’ blocks and variations on Instagram #farmgirlfridays.

Hope all of you have a restful weekend!

Distractions

Lately I find myself distracted from other ongoing projects, and the culprit is inspiration from other blogs! On Stitch Mischief I found this scrappy variation of Camille Roskelley’s Norway pattern and immediately downloaded the pattern to try my own scrappy block. I love everything about Jade’s design and will probably shamelessly copy it, but I also want to make the pattern version of it.

Another distraction is buying forbidden fabrics! I did very well the first part of this year with my moratorium on purchasing fabrics, but I have slipped back into fabric addiction. I justified my purchases though. I needed this Hello Bear fat eighth collection to make a quilt for this little guy – my great-great nephew (yes, great-great!).

Love the quirky characters of Hello Bear – it will be perfect for a two-year old boy. I found it at one of my favorite Etsy shops.

I will need more Moda Marbles to make a quilt for my granddaughter, patterned after the pillow I made for her birthday. I had to search a bit to find the quantity I wanted and found it at this online shop.

This fabric, Wishes by Sweetwater, was on sale, and I need more low volume prints, so into the cart it went!

And this print I simply fell in love with – Flight Patterns by Tamara Kate.

I did catch up yesterday on my Farm Girl Vintage blocks, and today I hope to finish up the Little Joys quilt. I hope all of you are having a happy, undistracted week!

I am linking to Cynthia Brunz’s Oh Scrap!

Blue Heart Birthday Pillow

On Saturday when I posted about this pillow for my granddaughter’s birthday gift, I was a little doubtful I would finish in time for her birthday on Sunday. However, quilting it was easy, and the envelope back went very smoothly, thanks to this excellent tutorial by Christine(who has a wonderful blog at Patchwork Allsorts).

We met our son and family at a local Mexican restaurant to celebrate; beautiful granddaughter was very happy with her pillow (and her cash )

Our goofy grandson trying to take her pillow away (top photo) and photo-bombing (bottom photo)

This was my first attempt at an envelope style pillow. In 2013 I made a giant Texas A&M pillow for my grandson (blogged about here) and finished it with a zipper. Zippers look neat but take time, and since time was key for me I looked up Christine’s tutorial. An hour later I was stuffing the pillow! Christine’s instructions are perfect and easy to follow, and I was so pleased with the final result.

I did simple outline quilting around the heart and straight line quilting for the remainder.

The pattern is called floating heart, and I used fabrics from Kate Spain’s Honey Honey line, Moda Marbles, and some low volume white and gray scraps. My granddaughter said the pillow matched her room perfectly, and that she would be very happy with a quilt of the same colors, so that goes on my to-do list!

The Race Is On – Birthday Pillow

My youngest granddaughter will be 12 tomorrow, and this morning at 11:00 I got the bright idea to make her a pillow in addition to her gift of cash. Her bedroom has been in transition for a couple years, but her walls have a chair rail with blue paint below, so a pillow with blues and touches of gray and white should do the trick.

I have loved this floating heart pattern for a long time and thought a blue heart would make a worthy substitute for red and pink. I didn’t offset the heart because the area is small – only about 14 inches square – and I wanted the heart to be the center of attention.

My time is running out. We have some “must-do” plans in the morning, then we are meeting for the birthday girl’s dinner late tomorrow afternoon. I have the top pieced and am quilting it but still need to make an envelope back using Christine’s excellent tutorial. Will I make it in time???

Oh Scrap! Scrappy Little Joys Quilt blocks

Trim the Tree blocks complete

Oh Scrap! is a linky party hosted by Cynthia Brunz, who blogs at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework. The last time I joined in was when I made these offset rainbow blocks, and more of those fun blocks are next on my list.

Welcome Home blocks started

Today I’m working on the Little Joys Quilt-Along blocks. Although the project finished last week, I am still catching up on my quilt-alongs. And since I made this project scrappy by not buying the kit, it qualifies for Oh Scrap!

The blocks are Trim the Tree (Christmas tree), Welcome Home (wreath), and Season of Giving (present). Since the pattern was written for three blocks of each design and using the same fabrics, my only difficulty has been making sure I adjust the quantities of fabrics needed for each block – and I have messed up a few times. Oh well, that just makes more scraps for my jar.

Linking with Oh Scrap!