quilt by number

I just finished this baby quilt for the auction at the school fall festival. 4 other quilt tops are sitting at my sewing machine, begging for attention. But they don't have October deadlines. Those 4 deadlines have long since passed, as the recipients are pretty much no longer babies anymore. Including my own. Whatev.

I hope people bid on it.  If they don't, I'll be bidding on my own quilt. That'll be most embarrassing.

 I really have a thing for typography.

Pattern: Yellow Brick Road
Fabric:  Mix of American Jane prints

Clara's Quilt

This quilt is for our new niece, Clara.

She was blessed on Sunday, so we got to meet her and give her mommy the quilt.  [Baby quilts are really for the moms, anyway, right?]

I think Helena really liked it.

I hope Clara will someday love it too.

Tiny Clara makes Hank and George look like big boys.  It's so sad that babies have to grow up.

Sometimes I wonder why I say things like that, because months 0 - 3 with twins were pretty much horrible.  Maybe if they could just stay 4 months forever.

top: George with Aunt Debbie.
bottom: Hank with Aunt Diane.


Pattern is Abundance by Camille.
Fabric is Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey. 

a shower and a quilt

my brother-in-law, marcus is getting married this weekend.  to the lovely ashley.  we are so excited for them!  ashley's shower was on saturday at becky's home.  becky is ashley's brother's wife, and also my brother-in-law, steve's sister.  you got that?

ashley and her ladies in waiting (sisters and mom).

lovely nielson sisters.

becky the lovely hostess.

the quilt i made for ashley.

what were we discussing?

i wanted to keep this one.

For this throw-size quilt, I cut 10" squares out of white and gray and yellow fabrics, then followed my usual chevron routine*. found at park city girl's tutorial.
WHAT TO CUT:
This quilt is 6 half-square-triangle blocks across x 8 hst blocks down. Which means I cut 48 10" squares total: 24 white, 18 gray, 6 yellow.
After consulting with my sister abby and my mom and mark, we decided this would not be too "Charlie Brown" so i went ahead with my idea.  And even if it was, Charlie Brown wouldn't be so bad.  My sister-in-law thought it looked kind of nautical.  I'm good with that too.

The colors are coal gray and corn yellow.

*2.7.13 Update. I used to have a sidebar link to Park City Girl's tutorial, but it is no longer active. So here is another tutorial and a free pattern from Riley Blake Designs, also using half square triangles. I love this method for chevrons, and many other quilting layouts. See other quilts I've made with h.s.t. here and here.

wild thing

this is the quilt i have been working on for 2+ months, for a friend's baby who is now 5 months.  quilting is slow these days, but not for a lack of desire.  it's the 2 babies = no time thing.  but i'm not complaining: i love my little time consumers.

this is camille roskelley's wild thing with amy butler's midwest modern fabric.

i don't even have time to brush my hair; don't get me started on quilting.

Officially, there is no time to quilt.  But I am making time, unofficially. A little here, a little there.  The boys are sleeping exactly opposite each other these days, so it makes it difficult.  These seemingly messy scraps are soon to be Camille's Wild Thing.  I've never made this one before and so far I love it.

chevron

i love chevrons.  i have to thank abby again for suggesting i try a chevron quilt last year.

this one is for my nephew, calvin. his family was in town last week and i got to spend some time with his mom and gift them calvin's quilt. he's 6 months old already.

i used painter's tape as my guide for the lines.  it helped, but the lines are far from exact.  that's ok.  i'm liking how it turned out.  i could keep this one for sure.

aren't calvin and his mom darling?

quilting pedigree

My mom taught me to sew.  Starting around 25 years ago.
My Grandma taught my mom to sew.
My friend's {Amy's} mom {Nevada} taught me to quilt.  About 10 years ago.
My same friend's sister {Staci} taught Amy and Nevada to quilt.

A little history.
Staci was already married and moved away by the time Amy and I became friends {almost 24 years ago}.  As teenagers, we went to visit her a few times in California.  All we wanted to do was play at the beach and go to the mall.  Staci and Bob carted us around to make it happen.  They were great hosts.  And quite generous to entertain 2 teen girls.

When my first child was born 11+ years ago, Nevada sent me the most amazing baby quilt I had ever seen.  Not a tied quilt like I had made before, but a pieced, vintage-inspired, machine-quilted quilt.  It was something totally new.  It was gorgeous.  I HAD to learn how to do this!    Later, Amy gifted me a beautiful quilt when my second child was born too.  Nevada and Amy continued to pump out stunning quilts.  Teaching me along the way as well.  And according to them, Staci was the mastermind behind it all.  I kept hearing "Staci found this fabric," and "Staci showed me this stippling technique," and "Staci made this beautiful Danish quilt."  She was almost legendary.

So, the other day, imagine my excitement when a package arrived with Staci's name in the return address.  2 darling quilts inside.  A total surprise.  Staci also happens to have twin boys.  Only hers are getting ready to leave on missions to Brazil.  Wow.

I am so happy to be the recipient of these quilts for my babies.  Really thrilled, actually.  I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE QUILTS and am very touched by her thoughtfulness.

Thank you Staci!

And Nevada.
And Amy.
And Grandma.
And Mom.

I am a quilter because of all of you.

squares for beck

my nephew, cute baby beck, is 6 months old. we met him for the first time today and finally gave him this quilt. in fact, we met 3 new baby nephews this weekend. pictures to come.

stripes for tate

i am finally getting around to posting a few things that have been done for awhile. this quilt was something new for me. i like how it turned out. i hope baby tate and his parents like it too.

swiss? danish? tongan? american red cross?

My brother and sister-in-law just had their first baby, of the girl variety. She is beautiful. She's also not really into pink, or so her hip parents tell me. So I remembered a quilt I saw on Kelly McCaleb's blog and was inspired to make something similar. (Kelly is very talented and even has a pattern on her etsy site for this quilt. I highly recommend purchasing it, as it would have been much easier and less time consuming if I'd had it.)

Here's the back.

Congratulations R + J and WELCOME baby Alice! Red is the new pink.

the year of the boy

My sister-in-law, Liz, is having her first baby next month.This is the quilt I made for her shower. I stole those photos from her blog because while editing my photos of the quilt, they were deleted. Don't ask me how.

Liz is going to be a fantastic mother! We can't wait to meet her baby boy.

Interesting to note: 6 new babies will be born in our family this year. 5 of them boys.

*fabric is a mix of American Jane prints. Pattern is Camille Roskelley's Jelly-Filled.

deux

Seems like everything is coming in twos these days: we are having two babies (identical), thus my girth is twice as big as a basketball, I wake up every night at 2 am (often child's-nightmare induced) and I can't get back to sleep for at least two hours (is there a comfortable way to sleep pregnant?), and, on an unrelated note, i just finished these two quilts for friends' babies. This first one is for cute baby Jill, whose mom and dad are my longtime friends. They have been supportive and kind from across the country and now, across the state. Jill is their 6th. The second is for cute baby Annabelle whose mom is a newer friend from church. Annabelle is her 2nd.

Both quilts are undelivered at this moment. Probably ruining the surprise here.

noah

My good friend and college roommate, Jen, recently had her 6th baby. 6! It's hard to believe our Helaman Halls days were 17 years ago and now we have kids who will be in college in 7 or 8 years. Yikes. She is a cute and fun mom who is always on a new adventure with her kids. I wish I was more like her. For Jen's cute baby, Noah, I decided to try something new. Chevrons. I was somewhat nervous - all triangles, all solids, no room for mistakes.

I have to say I fell in love with this quilt. The zig zag quilting is not exact by any means. It's all eye-balled. And I think I like it even more because of the imperfections.

I showed this to another friend and she thought the back was a flag. It's not. But I like that idea.

Jen, I hope you don't read this before it arrives on your doorstep today. I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I can't wait any longer. You do have 6 kids. I am banking on the fact that you cannot possibly have time to check blogs every single day. Then again, I know you better than that.

Happy cuddling baby Noah.