Category: Project Linus

Project Linus, scrappy, Ta Da Done

Charity baby quilt breather

ghrn

I want to get 24 baby quilts donated to Project Linus this year – to make up for the last couple of years when I didn’t get any made or donated.  I have been having a lot of fun.  I have finished 2 more in February, bringing my total up to 6 for the year.

This first quilt had been lingering as a failed attempt to piece a back.  And so it became a front.  I am very unhappy with the goody quilting that happened when I went in two different directions.  I know better.

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But I am very happy with the back of this quilt.  This Tula Pink camping fabric is so beyond adorable.  So maybe when this quilt gets to its owner the front will be the back.IMG_4598

I am much happier with my next finish.  This quilt was set on point using blue and yellow scrap blocks.  IMG_4618

I love everything about this quilt – the colors, the quilting, the binding the cheerful patchwork of it all.

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I need to make more improv scrap blocks.  The are a lot of work but they are oh-so-pretty.

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I got the quilts done that I needed to until April 1.  I am going to pause and make some headway on my own selfish sewing projects.

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Project Linus, scrappy, Ta Da Done

Baby quilts

ghrn

As long time readers know, I make a lot of baby quilts. Lots and lots. Since 2014, I have a yearly goal of how many charity quilts I want to make. I love making baby charity quilts. There is no prescribed palette or style – I can use all the colors and prints I want and eventually the quilt will provide comfort to a child who is sick. Not much better equation for sewing happiness.

I also have the pleasure of working with a lot of young men and women who become parents and need baby quilts. Last year I made 6 baby quilts – and only one of them was a charity quilt. And I didn’t even mean to make it as a charity quilt. I made Fancy Forest by Elizabeth Hartmann. IMG_4042.JPG

A gorgeous pattern – but at the end of making it and basting it, I was tired of the project and didn’t pay close enough attention. Heavy quilting to the rescue!! It ended up being a just fine adorable baby quilt, but too punctuated by error to be the fall festive wall hanging I was going for.

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I want to do 12 charity baby quilts a year.  I haven’t come close the last two years.  Couple that with the baskets and boxes and stacks of orphan blocks and scraps, I set an aggressive goal this year – 26 project charity baby quilts.

I have (had) a backlog of 5 tops ready to go.  So far I have been able to get 2 done and one almost done.

This quilt was originally made for a friend’s baby and then I decided it wasn’t quite right with her colors and style.  It sat for a year+ just waiting for the binding.

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The next one I finished, I couldn’t face doing binding.  I hate binding.  So I finished without binding and then did free-motion quilting on it until my eyes swam.  I know this breaks all the rules of quilt finishing, but I like it.  Cheerful and soft – that is about all you can ask of a baby quilt.

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I have more tops in the hopper.  I have had this finished giant block for 2+ years and am almost done with it.  I quilted with just the batting, and now am tying it onto the back with embroidery floss.  I have now remembered that takes more time than binding!!  Binding isn’t looking so bad now.

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and I also have been setting (and mostly meeting) scrap usage goals.  This quilt top is done entirely from a scrap basket, that still is overflowing.  I love the cheeriness of the blue and yellow.  Total pure fun.

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I also played with interspersing some yellow in the blue blocks and some blue in the yellow blocks, which adds some interest.

 

 

Project Linus, scrappy, Ta Da Done

A Baby Quilt Update

ghrn

I currently am working on the most dope baby quilt I have ever made.  Not kidding – truly the greatest.  But because that baby quilt is secret sewing, here are some pictures of some other baby quilts I have wrapped up quickly.  They are pretty ok…

img_3434This was made based on a pattern in wanderlust quilts.  I modified and simplified it a bit so there weren’t any Y-seams.  I used V and Co. Ombre.  Something about the ombres, especially the yellow and turquoise make it look light the quilt is lit from within.  I used Kona Medium Gray… and my favorite baby boy quilt back fabric of the season, this Zoology print..

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I loved giving this quilt.  The mom recipient is one of my favorite people.  And she really loved the quilt.

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Next up is a quilt made for a friend who was going to be surprised by the gender.  When I ask what colors a nursery is going to be decorated, the trend is going to get very specific answers.  Which I would be the EXACT SAME if I was decorating a nursery.  But as a quiltmaker, I yearn for free color  and artistic control.  So when this mom said, “um, I don’t know, green?” I was thrilled.  And wowzer did I get crazy with the green.  I had a lot of fun with this quilt.

 

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How sweet is that?  Love all of those greens – and I do think it will be equally cheerful for a boy and girl.  This has become my favorite baby quilt pattern.  It is on-point 5-in squares and tied.  The tieing and no binding make the quilts lay flatter and look cleaner.

I backed this quilt with a fun all-over numbers green print.

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I have made 4 boy quilts in a row, so I was ready for a girl quilt.  So I used the same pattern and went crazy with the girly flowery prints.

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Oh my gosh, that quilt is my jam !!  I still have to tie it, but then it will go to Project Linus.  I think it will make a small girl and a family happy.  With all those beautiful blooms, how couldn’t it?

cross stitch, embroidery, Fabric, In Progress, Project Linus

WIP Update

ghrn

Here is a change of pace… a blog entry about quilting on a quilting blog!

Sharing my looooong list of WIPs….

IMG_2462Project Linus Quilts – I have 9 more I want to make before year end.  I have one top done, and several unused quilt blocks in bright colors.  My goal was 1 quilt per month, but has been only 1 quilt per 3 months.  Lots to catch up on.  Luckily I mostly just need to quilt and bind.  I have lots of blocks to use.

The Colorado Quilt.  Despite a giant list of projects waiting for me, I lost one whole weekend to making scrappy log cabin blocks to frame the row-by-row patterns  I collected in Colorado.  The blocks are so full of color and joy.  I really want to get back to this project.

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The Living Room Wall Hanging.  Again.  One of the last projects I finished before I got my Juki (I love my Juki) was a wall hanging for the living room featuring curved blocks.  Loved the fabric.  Loved the pattern.  But my sewing was sub-par.  My skills and sewing machine weren’t suited for the project.  I then got really bummed out that a bunch of gross light black dye stains got on the quilt when I washed it.  My husband claims I am the only one who can see them.  I know he is lying.  And I am so sick of seeing them.  I am working on a replacement from  pattern in Quilt Now.  I love how the new quilt will look.  And so looking forward to not facing that stain every day.

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Poppies!  Earlier this year my mom and I collaborated on a quilt as part of a challenge from our Modern Quilt Guild.  We didn’t finish in time, but it is such a cool project that I would like to see to completion.  It is a representation of the World War 1 Museum in Kansas City.  Everything is done except for appliqueing on the poppies.

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Tessellation Quilt.  This one is for the love of fabric.  I have the fabric, I have the desire.  I hate paper piecing.  But the good stuff sometimes takes the most fortitude.  And the quilt will be amazeballs.

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Big Charming Bed Quilt.  This one is a bit anachronistic – It is a quilt for our bedroom – the one room in our house that is tres grown up.  It is a very modern pattern in very French General fabric.  I just need to piece the top.  This one I will have to send out for quilting.  I love my Juki, but not that much.

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Heather Bailey Framed Improv.  I lurvs Heather Bailey.  And I want to use every bit of my fabric from my scrap pile.  I started these controlled improv blocks to make a quilt for the chair in my studio.

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Embroidered Baby Quilt.  This one is secret sewing.  So only tiny sneak peaks.

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DaBombDiggity Baby Quilt.  I love this project so much.  Good news is the shower is on Friday.  So tick tock.

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Pretty Little San Francisco.  Love Satsuma Street.  Love this pattern.

That is a full and truthful accounting.  It does not included the other 3 baby quilts I need to get done this year.  Or the stuff I just added to my to-do list because I was stupid enough to look at the Purl Soho website – an advent calendar, scarf, gloves, overnight bag.  Or the sewing kit I want to make.  That is 26 projects.  26! I want to finish before the end of the year.  I think I may need to reset my expectations.  One day at a time.

Project Linus, Ta Da Done

Another Baby Quilt

ghrn

Things have been hard the last few weeks. Some of my favorite blogs let people into their world – are honest and share the struggle so we all feel a little more human, like we are in this thing together.  I want to be able to do that – but it is hard.  Hard to share, hard to open up.  So the sadness remains cryptic, but I appreciate you being out there dear reader.  It will all be ok.  It has to be.

And, so, another baby quilt.  Setting aside the weirdness of a woman who has never had a baby making baby quilts, they make me happy.  Full of bright colors and promise and joy of a baby on a homemade quilt.  I mean, really, that is amazing.  And so I make baby quilts.IMG_2855

I want to make 12 quilts for Project Linus this year.  This one is #3.  A lot of my friends are having boys.  And so making a girl quilt is pretty darn fun.  This one is from a Bonnie and Camille charm pack and a lot of French General faux linen.  The pattern was fun, and I made this one a bit easier on myself by quilting just on to the batting and then tying with the perfect shade of aqua to the backing.  I think this quilt is going to make a little girl smile.

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This is the end of the simperingly sweet waxing on baby quilts.  For now.  There will be more simpering and there will be more baby quilts.

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Project Linus, Ta Da Done, Uncategorized

Kitten on a Quilt Quilt

ghrn

This is one of the Fat Quarter Shop snapshots patterns. I doubled the size to make a quilt big enough to donate to Project Linus. I love the pattern – time-consuming but straight-forward. And the Heather Bailey fabrics are just happiness.

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I did a stipple free-motion quilt pattern – still one I need to work on, but servicable.
This is one of 3 Heather Bailey quilts I hope to finish this year. One with sashed improv blocks and one that I made for a tiny new baby. And I still am far from tired of working with her fabrics.

In Progress, Project Linus

WIP: A Sea of Aqua (and red and pink)

ghrn

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So. Close.  I am so close to finishing all of my WIPs.  I have completed 44 projects this year, which includes 19 (!!) baby quilts.  I have two more to finish – just.two.more.  I am excited to be done.  This weekend I powered through another aqua, red, pink baby quilt.  And I have one more.  These blocks have been squirreled away for months.  Last night I seam-ripped them from some previous attachment folly.  Cut the sashing.  I am ready to tackle – well ready to iron a lot and then tackle.  Finish this one, and then only one more baby quilt.  Finish line?  Is that you I can see?