Finished: Pink & Gray Stripe Baby Quilts

After reading about Rachel's experience having a craft fair booth and talking about it with Mr. Pins, I'm going to submit an application for a handmade fair taking place later this fall. That means it's time to stock the Etsy shop with cute, crafted up goods at a variety of price points to see if I can get picked! Cue these two quilts with fabric from Ellen Luckett Baker's Quilt Blocks line for Moda.

I really LOVE these prints from this line, and I was pleased to find them locally in two colorways while I was test driving some sewing machines. (More on that another day!) The chevrons are completely adorable, and I had fun pairing them with Moda solids. Meanwhile, the other print reminds me of a Double Wedding Ring/Single Girl pattern. What can I say? Throw some squares in a circle, and I'm a happy gal ;-) Let's do a deep dive on these two babies.

Quilty Stats:
Pre-wash dimensions: 58.25" x 43"
Post-wash dimensions: 55.25" x 40.75"
Batting: SewPerfect by Fairfield (Poly-Fil) Cotton Quilt Batting. (100% unbleached cotton needlepunched, no scrim with a 1/8" loft)
Fabrics: Ellen Luckett Baker's Quilt Blocks line for Moda and a Moda solid
Binding: Scrappy binding made from main fabrics
Quilting: Done with my walking foot on the Bernina 1630.

In the spectrum of sewing, I consider myself primarily quilter, so of course the first thing to go up in the shop has to be a quilt! I haven't been very good at tracking how long it takes to make something, but to price things out, I have to figure in my time. I decided start with something simple and move up from there. This quilt took about five and a half hours to make. Yikes. Once you take materials into account, things get even more expensive. I wanted to see if I could be more efficient by pin basting and quilting less densely. Cue the pink version!

Quilty Stats:
Pre-wash dimensions: 58" x 43"
Post-wash dimensions: 56.5" x 40.5"
Batting: Machine 60/40 Blend by Fairfield (Poly-Fil) 60% cotton, 40% polyester, with scrim, needle punched, maintains its 1/8" loft
Fabrics: Ellen Luckett Baker's Quilt Blocks line for Moda and a Moda solid
Binding: Scrappy binding made from main fabrics
Quilting: Done with my walking foot on the Bernina 1630.

I was a smidge faster making this quilt. It came together in just over four hours. The pattern and 60/40 batting made it possible work out a larger scale quilting strategy. I really like both of these quilts. The scrappy batting is my favorite! If you need a quick quilt, feel free to shop away ;-) I need to keep getting my sewing on this week, since the application deadline is coming fast. I'll keep you posted, though!

Happy Crafting :-D

The Trouble with Batting

I picked up some new-to-me batting types at Remnants this week. 

As I was digging through my batting stash to make these little baby quilts this week, I was really disappointed with some of the pre-packaged batting I was pulling out. Have you ever pulled out some pre-packaged batting and seen something like this?

Come on. I can fit my head through there. Not that I'm planning on running around town in a batting poncho ;-) I'm just saying it's a ridiculously big hole. How does something like that get past quality control?

I would've graduated to better quality batting sooner, but I stocked up at Jo-Ann's or Hancock's early in my quilting adventures last year. I'm excited to make some baby quilts out of these three sections of batting, though, to see how I like it. Jessica at Remnants was able to tell me which was which, and luckily it's easy to tell them apart. There's a Warm & Natural, Hobbs Heirloom Natural, and a Hobbs Heirloom Bleached.

I'd love to use that 50% Jo-Ann's coupon today to stock up on a fat bolt of queen-sized Warm & Natural for $225 instead of $450, but yowza. That's a lot to shell out at once. It does dollar out nicely at the 50% off price, though. If you get 20 queen-sized quilts out of that roll, then it's only $11.25 for batting for each of those quilts. Sounds good to me :-)

I'd love to hear about your thoughts on batting and deals you've seen.

Happy Crafting!

Finished: Black Sheep Don't Sleep Baby Quilt

Taadaa! This is my big finish for the week. I ended up having to travel for the past couple of days, so I'm glad I got it in under the wire. This quilt was pretty easy to put together since the big squares were cut to 8" and and all of the colorful strips were cut to 2.5" wide. I was inspired by this pattern, but I needed larger pieces to really show off the prints and allow me to piece the top faster.

I took photos before and after washing. There was great sunshine on the evening before I washed it, but of course it was overcast the next morning.

The prints are Organic Monaluna fabrics from the Taali collection by Jennifer Moore with a little Kona White for contrast. The Monaluna fabric seemed to have a very fine weave. It had a great feel, and I will definitely buy more of their prints to work with. The little sheep are too sweet!

I stitched in the ditch for the most part, but I quilted (mostly) straight lines though the middle of the squares just to stabilize the batting between the two layers. I didn't know what the recommended quilting distance was for this batting. The largest unquilted areas ended up being 3.75" squares, so that seemed pretty safe to me.

For the back, I pieced several sections of yardage. The middle print with all of the cars and bikes and little houses would be a great for a game of "I Spy."

For the binding, I used the extra 2.5" wide strips and pieced them together. I sewed it to the front with a 1/4" seam, wrapped it around to the back and then stitched in the ditch on the front to secure the binding to the back. It picked up all of the binding on the back without me having to go back and handstitch any skipped spots ;-)

I love the way the binding contrasts with the large fields of print on the back of the quilt, and it just makes the front of the quilt all the more lively.

Quilty Stats:
Pre-wash dimensions: 41.25" x 61"
Post-wash dimensions: 39.75" x 58.5"
Batting: Very soft 1/4 batting that I no longer had the package for. It might have been an 80/20.

I hope this quilt brings lots of smiles in its new home for a long time to come. Happy Friday, everyone!

I'm linking up with Sew Happy Geek and Canoe Ridge Creations!

  

Finished: Marine Den Quilt

Taa-daa! Secret project revealed. Totally worth the wait, right? I thought so. This little gem gets gifted away tomorrow. I finished this bad boy last night and spent all day today hand-embroidering the label. Phew. I may need some time off from hand sewing. 

The prints on the front are from the Backyard Baby line by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller. I paired them with coordinating Kona and Moda solids. I especially like the white Samaras print. They remind me of the pine tree seeds you find in pine cones.

I created a random meandering squares quilting pattern with my walking foot by rotating the quilt . . . a lot. I don't recommend this. Rather, just be prepared with every color of Aurifil thread so you can free-motion quilt at a moment's notice. Being limited to your walking foot when you need to do all-over quilting is bad.

The back is the Cocoons print in the Tin color from the Curious Nature line by David Butler (Amy Butler's husband) for Free Spirit. These prints make a really great masculine quilt. The strip across the back of the quilt and the binding are made from Kona Aqua. I love the color.

You can see on the back of the quilt Where I stitched around the polygons rather than continue the all-over quilting through them. I did use coordinating top and bobbin threads when quilting. I limited the amount of orange quilting I needed to do, because I knew it would show up the most on the back. This doesn't bother me, though. When I had to stop and start the quilting, I reduced the stitch length and did a little back stitching. The slight concentration of thread in those areas is visible on the back of the quilt. That doesn't bother me either.

Applying the binding went smoothly. Just like with my last finish, I mostly followed Sharon Shamber's approach, except I cut my strips 2 5/8" wide to begin with and used a 5/16" seam when sewing the binding to the front of the quilt. I stitched in the ditch on the front to secure the binding to the back of the quilt. No skipped spots this time. It's almost like I'm getting better at this ;-)

I named it the Marine Den quilt, because it reminds me of things under the sea. If an octopus had a living room, he might keep this quilt thrown over the back of the sofa. (If he has a sofa, too.)

Quilty Stats:

Pre-wash dimensions: 38" x 58.5"

Post-wash dimensions: 37.75" x 57"

Batting: Poly-Fil Cotton Classic Batting. (100% unbleached organic cotton with a 1/4" loft)

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Canoe Ridge Creations, and Sew Happy Geek!

  

Finished: Terrain Baby Quilt

It's done! It's done! It's done!

It's overcast and raining in Austin today, but I photographed between storms.

I'm so happy to have finished this baby quilt for a little girl in Kate Spain's Terrain fabrics. I also threw in some extra purples and pinks to up the girly factor.

When I had to make (another) last minute run to the store for binding fabric, the gal ringing me up asked if it's hard to give away a quilt on which you've worked so hard. Between gifts and donations, this is my fifth quilt to give away in the last five months. Maybe it's the Terrain fabrics, but it is a little harder to say goodbye to this one. Luckily, the adorable two month-old receiving it more than makes up for the bittersweet farewell. I hope this quilt is loved hard and part of her life for a long time.

Having so recently finished the Empire baby quilt, binding this quilt went very smoothly. I mostly followed Sharon Shamber's approach, except I cut my strips 2 5/8" wide to begin with and used a 5/16" seam sewing the binding to the front of the quilt. I stitched in the ditch on the front to secure the binding to the back of the quilt. 

There were only three small places where the binding didn't catch on the back. I hand stitched those closed, ladder stitched the mitered corners, and I was finished. After washing, this quilt measured 51"x 36." I used Poly-Fil Cotton Classic Batting again. It's 100% unbleached organic cotton with a 1/4" loft.

With this quilt finished, I can incorporate photos from making it into the final pattern. Get pumped! I can't wait to make it available through Craftsy post haste! This is the third quilt I've made from this pattern. I can't believe it.

In other news, we had a great Austin Modern Quilt Guild meeting last night. I forgot my blocks to swap, so I'll show them off to you tomorrow and take them to the April meeting, instead!

I'm linking up this finish with Amanda Jean on Crazy Mom Quilts and Megan on Canoe Ridge Creations!

Empire Quilt Finished

This quilt is ready to go off as a gift to a little boy tomorrow! On Monday I had a pile of fabric in my sewing room. Today there's an heirloom. I love it!

I almost tried a new binding technique, but I chickened out at the last minute. I considered trying Rachel Hauser's zigzag binding stitch. (She had me at fast and easy.) I made a test swatch, but I decided against it for this quilt. I felt like stitching in the ditch was a better fit with the clean lines and sparse quality of this quilt.

I ended up combining aspects of both Sharon Schamber's and Rachel Hauser's binding techniques.

1) I cut my fabric into 2.5" strips: Rachel

2) Assembled the binding with Elmer's glue, sewing, and starch: Sharon

3) I sewed the binding to the front of the quilt with a 5/16" seam: I split the difference between Sharon's 1/4" recommendation and Rachel's 3/8" preference. If I had done a 3/8" seam, the binding would not have covered the stitch line on the back. 

4) I glued and heat set the binding to the back of the quilt: Sharon

5) I stitched in the ditch on the front: Sharon

6) I hand stitched the mitered corners in place on the front and back of the quilt: Sharon

If I had nothing but time and fingers of steel, I would have hand sewn the binding to the back like I did the last two baby quilts. I love how the binding seems to be magically attached when you sew it to the back by hand. 

I prefer the slightly larger binding created by the 5/16" seam on the front. There were a few places where I had trouble getting the binding to catch on the back as I was stitching in the ditch. I went back and sewed over the gaps again to get them to catch. When I bind like this again, I'll give myself some wiggle room and cut my fabric strips 2 5/8" wide. Otherwise, sewing a 1/4" seam with binding made from 2.5"strips would be fine. 

I forgot to measure the bound quilt before I put it in the wash, but I used the same Poly-Fil Cotton Classic Batting for them as I did with the other two baby quilts that I finished recently. It's 100% unbleached organic cotton with a 1/4" loft. We're probably looking at the same 3.6% to 4.8% shrinkage. This one came out of the dryer measuring 49"x36."

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, Amy Lou Who, Sew Happy Geek, Canoe Ridge Creations, Shwin & Shwin, and JAQS Studio to see all of the other finishes. Happy Crafting this weekend!