Summer Star Flower

Somehow forgot to share this stellar quilt I finished over the summer. This is Star Flower - made especially for baby V, my newest God daughter. Her older siblings also have star themed quilts, though none of them are the same design. I love knowing they each have their own special quilts, but that they also coordinate.

I had a pattern for this ring of stars just waiting to be made into a quilt, so the real fun was pulling prints and colors from my stash. I decided to jazz it up with the extra corner stars and had just enough of the blue for the background!

The swirls set off the ring of stars, and it was a joy to meet baby V and gift this quilt. I know it'll be loved! Here's a peek at the bumblebee too.

Your Story Begins for A

Catching up on sharing some finished quilts and logging them here. This is a quilt I made & gifted for a dear friends' first baby. It's called "Your Story Begins" and I hope it'll be well loved for many years to come!

S is a book lover, so I wanted to incorporate that into my design. I combined some #talltalesblock with some little library blocks by @kitschempire, along with some bunting for a book lovers dream! It was fun choosing the fabrics for each of the books, especially using the text print for the inside book pages.

As a fun surprise for S, I used some Anne of Green Gables fabrics I've been hoarding for a while. We're both fans so it was begging to be used in this quilt for baby A. It was a delight to stitch and create as a special gift.

Quick Step for baby P

 I love making baby quilts for friends! There's something so happy about creating a quilt specifically for a brand new soul - choosing colors, fabrics, and design to make a special gift. Usually I'll consider any nursery themes/ideas from the parents, and sometimes I just go for whatever I think would be fun as a surprise.

This one was for the 4th baby of a close friend, so there was an added challenge of not making it the same as any of the quilts I made for the older kiddos! There wasn't much pressure to create this one either, as I waited until she had the baby before making any final decisions on fabrics. I went with a simple herringbone design which I cut with the 60 degree lines on my ruler - so easy.

I used a green texture print as the neutral/background, and then chose a variety of colors to coordinate. The angled edges on the top and bottom were really cool, so I didn't want to just cut them straight across completely. Instead I opted to leave one end angled which gives it a cool, funky look.

Simple back and forth lines in the print sections, and ribbon candy designs in the background pieces meant the quilting zipped along pretty quickly. I found the binding fabric in my stash - a warm-color zig-zag print that was prefect for the finishing off this quilt! It was sent with some goodies for the family and happily received by its new owner - baby P!

Twinkling Stars baby quilt

So you might know by now that I love making baby quilts for friends! Choosing colors or designs to match a nursery, or to create some fun for the new baby, to the crinkles after it goes through the wash before gifting - it's always such fun to create. Something about the joy of making something special for the new baby just makes me smile.

This quilt was no different, and it went to some dear friends of mine having their 4th girl. I made the older 2 girls book pillows, and the 3rd a star quilt too, so this one definitely had a theme of stars already decided.

I upsized the squares to about 3" from the mini I made earlier in the year for the #tqs_secretcolourswap2021. It took several days to choose and cut squares from the stash, and to create a variety of HSTs and trim them, but so worth it.

All the fabric came from my stash, and you know I love that scrappy look! The low volume prints really stand out and create twinkling movement. I used some favorite hoarded prints for the backing and free motion quilted it; there are 4 bees tucked into the quilting.

It was gifted to the new baby in September, and my friend sends me photos of the quilts in use which just makes my day & I know it'll be well loved!

Watch Me Soar

What happens when a coworker is pregnant and you work at a Quilt Museum? 

You have the whole staff help make a baby quilt of course!

This is the third staff member baby quilt we've made over the past 5 years and like the others before it, was a lot of fun to pull together! H&J, the parents, chose a space theme for the nursery (a popular choice) so we went space themed on the quilt. I went into stealth mode & pulled other staff members down the hall so that everyone was involved. Each person chose a fabric for their planet and I showed them how to use the Olfa circle cutter to cut out their planets - what fun!

 Planets were fused onto this starry fabric to create our own little galaxy for baby boy L. It was fun to see the creativity from my coworkers - making rings, moons, comets, & detailed planetary positions. Once all the planets were in place, I pieced together the backing with some scraps leftover of space, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Star Trek fabrics and this colorful space ship fabric. How else does one travel from planet to planet?

I machine stitched around each planet to secure it, add quilting & durability in anticipation of multiple washings to come. Using glow in the dark thread I quilted in some stars, a bumblebee, and a UFO, before using matching black thread to quilt swirls in the background. It's machine bound with a star print and then I got all the staff members to sign the label on the back.

It's named "Watch Me Soar" which is from a quote from the TV show Firefly " I am a leaf on the wind, watch me soar." This was gifted to H a few weeks ago. So love it well baby L & reach for those stars!
Linked up with: My Quilt Infatuation's Needle & Thread Thursday & Confessions of a Fabric Addict's Woop Woop Finished Friday and From Bolt to Beauty Finally A Finish.

Take the Sky

"Take my love, take my land,Take me where I can not stand
I don't care cause i'm still free 
you can't take the sky from me."
- Firefly Theme Song

This quilt was a lot of fun to make! It's a baby quilt for friends of mine, J&R, who went with a space-themed nursery for their baby girl. They're fans of sci-fi shows so I wanted to bring that into the quilt and make it extra special. I've named it Take the Sky, pulling from the theme song to the TV show Firefly, one of J's favorites.

Here's the front & back of the quilt - you can see I dug out all the space-like fabrics I owned (and borrowed from Momm too!) to make this gift. Fabrics feature: Star Wars, Harry Potter, general space & planets, astronauts & space shuttles, and constellations!

I pulled coordinating colors and all the black & star print fabrics I could find in my stash. I made some wonky star blocks to start, along with the crescent moon using a technique I learned from the July NQM Block of the Month Club. 

Then I pieced the Big Dipper constellation, the paper pieced TARDIS (free pattern from FandomInStitches) and drew my own paper pieced pattern for the Star Trek insignia block. 

a glow in the dark bee!

Then it was time to puzzle piece the elements together filling in blank spots with fabric, randomly pieced segments and fussy cut space bits. I love joining these together to make the whole and it turned out pretty cohesive at the end.

Next it was on to quilting, no easy feat with such a mix of blocks and fandoms. I started by stitching in phrases to add some extra nerdiness. Things like: Expecto Patronum, I aim to misbehave, To infinity and beyond, wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, Beam me up Scotty, Use the Force, a golden snitch & Nova Corps symbol. Then I personalized the center moon block with the baby's name and had fun filling in the rest of the quilt with stars, stippling, and general free-motion fun using several Aurifil threads.

I got to meet baby A and gift this quilt the the other week and am happy to know it will be well loved by the whole family. They'll have fun searching for the special details stitched into the quilt over the coming months & years. Baby quilts are pure joy to make & gift! Love it well A: Live Long & Prosper! 
 Linking up with Needle & Thread Thursday with My Quilt Infatuation & From Bolt to Beauty Finally a Finish.

Hanging Out Sloth Style

Sweet friend M asked me to make baby quilts for her soon-to-be twin nieces and of course I said yes! You know, readers, that I love to make baby quilts. 

She asked for sloths, because her sister loves them, and when I showed her this pattern by Elizabeth Hartman, M was all in. We talked colors (no pink, something soft) and then I went to my favorite fabric shop (Hancock's of Paducah) to hunt up some sloth-appropriate fabrics.

signature bee spotted!

I made one block for each quilt and extended the tree trunk taller to fill the space better.  Added background fabric to make the quilt size a bit larger too.




I've heard that these patterns can be time consuming to make, and while there are lots of little pieces for the faces, it stitched up really smoothly! I spent a night cutting allll the pieces for both quilts, and then took another day or so to piece the tops. So worth it!

I also mirror imaged one of them so they face in opposite directions, because twins- same, but different! That's why there are two different background colors. The backings are the same fabric - a wintry tree print with the absolute right colors - and I bound them in the opposite background fabric for an extra pop.

Snooze I

Snooze II

Quilting these was extra fun!  I free motioned the sloths fur-like spikes, wood grain in the trees and leaves in the background - all in coordinating Aurifil threads. Hoping M loves them, and that her sister and new nieces love them well!

Linking up with Studio Sew of Course for the 2018 Quarter 4 Finish A Long. Original Q4 post is here.

Snoopy the Flying Ace

Sharing a recent finish with you today! A friend of mine, who loves Snoopy, pieced this charming quilt in anticipation for her first grandchild.  She asked me to quilt it for her so it'd be ready to snuggle when the baby arrived.

Don't you love baby quilts - they are such a happy thing to make and gift and I was extra happy to quilt this one.

I kept the quilting simple - adding some woodgrain texture to the doghouse, loopy clouds in the border and keeping the grass in keeping with the comic-style, as well as my trademark bee. The striped binding makes the perfect finishing touch! I found out this morning, they had a baby girl so I know there will be plenty of baby snuggles for my friend & her family! Yay!

Star Gazing

I've said it before readers & I'll say it again: making baby quilts is one of my favorite things! This quilt is for a coworkers' new baby boy and now that it's been gifted I'm excited to share it here!

We found out the nursery theme/colors - outdoorsy - fairly early, but coming up with the right kind of design to fit that took some time over the summer. With roughly 22 coworkers it couldn't be anything too complicated in design or take too much time for construction. We decided on a night sky idea and choose a variety of dark blues for the background and a variety of light colors for the stars. Every staff member chose their star color and background fabrics, and several stitched up their own blocks. Once all the stars were made it was fun to rearrange the blocks and try out different layouts. 

I kept the quilting pretty simple - a medium stipple in the backgrounds in a matching blue thread, then securing the centers of each star with a variety of thread colors - some matching, some contrasting. Blocks finished at 9" so it's roughly 45"x45" in size - a quilt baby H can grow into. Binding is machine finished for added durability and it was washed & dried before gifting so it's soft and ready for baby snuggles. 

This week S brought in new baby H for the first time and we all got to meet him! :D 

We surprised her with the quilt and she loved that all the staff helped make it. Definitely makes the quilt extra special for H and we hope he loves it forever.

Sharing the love at Needle and Thread Thursdays.