Here is another quilt for Grace Circle. For this one I asked for an improv stripe blocks using green and yellow. One of the stitchers ended up giving me much smaller blocks so that’s what I cut up and used for the border. I think it ads a nice modern look to it.

This was one of the first quilts I did using free motion on my home machine. I’m pretty happy with how it came out. You can see the stitching on the back the best. But basically it’s stippling in the squares and back and forth on the sashing. 

Binding was done just using some of the extra yellow. I think a patterned binding would have been too much as the quilt is already fairly busy. But there it is!

      

It’s been a hot minute since I last posted. Did I say minute? I meant months, or maybe even a year After some existential crisis with my blog I’ve decided . . . it’s fine just the way it is.

So, what have I been up to? A lot. But we’ll get to that. I’m gonna start my blogging off easy with some of the quilts I made a while ago, yeah, probably about a year ago (well, a bit more since it was April last year), for my charity quilt circle, Grace Circle of do. Good Stitches. If you recall, I’m a quilter so it means I get to decide on the quilt square and then take care of putting all the blocks together, quilt it and get it sent off.

For this one I went with the Bright Hope block which is a fun block that uses a partial seam to give a the look of being almost impossible to sew but actually it’s quite easy.

I love how scrappy this one ended up.

I used a fun little triangle print for the back and binding. I had one extra square so I pieced that into the back to showcase the label.

      

Along with the baby quilt and bag that I sent off, I also wanted to include something for big sis. After verifying with her mom that she was now a few sizes bigger, I decided to go with a Geranium Dress, pattern from Made by Rae. This is definitely one of my go-to patterns for little girls. I’ve made three before (2 here and here) and I’m sure this won’t be the last (I’ve got several friend preggers with little girls right now).

I wanted something she could wear every day, but I also wanted a little something extra so that she felt special. I opted for using this Paperie design by Amy Sinibaldi. The little shapes looked like fireworks to me so after completing the dress, I applied rhinestones to the centers of them in an artistically (in my opinion) random pattern. Overall, really happy with how it turned out — perfect for summer!

Here’s the back. I used simple white buttons. And below, some close ups of the sparkles.

      

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had some leftover triangles from the baby quilt I was making. Not one to waste already sewn fabric, The triangles were in the perfect dimension to make a bag.

I used the same solid color that I previously used for the quilt binding as at the sides. I bought some new matching patterned fabric for the inside.

After figuring out the dimensions (I don’t remember them exactly), I lined the outside with fusible thermolam fleece. Then I quilted the pieces. The sides are parallel quilting about 1 inch apart. The front and back are quilted following the triangles lines.

The inside lining I interfaced with SF101. The handles are natural color webbing. I still had some extra half triangles and I was determined to use all of them so I pieced them together and used them to make pockets on the inside. I think it adds a nice contrast to the inside.

After that it was simple putting the bag together and some top stitching around the top edge. It’s really nice and sturdy and I would have considered keeping it for myself if it didn’t match the baby quilt perfectly.

A couple more pictures so you can see how the two sides vary.

      

A recent finish for my friend’s little girl. I had these Tula Pink fat quarters for a really long time. Probably over 3 years, but just never had the right project for them. I think I may have used one of them at some point, but never got around to using the rest of them.

Well, fast forward and my good friend from college was having her second little girl and I wanted to make baby quilt. Going through my stash, I found these and knew they were just right.

I opted to go for a triangle quilt. I find triangles to be both interesting and not overwhelmingly complicated so they allow the fabrics to show through. I opted for large triangles which I cut using my Sidekick ruler. I like that ruler because it gives me guides to cut off the corners as well which makes piecing triangles so much easier.

I cut out my triangles by cutting strips and then chopping the strip into triangles. The small ones on the left in the photo above are the extras which I used in the sides.

I laid out my quilt and randomized as much as I could. Love a good random quilt. I was originally going to do 8 rows but I didn’t like the final shape. Too long and skinny. You can see in my next post what I did with the triangles for the extra 2 rows.

Here’s how the quilt top ended up looking. Really happy with how it turned out and I thought it was a great mix of colors and patterns. Feminine but not too girly.

I quilted it on the long arm with some simple shapes that followed the triangles but didn’t overpower. I wanted to keep the quilting open so the quilt was soft and cuddly rather than super-quilted and stiff.

I backed it with flannel for more cuddle factor.

And bound it with a simple coordinating solid color binding.