A Quick Little Baby Quilt

I mentioned a few days ago (in this post) that I was working on a little baby quilt.  This was just a practice project I was working on to work on my ruler work & try a new quilting design or two.  I had pinned this tutorial a while ago to one of my pinterest boards.  This quilt top took me no time at all.  I think I might have finished it in one nap time, but I can’t remember for sure.  If it took longer than that, it wasn’t by much.  I used up some fat quarters I had bought at a KCMQG meeting that Marmalade Fabrics had sponsored a while ago.  Since they were just sitting around waiting to be used I thought I might as well chop into them with or without a need for a quilt.

I used my long-arm to quilt it up.  It went really quickly!  I love making baby quilts.  They’re pretty close to instant gratification.

I think the photos from underneath are really cool.  I love the way the light shines through the fabric and the holes from the needle.  This backing is too dark and the top too light, but when the opposite occurs (darker on top, lighter on back) you can see both sides of the quilt at the same time.

The top is pretty simple.  I’d even call it borderline bland with the two-toned fabric line.  I love the orange pop against the turquoise, though.

I really like the back of this one.  Simple, but with some spunk!

Don’t you think the textures I quilted are pretty cool?

The snail pearl sort of looking things were new to me.  I dig the way they turned out.

I LOVE the wavy grid.  I think it adds such a cool texture.

You can’t ever have enough bubbles, right?

Details:

Size: 34″x42″

Pattern: Fat Quarter Baby Quilt Tutorial by Two Little Banshees.

Fabric: Summerville by Lucie Summers.  Carrot (I think) is the Kona orange color.  The back is a solid turquoise flannel and a stripe of an orange flannel from JoAnna’s.

Thread for quilting: Some ivory colored RA Thread I got with my long arm.

Traffic Bubbles

My friend, Becky just had her second baby, Xavier.  I made this little quilt to give to them when I got to go and meet the little man last weekend.

I found this adorable vehicles fabric for really cheap when my local Hancock closed.

I did the circle applique where you put 2 layers of fabric facing together and stitch around the edge, cut a slit in the back and flip.  Super quick and easy!  Super adorable!

This was the sketch I did to come up with the quilting on this one.  I ended up scrapping a few things on the sketch, but I’m still happy with the results.

I wanted the strips of quilting with the ribbon quilting in it to resemble train tracks.

I wanted the quilt to have a lot of texture to make up for the minimal applique.

Aren’t the pebbles fun?

I like the way the pebbles and the “train tracks” fit together.

I think it flows with the applique, too.

I really like the way it came out.

I wish I would have used a different batting though.  This is the Quilter’s Dream Green batting.  It’s a very nice batting.  It drapes very nicely.  It’s so soft.  It has a nice weight.  I just kind of prefer a bit of a crinkle to my quilts and I feel like this one is missing it.

Don’t you think it is missing a bit of a poof?

I used the same fabric in the applique bubbles on the front and for the majority of the backing.  Isn’t it cute?

I like the airplanes the best I think.

I do think the boats are adorable, too, though.

Once again I didn’t do a “proper” label.  This one reads: Xavier Thomas Fields     10-25-13

❤ Jessica Toye

Details:

Size: 36″x42″

Pattern: Designed by me.

Fabric: Grey is a solid Kona (I think).  Print is a bargain from when my Hancock closed and I think it’s a M’Liss print.  Binding is a beautiful red that is printed to look like a woven from JoAnn’s.

Thread for quilting: The Bottom Line (60 wt.) in Gray.

Happy quilting!

-Jessica

Michael’s Bristers Quilt

Michael and I have been friends since the 7th grade.  We met in orchestra class.  We are also both very good friends with Tammy & Amber.  In our first year of college, I kind of found quilting.  The very first quilt I ever made was for Michael’s nephew, Iain.  That first Christmas in college, I made 3 cooridinating (very girlie) trip around the world quilts; one for Tammy, one for Amber, and one for me.  Not wanting to leave Michael out, I started on a quilt for him.  That was in early 2003.  I vaguely remember planning to give it to him for his birthday.  That would have been the end of January 2003.  In case you haven’t checked the calendar lately, it’s now November 2013.

Well, I finished the top of somewhere along the line.

I know the top was done before we moved to Kansas City.  That was 6.5 years ago.  I’m pretty sure it was probably finished before I moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.  That was a little more than 9 years ago.  

For some reason I just couldn’t bring myself to finish this one.  Looking back on it, I think it was probably because I needed my skills to catch up with what was in my head for this quilt.  At the time I only knew how to tie quilts and just knew this one needed something more.  I didn’t even know how to bind quilts.  The ones I did up until probably 2007 were just stitched around the edges and flipped right side out.  

Finally, my skills caught up with my mind.  This was the first quilt I did on my long arm.  I designed the paisleys you see.  The leaves are an Angela Walters design that I borrowed.

I love the feathers I put in some of the paisleys.  I kind of wish I had done feathers in all of them.  

And I think the leaves turned out nice, too.

I think I’ve mentioned before about my terrible habit of not making labels.  I just used a marker to write on this one.  In case you can’t read it in the photo it says, ” ‘Bristers’ Finally completed in November 2013 for Michael Heller by Jessica Toye.”  And in if you’re wondering what “bristers” means, it means brother-sisters.  I’m not really sure who named it or why, but that’s what we’ve been calling this quilt for a very long time.  It seemed wrong to call it anything else at this point.

I’m happy to say that my longest UFO is finally finished!  Almost took me 11 years, but it’s done!  It’s far from perfect, but it’s finished!  Now if I could just make him that wedding quilt I promised him.  (They just got married in 2012, so I still have some time to make their 2nd anniversary.

Happy quilting!

-Jessica

Patriotic Postage Stamps

Can you guess where this quilt came from?  Yep!  This is another one of my mom’s quilts that was sitting around waiting for me to quilt it for her.

If I remember correctly, this one has been waiting quite some time.  It’s cute though, don’t you think?  I kind of like the way the 9 patches in the corner look like they are taking a bite out of the red border.

I already gave this quit back, but I think the pieces are each aobut 1.5″ finished.

I tried out a hooked spiral all-over design that I found in Angela Walter’s first book.  I think it came out pretty cute on this quilt since the pieces are so small, this quilt wasn’t asking to have fancy custom designs on it.  I’ll need to practice this one a little more before I feel comfortable enough to offer it to you all, though.

The back was this really soft flannel with a floating block. left-over from the front.

And how cute is this flannel?!  I love the cowboy bears.

Don’t forget if you’re interested in having me quilt a project for you, now is the time.  See my previous post to find out about the Grand Opening Sale that’s going on through the end of October.

A Shiny Mystery

I think it was 2010 when my husband, my parents and I all went to the Chicago International Quilt Festival.  We all got cozy and shared a hotel room for a few nights.  My mom and I both took a few classes at the festival and one of them that she took was to make a mystery quilt.

If you’ve never done a mystery quilt before, here’s how they work…  You are given the fabric requirements for the quilt top you are going to make and you come in not knowing what you’ll be leaving with.

My mom picked these really shiny fun prints to take to class with her.

And then 3 years later the quilt top still sat there.  And then I bought a long arm and she gave it to me to finish for her.  Wasn’t that nice?

I tested out my banana leaf flower design you see here.  You can see this design and others listed on my services page here.  This design was inspired by a drawing in the Modern Quilting Designs book by Bethany Pease.  If you’re a quilter and looking for some inspiration, this book is one of my favorites.

I really like the way it turned out on this quilt.  It’s a fun design to quilt, too!

The back of this quilt is pieced.  I love pieced backs.  They are so much more interesting and I always imagine a quilt on top of a guest bedroom and somebody sleeping under a quilt and finding the surprise on the back.  I don’t know why I think of that or where that scenario came into my head from, but I’m always excited for the hypothetical person in my non-existent guest room to find a fun back of a quilt.

The quilting really shows up on the dark brown.

This quilting design would be a good one to use on something with a lot of negative space.  I think it’s distracting on a quilt that has a lot of piecing to it and wouldn’t be very complimentary to something with a lot of focus on the piecing.  It’s great for large spaces that need something interesting to fill the space in.

Don’t forget if you’re interested in having me quilt something for you, I have grand opening sale going on through the rest of October.  See this post for details.  Happy quilting!

Whoooo’s There?

I am expecting a new little in my life in a few weeks.  Well, not me specifically expecting, but my sister-in-law is expecting baby #3 soon.  Her first two babies are boys, but they decided not to find out the gender of #3 before he comes.  (I’m guessing boy, but I’m a terrible guesser of these things.)  When new little people come my way, I like to make a quilt of some sort to greet them.  The quilts aren’t always on time (sorry Natalie), but if it’s a special baby, it needs a special quilt.  This is the first baby I’ve made a quilt for before knowing the gender.  That makes it hard!

My toddler and I went to JoAnn’s in search of fabric for this project.  I picked out 4-5 focus fabrics I liked and let him choose between them.  He loves owls, so this is what we went with.  It’s so much easier to pick something when someone else does it for you.  Since Daniel (my little guy) almost always accompanies me to the fabric store, this may become my new go-to method.

The two older brothers to this new baby both have log-cabin quilts I made for them.  Logan’s quilt (Boy #1) was a fairly traditional log cabin with a very muted color palette.  Gabe’s quilt (Boy #2) had all right-angles, but they were of different widths and I left myself loads of negative space to free-motion quilt in.  I had come across this image on Pinterest a while back and it inspired me to do a triangular-ish quilt for baby #3.  I love improv quilting and used that method for these blocks.

I left the centers with the owls un-quilted.  In the white I quilted pebbles.  I love the way pebbles look.  They create an awesome texture.  I think though, sometimes they get overpowering and should pretty much be done in small areas like this for most projects.  And they take a while to quilt.

Can you see the thread I chose?  I think this might be my new favorite.  It’s So-Fine #50 in a really, really light grey.  I was afraid it might stand out against the white, but I’m really happy with the way it blended.  It blends really nice with the tan fabric here too!  I used the same thread on the Transportation Quilt I posted about earlier.

In the tan I quilted a wood grain.  This is a really fun design to quilt and I love the texture it creates.  Can you tell I’m a tactile person?!

The back is a yellow-ish green flannel.  I love flannel backed quilts.  I can’t wait to see this next little sprawled out on this one.

And some specifics in case you’re into that sort of thing:

• Fabric: Miscellaneous fabrics from JoAnn’s
• Size: 36″x48″
• Thread: So-Fine #50 in a very light grey.
• Quilting Designs: Wood Grain & Pebbles.

Quarter Trip Around the World

This is another quilt my lovely mother pieced and gave to me to quilt.  It’s fun when she gives me quilts with no instruction as to how she’d like them done.

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The piecing on one was pretty simple, but cute.  I debated what to do with it.  I loved the cute 30s feedsack prints she chose and didn’t want to overpower them with stitching.  I have also been working on my stitching in the ditch, so I thought this quilt was maybe the right one to try it on.

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I stitched in the ditch around all the blocks and even extended it into the border.

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After the stitching in the ditch I did an “X” through each of the blocks.

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After the “X” came the orange peel. I LOVED quilting the orange peel design. It’s easier and faster than it looks. Keep an eye out for me to add it to the available designs soon, because it was so much fun!

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After I did some orange peeling I decided to go back and add in a little extra peeling in the neutral squares. Every other square has an orange peeled “X” in the center. You can really see it in the photo I took above with the light coming from the sides.

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I really had a lot of fun with the orange peels.

I love the way my mom puts blocks on the backs of quilts. I think it’s something that’s happening more now that the modern quilting phenomenon has taken place. Backs of quilts are just as fun a lot of times as the front.

I had fun quilting this one up. I think my choice of quilting pairs pretty well with this design and hope it’s owner does, too.