Regina’s Wedding Quilt

This week I made this quilt for my dear friend Regina.  Her son was married last June.  At the wedding she asked people to write marriage advice on cards she put on each table.  Then she printed the advice onto fabric.

Rooney upclose

A few weeks ago she sent me the printed fabric as well as a bunch of other fabrics with a note to put it together somehow.

When Regina gave me carte blanche to do what I wanted, one design came to mind.

PS-1I knew it would be perfect to frame the advice squares.

I’ve seen several of them that I like, this one and this one and this one;  I’ve been wanting to make one for years.  This was my chance.

With the fabric Regina sent me I made a light-dark, light-dark pattern.

PS-finished

I was able to quilt it and bind it and send it off in plenty of time before the newlywed’s first anniversary.

What do you think?

Watch for the pattern, I should have it up soon.

Happy Trapezoid

jenean-morison

The  super talented Jenean Morrison sent me this gorgeous fabric last spring.  Jenean designs fabrics among many other things.  All her creations are fresh and bright and playful and I love all of it!  Click through to see her 2014 summer line call Lovelorn.  I can’t wait until next month when I can order some!

This line of fabric she sent me is called Beachwood Park and it is interesting because it uses reds, whites and blues but really isn’t patriotic.  Jenean used several different hues of reds and blues and patterns that take my mind places other than the 4th of July.

This quilt from MQG inspired the the pattern and quilt I made for Jenean’s Fabrics.

trapizoid inspiration

When I saw it I knew is was perfect for what I had in mind.

I sat down and planned the quilt.  Here is my first draft.

Untitled-1Once I had my plan Sue and I headed to the fabric store and bought some matching solids.  I’m terrible at matching colors so I love having an extra pair of eyes with me, plus Sue is just one of my favorite people.  Win-win!

Here they are all cut into pretty trapezoids.  (I need to clean my iPhone camera)

Hap-trap-cut

I cut out all the trapezoids and then set to work arranging them.  I think I spent more time arranging and rearranging them than I did anything else but this is what I ended up with.

jm-arraingment

Once I had everything in place, I started piecing.  I was really happy with how the top turned out.

pretty-corners

For the quilting, I followed the lines of the angles and ended up with this chevron pattern.

happy-trap

To add a little more quilting, I quilted around each of the solid trapezoids.

For the backing I used one of the larger patterns in this line called Reunion Blue and bound it in Rendezvous Red.

reunion-blue

I couldn’t be happier with it.  What do you think?

happy-trap-2

 

 

 

 

Dropping the Ball

drop-the-ball

 

I made this quilt a couple of weeks ago for Sara.  It made me happy to be sewing again and it has my mind racing with ideas I want to try.

 

drop-the-ball-2

Lexy’s Quilt

Lexy-Ward-from-The-Proper-Pinwheel


I met Lexy of The Proper Pinwheel a little over a year ago when we worked together for Alt Design Summit.  Lexy  is smart and creative and has such a great sense of humor.

I described her to someone this way, “She has impeccable taste in style and design with a little whimsy and silliness thrown in to surprise you and make you smile.”  I think the picture up there is a perfect example of what I mean.

I was so excited for Lexy when she announced that she and her husband were expecting their first baby.  Is there anything more fun than a new baby?! My answer would be, “No, there is nothing more fun.”

I was planning to make a quilt for Baby Girl Ward already and at the same time I was getting ready to launch Yellow Bug Quilts.   I reached out and asked if she would be willing to be my Guinea Pig and walk through the custom process with me.  She might as well have a say in what she wants right?

Starting from Scratch

Initially Lexy told me a little about what she had in mind for her nursery, and she sent me pictures of the fabrics she wanted to use as well as a picture of a quilt that she liked.  Most of the fabrics were from Sarah Watson’s Indian Summer line.  It captures an outdoorsy feeling with a childlike look that make it perfect for a nursery.

start-to-finish-vert

I went to work on some designs.  We emailed back and forth with different design ideas and played with several elements of the fabric patterns.  I have to say I got a little stuck here.  I couldn’t see how the fabrics were going to work together because I couldn’t be sure about the scale and exact colors.  I finally just went and bought a little bit of each of the fabrics.  All of it made so much more sense to me once I had the fabrics in front of me.

We continued to pass ideas back and forth until we agreed on this design.

lexy's-design-blog

 

It is always interesting so me to see the collaborative process work and to watch a project evolve from a few fabrics to design ideas and, in this case, on to a finished quilt.

Construction

Once we settled on a design, I started sewing.

The main design was fairly simple and it came together quickly. The flying geese added the texture and movement to the design and that part was a little more time consuming than the large design but it was absolutely worth the effort.

In fact, once I learned the piecing process, it became relaxing and I spent a lovely day moving from sewing machine to ironing board to cutting table and back to the sewing machine.  Time *ahem* flew by.  I enjoyed myself so much I couldn’t believe it when my daughters got home from school.  I totally wasn’t expecting them for two or three more hours. Ha!

I look forward to making another quilt with lots of flying geese.

My normal MO is to see a quilt I like and reproduce it or at least elements of it. This is the very first quilt I have made/designed from start to finish and I am happy to report that it was a very satisfying endeavor.

I’m so thrilled with how it turned out and how it compliments Lexy’s nursery.  And how cute are those bumper pads??

Lexy's-quilt

 

What about you? Have you ever designed your own quilt? How did it turn out?