Christmas Quilt Reveal #2

Now it's finally time to post my daughter's Christmas Quilt! 

Yes, I certainly wish I'd gotten both her's and my son's quilts done before Christmas Eve so that I could've taken pics and posted while we were all still in that post-Christmas glow. But I figure, why not do it now, even if all the Valentine's stuff is already hitting the shelves! Why not, right? So here it is. And I have to say, I totally dig it.

 Even the sideways panel strip on the back. Just didn't have enough of the old-fashioned Rudolph print to put it the other way. And just didn't realize I could've put the strip going the other way too -- until it was too late. Doh! Oh well.

 I have some wonky quilting going on. Just enough to keep things together.

I wanted this to be a really cozy, thick quilt. One that my daughter could snuggle up with in the years to come. I did the turn-it-inside out method and then sewed a 1" line around the edges for a binding look. It turned out, that respect, just how I wanted it too. Never mind that it was also super quick!

 The blocks were 9"x9". I had tons of fun putting the creative juices to work for this part. I also found this book really helpful in this stage of the game.

The finished quilt ended up being 46"x56". A good lap size or toddler bed size, I've found.

 

Looking forward to many more Christmases wrapped up with this one. And my little munchkin.

Linking up with Canoe Ridge Creations and Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story!

Christmas Quilt Reveal #1

We had a beautiful day today and so it was the perfect opportunity to take my Christmas quilts outside for a little photo shoot. I sweet talked asked my darling husband to hold the quilts while I took dozens of enough pics, and he begrudgingly loving obliged without complaining once about his arms getting tired so hurry up.

And, so as not to overwhelm anyone with photos, I'll just show you my son's quilt and save my daughter's for another day. ;-)

 It took me quite a while to do these blocks, but I found myself enjoying it a lot. I tried to incorporate pieces that I knew my son would really like ... space scraps, Rudolph, a turtle (so tiny, can you find it?), etc. I also had this really questionable great idea to order a Grinch fat quarter at the last minute, and so on Christmas Eve, I had all but the last block sewn onto the top. Yeah. I was up all stinkin' night finishing.

But it totally cracks me up when my son sings "You're as charming as an eeeeeeeel!" So who wouldn't want that memory in their quilt?? Here's the back. Dontcha love the old-school Rudolph-Santa stuff in the middle? My son loooves the "Bumble." And....he liked this side better than the front side. The front, which I so pain-stakingly loving put together. Strip by strip.

 Here's another picture of the top, which *I* love. Below is a close-up of one of the blocks. I incorporated some "feely" scraps into this one. The shiny green on the left and the fleecy green in the middle were both scraps from his 2010 Hungry Caterpillar costume. Ah, memories. That's what quilts are for. Aren't I right?

 Some detail from the back. My previous quilts don't have pieced backs. I enjoyed tacklin' this one.

Love the fleecy red and the minky green. I like watching my son push on the minky dots as if he's trying to pop a bubble...

And down below is a close-up of one of my favorite blocks from the front. A scrappy Rudolph block.

This quilt is lap size. I'll try to measure it soon and put up the stats. It's 50" x 50" - a nice big square. Currently it lives on my son's bed. Love. :)

Thanks for visiting!

Linking up here:

Tatertots & Jello
Canoe Ridge Creations 
Sugar Bee Crafts
Today's Creative Blog 
Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night 

Christmas Kiddie Quilts ~ WIP

 A while back, some time over the summer, I think, I thought it would be a great idea to make the kids their own little Christmas quilts. I bought the fabric (and had a lot of fun choosing the prints), got the yardage in the mail (and had a lot of fun running my hands across the the fabrics when they arrived), and then stashed them in drawers. Until November. When I decided I needed to get crackin.'

I have a boy and a girl, so I started cutting up the fabric and making 9x9" blocks with one or the other in mind. Can you guess which blocks are for my son and which are for my daughter?? Ok, I'll just tell ya.

For my space-lovin' little guy.

 For my brown-haired little girl who really does love to swing.

 For my puppy-lovin' princess.

 And some blocks were just a toss-up. But this one is going to my daughter.

 And this one for my son.

 My son looooves Rudolph. It's a four-year-old thing, you know.

 And another for my doggy-lovin' daughter.

I've made 19 out of 24 blocks so far, but these are some of my favorites. Tonight, I started putting together my daughter's quilt top. It's fun seeing it all come together. I just hope I can get both quilts done by Christmas Eve!!

Linking up here today:

Mommy By Day...Crafter By Night
Funky Polka Dot Giraffe

Girl on a Tree Swing ~ Second Finish!

Yay! My second one is done and already up on the wall!

You can see my first girl on a swing here.

She is totally yukking it up there on that swing. 

What was so funny??

This one is bigger than the first one I did, but the white space is smaller (I think I like the thicker border and white space on the first one better...hmmm). For this one, I tried to follow the color scheme of the original with the fabric I had on hand. You can find Aneela Hoey's super easy tutorial on her blog, Comfort Stitching. I had a really fun time doing this mini-quilt!

I tried to imitate Aneela's quilting style with the border -- see those little circles? Fun! I really like how it turned out. I would love to do a project like this one again with an image that might be appropriate for my son's room (stars and planets, I'm thinking, since he LOVES outer space). Anyone have tutorials in mind??

 I also put some little pockets on the back when I stitched up the binding so that I could hang this baby on the wall. I followed the mini-tut at A Girl in Paradise (though I just used some extra charm squares and didn't bother ironing them.). Super easy.

And then I went outside and found a stick to use and put it inside. The stick is a little bumpy on one corner, so I may have to go back out and find a smaller, straighter stick (the exercising aspect of quilting, I suppose.). Oh, and I added a little rubber band and then hung it up. For my smaller, first girl-on-a-swing mini quilt, I used a chop stick and that worked perfectly!

Linking up here today:

Girl on a Tree Swing First Finish

This is the one I started second, but finished first (partly because it's the smaller of the two and partly because it was my trial-and-error one). You can see my other girl on a swing here (it's not done yet!). I'm happy with how this one turned out. A fun little project!

Once again, I used Aneela Hoey's super-fabulous tutorial to complete this mini-quilt.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with the loopy-loop quilting around the border! 

Do you see my green apples in the picture? This scene is definitely harder to see than my other one, but I think that's part of what makes it special and unique. 

I'm happy to be linking up here:

Work-in-Progress Girl on a Tree Swing

 Like so many others out there, I was captivated by Aneela Hoey's Girl on a Tree Swing quilt. I remember reading her tutorial on how to do the mini-quilt and bookmarking it many, many months ago. And it just stuck with me. So, now that things have settled down a little more for me this summer, I decided to give it a try.

The piecing and free-motion quilting of the scraps was a lot of fun. I liked putting everything together. When it came time to outline the tree, the apples, and the little girl, I was excited! The face was harder than I thought it'd be. But I think it turned out well enough. My girl looks like she's yukking it up about something.

Here's a close-up.

I saw so many neat versions on blogs out there that I decided to give it another try with a red-white-and-blue background. This background is also half the size as the one above (though the parts like the tree and girl are the same sizes).

And another close-up.

 I'm in the process of now quilting the designs so that I'll have two little wall hanging mini-quilts in the end. It's a relatively easy project (depending on how fussy you are) and fun to do something different. I'm hoping to get the mini-quilts done in the next week or so!

I'm happy to be linking up here with Lee at Freshly Pieced today:

 

My American Pie Quilt

One of the best parts about quilting, in my opinion, is the photo shoot when it's all done. I love going out and putting my quilt in different spaces to see how it looks. Yesterday, I got some help from my two little assistants.

 We drew a lot of sea creatures on the pavement and while they were busy coloring, I thought I'd put my quilt down in the middle of it. I kinda like how the pictures turned out. Even with the interruptions. :)

 Hehe, it's fun to be done. Now everyone gets to enjoy it.

I'm happy to be linking up here:

PS: Once again, I wanted to mention that I got this fabulous idea for this quilt at Crazy Mom Quilts. Thanks Amanda Jean!