Flashback Friday #18: Cheery Cherry Mini Quilt

Sometimes you don’t want to work on a big, complicated quilt. Sometimes you need something quick and easy and fun. Enter Cheery Cherry. Back in July 2010, I took a charm pack of Oh Cherry Oh fabric, made a bunch of half-square triangles, sewed them together and had a mini quilt top done in a weekend. It took me three months to hand quilt it and it was finished by the end of October 2010. These days, it brings cheer to my office.

Flashback Friday #17: Summer in the Suburbs Mini Quilt

Ah, the Moda tins. There is just something about cute fabric, a cute pattern, and cute packaging that, taken together, I find hard to resist. My favorite was the Tin Box Sampler for Summer in the City by Urban Chiks. The top came together over a quiet weekend in August 2010, and the whole thing was finished in September 2010. I learned two things from this quilt: I do not like partial seams, and I do like working with 1.5” squares. One of these days, I will tweak this pattern so that I can make a similar quilt without partial seams. This mini quilt is approximately 16” by 16” and now lives with a summery friend.

Flashback Friday #16: Alarm Clock Cover

When I first became addicted to reading quilting blogs, back in July 2010 or so, half-square triangles were all the rage. After seeing so many beautiful specimens online, I just had to make something for myself. At the time, the light from my digital alarm clock wasn’t helping with my pregnancy-induced insomnia, so each night I would cover it with whatever was at hand, which was usually a scarf or something similar that would slide off in the night. I soon tired of this and decided that a half-square triangle mini quilt would make the perfect alarm clock cover. I knew that I wanted to use a solid, and dug around in my stash until I found the leftovers of the flying geese baby quilts that I made. I finished this mini quilt in August 2010 and used it as an alarm clock cover until my alarm clock died, victim of a curious infant that didn’t know her own strength. Now this little quilt hangs on my quilt ladder. My cell phone is a better alarm clock, anyways.

Flashback Friday #15: Batik Table Runner

I am very blessed to be one of several quilters in my family. In addition to my mom, my husband’s grandmother is also a quilter. A couple of years ago, she gave me a kit by Timeless Treasures. The pattern called for offsetting the rows and trimming off a significant portion of some of the blocks. I didn’t want to make a bunch of blocks and then discard part of them, so I decided to tweak the pattern. I made the blocks as instructed, but rotated them instead of offsetting them. As I worked on the blocks, I realized that with the addition of a few leftover fabrics  from other projects, I could stretch the kit and make a table runner in addition to the small quilt. I knew that it would take me awhile to finish the quilt, so I focused on whipping up a table runner for my husband’s grandmother, keeping in mind that her favorite color is green. I especially enjoyed hand quilting it in a cross-hatch pattern. Needless to say, she was happy to receive it. This runner was finished in August of 2010.

Flashback Friday #14: Fourth of July Table Topper

Back in the spring of 2009, I tried my hand at designing my own pattern for the first time. I took a charm pack of Red, White and Bold fabric, set it on point and sewed it together. Alas, I did not take into consideration the appropriate size of setting triangles in relation to their contingent squares. In other words, the points disappeared when I bound it because I forgot the add a seam allowance to the setting triangles. I was so disappointed in myself that I didn’t finish it until August 2010. Still, I like the fabric (especially the binding), so I kept it.

Flashback Friday #13: Flying Goslings Baby Quilt

When I buy fabric for a pattern, I tend to round up. If the pattern calls for 1/3 of a yard, I buy 1/4 of a yard. When I finished my first Flying Geese Baby Quilt, I realized that I just needed to buy new sashing and backing fabric in order to make another one. I started it with a specific baby in mind, but then there was a baby explosion in my social circle, and suddenly there were too many babies and not enough time to make them all quilts.

Without a recipient in mind, I dawdled. The top went together quickly, as advertised, but the hand-quilting took time. I finally found the motivation to finish this baby quilt when I learned I was pregnant. Since I had been working on this quilt for almost four years, it made sense that it would be for my own child. This baby quilt was started sometime in 2006 and finished July 2010, a few months before the birth of my daughter.

Flashback Friday #12: Queen B

What do you give the couple that has it all? A hand-made quilt, of course! When one of my husband’s best friends announced his upcoming wedding, my husband requested that I sew a queen-size quilt for the happy couple. I was hesitant to commit to such a large project, since the last large quilt I had made took me four years to complete. My husband promised he would help me, so I agreed. I selected a few “easy” patterns that I would be willing to make, and he picked out the one he liked best (Happy Medium from Quilts & More, Summer 2009). He also took me to my favorite quilt store and helped me pick out the fabrics. While I did all of the sewing, my husband took care of the bulk of the cutting and pressing. I could not have completed this quilt without his help. Once the top was complete, I sent it off to Girton Creations to be professionally quilted. Darlene quilted it in a lovely pattern, reminiscent of champagne bubbles. This quilt was started in September of 2009 and finished in July of 2010. I’m happy with how it turned out, but am disinclined to make such a large quilt any time soon.