I made this lovely quilt for my youngest sister Lesley B. for christmas. She is a big skull fan, so I decided to go with a tighter purple palate and pulled all of the different fabrics in my stash that I could find that fit this color way, and then embedded a sneaky secret skull in soft grey into the design. It took me a while to map it all out, but eventually I got there, and went with an 11x15 block design. I placed all 120-something blocks out on my floor to get the pattern right (and added some corner flairs to the blocks around the mouth to give it a bit more definition), and then collapsed everything up in order into the 15 rows that made up the length of the quilt. Once everything was all mapped, it was then a matter of sewing ALL THE BLOCKS together which took a while, but was quite satisfying in the end. I was using a soft quilted backing again, but having learned recently from my cousin's baby quilt, this type of fabric is not great for machine quilting, so after binding it in a complimentary batik fabric, I decided to hand tie the entire thing with golden embroidery floss. Again, quite time consuming, but in the end a nice final effect, in my opinion! I hope Les gets many years of warmth and coziness from this spooooooky quilt!
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My dear cousins Heidi C. and Nathan H. are about to have their first baby (aka swirly), and since I was seeing them over the holidays, I was able to complete their baby quilt to gift to them in person. I felt like I wanted to do one with lots of faces on it (which I learned later was a favourite feature of Nathan's own baby quilt), but I broke things up with slashes of bright rosy fabric just to mix things up a bit. I also framed everything in that fabric, and then made a narrow border using some of the fabric from cousin Alexis and Andrew's daughter Claire's quilt a few years ago, for a little cousin resonance. I made some bright red binding to go around the outside, and backed it in a soft, quilted green fabric. This backing was a little stretchy, so unfortunately it didn't quilt very smoothly and there are some puckers in the back... but hey! I guess that means it is homemade! :) I hope swirly gets many years of cuddles and comfort from this quilt!
My sister Leah B. fulfilled one of her life dreams this year and got a 'real' piano for her home. And so I made her a little piano seat cover for the bench! Palate of her favourite blues, and used felt for the backing to provide a bit of light grip--- hopefully it will inspire many a tune in the coming years!
Abe G. gave me some ridiculous Trudeau socks earlier this year. So for the holidays, I decided to turn these socks into cool wrist bands and re-gift them back to him with a new, more useful purpose. So now he can wipe his dainty brow with our nation's leader. Enjoy the sweat-mopping power of Trudeau!
Another epic quilt project, this time for my father, Robert B., originally scheduled for Christmas 2018, but finally gifted to him for Father's Day 2019. (I was also working on mom's epic quilt at the same time, and I just got completely overwhelmed).
I love my Dad, and because of this, I have learned to also love his ADHD (which he claims he does not have #incorrect). And so, I wanted to make him a lap quilt to snuggle under that would occupy ALL of his head. So I just made it up. It is kind of a sampler--- tons of different kinds of blocks, scrappy bits, panels--- most made by me and some recycled in (including one of the porch blocks!)--- all tetris-ed together into a semi-cohesive whole, quilted with a bunch of different designs (both free-motion and straight line), backed with pieced flannels of grey and yellow (with a cool strip intersecting which echoes the border and binding), and then bound. Whew! It was a ton of work to put this all together, and is the result of months of plugging away at little bits and bobs. The last picture in the gallery above is a pic he sent of him enjoying the quilt, so I guess we will call it a win! :) As I said when I gave it to him, I have never spent so much time on what ended up being a ribbing-type joke about his ADHD. But I am glad I did it and get it finished--- it is maybe not the most beautiful design, but I love it both for its origin story and because he seems to appreciate it too (despite the ribbing). Well, I finally get to reveal my 2018 white whale--- this hexi lap quilt for my dear maman. As with many of the projects I start, I didn't quite appreciate the amount of work on this one, but I plugged away throughout the year, and eventually it all came together.
Essentially, this is your typical paper-pieced hexi quilt-- I basted all of the fabric scraps to 2" hexi templates (I just used normal paper), and started hand sewing them all together... and hand sewing... and hand sewing... :) The middle is a random assortment but the outer layers have a bit more direction as I started working out, with blues and greens at her head/feet and reds and oranges as the focus on the sides. In order to have it feel like the centre panel is floating and there were no hexis cut off abruptly, I did a final row of brown hexis around the whole quilt, before sewing panels of the brown to these hexis and trimming them accordingly. The border is a soft grey flannel with pieced panels from the cool and warm palates of the outer layers of the hexi panel, and the back is a simple blue. The binding is a fun purple batik that I think pulls it all together well. I kept the quilting simple with lines criss-crossing the hexi panel, and simple, randomly spaced vertical lines for the borders. I was glad to give this to mom for Christmas, both so she could enjoy it, and because I couldn't stop looking at it and petting this quilt. I love it SO MUCH, and cannot imagine making something so labour intensive for any one else but my long-suffering, sewing mother. Hope you enjoy it for many years to come, momma! :) Well, actually I might be a bit later than that even.... #betterlatethannever?
I made this belated baby quilt for Alexis and Andrew L. for their newest addition to the family, Claire, who arrived a few months ago but I was only recently able to put aside time to get this completed. Claire's cousin Vibeke was born a few months earlier, and they live quite close to each other, so I wanted to bring a little bit of what was happening in Vibeke's quilt into Claire's. That mainly came into play with the border fabric (which is the same as the background fabric in Vibeke's) and the general colorful chaos (which I can hardly help in the best of times) #rainbows4evah For this quilt, I collected some bright primary colors, and a few of my (rare) neutral prints (greys, beiges and white tones) to make a series of diamond blocks sitting in a more neutral background. From there I framed each of these in a fun diamond fabric, and encased the whole thing in a very narrow yellow border before going into the blue outer border to finish. To be honest, I wasn't sure if the yellow was going to be too thin, but in the end I really like the super narrow sashing--- makes it feel even more like a bit of lattice work, or a window pane. Anyway, once sandwiched, I quilted it simply by echoing the diamonds a few times, and following along the narrow yellow sashing. I backed it all with a fun complimentary graphic floral fabric, and bound it in dusty rose. I hope Claire likes her new quilt, and she and her cousin enjoy some of the complimentary colors between their two blankets! A lap quilt for my lovely sister Leah B. for her birthday this year. While they recently got a dog, her first love is kitty cats... combining this with her favourite hue of blue, and we have lift off! I did 12 different cat blocks in fund fabrics, and hand embroidered a different expression on each one, from sleeping to shocked to sneaky. Each of the blocks were then trimmed in a pebbled border and snowballed with an aqua batik. Then the lot of blocks were bordered with a graded blue square patterned fabric, backed with a funky piece of dyed green and blue cotton, sandwiched with organic cotton, and then lightly machine-quilted and hand tied with coordinated yarn (not shown--- forgot to take a final set of pics before gifting it to her). This was a fun project to take on since I had some clear directions to take things (ALL THE KITTIES AND BLUENESS), and I enjoyed dabbling in simple embroidery to give the blocks some personality. I know Leah has already been enjoying the quilt as we move into the autumn months, so I hope this one provides many years of warmth and kitty-themed whimsy!
A bright (mildly-intense?), V-inspired baby quilt for the newest member of our extended family, my cousin Dariel G.'s new daughter, Vibeke. I took my inspiration from her name to go with a basic V/triangular pattern, and the lovely teal and pink fabric I scored at the Hintonburg Fabric Sale this spring. After putting together the three V-panels, I bordered them in electric rainbow tie dye, complimented by a rich wave pebble pattern, and bound with the same teal fabric from the V panels. The quilt is backed with warm forest-themed flannel, and quilted simply following the Vs in the middle. I really love how this came out, and hope Vibeke enjoys many years with this baby blanket!
I made a runner for my blue-loving aunt Chris L. a few years ago, but after being much loved and washed, it was in need of repair. (In addition to the frequent washings, I also blame my too-small seam allowances when I was getting back into sewing. Live and learn!) So she gave it back to me, and I re-sewed it... which actually resulted in me ripping most of it apart and switching up the accent color palate, including a cheery yellow fabric instead of the previous green (wish I had taken a pick before I switched things up), bordering it with the accent yellow color as well, and quilting more extensively to make sure things stay tacked down. Hope this refresh provides a happy burst of color to the breakfast nook!
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