Life in Color Photo

I started this one when Bennet was a newborn. And I don’t know if the pattern is off, my cutting was off, or my seam allowance but I pretty quickly realized that things were not matching up. So I set it aside. And I was going to just give up on it all together but  a friend convinced me to trim up the pieces I had done and finish it. I’m so glad I did! I did pebble quilting in the sashing and some big stitch hand stitching in the colored areas. Here is a link to the pattern (a free one by Moda called Mind the Gap). I did change the colors a bit and used a mix of solids from different brands (can’t remember which now, sorry!). I haven’t seen many of these quilted so I thought I post to show how I did it. This is roating between my girls’ beds now, they love it.

I am part of two quilt guilds: Portland Modern Quilt Guild, of which I’m a founding member, and Corvallis Modern Quilt Guild. It’s no secret that traffic around Portland has gotten bananas. That makes it harder for me to get up to that guild every month. I like Corvallis because it’s an easy drive and one of my best friends lives there, and is in the guild! It reminds me of when Portland was really small, and not the largest Modern Quilt Guild in the world! We made 8.5″ raspberry kiss blocks for our guild president in Corvallis when she was expecting her first sweet baby! I quickly because obsessed with the blocks and made too many. They sat for a while but finally I whipped up some more to make this baby top. I used Quilter’s Dream cotton (affiliate link). I pretty much only use Quilter’s Dream battings now, they are consistent and so easy to work with. They hold up great and I have had great results with all I’ve tried. I gifted it to my kids guide. I’m still homeschooling the girls but we work with a charter that oversees their work, gives us some funding, has field trips, does the testing, etc. It’s a great combo for us. And one thing that makes it awesome is our wonderful guide, but we won’t have her next year as she takes a leave of absence for her third sweet boy! I decided this quilt was a perfect send off for her since I’ve rarely remembered a “teacher’s gift” or anything (props to those of you who do!). She LOVED it! Woot!

I am really trying to make myself buy more low volume prints. I love the contrast with the bright colors, which I have a hard time passing up at the quilt shop!

Love, love, love how this one turned out. I was highly inspired by this quilt (as you can see!) so the idea was not mine. I loved digging through my scraps and hacking away at them ruler free for an evening or two. I did use a ruler to square up the blocks. The whole thing went together quickly. I used Dream Puff batting (affiliate link). I’m a late convert to poly batting. It took me a while to figure out that I must baste very well to make this an easy quilt. But it’s worth it. The batting is a crowd pleaser! In fact I forgot about this quilt because my older daughter has squirreled this away to her bed. I guess that means I need to make another. Luckily I have plenty of scraps, I even buy scrap packs from shops, they’re my favorite!

I am realizing that I really need to put all my projects on the blog – otherwise I forget about all the details. I have recently started a list in Evernote of what quilts I’ve made and where they were given. But it’s woefully incomplete! I must to better. To that end, check out my Polaroid quilt! My friend Sarah and I made it for our friend who just had her first baby.

I used my normal tag and added a more complete tag since this quilt was an epic amount of work and I felt the need to be credited for all eternity, hahaha. I reached out to the couple I made this quilt for and they said this type of tag with the button has held up well. I really, really love the gel fabric pen (affiliate link) I use, it doesn’t bleed at all.
I used this tutorial for the “shadow” and really like how it turned out. 1,581 pieces is a lot though. So Bj wants one and I think I will stretch it out to be a multi year project!

Have you heard of the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show? It’s not a bunch of relatives hanging quilts together but a town called Sisters in Central Oregon that one day a year goes crazy and puts over a thousand quilts all over town outside! It’s super awesome and this year I was lucky enough to go check it out. Not only that but earlier in the week I took a class by Carolyn Friedlander in a coordinating event called A Quilter’s Affair. Somehow I just found out about this even though it’s been going on for forty years! In addition to all this awesomeness I stayed with a group of awesome women at a legitimate RANCH and sewed all weekend. So pretty much THE BEST THING EVER. Want to see what I worked on?

First of all the light in this place. THE LIGHT. I would challenge you to find people more in love with light than those living in climate’s like the valley in Oregon where there is so little light to be had in the winter (and fall and spring). WE LOVE IT. I whipped up this #RainbowPicnicSewAlong so quickly. I changed it a little bit. I had a 6″ (finished) square die for my Accuquilt so I used that. Making the quilt 10 x 12 blocks (60 x 72). I’m excited for Rachel to post the next steps, I bought my canvas backing today!
Hand-sewing outside. Yes please! I’m making little sweet patches for a much loved thrifted quilt with my new found needle turn appliqué skill.
The Moda Building Blocks was fun for a while (it was a local shops block of the month club) but I had such trouble with my seam allowance. I decided to call this good after making a few filler blocks and will be quilting this and donating it this fall.
Swoon Quilt! I had a bunch of these blocks cut out since the last Craftcation so I made myself sew them up. It actually wasn’t so bad once I got going (and read the directions!). And I really love how it turned out so there might even be more swoon blocks in my future.

I have been making this style of quilt for a while to highlight a favorite or orphan (leftover from another quilt) block. Sometimes I use four blocks as in this quilt I sold on Etsy. I love the simplicity of these quilts and the ability to showcase large prints (isn’t that alphabet fun??).

Alien Alphabet quilt 41 x 53 for sale on Etsy here.

Elephant quilt 54 x 64 made for my friend’s son.
These simple quilts make trying new things such as quilting techniques (the loop pattern on the elephant one above), different batting (playing with Dream Puff), and different fabrics (I used a “minky” type on the elephant one) less intimidating. If something goes wrong you haven’t spent a ton of time working on a top, and stitches are easier to pull out with less piecing.
This is also a good go to for charity quilting as these tops whip up quickly. I’m working on another type that also pieces so fast (and uses only 9 fat quarters!) that I’ll share soon. It feels so good to bust through the stash and participate in my guild’s charity work.

This winter I wanted to get a high loft batting to try. I was intrigued by the look of quilting with it and also thought it would feel so light and soft. I did a very basic quilt and went to quilt it, basting as I usually do (totally half assed pins way too far apart) and it was a disaster! Even though I was using a walking foot I got bunching and all kinds of yuckiness. Not a fan. I chalked it up to the batting, bummed I had bought a whole bolt of the stuff (Quilters Dream Puff).
Because I had bought a whole bolt eventually I came around to the fact that I was going to have to use the stuff. I did a little more research and figured my basting was one of the problems. Turns out it was a huge problem! I pin baste and now I place my pins a LOT closer together – 3″ max. I love pin basting. I use my living room floor and life goes on around me as I tape the quilt back, batting, and top sticking pins in whenever I get a chance.

Ombre with floral background – cotton batting $85 in my etsy shop. You can see how crinkly the quilt looks with 100% cotton batting. It really shrinks up. It’s a thin quilt, perfect for a baby play-mat.

Ombre with blue floral background. $85 in my etsy shop. You can see how much more puffy the Dream Puff batting is. It’s really fun. There is less crinkle in the quilt over all as well (both of these quilts were washed together exactly the same). The puffiness makes it such a cuddly quilt. I think I’m really in love with it.
In terms of batting my all time favorite is probably still Dream Wool. I just love the loft, it’s ease to use, the amount you can sew apart. It’s an all time winner in my book BUT some people don’t like wool. And especially for gift quilts I’m just not sure how they will be treated so I tend to stay away from it for that.
I like having some of these high loft quilts under my belt. It’s always fun to experiment and try new things.