A Rainbow Ocean!

I am so excited to share with you the "Rainbow Ocean" quilt I made for my longtime childhood friend Jen! She just had two precious twin girls and of course I had to make a quilt to celebrate their "birth"day!

The pattern is "Baby, I Do" by Cherry House Quilts and the fabrics are a mix of Ann Kelle and Kona cotton solids.

Now Jen is obsessed with all things sea related (we've been besties since I was 12 and we shared an apartment steps from the ocean when I was in college) and when I saw this Ann Kelle Urban Zoologie Whales in Garden fabric I thought it had Jen's name written all over it.

And how perfect is the "Baby, I DO" pattern with it's circles that look like ship portholes? I picked up this pattern from Pink Chalk Fabrics.

I finished the quilt top a while ago but was lacking in inspiration on how to actually quilt it. I came across this post HERE over at "Film in the Fridge" and knew when I saw it that it would be perfect for this "Rainbow Ocean" quilt. I ended up marking every single line with a green fabric pencil before quilting ~ phew was that ever A LOT of work!

I wanted to go a little more simple on the back and ended up using this lovely Ann Kelle fabric from her Remix line, zigzag stripe in bright. Both Ann Kelle fabrics were purchased from Hawthorne Threads.

I love this very happy rainbow and "sunshine" (yellow) pieced backing ... as bright and sweet as Jen herself :D

Well I have to rush off to the post before it closes so I can send it on it's way to the sunny and warm California coast. Hope she loves it as much as I do!

Happy quilting,
Colette

Who Would Have Thought?

Totally swooning over this fat quarter stack of batiks I put together last week. Who would have thought that I would be buying batiks? I know, right? Ha ha, in all of my swaps under "dislikes" I have ALWAYS listed batiks. Not my usual style, but these are soooo lovely!

A friend of mine has been working up a quilt using batiks and swears that they are fabulous to work with. She took me on a little trip to her LQS and I was amazed by all of the color/print varieties. I prefer the more subtle tone on tone prints rather than the loud and bright ones.

I just love LOVE love the pale shades of cream, blue, yellow, and gray ~ my favorite new color story. In fact, I am going to redecorate my house this summer and these are the colors I plan on designing around. This little stack will be a throw quilt for my living room. Oh and just a little side note -- my Husband is a fan of batiks so this one will be made especially for him :D

Happy quilting,
Colette

Caribbean Dreamin'

For Mary's month (March) of the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee, she chose to have us make her beach themed blocks and was inspired by this quilt below made by oh-cherry-sew. I love LOVE love this quilt!



Drawing is not my greatest strength, so I went on flickr to find some inspiration photos with simple lines that I could manage to draw. Being that it is still freezing (yes, literally) here in New England, I thought I'd do a little Caribbean dreamin' and this is what I found:



Aren't the colors and lines of this house just FANTASTIC? Here is my very simple interpretation:

And I just adore this boat:




And here is what I created:

Mary sent us two 4.5" white center blocks and a few scraps of brightly colored batiks with Wonderunder fusible web attached. She simply asked us to make a raw edge fused beach cottage or any other beach themed design and then finish the block (using our own white fabric) to 12.5" using log cabin or any other style block we would like.

I used Kona PFD White and kept it very simple by adding white to the sides and then top and bottom. What a fantastic idea Mary! Sending out fabric for bees can be very costly and I didn't mind one bit adding some white from my stash to her blocks. I actually made the white blocks up before I added my fused fabrics.

There was no need to applique the fabrics to the block because she plans on quilting over the entire top, but I did do a little free motion drawing on my boat block in a light gray.

I have to say it is a little bitter sweet, as these are the last blocks I had to make for the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee! I am officially bee free ~ woohoo! Hmmm...I know I said I was done with bees, but I just might have to join one more to make one of these beach quilts! Ha ha, it is probably just a matter of time before I join another bee ;D

Happy quilting,
Colette

Mosaic

I HEART this mosaic bee block I made for Heather for the Not Your Grandma's Quilting Bee! This 13" improvised block was made using this Oh Fransson tutorial.

My little girl, R., totally flipped for the bright Riley Blake fabrics with the black sashing and really wants me to make her a pillow like it. We'll just have to see about that...it took me hours to make this one little block. Sheesh! And let me just add that this block is a fabric hog, oink oink! I did have fun making it though :D

This April block if technically the last block for this bee, but I still have yet to make my March blocks...

Happy quilting,
Colette

Single Girl Mini Quilt Top

Sorry for the prolonged absence from this blog! We took a short trip to the West Coast to visit family and friends and we've had a rough time getting back on East Coast time and back to our regular routine. I did manage to get some quilting in this week though and I finally got around to piecing my "Single Girl" mini quilt top (pattern by Denyse Schmidt)!

Ha ha, this was the first picture I snapped yesterday when the sun popped us a very short visit as we were on our way out the door. I love how R. is holding the quilt top upside down and the Q1 sticky note is still on it ;D

I made this single block for the flickr "Single Girl Support Group" quilt along. Its not too late to join if you are interested.

The Japanese fabrics used (including the SCRUMPTIOUS lilac linen background with the most gorgeous iridescent sheen) are all from Superbuzzy.

This will be just a one block mini quilt to hang in my bedroom to coordinate with my Echino bed quilt. I had so much fun making this that I plan on making a 4 block baby quilt soon :D

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Colette

Mod Girl Pinwheel Pillow

So last week R. asked me what I was making her for Valentine's Day this year and I quickly replied, "Well, its a secret!" Apparently because I made her and D. these fabric Valentine's last year, I have started a new tradition and MUST make her a Valentine's gift every year. I really did not plan on making her anything, but since I really didn't get around to making her anything for Christmas this year (guilty sigh here because last year I made her this sweet Waldorf Doll "Chloe"), I figured I better step up and get to sewing.

My first thought was that I might be able to whip out a small doll quilt to match the quilt I just made her (Drat! I should have saved her quilt for Valentine's Day, right?) but I wasn't going to be able to pull it off quickly enough, as these circle blocks take a while to complete.

Then I came across this fantastic pinwheel pillow tutorial over at Sew Mama Sew and knew I had to whip up one for R. in the leftover Sis Boom (Jennifer Paganelli) scraps from her Pinwheel quilt and Mason's quilt.

My friend and I usually get together once a week to craft while our kids play, so I sent her the link to see if she might want to make up the tops together. I can't tell you how much fun we had playing with fabrics and design options. She thought she might make one for her Grandson to match the quilt she just made him, and because he is only a year old she did not want to use a button as suggested in the tutorial, but came up with idea of using a yo-yo instead. BRILLIANT idea!

R. likes to sleep on her decorative pillows (and she has such cute pillowcases that we have made!) so I thought the yo-yo would be perfect for her pillow as well. This was my first time making a yo-yo and I have to say that I am addicted! Clover makes a little (actually, I used the "large" size) yo-yo maker that is easy and super fun to use. The yo-yo was glue basted to the pillow top and then stitched down using a blanket stitch (with two strands of white DMC floss).

The binding is another Sis Boom fabric that I had in my stash that R. loved, and I think it sets it off the appliqued pinwheel beautifully. The tutorial pillow does not have a binding, but I used three 2 1/4 inch strips of fabric to make it. As for the tutorial's machine applique technique using starch, it is truly GENIUS! I used my FMQ foot and some lovely variegated quilting thread in pink (King Tut thread) to do the machine applique.

And how fun is this pieced back? I used Kona snow along with two of the Sis Boom fabrics. I always make my envelope backs open to the side rather than the top to avoid the "droopy drawers" look. I used my zipper foot to machine stitch the 1/2 bias (not cut on the bias though) tape to both raw edges of the back. This pillow really needs a 20" pillow form to fill it out nicely, but I only had an 18" one on hand.

All in all, I am quite pleased with how this pillow turned out and R. is too! Hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day!

Happy quilting,
Colette

Just Right!

This sweet little quilt for R. is FINALLY finished and is just right to suit her personality...

a little bit of sweetness (girly)

a touch of tomboy (had to add blue, couldn't be too girly)

and a bit sassy (she insisted on that Zebra Print)

This actually started off as a quilt for my shop (someday I'll actually get around to making a few quilts for the shop!) and after I finished the pinwheels R. decided that it HAD to be for her. "You've been promising me a quilt since my Birthday last year (April) and you have made quilts for everybody else and not me!" Pouty expression and arms crossed, ha ha. So I let her take over on choosing the border, binding, and backing fabrics (It was so SO so hard to give up artistic control and let her choose...such a different direction than I was heading!!!) and I have to admit that this quilt really came out quite lovely and spunky, just like R ;D

The pattern is "Cowboy Baby" from the book "Material Obsession". The fabrics are from Sis Boom (Jennifer Paganelli), Tanya Whelan, Amy Bulter, and Joel Dewberry.

I ended up using this Quilter's Dream FABULOUS wool batting from Alewives Fabrics that I can't rave enough about! I quilted this using just a simple stipple and that little poofs created by the stippling on the wool were nice and fluffy. Also, the wool makes for a nice warm, but lightweight quilt. I'll definitely be using it for more quilts in the future.

Now R. is begging for a coordinating quilt for her doll bed, which will make for the perfect Valentine's Day gift!

PS - did you spy all of that SNOW???

Happy quilting,
C