Grunge Moda Basic Grey – Wedding Gift

After rejecting the Satsuki Jewel quilt to give as a wedding gift, I started looking closer at this jelly roll, Grunge by Moda. The Satsuki Jewel quilt felt too traditional and scrappy, and I thought a more modern quilt would be a better choice for the recipients in mind.

I did a search on the fabric, just casually looking for ideas, and I happened on a pattern featuring this exact fabric line!  http://static.fatquartershop.com/media/wysiwyg/pdf/Grunge.pdf

Kinda felt like cheating, but it was pretty much the look I was hoping for, and I’d never done a pattern like it before.

Lots of cutting…

The blocks were really fun to piece! I enjoyed putting all the different colors together in so many different combinations. So satisfying.

Free motion quilting

Trimming off the edges is always thrilling

Sewing the binding

I love using wonderclips to hold the binding in place while I hand sew – it keeps the edges from fraying so much in the meantime.

Love this one! Was fun and easy, and I look forward to trying this pattern with other fabrics.

 

Satsuki Jewel Quilt

I’d like to blog about my current project(s), but I feel like I need to catch up on old stuff first! So here’s another one I started in early 2015. I bought a layer cake of Robert Kaufman Satsuki Jewel, thinking it would make a lovely quilt for a wedding gift. I’d also been wanting to try out an altered squares pattern.

I cut each square into 4 pieces – either equal squares or triangles.

The fabric is pretty, but I really wasn’t crazy about the way this was coming together. Too patchy – I think the fabric needed something a little more orderly.

I used this fabric for border and backing. This is another mistake I learned from – it’s best for bordering colors to go from lightest to dark, not darkest to lightest as I did.

Quilt sandwich, first layer

Quilted with free motion meandering pattern

A full layer cake pack makes a big quilt!

I always have helpers for hand sewing the binding

I realized early on that this wasn’t the quilt I wanted to give as a wedding gift and started another project that I loved! (hate to say I’m so disappointed in this one, but it was another good learning experience).

Goth Baby Quilt

When I found out one of my oldest, dearest friends and his wife were expecting a baby, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to make my first baby quilt. Plus there was the added challenge of making a Goth style quilt for the baby of a well-known Goth model/celebrity.

I browsed fabrics in black, purple, and grey on fabric.com, and I picked a few that I thought might go ok together. I didn’t follow a pattern, but I decided to cut my fabric into 5″ squares like a charm pack in order to showcase the fabrics somewhat. I was trying for a more modern look as opposed to scrappy.

Knowing that the expecting parents lived with 2 black cats, I thought the fabrics were especially appropriate.

Fabrics include Oddities Cats, Magic Meows in Purple by Alexander Henry, and Foxtrot Purple from the Michael Miller Norwegian Woods collection. I can’t remember the name of the skeleton chandelier fabric. The Norwegian Woods pieces are a little pinker than I wanted, but I thought the fabric was so cute and helped to soften the whole thing up some. The black fabric strips are from a Moda jelly roll.

Brain, my ever present helper

making a Goth baby quilt in my sparkly corner

cutting fabric strips for the binding

Hand sewing the binding. I used this adorable fabric called “Oddities Cats” for the backing.

I found it very difficult to photograph the finished product – the colors just never seemed to look quite right with any lighting I used. So here’s a variety… 🙂

I used leftover fabric to make a matching pillow case for the gift wrap.

Little Chair Quilt and the Digging Dog

Suey, my 7 year old hairless Chinese Crested, sometimes likes to dig when he’s trying to get comfortable on furniture. He doesn’t stay home alone often, but it’s been enough for him to do some damage to my beloved recliner.

Here’s Suey, cozy in my chair (wearing an outfit I made for him).

I tried protecting the chair with a variety of blankets, but they never stayed in place very well (especially with Suey digging at them). So I decided to make a small quilt (my 3rd) for this purpose. Also a good project for practicing my free motion quilting on.

This was my very first practice attempt at free motion quilting. Very rocky at first!

Michael Miller Gem Tones charm pack. I decided to use a disappearing 9 patch.

the quilt top

the quilt sandwich

free motion quilting – still rough in spots

Brain likes it!

I wish I’d made it just a little bit bigger. It fits well and stays in place better than the blankets did, but without safety pins holding the corners in tight, it moves around. In the picture above, Suey is actually lying on the foot rest, and that’s little Raoul cuddled against him.

just had to throw in this pic of a slightly older Raoul

And there’s one last picture of the quilt on the chair with Suey (modeling another outfit I made for him). The quilt is starting to show signs of wear, but I’m glad it’s there. My dad moved in with us in February after he had a stroke, and he spends many hours in that chair every day.

here he is in my chair, hanging out with Vigilance