More Mother's Day Potholders

Here are a couple more potholders I finished a few weeks ago for mother's day. These two were for my mom and Gran.

Like I mentioned in my previous post a few days ago, I used Amy's tutorial from Nana and Co. She has a great step by step tutorial on how to create these. View her tutorial here.

The main prints I used in this project were pulled from a Serenade layer cake I have by Kate Spain for Moda. The ruffle and binding fabric was some I've had on hand for a while. The gray is a Kona solid I think, and the white fabric is canvas I purchased from Joann's. 

Again, I wanted to make this extra personal so I decided to stitch "Mom" on the white canvas. I did this by writing out "Mom" with a disappearing ink pen on my fabric. I then dropped my feed dogs and used my darning foot to stitch over what I had drawn. I tried to make the down strokes a tad thicker for the text to look similar to calligraphy.

For the quilting I used my old faithful meandering free motion pattern.

Here is the one I created for my grandmother. Again, the patterned fabric is from my Serenade layer cake.

I call my grandmother "Gran" so I decided to stitch that on the canvas. I do recommend starting out with a big piece of canvas so you can cut it down after you've stitched the name one. This gives you more control with the border of negative space.

I also free motion quilted this one in the same meandering pattern.

Here they are together! So cute. 

They each took only one night after work to complete, which isn't too bad! 

I love the way they turned out and hope my mom and Gran did too. :) I need to make one for us. Although, it's so much harder to motivate myself to make projects for our home verses projects for others. I always have a deadline with gifts. I need to start making deadlines for myself!

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Baby Boy Smalley's Quilt

I recently finished a baby boy quilt for a friend of mine!

I decided to use fabrics I had in my stash for this. I'm really trying not to let my stash get out of control! It's such hard work. It's so much more fun buying brand new fabric! Ha.

This is another half square triangle quilt like this tutorial I made. Since I used fabric from my stash rather than fat quarters, I decided to start with 10" squares rather than the four 9" squares you get from a single fat quarter. 10" layer cake squares would be great to use for this quilt.

For the backing, I purchased the same Lost and Found 2 - Strip Gray print from Riley Blake that I used on this baby boy quilt. I browsed around for other options but I just love this one so much! It's a perfect understated boy pattern that matches just about anything.

For the binding I used Bella Solids Royal yardage from Moda. I thought about going with a bright orange for contrast, but I knew the nursery was all blues. 

I used a meandering free motion quilt pattern for the quilting. I just love how crinkly it looks after you wash and dry quilts. If you'd like a tutorial on this kind of quilting, Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Frannson! has a great one here.

I hope this gets used often for play time, tummy time, wrapping him up for walks, etc. I can't wait to meet the little guy in just a few weeks!

They haven't quite decided on a name yet, so for the packing I used their last name. 

 I featured this packaging on my calligraphy blog if you wanted to take a look! :)

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Starburst Quilt Complete

I finished this Starburst baby quilt a while back. This was when I first learned how fun half square triangles can be! I could make so many fun designs with them. 

I used solids and couple Kaffe Fassett fat quarters I've had for a while. The center star is made up of Millefiore Red fabric and the other pattern is from the same bundle. I don't remember the name. The orange is Kona Cotton Flame. So bright and fun!

I actually used some muslin I had on hand for the white. I was a little worried it wouldn't wash well with the other fabric since it wasn't great quality, but it worked out great! It actually came out of the dryer looking extra crinkly, which I love.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I don't wash and dry my fabric before I start sewing. I have no huge argument for that decision. I actually am impressed by those who take the time and care to wash, dry, and iron their fabric before they start. I think I just don't have the patience! Ha. So as you could imagine, looking at these bright colors, I was a tad worried when I washed it. I just imagined bright orange and red bleeding onto the crisp white. 

It turned out great though! No problems at all.

For the backing, I used Dottie Cream Shroom fabric by Jay-Cyn Designs for Birch Fabrics. I love this fabric! I need to buy more of it.

I wanted to show a close up of a mistake I made while quilting. As you can see in the middle of the picture above, I quilted a wrinkled part of the fabric. It's not that noticeable but I wish I had pinned a little more thoroughly. Lesson learned!

For the binding I used a pretty fuchsia colored solid that matched some of the pinks in the patterned fabric.

I quilted this in a meandering free-motion quilting pattern. 

It was so fun making a pattern up for this quilt using little half square triangles. Oh the possibilities! I'm not sure who will end up with this quilt, but I have a feeling it won't sit around long. My sweet friends are having babies right and left! :)

Chicopee Potholder

I thought I'd share a little potholder I made for my mom a while back. I just used a current potholder I had as a template. I made it at least an inch bigger all the way around. I quilted two sandwiches bigger than I would need and then I cut them down to size. I didn't have heat resistant batting on hand so I just used two layers of batting. It seems to have worked for her!

I mostly used scraps I had left over from piecing this quilt that I am hand quilting. I haven't worked on that quilt in such a long time! The fabric is from the Chicopee line from Denise Schmidt. I love the saturated colors! 

It was a quick project that has been useful to mom ever since. I love projects that get a lot of use once finished!

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Tutorial: Square Baby Quilt

I love the way this baby quilt turned out. So simple and sweet. I decided to create a tutorial for how I went about putting it together. This definitely isn't the only way. Let me know if you have any questions!

Materials

Square Blocks
     32 - 4" Squares
          For my quilt, I used the below colors and amounts of each.
          11 - Blue (Bella Solids Aqua)
            9 - Dark Gray (Bella Solids Stone)
          12 - Green (Kona Cotton Mint)

          You can get 4" Squares from the following:
                    One 12"xWOF (WOF=Width of Fabric or 44") piece of fabric
                    32 Charm Pack Squares (Most charm packs come with 42 pieces of fabric.)
                    2 Fat Quarters (You can cut 20 4" squares from one fat quarter.)
                    32 scraps that are at least 4"x4"

Borders and Sashing Fabric
     3/4 yard - Light Gray Fabric (I can't remember what I used, just be sure it's lighter than your dark                gray squares)
     1 yard - White Fabric (Bella Solids White)

Backing Fabric
     Stripe Gray from the Lost and Found 2 collection by Mind's Eye for Riley Blake

Binding Fabric
     Ticklish Tipsy Turquoise Laughing Stripes

Cutting Your Fabric

(I didn't use the orange pictured above and additionally used a light gray and white fabric.)

1. Cut out all of your 32 4" squares and set aside.

2. From your light gray fabric:

Cut 10 2" x WOF strips.
We are going to use these strips to chain piece. If you'd prefer not to chain piece, you can cut the following (I highly recommend chain piecing! It saves time and thread):
24 - 2"x8" strips
24 - 2"x4" strips

Subcut 16 - 2"x7" strips from 3 of them.

3. From your white fabric:

Cut 13 2" x WOF strips.
We are going to use these strips to chain piece. If you'd prefer not to chain piece, you can cut the following (I highly recommend chain piecing! It saves time and thread):
40 - 2"x8" strips
40 - 2"x4" strips

Subcut 9 - 2"x7" strips from 2 of your 2" x WOF strips.

Also, cut one 5" x WOF strip. Take your 5" strip and sub cut into six 5"x7" rectangles.

Creating the Blocks

Now that our fabric is cut, we are going to separate our squares into two groups. One group will be bordered in white fabric while the other with be bordered in gray fabric.

4. Group One (will be bordered in gray fabric):

Gather 12 squares. For mine I took 3 blue squares, 5 gray squares, and 4 green squares.

5. Group Two (will be bordered in white fabric):

Gather 20 squares. For mine I took 8 blue squares, 4 gray squares, and 8 green squares.

6. Take Group One and use your gray 2"xWOF strips to chain piece down one side of your 4" squares. When chain piecing, try to leave no more than a half inch gap between squares. (If you decided not to chain piece, use 12 of your 2"x4" strips.) 

7. Once you've sewn the gray strip of fabric down one side of your 12 squares in group one, cut the remaining gray strip of fabric off at the end. You can cut apart each square or just turn the whole thing around and chain piece again the same way down the opposite side. (If you are not chain piecing, use the remaining 12 gray 2"x4" strips here.)

8. Once you've finished chain piecing the gray strips of fabric down two opposing sides of your squares, cut them apart, set your seams, and press them open. Once pressed open, use your square piece of fabric as a guide for squaring up the strip you sewed on.

9. Take another 2" gray strip of fabric and repeat steps 6-8 on the other two sides of your squares. (Use your 2"x8" strips for this if you are not chain piecing.) Once the squares are bordered, square them up to 6.5".

10. Take Group Two and repeat steps 1-4 with your white strips of fabric. (If you are not chain piecing, use your 40 2"x4" strips for the first two sides and your 40 2"x8" strips for the last two sides.)

11. Once all of your squares are bordered in your gray and white fabric, you should be left with 32 6.5"x6.5" blocks!

Creating the Rows

Now that we have all of our blocks created, it's time to sew them into rows! We will have 4 rows of 5 blocks bordered in white and 3 rows of 4 blocks bordered in gray.

12. Sew 4 White Block Rows:

Each white block row includes 5 white blocks and 4 2"x8" gray strips.
Sew each row in this order: 
White block, gray strip, white block, gray strip, white block, gray strip, white block gray strip, white block. 

Once the row is sewn together, trim the sashing strips to the same height as the blocks.

13. Sew 3 Gray Block Rows:

Each gray block row includes 4 gray blocks, 3 2"x8" white strips, and 2 5"x7" white rectangles.
Sew each row in this order: 
White 5" x 7" rectangle, gray block, white strip, gray block, white strip, gray block, white strip, gray block, white 5" x 7" rectangle.

Once the row is sewn together, trim the sashing strips and rectangles to the same height as the blocks.

Piecing the Top

Now that we have all our rows sewn, all we have to do is sew them together!

14. Sew rows together on top of one another alternating white rows and gray rows.

Completing Your Quilt

You've now complete piecing the top! Way to go! Now you just have to baste, quilt, and bind. I quilted this in a free-motion meandering quilt pattern.

When I started this quilt, I wasn't exactly sure how wide it would end up being. Luckily, it's narrow enough that you can use one piece of fabric for the back. I love not having to piece backing fabric together. I know a lot of quilters take a time and care in thinking about the back of the quilt, but once I finish completing the top of mine, I'm ready to move on to the next one! So, anything that will push me to complete the whole thing is a bonus.

I've found using a neutral backing fabric really makes the front pop. For the backing I used a gray and white striped fabric called Stripe Gray from the Lost and Found 2 collection by Mind's Eye for Riley Blake. For the binding, I used a cute blue and white striped fabric called Ticklish Tipsy Turquoise Laughing Stripe.

Finished!

We're now completely finished with our square baby quilt! Thanks for following along this tutorial. Please let me know if you have any questions or if there are any mistakes I've made while putting this together. I'm certain someone will find something :)

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