Wedding Quilts

I got married last May and when planning for the wedding I had a stroke of genius...make a quilt that people will sign instead of having a silly guest book.  My inspiration came from some of the siggy quilts that I had seen on the internet and I will forever treasure our wedding quilt and the smile it brings a smile to my face every time I see it.

I made a sign and embroidered a pen cup asking people to please sign our quilt.  My feelings are that if you are going to go handmade then go all out.  The embroidered pen cup may have been over-kill but I love it!!

It turns out that other people loved the idea as much as I did and I ended up making 2 more quilts for other people's weddings...

 Classic red and black wedding

 Embroidered names

 Quilt Back

Our wedding wishes for the happy couple.

And a very fun (and huge) blue and orange wedding...

As you can see mine is the only one without finished pictures.  That's because, sadly, the top is still in a box just waiting for some quilting.  Why is that I always put off the projects that are for myself?!

More burp clothes...

These are fun to make because they are like tiny quilt that is finished in about 10 minutes.  Who wouldn't love a quilt that can be done in only 10 minutes?!



Birthday Coupon

What do you get a 6 year for her birthday when she seems to have everything already?  I was stumped by this question when it occurred to me...how about a birthday coupon so she can pick it herself. 

I made this adorable little coupon book for my 6 year old niece.  I used a tutorial from Tatertots and Jello and modified it to be birthday book.  Instead of having multiple coupons like the tutorial, I made little pages to tell our niece how special she is to us.

Some photos...
 

And some little notes...

And, of course, the coupon...

The whole thing was made out of playing cards.

I wasn't sure how she liked it when she first opened it...

...but she opened the game as soon as we left the store and once we were home she sat in the car playing for another 5-10 minutes in the driveway before coming inside.  Later that day she told us that it was her new favorite game so the coupon book was definitely a big success.

Happy 6th Birthday Ms. Ashley!!

Quilting Lessons Learned

I haven't been able to do much sewing lately (which makes me very sad) so I'm going to share something that I finished a few months ago. 

Several people in my new favorite quilt guild (Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild) have been asking and commenting about the quilting on my projects.  I will be the first to admit that the quilting process use to intimidate me more that anything.  I've found that the only way around that intimidation is just to jump right in and practice, practice, practice.....and take a class from Julie Lambert.  Julie makes the most FANTASTIC quilts and while that aren't really my own style of quilting (very traditional) I really feel like you can learn so much from her just on technique.  I took her workshop called Shadow Trapunto and finished these 2 little beauties...

There is a huge amount of stitching but they actually went pretty quickly to complete.

This quilt is made in layers with the top being a yellow batiste fabric with a bright orange fleece behind that was used for the trapunto and then batting and backing as usual.  Here's a closer look at the stitching...

The other little guy was just a sample that she put together for the class.  This one was a bright yellow fabric behind a layer of white batiste.

So my lesson learned is to keep taking classes from the most talented people.  Even if the finished projects aren't exactly your style you will still walk away with a wealth of information about techniques that you can carry over into your own projects.



UFO...Finally Finished

This little beauty has been hanging out in my closest in a stack of unfinished projects for a long time now.  I can't even remember where the pattern was from or if I even used one.  I do, however, remember that the fabric was the first jelly roll I ever purchased.  It came from a booth at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago which means it has to be a purchase from at least 7 or 8 years ago.

I finally freed it from it's lifetime of quilt top banishment in the infamous UFO pile.  I used it to practice the new skills I learned on a Gammill long arm machine.  It's a dirty trick learning to use such a fantastic machine before discovering the price tag on that baby.  It did a great job though and I'll just consider myself lucky to have a place locally that I can rent time on such a great machine. 

I love the finished quilt.  And any finished quilt is better than one in the UFO pile any day!!



Happy Hollydays!!

Ok, so we're a little past the holidays but I wanted to share a quilt that I whipped up just before Christmas.  Luckily we've had some great snow lately and I was able to get these frosty snowmen out in the cold where they belong.

The pattern for the quilt was inspired some one I saw on Moda Bake Shop. 

The happy little snowmen are applique designs from Bunnycup Embroidery.  I used cotton batting for their faces and it think it turned out perfect.  It adds a nice texture and makes it stand out from the fabrics used for their hats.

And call me crazy but I just love that it says "Happy Hollydays".  It just makes me smile. 

And what snowman quilt wouldn't love being photographed outside in the snow!!



Postage Stamp Quilt Along

This is the first quilt along I've done and it was so much fun.  This quilt top went together surprisingly fast considering all the small pieces.  It started with jelly rolls of bright Kona Cotton solids and white.

I will admit that the colors in the top turned out different than I had expected from looking at the nicely rolled up in their jelly roll.  I still love the finished top though.

Now I just need to figure out how to quilt this baby.