Houndstooth Baby Quilt

I first saw this quilt on V and Co. I thought it was fabulous. I love how it's both modern and classic at the same time. I showed it to my mom, and her being the quilter extraordinaire that she is, told me how to make it!

Here it is!





I hadn't planned on piecing the back but I made the quilt larger than I initially planned and this was the best way to make what I had work!




A closer look at the quilting. I get frustrated doing free motion quilting. It feels like I'm always fighting with the quilt and it takes so much concentration. It still feels like it's not good enough, but when I look at the first quilt I did like this I can see a huge improvement. I really love the look of free motion quilting though, so I'll just keep practicing :)




One more shot. I really need to get more creative with my picture taking :) Every quilt I make get the same shots - taped to the kitchen wall and laying on the kitchen table. Maybe next time!




This quilt measures approximately 45" square.

Tomorrow is the start of my three day craft shoe at the Millrace Folk Festival. I'm so excited about spending some quality time with my mom! Hopefully I sell something too! I'll let you know how it goes.

Have a great (long, if you're in Canada) weekend!

Bethany

Vintage Sheet Strip Quilt

This is the second quilt I've made with vintage linens now (see the first one here) and I think it's really cute. This one went together quickly! There are a few things I'd change next time though. First, I think it could use some darker fabric for a bit more contrast. The problem is I don't have many dark sheets in my stash. And second, I think I would vary the width of the strips a little more. These strips were all cut months ago while I was cutting other stuff and I thought there would be enough variation in size, but I was wrong :)

Overall, I'm happy with it!





It is quilted approximately 1/4" away on each side of the seams. The quilting isn't too dense, which keeps it nice and soft.





The great thing about using sheets for binding is there are only two seams. I do straight grain binding on all my quilts and cut it 2" wide.









I'm thinking I will keep this to sell at the Millrace Folk Festival, which is only a month away! I'll mostly be focusing on making purses until then. I can't wait!

Have a great day :)
Bethany

One Thing, One Week Challenge - Success! (Just Barely!)

Sorry for the terrible picture but I JUST finished and there isn't time to wait until daylight to take a better one! I thought I had lots of time but then yesterday spent over twelve hours out of the house and then came home last night and had to make treats for my kids to take to their class pool party today! That, combined with having four kids (one of them being a nursing baby) almost did me in. But I made it! And it feels good :)

*Edited to add* Go see some better pictures here!




This quilt is made entirely of vintage/thrifted sheets and is straight line quilted. I'll try and get better pictures up soon!

Check out Amy's Creative Side to see who else finished the challenge!

Have a great week!
Bethany

More Vintage Sheet Goodness

I've been wanting to quilt sooo badly but having a new baby doesn't leave me with much time. She's a really happy baby who sleeps well at night (usually about 7 hours straight now) but since she is sleeping so well at night, she eats a lot during the day. Plus, I have notoriously slow eating babies. She nurses for an hour or so, five or six times a day.

So like I said, not a lot of sewing going on :)

But I had a bunch of 36 inch strips cut from when I was cutting fat quarters from my vintage sheet collection. I figured if I was going to the trouble of ironing them that I might as well cut a bunch of other stuff at the same time. I also have a bunch of 5 inch charm squares and drunkards path blocks cut out too, but they will take longer to put together and I needed something quick!

I finished this quilt top in about an hour last night after the baby went to bed. I think it is simple but sweet. I can hardly wait to quilt it!



I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Bethany

Two Finished Quilts and Randomness

Here are a couple of quilts I finished earlier this spring but never got around to blogging about. They were the last 2 unfinished quilt tops I had. Now the only quilt WIP (work in progress) I have is a bunch of HST blocks that will make another value quilt someday.

The first is a simple pinwheel quilt. I used fabric I'd had hanging around for a while. I sort of fell out of love with this fabric, which I bought before I found the wonderful world of online fabric shopping. I think it's pretty cute now though - perfect for a sweet baby girl :)















This quilt was also made with fabric I'd had for some time, but that I definitely still liked! The pattern is a disappearing nine patch that went together quite quickly. Both these quilts were free motion quilted and I'm starting to feel much more comfortable with it.












I'm starting to get my sewing groove back. Things are still busy with a new baby but I'm trying to sew at least a little everyday. It's less than two months until the Millrace Folk Festival and I'm trying to sew some new items for that too!

Random picture of my sweet baby :)




And last, but not least, my oldest turned 6 yesterday! How did that happen??? :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday!

Bethany

Vintage Sheet Baby Quilt Finished!

It's done!









It's actually been done for about 10 days. I was waiting to get a photo outside but it's been so stinking cold (it went down to -24 Celsius last night without the windchill!) that I finally settled on taping it to the wall to get a decent shot of the entire quilt!

I love this quilt! I'm not sure if it's the simple design, the vintage sheets or how little it cost, but I have plans to make more for sure.





Now all it needs is baby :)


Happy Monday!
Bethany

Vintage Linens Baby Quilt

I started a new quilt on the weekend. I decided to use vintage/thrifted bed linens (I now own around 20 sheets and a few pillow cases too!). Here is the quilt top finished.











The last few quilt tops I've made are still waiting to be basted and quilted, but this one is already about half quilted! In the past I've done all my quilting on my mom's Bernina, but she lives 25 minutes away and I really wanted to be able to quilt this one at home. I've only ever straight line quilted and that's what I had planned for this quilt. I have a walking foot for my Kenmore but it is having feed dog issues and the stitch length was all wonky. At the last minute I decided to try stippling with the darning foot. After practicing on a 6" x 6" piece I went for it!

It's definitely not perfect. A couple of times I've made loops or crossed over stitching, but overall, I'm really happy with it. My wrists, on the other hand, aren't so happy. I think it's just a pregnancy thing :)

Hopefully I'll have pictures of the finished quilt in the next few days. It'll feel good to have a finished quilt!

Have a great day!
Bethany