Tuesday, April 30, 2013

...from zero to fifty in 30 seconds...

Baby books quilt from Patchwork please
This may have been the fastest quilt I have ever made. Ok maybe it wasn't done in 30 seconds but it was done in a matter of weeks.

On a whim I decided to start on this baby books quilt designed by Ayumi Takahashi author of Patchwork Please. The book was just so inspiring and I was looking for an excuse to make something out of it. Enter baby boy of family members that live in Washington state. They are not due until later in the summer so I have plenty of time right? Famous last words. Anyway, I had some time so I whipped up a few blocks, then a few more and before you knew it the quilt top was done. I managed to sandwich it pretty recently when we had a bout of nice weather.

Then whoa (inert a screeching stop sound effect)! We get a phone call, they are coming down in a week! WHaaat? Uh oh. So I had to quilt this up super quick. It’s a pretty modern design so I needed something a bit more different than just plain Free-motion stippling. I wanted some curves, and then I spied my quick-curves ruler (so far unused despite the best plans) hanging on my wall. Lightbulb!

 So I decided to draw on a set of lines using that ruler and then I just used my walking foot to do the rest. I offset the curves here and there and decided to fill in the gaps with some pebbles.
Baby books quilt from Patchwork please
Voila! I marathon-ed the quilting job to get it completed a mere 24 hours prior to their arrival. Whew! That was a whirlwind.

But now it’s done and I can move onto baby quilt #2 which I need in a few weeks if not sooner. Happy Sewing!
 Baby books quilt from Patchwork please

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Is there a Doctor in the house?

ETD:  Master list of QAL Blocks
Doctor.Who.Along Block list:
Block 1 Tardis
Block 2 Time lord
Block 3 K9 
Block 4 SS Madame de Pompadour
Block 5 Badwolf 
Block 6 Werewolf
Block 7 Sonic Screwdriver
Block 8 Weeping Angel 
Block 9 Cyberman
Block 10 Dalek
Block 11 Striped Scarf
Block 12 Gallifrey
Block 13 the Ood
Block 14 Hello Sweetie
Block 15 River Song's Diary
Block 16 Vashta Nerada
Block 17 Crack in time
Block 18 Chamelon Arch
Block 19 Power of three
Block 20 Tardis in flight



Do you Who?  Then this just might be the quilt-along for you.

Announcing the



A Whovian-inspired Quilt-Along

brought to you by myself (Caroline) and Soma (Whims and Fancies) and the Doctor.  Doctor Who?

Starting in May of 2013 (in the current dimension)

We will be bringing you a new Doctor Who inspired paper-pieced block every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month.  Plenty of time for you to sew along.  There will be a total of 20 blocks ~ enough to make a large-sized quilt if you are so inclined and certainly enough for you to pick and choose your favorites.

Won't you join us?  You can follow along here or here or on Flickr.

Join the Doctor.Who.Along Flickr group for helpful discussion, patterns and chatter.

Don't Blink!!  You have until May 7th to gather your supplies before the T.A.R.D.I.S materializes.

Blog button:





Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Spring Fling QAL ~ Week 3. Rainbows anyone?

Welcome to all the new readers popping in from Soma's Spring Fling blog hop.

You know what they say - April showers bring May flowers. Living in Oregon, Spring is all about rain (well most months in Oregon are about rain) but often in the spring it's sunny out while it's raining - very strange weather but this generates a lot of rainbows. So that's the inspiration for my spring fling block. Hope you enjoy it.





Download link for Instructions and pattern pieces.

 Please note that you will have to cut and paste some of the pattern pieces together before sewing as they exceed standard page size. You can also download this pattern through Craftsy if you prefer to manage your downloads that way.

 This is a 10" block.  All seam allowances are 1/4". 

Please remember to keep your printer settings set to 'no scaling' or 100%.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Happy  Sewing!



Monday, April 15, 2013

Paper piecing some baby book blocks

Recently,  I received this lovely book in the mail ~ Patchwork Please by Ayumi Takahashi.
I totally love Ayumi's patchwork style - so scrappy and colorful and full of thoughtful details.  When I scanned through the book I found this totally adorable baby books quilt which is foundation pieced.  I needed another baby quilt for an expectant mom, so this fit the bill perfectly. It lets me use my scraps of prized prints (Munki and Heather Ross) and showcases them beautifully.

Books for baby quilt from #patchworkplease @ayumills

So I just started piecing the blocks with some of my favorite prints while trying to keep it on the boyish side of the aisle.


Then after a few more blocks, I kind of figured they should have some sort of cohesive colors scheme and I opted for orange, blue, green and yellow.

Baby book blocks so far #patchworkplease

Finally, all the blocks were done. I did forget to flip half the blocks over in the other direction, so mine all go in the same direction, but I don't think the recipients will ever know the difference.

I also made the quilt a bit smaller and used only 12 blocks in the final quilt. I added some summersville cross hatch around each of the blocks and some Kona sashing in Ash gray and voila! The top is done.
Top done ~ for a baby boy #patchworkplease baby books blocks
Now to decide on the quilting.  Have to think on that one for a bit...

Happy Sewing!