"Vroom, Vroom!" Kid's Quilt

In addition to the two Hello Kitty quilts that my friends asked me to make for their nieces, they also asked me to make two quilts for their nephews.  Connor and Noah, just like most little boys, are huge fans of Lightning McQueen and Cars.  Again, thanks to Etsy, I was able to find some super cute Cars fabric!  And what goes better with Lightning McQueen than some red fabric, black fabric, checkerboard fabric, and tire tread fabric?  I am in love with the black and yellow tire tread fabric!  Perfect for little boys!

"Hello Kitty Galore!" Kid's Quilts

My friends Deanna and Donovan have four of the most adorable nieces and nephews.  For Christmas, D & D asked me to make a quilt for each child.  I started with the quilt for their nieces.  Ashby and Lizah are two  sisters who love Hello Kitty! We decided to make the quilts similar style, but not exactly the same.  After a lot of searching I found the most adorable Hello Kitty fabric on Etsy.  I went with yellow sashing for Ashby's quilt and light green sashing for Lizah's quilt. As someone who was not a fan of Hello Kitty, the cuteness of this quilt might just have converted me!! 

The names were appliqued on! 

The backs!

"Echino Excellence" Quilts

After I made the "Ooo, Ooo, Ah, Ah"  baby quilt set for my friend Jenna, she asked me if I would make two more quilts for her.  She fell in love with some Echino fabric and bought enough to make a twin size quilt for each of her two sons.  As most of us mom's have it, she just didn't have to time to get the quilts made and asked me to help her out!  I was happy to help!  She sent the fabric to me and it was excellent!  She wanted to feature the fabric and keep it in nice big, beautiful blocks!  This required some time to figure out the math.  I had to get each block to fit together, keeping the blocks intact as much as possible while also getting the end result to be the right size.  It was worth it!

The quilting for these quilts was complicated but rather easy at the same time.  And I never think that the quilting part is easy!  Lol!  Again, in order to feature the fabrics, I chose a thread color and design to match each block of fabric.  This required about 25 different colors of thread.  For each block I chose the design of the quilting, drew it with a washable pen/pencil (yes, I went through about 4 of them!!), then stitched using the coordinating thread.  The complicated part was finding matching threads for each color and deciding on the design to quilt.  But because I was quilting a relatively small space, I didn't have to maneuver the whole quilt through the machine.  Quilting to match each block was time consume, but enjoyable and so worth it!

The quilts turned out fantastic!  They are so bright and colorful!  So awesome!

Both quilts together!  Such awesome fabrics!

The backs of each quilt!  I love the fabrics Jenna chose for the backing! You can also see the differences in the quilting for each block!

 

A blue stripe ...

and green dots!

"Spiders and Robots from Outerspace!" Quilt

After seeing some pictures of quilts that I've made, my sister called me up and asked me to make a quilt for her oldest son.  It was a no brainer - I would be thrilled to make him a quilt!  I sent her some links and suggestions and she decided on the design for the quilt.  After going back and forth on a few ideas for the theme of the quilt, she finally decided to just ask her son what he wanted the theme to be.  His answer was definitive - he wanted spiders, robots, and spaceship!! Perfect for a little boy!  So my sister set off to search Etsy for spider fabric, robot fabric, and spaceship fabric!  She did an awesome job and found some REALLY cool fabrics.  I have to say, this turned out to be one of the coolest kid quilts I've seen!

For the binding I decided to go with a scrappy binding using the leftover fabrics from the quilt!  I normally am not a fan of scappy binding, but after looking a lot, I just couldn't find a fabric that was perfect for the binding.  I am so glad I went with the scrappy binding.  It gives the perfect finish to the quilt.  To quilt, I stitched just inside and outside each square/border!

And by the way, her son LOVES his quilt!  Anyone that came to their house got a tour of his room to show them the quilt!  I love it!

**UPDATE** June 2013 - I finally got a chance to visit my family in Ohio this summer!  We stayed a few nights at my sister's house.  The first words out of my nephews mouth when he first saw me was, "Thank you for my blanket.  I love it!"  So awesome!!  I love it!

Check out the awesome fabric!  Love it!

The back spaceship fabric! 

Close up of the quilting around each block.

The scrappy binding was perfect for this quilt!

"Batik Diamonds" Baby Quilt

After I found the mistake in Laura's quilt for her little bun in the oven, I quickly fixed it and finished up the quilt.  Thankfully, it was a quick, easy fix.  I finished the quilt with thin, cream border and then a second border in the aqua color.  For the back I used a brown dot minky.  Sewing with minky can be a real pain in the butt!  It stretches and moves A LOT!  To combat the movement, I use TONS of pins.  Normally, I don't use many pins unless I am lining up seams.  When I am sewing with minky, I pin about every 3/4 - 1 inch.  It is a lot of pins and time consuming, but it is so worth the hassle!  The minky makes the quilt so soft and cuddly!  Just perfect for Laura's new little boy!! Enjoy your quilt little man!!

For the quilting, I quilted around the outside edge of each square.  It made for a really nice effect on the back!

Close up of the quilting! 

Can you find the mistake?

I've been working on Laura's quilt for her little bun in the oven!  I really, really like this quilt.  To be honest, this is the first time I have done triangles.  But I was using this tutorial as a guide, so it wasn't too bad.  BUT, this quilt has made me think more than I have ever had to think while making and figuring out a quilt.  Most quilts, you sew in rows, from left to right.  However, some quilts like this one and the "Ziggan and Zaggin" quilt, get sewn together on the angle.  So the top left corner piece is its own row.  Then, you sew the first square in the second row to the second square in the first row and this creates the second row.  Finally, you sew all the angled rows together...clear as mud, right???  For me, this means I need to lay out the pieces as I want them and not move them at all till it is all sewn together.  As a result, I either need to lay out the pieces in a place that won't get bothered or sew everything in one day.  I decided to lay out the pieces on our bed, that meant I had to sew it all at once so we could go to bed that night!  I ended up laying out the pieces then taking a picture of it on my phone.  Then I would grab the two pieces that I needed to sew together, carry my phone to my sewing machine, double check the picture to make sure I was about to sew them correctly, sew it, then bring the sewn piece and my phone back to my bed to check again, that I did it right and get the next piece!  Like I said, it was a lot of checking and thinking to make sure I got it all right!  And still.......I didn't get it all right.  I checked every piece about a hundred times, and it wasn't until I was trimming the edges that I found the mistake.

Can you see the mistake???

 

In the top left corner, the pink and purple square is turned the wrong way.  See it now?  I was so annoyed that I missed it, but sooooooo relieved that the mistake was so close to the edge rather than in the middle!  It was a quick date with the seam ripper and just a bit of sewing to correct it!   I also went with mitered corners for both of the borders.  This is the first time I have done mitered borders.  I love the way it turned out!  I used this tutorial, which is so easy to follow!  I can't wait to finish the quilt and send it off to Laura for her precious little baby!  

"Ooo, Ooo, Ah, Ah"

Part of my marathon shopping spree was to buy fabrics for an order for my friend Jenna.  Jenna loved the "Gone Banana's" quilt and wanted something similar and monkey themed.  I had some of the fabrics, but not all and not enough of some.  Thus, the shopping trip.  Jenna asked me to make a baby quilt, a pair of baby booties, two burp cloths, and a small blanket with tags. I am thrilled with how everything turned out.

For the baby quilt I used green and white minky as well as cotton.  I love the feel and look of minky, but it is not so much fun to sew with.  I find myself cursing out the minky as I try to cut it and sew with it, but once I see the finished product, I LOVE it.  So totally worth all the cussing!

Close up of the adorable monkey fabrics! 

The back.  You can see the simple quilting here.  I love this shade of green.  A little darker than mint green. 

I made the little tag blanket with the same fabrics that I used for the quilt.  It turned out so cute!

The front.

LOVE the banana fabric on the back!

A shot of everything!

 I am so in love with these little booties!  They are so adorable, they almost make me want to have another baby, just so I can make lots of these booties for them to wear!  Almost!!!

The bottom of the booties!

These are the burp cloths.  When I was pregnant with Henry, someone gave me burp cloths in this shape.  They were my favorite, because of the shape.  For these, I put flannel on one side and white terry cloth on the other side. Perfect for soaking up baby puke!!  The flannel for the one showing terry cloth is white with small green polka dots!

Everything together and ready to get shipped!