Friday, June 7, 2013

A Colorful Custom Quilt

 

I have a recent finish to share today! This is a custom job for a friend, and it got to go on a road trip to Payson, AZ for fun pictures while we playing in the (FREEZING COLD) creek. Though we were REALLY up there to be labor for my grandparents over Memorial day weekend :)

Here is the gorgeous quilt!

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Plus my photobombing cousin in the background :)

I decided that the bundle of Alexander Henry fabrics my friend provided were begging to be paired with some solids and made into my Toss Up pattern. It showcases the larger prints so well, and comes together SO fast.

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I had so much fun quilting this one, too! I used a different free motion pattern in each part of each block, and I really couldn’t be happier with it.

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The back is a pretty pink print, not sure what it was though. Seriously in love with that quilting.

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And one more shot of the entire front. I had a wonderful quilt holder to help me with this quilt; he’s so awesome!

This lovely quilt will soon be winging its way across the country to its new home.

Oh, and a quick shot of us in the FREEZING COLD water:

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PS- we were in the freezing cold water because when I was a kid, I would go stay with my grandparents for the summer, and when we would drive across the river crossings, my grandpa would let me hop out of the car and walk in the water next to the car. What more could a kid ask for?? I have an awesome grandpa. So now when we go visit, we go with grandpa and my kids, so he can walk in the water with his great grandbabies :)

Monday, April 22, 2013

Quilt Pattern Giveaway!!

Hey! Head on over to The Crafty Cupboard if you want a chance to win my new Framed Rails quilt pattern!

In other news, I get to go have a phoned-in court hearing for a speeding ticket this morning. That I got on the way to Quilt Con. Go. Me. ps- New Mexico is not my favorite place!!!!!!!!

Friday, April 19, 2013

I did it! Framed Rails

I finally finished a pattern that I started writing a year ago! I really have no excuse for not finishing it before now, except that I just finished my cover quilt and got it photographed two weeks ago :)

Without further ado, meet my new pattern, Framed Rails!

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This pattern gives step by step cutting and sewing instructions for THREE quilts sizes: baby, throw, and twin. (A first for me!) It is also Honey Bun (precut 1 1/2” strips) friendly, though there seem to be fewer of those around now. But if you have one sitting around that you haven’t figured out what to do with yet, this is a great pattern!

I have made a few other quilts with this pattern here and here. In fact, I made this one to be my cover quilt, but once it was done I felt it wasn’t quite right for it. Too much white, not enough contrast. So I started this one!

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I made the top – minus the border and one fabric – from scraps from Jocelyn’s quilt. Which I just realized I still haven’t posted…So this pattern works great for scraps and teeny bits of yardage that you are left with sometimes!

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I also just realized that my two cover photos are the only decent pictures I got in this shoot…SO, guess I need to try again before I put this quilt up in my shop! Yep, this one will be available for purchase :)

Once I get some more pictures, I will tell more about this particular quilt, but in the meantime, if you want to make your own, my pattern is now available in the shop! And even better, Etsy now has made instant download for digital items available, so you can get this pattern RIGHT AWAY! You don’t even have to wait for me to email it!(Not that that took very long, but instant is always nice :) ) And come back on Monday, because I will be hosting a giveaway!!!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

A Much-Needed Update

Guess what? I have been busy busy, and I have updated my Toss Up pattern! The content is the same except for one diagram edit, but it’s prettier now :) I have been meaning to make this change for a year, but I never got around to sitting down and doing it. I’m such a slacker. So here’s the new look!

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And I might have finally tied myself to the computer long enough to finish another pattern last night, too.

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Late night Instagram photo

 

Luckily, the writing was done on that one, I just had to finish making it look pretty. That one will be available as soon as my editor(aka MOM) has a chance to check my formatting for me :)

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Another AWESOME Custom Herringbone Quilt

My lovely friend Julie sent me some fabric to make a quilt for her. First she said she wanted something with triangles, but then she saw my other herringbone quilt, and changed her mind :)

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Thus, this gorgeousness was born! Really, how can you go wrong when you get to play with Amy Butler fabric? If you follow me on instagram, you got to see some of the process on this quilt, including a little helper “helping” at the design wall….

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I had fun with the quilting on this one, too. Going to QuiltCon definitely made me want to try harder to make my quilting as fabulous as the other parts of my quilts. So, I quilted 1/4” to each side of the horizontal seams to make a chevron look, then on most of the quilt I added another line of quilting one inch into each chevron. However,  on a few of them, I added some fun free motion patterns instead.

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Excuse the poorly lighted photos, my photography is still a learning process :)

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And then I added rows of pebbles here and there. Seriously loved quilting this one!!!

I used a wavy stripe for the binding. Looks great on the front and the back!

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Most of the back is this park fountain print in brown and yellow that I had in my stash, but since the top was too wide for one width of fabric, I added a strip of the brown and yellow martini dots, too. Fun and funky :)

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This quilt has already arrived at its new home(um like a month ago….), and I am now in the middle of working on a drunkard’s path quilt along for the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild. Since my mom and I will be heading the QAL, maybe we will post them here, too!

ps- seriously, if you want to see what I’m up to WHILE I’m doing it, find me on instagram. It is fantabulous.

Monday, February 18, 2013

PhxMQG Mug Rug Swap

Saturday was the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild’s February meeting, and we held a little mug rug swap. I love doing these little swaps, because I use it as an opportunity to learn and stretch my creativity and skill.
Of course, creativity didn’t strike until about 8pm the night before…and my idea was a little crazy and time consuming…
You that lovely lone starburst block that is so popular right now? I had the bright idea to scale it down to mug rug size! (I have a few in progress photos on instagram, but I have no idea how to get them to my blog. Help?!?)
Here’s my result:
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I love it sooo much!!! The inner white pieces finish at a mere 1/8” wide!!! The whole thing is 6 1/2” square
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Here’s a shot with a nickel for an idea of scale. Seriously tiny piecing going on. Now the problem is I will never be able to throw away even the tiniest scrap of fabric, because what if I NEED it some day??
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I backed it in this fun colorful Kumari Garden print. And I got to use one of my brand new tags!!! I found the awesomest Etsy shop ever. Cassie at GutenTags is seriously awesome, and I will definitely be back for more from her.
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And the back side of my new tags :)
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Ok, here’s where my story gets silly. We did a random swap for the guild mug rug swap, and I was the last to get one. And guess which mug rug was last to be distributed….Mine!! To save confusion, and because I really do love it, I kept my own mug rug…I felt so dumb taking my own back….but then again, I am really excited that it gets to live with me after the hours of teeny tiny piecing I put into it :)
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And here are some shots of all the lovely mug rug that got swapped on Saturday:
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(Mom’s is that cute itty bitty dresden plate next to mine :) ) We have some awesome talent in our guild!

PS- QUILT CON IS THIS WEEK!!! Getting super excited! If it is quiet around here, it is because I am frantically trying to get my house in order and ready for me to be gone for a few days! And packing...

Friday, February 8, 2013

A Custom Wedding Quilt

I finished this gorgeous custom wedding quilt earlier this week, and I couldn’t be happier with it!
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I met the mother of the bride at one if my craft fairs in December, and she asked if I could make a wedding guest quilt for her daughter’s wedding that was, as you can see, at the end of December.
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We decided having unfinished solid squares for guests to sign would be the best course, in case a young child got hold of a pen or something and went to town on it. Can you imagine that happening on a finished quilt? I would cry :)
After the wedding, she brought the squares back to me, and I came up with a quilt design, incorporating the signed squares.
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I didn’t want to quilt on top of any writing and risk obscuring it, so I quilted straight lines right outside the center squares.
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For the large monogram block, I outlined the S and the date with quilting lines, and then quilted along the chevrons in the background fabric.
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Here is a photo of the quilting of the center block on the back. It looked way cool :)
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At first, I was going to back the quilt with the large yellow tonal chevron, but when I went to get it, my LQS was OUT of it!! So sad. Sniff. But then I spied this Joel Dewberry large floral print from Heirloom, and I knew it was meant to be. The yellow was perfect, and I liked that it was cream instead of white, because it made it look softer. I used Kona Charcoal for the binding to frame the whole quilt well, and to pull a little more charcoal into the quilt, because that was the monogram fabric as well.
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Oh and one more thing about the back. Since this quilt was big enough to need to piece the backing, I matched the pattern in the fabric so that it would look continuous. I should do a tutorial on that some time, huh? I have a pretty simple way of making it match up just right. And really, it makes such a vast improvement, especially on a large scale print.
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I loved being able to make this quilt. It was a really fun experience creating something to help a young couple commemorate their special day.
I will soon be offering custom wedding quilts in my etsy shop, but I haven’t gotten a listing up quite yet.

Oh ps I finally just got Instagram!! I will probably be way better about posting pictures of projects there than here. I'm materialgirlkirsten :)

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

WIP Wednesday

It is Wednesday, right?

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Basting this gorgeous custom wedding quilt today.

My sister came and picked up my girls, so I suddenly had a whole afternoon to get stuff done! I debated doing something practical like cleaning out the car, but basting and quilting won :)

Off to utilize my alone time!!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Super Girly Fun

I have my last November finish to share now!

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I LOVE this quilt! It is so bright and busy and all GIRL! Once again, I started with a fun multicolor print that had been living on my shelf waiting for the perfect project. I pulled out that argyle print while I was supposed to be working on something else (surprise!), and the rest of the fabric practically jumped into a pile and screamed to be cut.

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I used the same basic pattern as the quilt in my last post, but I deleted the sashing and made more blocks. I love that it is super simple, almost a plain square patchwork, but just adding the rectangles makes the quilt look like so much more!

I quilted with an all over meandering loop – definitely my favorite free motion pattern!

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The back of this quilt might be my favorite part of the whole thing!! This huge yellow chevron (Riley Blake) is fan. freaking. tastic. Seriously.

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I bound the quilt in Kona Bright Pink. I have a weird thing for solid bindings lately; I feel like I have done a lot of them! I love how they frame a busy quilt.

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The quilt finishes 48” x 56”, and is available in my etsy shop here.

Whew! Now the only finish I haven’t posted from last year is a Christmas gift, and I haven’t gotten pictures yet :) I feel much more caught up, even if I do still have 3 quilts to post (2 need pics…), plus all the fun little stuff I have been up to for the shop!

Friday, January 25, 2013

A Baby Boy Quilt

Today I am sharing a little boy quilt that I finished in November (in a rush so I could have it at all my craft fairs!).

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Lime, teal, light blue, and orange is not a normal color combination for me, but it surprised me and I ended up loving it!

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I pulled the color scheme from the fabric I used for the border (Riley Blake Wheels I think?). I figured if it made that print look way cool, why not a whole quilt? :)

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I quilted a basic diamond grid design all over; not too heavy, so the quilt will be super soft, but heavy enough for a little boy quilt.

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I backed the quilt in this fun blue and white dot. I got a few yards of it as an end of bolt a year or so ago, and I have loved it! I will be so sad when I run out.

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I used a Me and My Sister Designs green grid print for the binding. Another one I will be very sad to use up!

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This cute little quilt measures at 37” x 47”, and is available in my shop here.

 

ps- My BFF Melanie from The Crafty Cupboard is in a competition over at Project Run and Play, and has made it to week 3! Go check out her fabulous outfit (hers is the “Dean’s List”), the little jacket is to die for! And vote please!!!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Unexpected Break

Yeah, that blogging break wasn’t planned, but between holidays, a first birthday, and a brother getting married, well, life was busy!!

I have lots and lots to share, so how about two of the quilts I gifted way back in October and never shared!

This first one went to a friend for her baby shower (I had the quilt done BEFORE the baby was born!!)

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I used Cluck Cluck Sew’s Kaleidoscope pattern. I liked it a lot, and it went together pretty easy, but I think one side of my template got shaved a bit o my pieces didn’t fit together perfectly and I had to trim my blocks down. Nothing I couldn’t fix!

I don’t know what’s up with the lighting in these pictures, but the solid fabric is actually a light pink. I have no idea which one, I stole borrowed it from my mom’s stash.

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I quilted 1/4” inside each kaleidoscope pattern, and then made a small square in the center of each one too, since I opted out of the center circles that the pattern calls for.

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I took one row of squares off the front and made a block on the back surrounded in some more light pink solid.

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I used this pink and red dot from Bonnie and Camille’s Bliss line. I LOVE this dot! I wish I had a bolt of each color, because I feel like I need to hoard it!! It has been so long since I finished this that I don’t remember how big it was or anything! So, on to the next one!

I gifted this one in October, too, but the baby was ummm almost 4 months old then…oops!

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This quilt was fast and cute and easy, and it was so fun getting to play with boy fabrics and colors! I have to admit, this quilt(and that big red white and navy herringbone) got me on a bit of a navy kick! My navy stash grew from 1 or 2 prints to ummm….a lot more :)

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I attempted quilting flame-like swirls for this quilt. I call it a good learning experience…it doesn’t look great, but once it’s washed and loved a bit, it won’t be too noticeable. I definitely need to practice my free-motion more!! Seriously want a magna doodle…

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I used the awesome print from Sweetwater’s Reunion line, plus some extra bricks, for the back. Oh. My. Heck. Reunion is SOOOO SOFT!!!

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I love me a red binding! Well, I just love red…

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And there are advantages to finishing a baby quilt AFTER the baby is born. I was able to quilt Roman’s name into the border. I love getting to personalize things!

 

So, there are a couple of my finishes from the end of the year…I still have two more from November, plus a Christmas gift to share. I will try my best to get them posted in the next few days!