A Baby Boy Quilt that I nearly named “Stalactites and Stalagmites”

It’s that time of the quilting year again. Quilt Market is here again and for all of us who are staying at home, Amy is hosting Blogger’s Quilt Festival again.

My entry is one of those UFOs from my FAL Q4 List that I could not show you then. I kind of prepared the quilt top when I found out our business partner was going to have a baby boy. Then it turned into an UFO and sat waiting. The baby boy was born 2 weeks ago and his name is Henning.

Our Local Fabric Store now carries Fat Quarters from India. They are called “Flat Fats”. As quilting is not very well known in Germany, these FQ are the first they ever carried. I simply had to support them and bought some. I didn’t want the quilt to be too baby-ish and chose a small stack of FQ in blue, a yellow print and two matching blue solids by the metre. It was my very first experience with improvisational cutting and piecing and I have to admit, I really liked it – despite the fact that some passages turned out awefully crooked. I simply sliced the bulky and misshaped blocks into strips and added them to the better shaped blocks.



I backed it with a dotty blue print from our LQS and added a pieced binding with a white and yellow striped print as a little extra something. I used a triple zig-zag stitch to stitch the binding in place and I think this is goint to be my future go-to binding method. Quick and neat.  And secure.



I had already used the same method to raw-edge-appliqué the letters but I wouldn’t probably do that again. Much too difficult when it comes to stitching the corners.



I quilted some wide-and-uneven-spaced, more or less straight lines with my walking foot and used different threads: white, yellow, blue and some red. Just for good measure. I wanted this quilt to be soft and cozy, so no intense quilting this time.

Taking photos of this quilt was a nightmare. There were two days between the time that I finished the quilt and the moment it was gifted. Two days of rain. Non-stop. So no outtakes. Indoors the light was very bad and the selected photos above were the only close-to-acceptable-ones I was able to take.

Writing this blogpost, I discovered http://www.befunky.com/ and “cartoonized” one of the photos: This is the quilt hanging on one of our armchairs. Makes me feel funky indeed (o:



All in all I LOVE this quilt. I like the combination of colours and values and the little quilting. Regarding the composition I might as well have called this quilt “stalactites and stalagmites”. LOL.

I didn’t measure it, but is has to be nearly crib size. A bit shorter infact. It was hard to let it go but so nice to get a phone call from Henning’s Mom who assured me of her pleasure receiving it. Hope he will like it himself when he grows up!

edited to add: Best category: Favorite Baby Quilt, Favorite Two Color Quilt

I’m linking up to Amy’s Blogger’s Quilt Festival Fall 2012 and I guess I’ll see you there?!

Have a nice weekend!
Christine

P.S. What do you think, is this quilt too modern for a baby or do you think it is appropiate? I’m still pondering if I like more baby-ish quilts better for babies…

Bring the pressure up!

I kind of feel that my ufos are weighing me down. So my goal for the next 2 months is to finish some of them. Some are meant to be Christmas presents so I will have to get them done some time soon.
To bring up the pressure and keep me on track and accountable, I decided to enter the Finish-A-Long over at Quilter in the Gap for the first time ever. I hope it’s not going to be a complete fail (o:

Here’s what I would like to finish:

1. A Quilt for my youngest son



2. A christmas gift (sorry, no more details for now)



3. My Jelly Roll Race Quilt from London (Top pieced)



4. Two (!) Quilts featuring freestyle cutting blocks



5. My DNA Quilt from the Scrapbuster Swap on flickr.



6. A pouch for sewing supplies. Started 18 month ago…



Considering that I still replace an ill colleague and work considerably more hours than usual, I guess I won’t finish half of these projects. But I’m going to try nevertheless.

Happy Sewing!
Christine

Happy Sewing Day

Yesterday, Brigitte and I met for a Happy Sewing Day at her home. For almost 8 hours we were happily sewing away, chatting, eating icecream in the sun, enjoying a last minute BBQ and having sooooooooooooo much fun together. I explored her studio, her fabric stash, her enormous scrap collection, her longarm machine and thoroughly enjoyed a show and tell of very many finished quilts. One greater than the next.

I also met her partner in life which was quite an experience to remember: He didn’t only serve a super quick delicious meal, he made a set of acrylic templates for Brigitte (and an extra set for me!!!!!), he sharpened our rotary cutters, made delicious drinks, and… hold your breath… He even joined in in our quilt talk! He actually has a sewing machine, made several sewn gifts for his children in last couple of years, has sewn a quilt top for Brigitte that was published in a magazine!! He really supports her business wholeheartedly! How cool is that?! (I told her to keep him ;o))

Onto the sewing we managed to squeeze in:
1. I made two last-minute gifts that I’m going to show you next week.
2. I started my Summersville Quilt. More on that soon.
3. According to an urgent request, I whipped up a matching pillow for my eldest. He wanted a pillow to go with his Space Rocket Quilt.



I made a quick and simple envelope back.



Here is the Space Rocket set on his bed (I took down the framed pictures for less distraction, his bedroom walls are usually not that “naked”):



So, what about you? Does your partner shows any deeper interest in your hobby? Has he actually tried sewing? Or has he even been published in a Quilting Magazine?

Just for the record: my husband hasn’t.

Happy Sewing!
Christine