Double Trouble

With a few weeks notice, I whipped up these coordinating blankets for twins that are due in July to my cousin-in-law!  

I did not want to ask about a theme or anything, because I wanted the quilts to be a surprise! I went with blues and greens, monochromatic for the backsides and more colorful/crazy for the fronts, with matching grey and white striped binding.  

I really love this color scheme and hope those boys snuggle with these blankets for many years!

Patchwork, sort of

I really am in love with this latest project for a friend who is due in June!

I bought this gorgeous henna-looking fabric thinking I would use one for the front of the quilt, and one for the binding, but I couldn't decide which would be better/less overwhelming as an entire quilt, since they both are so bright and bold. I had a stroke of genius when I decided to take a chance and try to do some actual patchwork rather then the wholecloth quilts I have always done. However, I got scared of messing it up and stopped at stripes. I used the same fabrics as the binding since they are so vibrant and I thought adding another color might be too kooky. The backside is a fun circle stripes pattern that coordinates great with the items this mama showed me she had registered for. 

Creating these stripes was not as scary as I thought and maybe I will experiment more with patchwork. I think the thing that scares me is just how precise things need to be. I get easily frustrated and would be mad if things didn't work out right and I end up having to start over again or adjust everything. So we will see.  I have a few small project ideas I can try first!

 

Seaworthy

In early February, my husband (it still feels sort of odd to say this?) and I took a belated honeymoon to Hawaii! Before we went, I stitched up this quilt so that it could be at the baby shower in my place since I had to miss it.

I really was unsure all through this project if the quilt I made was going to fly for a few reasons:

1. The mama in question had told me the only real 'theme' they were doing or telling people was 'boats and books.'  I could not find any fabric that had anything to do with books (which really bummed me out) and the only nautical one I saw was a really yucky blue color that I just could not bring myself to buy. I ended up going a bit abstract with my 'boats' interpretation and did more of a 'sea' theme.

2. The baby's gender was going to be a surprise! So I wasn't sure if I should try to be super gender neutral or just go with colors/patterns/fabrics that seemed right to me. I went with the latter and crossed my fingers. 

3. One of those 'fabrics that seemed right' was fish. I thought it was cute but would they like it? Would they get my 'boat' interpretation? Is Navy and Green to "boyish"? What if they have a girl? Girls like the sea too, duh. 

Ah so many questions!  In the end I said stop worrying about it, I love it, they will too!  I was really obsessed with this scalloped watercolory fabric when I saw it in the fabric shop, and wish I had bought a load more of it. It reminded me of the ocean so that was the first thing I grabbed. I thought the fish were cute for the backside and for the binding, I chose a fabric that was dark navy with white, blue, and lavender starbursts.  So the quilt is representative of the water (the scallops), under the water (the fish) and the sky above (the binding).  

To my delight, the parents of this little one LOVE their quilt! And their baby boy is enjoying his new blanket already. 

Each quilt I make is my favorite one until I make the next one! There are just so many gorgeous fabrics out there!

Stowe Bag Surprise

With Christmas coming up, I had big plans to sew something for everyone I know but then decided to just do one of these bags and see how it went and then decided not to go nuts on gifting this year afterall since our apartment is kind of dark by the time I get home from work and weekends are too busy and I would never finish all I wanted to finish. So I only made one of these little bags to mail to my dear friend Meredith stuffed with a few goodies. I found some darling fabric from Japan and got to work!

You can see my cozy crafting nook here in this snap my husband took when I escaped work early one day to work on this project.


The pattern is the Stowe Bag by Grainline Studio. I am definitely going to be making more of these! The bag sewed up a lot easier than I expected and it has interior pockets and all! This is the small size and I  definitely want to make the larger one for myself.  If you have a birthday coming up, you might be getting one of these bags from me, just a warning! 

I had a heck of a time getting a photo of this bag in the waning light (not to mention my arm looks freakish) before I packed it up to be mailed off, but here is the finished product! I stuffed in a few home bar essentials and a cute cocktail book and it arrived safe and sound.


Hope you all have a very happy holiday!!