Owl Binding and Waves Quilting Done

I finished the binding on the Owl baby quilt today. I used fabric that I think I bought during the summer of 2010 to be the back of something, but it just worked perfectly in terms of colors to be the binding. I still have a yard and a half left of this fabric, so who knows for what the rest will be used. I used the Red Pepper Quilts technique for machine stitching my binding down, and it's the cleanest bidning I've done to date. I will definitely continue to use Rita's method since I'm not one to hand sew my binding as some do.

I'm happy with how the quilting came out and how well the binding matches the owls. 

I took a picture of the minky backing because this is where the quilting shows up better. All the diamonds are outlined by sea waves to mimic the print. It was a quick an easy free motion pattern to do.  This one needs to be bound to be sent to Baby Jack. 

Owl Quilt Free Motioning

Today I sandwiched and quilted the Owl Quilt for the girl twin. I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt it so the boy quilt, the blue/white diamonds with the octopi is sandwiched but not yet quilted. I used the FriXion pen, whose ink disappears after being ironed, to draw the pattern onto the quilt before I sat down at my machine. Since this family lives in Northern Vermont, I used batting with the minky backing. These quilts will be warm.

To start with - this quilt has perfect corners. Every single one of them locked in exactly. 

And here is the quilting design that I knew I wanted to use from when I first thought about the quilt. Each white square has this pattern. And each one only took a few minutes to complete. 

And here it is quilted. Now all that's left is the binding. 

Cutting 850 Triangles

My next personal project is going to be a 1000 Pyriamids quilt - that means triangles, lots and lots and lots of triangles. I spent my Blizzard of 2013 cutting my fabrics. The color scheme came from Architextures fat quarters that I got on Local Quilt Shop Day in January. It's the sketch lines in black, orange, and raspberry. I then pulled two more of each color from my stash.

Apologies that the photo is a little blurry. But here are all the triangles, and I'll be starting on them shortly. This quilt will likely end up 64x80 if I've done my quilty math correctly. 

Baby Quilt and Bee Blocks

The little boy who is getting the blue wave diamonds and octopi is a twin and I've started working on his sister's quilt. She's also getting little critters, but she's getting ones that live in the air. I found super cute Owl fabric when I was in Atlanta at Christmas that I bought just for stash purposes, and it's what I selected for her.

The blocks are strip pieced - can you see a trend there? I like making things easy on myself. Long strips cut into 2.5" bars, then attaching 6 of the little bars onto another long strip on each side. Then cut between the blocks and boom, only 4 seams sewn to make 6 blocks after cutting. I do shorten my stitch length for these to strenthen the blocks since they don't get locked down at the beginning and end. 

And here is my February block for the Simply Solids Bee. The block is called Star Gazing and this month's Queen Bee sent out the fabric. It's pretty easy construction. I'll put it in the mail tomorrow, but who knows when it'll actually make it out of Boston since we're getting a blizzard this weekend.

And another one..

I wanted to right the wrongs of the triple zip I made last night. These are a little addictive to make, and I wanted to get it right. It also doesn't hurt that this past fall I ordered a ton of 9 inch zippers because you can get 25 for $10 on Etsy, so I've got plenty to play with.

So here is Triple Zip take two. At this point, I feel like I could actually gift any future ones, and I think with the upcoming baby quilts that I'm making I'll also make an on the go diaper case (make it bigger than the original tutorial) to be able to put diapers in the big section, wipes in the middle pocket, and little tubes of Desiten and baby powder in the smallest pocket.

Triple Zip Just Because

I've seen the tutorial for the triple zip over at A Quilter's Table a number of times. Tonight after the Super Bowl, I decided that I just wanted to make one. It's certainly not perfect, and I need a lot more practice with zippers, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. Not sure what I'll use it for, but it seems having little pouches, especially onces with multiple zips can never be a bad thing.

As you can see, the top is a little wider than the bottom. The zippers also aren't completely level. 

I used the same lining in all three pockets, it's a fun blue and white print which these mouth open, top down pictures show.  

Last Paper Pieced Bee Block

This last block was requested as rainbow with a white background. Since this block has 14 pieces to it, there's definitely a rainbow of hues present. The picture below are all the blocks I made for this, all but the orange and green one are going out (the orange and green one was my sample block) - the white ones all need their borders put on to make them full 12.5" blocks.

1: Caryn            2: Maria      3: Kathleen

              4: Stephanie        5: Sara        6: Me (sample block)