Believe it or not, I finished the Stepping Stones quilt ahead of my weekend goal. I stitched on the binding last night while we were in the basement under tornado warnings. Not a horrible way to spend an evening of threatening storms.

This quilt was inspired by the “Just Sweet Enough” quilt in the book Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. The version in the book uses soft almost-solids and wider white sashing between columns. But when I saw it I was struck by it’s beauty in simplicity. It is similar to a coin quilt.

I had a pretty good variety of Anna Maria Horner’s Little Folks fabrics and thought something similar would be a great way to showcase those tiny prints. I’m not sure anyone can resist the softness of these voile fabrics. They have such a luxurious feel to them….almost like silk as I move them from the washer to the dryer. The rectangles are cut in random lengths, with a width of 2.5″. The white rectangles between them are 2″ x 2.5″. The white columns are 2.25″ wide.

The patterned strips I made ended up being too long for the width of the quilt, so I cut off the bottom and incorporated it into the back of the quilt. I added large sections of voile on either side. It is beyond soft, the perfect cuddle blanket.

It is quilted free motion with Dream Cotton Request Loft batting, leaving it completely lightweight and crinkly. It measures 36″ x 54″ and is available in my Etsy shop.

A few weeks ago I had a burst of creativity…an idea for a quilt using my Little Folks voile by Anna Maria Horner. I went to work cutting lots and lots of tiny pieces. And then cutting lots and lots of tiny white rectangles.

I am very excited with how this quilt top is turning out. I finished 10 columns of prints so 6 more to sew onto the quilt, along with the white between the columns. I have an unofficial goal to have the quilt completed by the end of next weekend. We’ll see if the kids cooperate.

And you may have noticed….the quilt top in progress is draped over that bench I found on the curb for trash. I’ve been cleaning, fixing, and oiling it. It’s currently on the porch with no seat yet. Still trying to figure that one out…

One of my wonderful friends just had her second baby – a girl! She was team green which was very hard for me to accept since I knew I wanted to make her something. Sigh….I guess it was her pregnancy though. Honestly, I never thought I’d be interested in not finding out girl or boy beforehand, but when I saw the message that the baby was born and it was a girl, I was REALLY excited. Like crazy excited. I guess team green will do that to you.

I actually had a feeling it was a girl so I had been scoping out ideas online. Initially I was going to make something like Ashley’s Animal Sherbet Squares quilt. I even have the fabric. The nursery is safari themed and I thought this would add a great girly touch to the room after being used for a boy the last 2 years. Then I got wind of the Spoonflower printing fading issue. (This digitally printed fabric fades after a few washes.) And I didn’t want to put all that work into something that should last forever, just to have it look bad after 3 washes.

So I started looking again…and found this sneak peek by Nettie at A Quilt is Nice. Before I had a daughter, I would have told you that I would never want or get anything “princessy” for a baby girl. I didn’t want to push the “princess” thing. Well, now I know it’s an unstoppable force. And I also know it makes little girls inexplicably happy, and that makes me happy. So I go with it.

This quilt is made of 3 things I normally don’t use – a fabric panel, a jelly roll, and a vintage sheet for the binding. I just *love* stripy bindings and it seems I find myself using them on most of my baby quilts.

I quilted free motion on the sashing only, which you can see best on the back photo. I used some solids to make a stripe on the back. It measures 34″ x 34″.

Kara, I hope you and baby L love this blanket. If not, you know my little princess will take it off your hands. LOL

And speaking of babies…look what hatched under our deck!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

It’s finished! I still can’t believe it. I have been working on this quilt for 6 months and boy am I glad to have it completed. So many things to say about this one…

As I mentioned in my sneak peek post (um, a LONG time ago!), this quilt is inspired by a beautiful quilt by Rita of Red Pepper Quilts. Her work is simply amazing.

Oh, SO many lessons learned and things I would have done differently on this one.
1) I made the first 3 blocks forever ago and then waited months to make the rest. I didn’t write down anything – sizes, seam allowance, squaring up size…not smart.
2) I switched sewing machines in the middle of making the blocks. And used different feet. Again, I wouldn’t recommend this! LOL
3) I used charcoal thread in the bobbin and really am not happy with how it looks on the back. Sigh.
4) In my quest to be Rita-like, I tried machine stitching the back of the binding instead of hand sewing it. Let’s just say, I’m no Rita. LOL

This quilt ended up being a 64″ square which I think will be perfect to fit our family for lunches in the park this Spring. The binding is a stripe by Lizzy House Red Letter Day. I know I just used that for a binding, but I had a lot and I like it. Although the sashing looks black, it’s really Kona Charcoal. And the prints are just a rainbow selection of my favorites.

The back is 9 large squares using giant blocks of colors from the front. This part was a bit painful for me as I used up some of my favorite out of print fabrics. But I kept telling myself that I bought the fabric to use, not to hoard. So use it!

I quilted it using free motion and used Warm and Natural batting. I prefer Dream Cotton Request Loft batting and even though it’s more costly, I think I will go back to using that. It’s more lightweight and I feel like it’s just a better quality.

So now I’m moving on to my quilting bee quilt, my Dolce quilt and my Hope Valley quilt. Always more in the pipeline than coming out of it!

On a side note (but more importantly), today my little man is turning 1. Happy Birthday Kyler!

ETA: more gratuitous baby and quilt cuteness.