Over the last couple of months I’ve had the chance to make two baby quilts for little girls. I love smaller quilts, they make me feel like I accomplished something in a shorter period of time. They also allow me to dive into new fabric piles right away.

I’m not going to win any photography awards for these pictures but I wanted to share them with you anyway. It happened to be rainy and gloomy when I finished both – and they needed to be wrapped and gifted right away.

I made this first quilt mostly with fabric from Sarah Jane Studio’s line, Out to Sea. I did incorporate some others from my stash….some pink and white dots from Children at Play, a navy print from Sandi Henderson’s Secret Garden, a yellow stripe from Cloud 9′s Simpatico, a yellow cross hatch as well.

I used another squares-in-squares design, I hope you aren’t tired of those yet! Actually, these blocks came from my Lemon Squares quilt pattern (free!). I just didn’t use any white on this smaller quilt. I backed the quilt with minky to make it super soft and quilted it with wavy lines. I think it will be perfect for fall and winter in Chicago.

This next quilt is for a little girl I met in SLC at the Sewing Summit. I pulled an assortment of fabrics from my stash for this one. I wanted the quilt to be feminine without screaming “I’m a girl!!” Hopefully that came across in my color selections. I chose a modern, wonky cross design.

Somehow I’ve never made a wonky cross quilt before, only blocks. I had a lot of fun with this one. The quilting is random straight lines. I wanted it to stay nice and soft after lots of washing.

The backing is the parade panel from Sarah Jane Studio’s Children at Play with some pinwheels along the bottom.

Hopefully both quilts are well loved over the next several years!

This is a quilt I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. I wasn’t sure what the design would end up being, what fabric I would use…but I knew I wanted to make a quilt for my little girl’s bed. I feel a tad bit guilty that although I’m a quilter, the quilts on my kid’s beds are store bought. Well now at least one is handmade by mommy.

I started this quilt earlier this summer and planned to make a couple blocks a week. I sized each block at 17.5″ x 17.5″ unfinished so I would only need to make 20 for a twin sized quilt. My block progress stalled for awhile but when I went up to Holly’s for the weekend in July I finished them up.

Of course it took me a bit longer to make the back, baste and quilt. But I’m really happy with the results! The quilt is centered around Sarah Jane Studios’ Children at Play fabric line (one of my all time favorites).

I incorporated a lot of blenders from my stash. There’s really a little bit of everything in here – Patty Young’s Lush Running Stitch, Lizzy House’s Pearl Bracelets, Laurie Wisbrun’s Modern Whimsy circles, some Art Gallery Oval Elements, dots from Heather Ross Lightening Bugs, some of the new stripes from Cloud 9′s Simpatico, some of the yellow Henna Garden by Sandi Henderson, a yellow print from Maude Asbury’s Kitchy Kitchen…plus some of the Children at Play blenders.

I didn’t follow a pattern for the blocks. I just started cutting the center squares and then pulled fabric and worked my way out from the center using different widths for each ring until I reached my goal size. I tried to follow a few rules for my blocks, such as each uses either 3 or 4 fabrics, no more, no less.

One of my favorite parts of this quilt is the back. I decided to incorporate the Parade print from Children at Play. I wanted the print to show across the quilt when it was folded down on her bed.

My poor husband, this quilt was SO big to hold up!

That meant the print needed to be upside down on the back. I added a bit of patchwork above and below. The solid pink is Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Blossom – SO wonderful.

I wanted this quilt to be nice and soft so I quilted it in a grid with horizontal and vertical lines, about 2″ apart.

I love how the quilt compliments her room. She clearly loves it as well!

I know there will be a time in the future (probably way too soon!) where she outgrows this quilt and doesn’t want it on her bed anymore. But I’m hoping it will always hold a special place in her heart and she will maybe even let her own little girls cuddle under it one day.

May was Terri’s month in the Twice Around the Block VQB. She sent us a set of solid and textured fabrics and asked us to make straight lined modern blocks with squares and rectangles. I knew I wanted to use the off-white to make the 3 strips, but the rest was just improvised as I sewed along. I like how it turned out!

A bit of new fabric arrived this week as well. I have plans in my head for at least one of these sets. Both are from Cloud 9 Organics. Cut Out and Keep is above, Nature Walk is below. The two collections actually look really nice together, so now I’m thinking about combining them in a fall quilt.

I also received a couple new prints for my sewing room over the weekend. They come from Kajsa Wikman’s Syko Shop.

You might recognize her from her book Scandinavian Stitches (which is amazing). The prints arrived extremely quickly, even from overseas and are very high quality. I’m thinking it might be cute to decorate my daughter’s room with a few more.

We spent last weekend in northern Michigan so I didn’t have a chance to sew, but I have two quilt sandwiches up in the sewing room and plan to focus on them this week. Hopefully I will have them finished to share soon!