A Quilt for Her Bed

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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.

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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.

Sarah Jane Children at Play - Twin for Avery's bed

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).

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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.

Children at Play

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.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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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.

Boys at Play

Boys at Play - Front

When pulling fabrics for a child’s quilt, I seem to have a much easier time selecting prints, patterns and colors for a girl’s quilt. Part of my problem is that I tend to have a hard time finding “boy” fabrics that I like. But last summer Sarah Jane really hit it out of the ballpark with her Children at Play line. I just love her artwork, something about the innocence of the designs – paper airplanes and sailboats, hopscotch and dress up dolls, pinwheels and wagons.

Boys at Play - 1

I decided to take some of the little boy line and pair it with some of my favorite blenders in green, blue, yellow, orange and red.

It’s really fun to play with prints like stripes, sometimes aligning them horizontally based on the center of the block…

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And sometimes vertically.

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I quilted this quilt in a diagonal grid. It was the first time I used the metal guide that came with my walking foot. It was actually quite helpful! The lines are about 1.5″ apart. I marked the starting line and then just used my guide to work off from there.

Boys at Play - Quilting

The back is a lime green and the binding is a turquoise. The blocks are 12″ squares and the final quilt measures 36″ x 36″. I decided to list this little quilt in my shop – it is so lacking in boy items!

Up a Notch ~ Quilt and Pattern

Up a Notch Quilt and Pattern

I am a true believer that you don’t always have to make an intricate quilt to make a beautiful quilt. I find this especially encouraging for beginner quilters who may not have mastered paper piecing or y-seams or perfect points (yet!), but still want to make something that catches the eye and wows their family and friends.

Up a Notch Quilt and Pattern

I recently made this quilt and pattern with all levels of quilters in mind. The underlying design is simple and one you have probably seen many times, but I decided to break the quilt into color blocks, changing the look of the quilt.

I just love these colors, perfect for a little girl I think.

Up a Notch Quilt and Pattern

I decided to quilt this using densely spaced free motion meandering, but I only quilted the white, negative space. This makes the prints pop.

Up a Notch Quilt and Pattern

For the back of the quilt, I used one of my latest favorites – FreeSpirit Designer Solid Jade as well as a print from Moda’s Hello Luscious called Blissful Floral.

Up a Notch Quilt and Pattern

This quilt measures 45″ x 60″ and the digital pattern is for sale for immediate download in my pattern shop!

Up a Notch Quilt and Pattern

And speaking of my pattern shop, if you missed out on my Prism pattern in Quiltmaker magazine, you can now buy a digital pattern for that quilt there too.

Candy Pinwheel Quilt

Candy Pinwheel

My daughter trying her hardest to hold up the quilt

As promised, today I’m sharing the finished Candy Pinwheel quilt, made from my Candy Pinwheel block of the Festival of Half Square Triangles. (To see more on the block and quilt assembly, check out my Candy Pinwheel tutorial.) A few of you asked how I was planning on starting and ending my rows. As you can see, I decided to use a solid turquoise fabric. I really love this color, it’s probably one of my current favorites – FreeSpirit Designer Solid in Light Jade.

Candy Pinwheel Corners

For the corners, I left off one half square triangle to give this angled look. I thought that was pretty cool…my daughter (the recipient of the quilt) almost starting crying because “my quilt is missing the corners!” Well, I still like it.

Candy Pinwheel 1

As I mentioned on Wednesday, I decided to make the Candy Pinwheel blocks either all warm or all cool colors. Mostly…there are always exceptions to the rule and I do have a few that used a warm/cool combination.

Candy Pinwheel Detail

I quilted this with straight lines, 1/4″ down each side of the diagonal seams. I was actually a bit nervous to quilt this, because my daughter wanted minky on the back. I followed many people’s advice to just use a lot of pins and my walking foot (which I already use anyway) and really, the quilting proved to be a non-event. No issues whatsoever. And the end result gives a nice, poofy look to the quilted squares.

Candy Pinwheel Back

The quilt measures 39-1/2″ x 47″. It is bright, happy, super cuddly, and already much loved. And on a very random side note, does anyone know what kind of daffodils these beautiful flowers are? 🙂

Daffodils