The lost quilt

Remember these blocks? They were born from a color palette I was interested in exploring. I blogged about them here and here. I loved the color combination, but was having trouble with the layout...how to turn the blocks into a finished quilt top. It didn't seem sufficient to just smash the blocks together...I wanted something more interesting.

After quite a bit of playing around, and adding another block, I finally came up with something I like. Here's the finished quilt:

 

I really like the chunks of solid color...I think the original blocks had too much off-white negative space for me on their own. I like color.

I quilted this one with soft wavy lines. I really like the effect, and plan to use this quilting pattern again in the future.

 I even hand-embroidered a label on the back. I used Pearl cotton thread. It took way too long! And my embroidery skills are sub-par. So I either have to get much faster or invest in some printed labels :-).

I made this quilt 'just for fun' so it doesn't have a home yet. I'm sure the right opportunity will present itself, and in the mean time, I don't mind have extra quilts in the closet!

Mother's Day/Father's Day Quilt

Last winter I decided to make my parents a quilt and give it to them for Mother's and Father's Day. Now that it has long been gifted, I can share it on here!

My parents love the fall (like me) and have their house decorated in beautiful fall colors. So of course I had to make a modern maples quilt and my palette became burnt oranges and reds, tarnished golds and deep, rich forest greens. Here's the stack I started with:

I wanted a mix of off-white neutrals for the background rather than just one solid color. The effect I was going for was a kind of shimmery, subtly variegated background. The backing would be the colorful leaf print sitting on top.

I made the leaf blocks at a weekend quilt retreat so it seemed like they came together in a snap. We did have Downton Abbey to keep us going too :-). I decided to place the leaves haphazardly throughout the quilt to make it look like they just fell that way. Please forgive the photo quality below-I was sewing on the binding on the way to my parents house to gift it so no time for lots of photos!

My mom snapped this picture, I'm holding it up with my lovely sister. I'm about 3 months preggo here :-).

I think my parents really liked this quilt, it sits on their couch now. I found myself craving a throw like this...maybe some day.

Early

She's here! Our little cupcake made an early debut on Saturday November 9th 2013. Meet Lorelai.

 She definitely took us by surprise! We didn't have a hospital bag packed, no car seat in the car...it was a bit of last minute scrambling but everything went smoothly and she is very healthy. We are so blessed.

These last 2 months have been a whirlwind-but a good one. Somehow I have managed to work on a few sewing projects here and there, namely Lorelai's quilt. My goal is to get back into a rhythm of blogging soon. Once Lorelai is on more of a schedule it should (I hope) be a little easier to do this. Babies-they do what they want!

I hope you had a peaceful and blessed holiday season :-)