Signature Baby Quilt for Fiona

It’s another signature baby quilt, for another baby shower last fall! Good things tend to come in threes, I suppose. I believe all three of these baby showers (April, Ali, and now this one) were held within about a month of each other in the fall. Each signature kit (the taped squares and markers) took varying times to get back to me, with this one taking a bit longer to visit some out of town family.

THE PATTERN

But once it was back, it was a quick finish! Mostly because the aunt/mom were very decisive on the fabric. (More on that in a minute.) The quilt itself is a simple grid, 5x6 with 30 signed squares.

And this family and friends definitely filled the squares! They are a talented group, with lots of colorful drawings and meaningful quotes. The aunt and the mom are activewear product line designers/creative executives, so it makes sense that they’re surrounded by artsy people. (And the number of blocks referencing the water makes sense as well!)

The aunt sent back the taped squares with lots of notes, so I knew exactly which ones were from the mother, father, and aunt for the top row. And Jett, he seems pretty important, too.

THE FABRIC

The aunt and mother helped start an activewear company that’s very much involved in marine conservation, eco-friendly, and manufactured ethically - so it was important that the quilt fabric matched those values. As soon as she asked for organic cotton, I came back with Charley Harper, and it turned out she was already browsing his collections!

She chose the Rocky Mountain collection for her fabrics - Mountain Flowers for the sashing and binding. And yes, she agreed that the print is just directional enough that it matters and I made sure the stripes all went the right way.

The backing is the Rocky Mountain beaver panel, surrounded by the same cream solid as the blocks, then the Mountain Flowers. And I nailed the placement of the front of the quilt with the back, mostly! It’s fairly easy to line it up vertically, but horizontal took a little math and guesstimates.

Also, Charley Harper (or the people who use his stuff to design the fabric) hates me. There’s a fish in the sky. If the birds are right side up, the chipmunk and deer are upside down. Obviously, I went with the beaver at the bottom of the panel, but it was not a fun decision time as I found more and more elements that can go either way!

THE QUILTING

The quilting is loops and hearts - easily the most popular one on the baby quilts! It’s simple, barely noticeable, and yet full of love. My favorite way to finish up a quilt!

41x49”

To order your own baby shower signature quilt kit, see more details here! (Or signature quilts for graduation, weddings, and more!)

PUT A PIN IN IT

 
In
Comment

Let Your Favorite Fabric Shine: Focal Fabric Quilts

You know when you have a great fabric collection, or even one or two fabrics that you really want to show off? Well, this month's round-up is full of the quilt patterns that help you with that! Some are even great for t-shirt quilts, when than focal fabric is actually your favorite shirt. So let’s turn that favorite fabric you’ve been hoarding into a quilt worthy masterpiece!

Katie MAE QUILTS PATTERNS

Of course, there’s several KMQ patterns that feature focal fabrics, including my newest pattern, Stardust Cove. (Obviously the inspiration for this list!) Tranquil Ripples and Stars Unfurled both have smaller spots that are perfect for fussy cutting a favorite fabric as well.

Swishy Sashing and Charm Dash both frame an entire fabric collection, so each piece gets to shine. For that fabric collection where every print is special! Charm Dash is a great example of using a long hoarded fabric collection - I made it in 2018 with a fabric line I hoarded from 2009. (And I still have more of that fabric!)

Since it’s a round up, you get a coupon code for all of mine! On Payhip, use code FOCAL25 for 25% off any of the focal fabric quilts. On Etsy, use code FOCAL25 for 25% off Swishy Sashing and Stardust Cove.

Photo courtesy of Fabric Cafe

three yard quilts

Easily the…easiest - Three Yard Quilts almost always showcases one of the yards as a focal piece. I think my favorite is Suite Times (and not just because it’s cat fabric.) It’s a great way to alternate the framing, and use the extra blender fabric in the border. And definitely a large space for the focal fabric!

Photo courtesy of Ann Lauer / Grizzly Gulch Gallery

WALK ABOUT

The Walk-About pattern by Grizzly Gulch Gallery is often used by the t-shirt quilt makers when we don’t have a lot of shirts but want to highlight the ones we do have. It’s easy to pick the colors of a sports team or university to build out the frames!

Photo courtesy of Heather Peterson / Anka’s Treasures

LIVING LARGE

I love Heather Peterson's fabric (see the recently finished Prairie Home Sampler and the award winning Reflections) and I love Heather Peterson's Living Large book. It’s no surprise that someone who designs such lovely large scale prints would have a book of patterns to use them!

Photo courtesy of Solomae S / Cuddle Cat Works

fancy frames

Fancy Frames by Cuddle Cat Works is, well, a fancy frame for your focal fabrics. It’s like a gorgeous gallery wall, rather than the consistent block sizes of the previous patterns. I love how it can be mixed up with large and small focal prints.

Photo courtesy of Michelle Cain / From Bolt to Beauty

IRISH TWIST

For focal fabrics that blend into the overall quilt design, there's the Irish Twist by From Bolt to Beauty. This pattern uses the focal fabric as both the large block, and the chain to build the secondary blocks. If you choose your large prints cautiously, this can be done to stunning effect, as Michelle shows!

Photo courtesy of Melanie McNeil / CaitBirdQuilts

ECONOMY BLOCKS

Economy blocks are a great way to frame a fun print (see my Tranquil Ripples pattern, which starts with an economy block.) CatBirdQuilt explains the math and has a cheat sheet for multiple sizes. You can easily see where it might be useful to incorporate a charm pack (to make one level of the cutting easier) as either the starting block or one of the surrounds!

Photo courtesy of Art Gallery Fabrics

WALKING ON SUNSHINE

Walking on Sunshine is a nifty way to show off long strips of your favorite fabrics, rather than in a block style. You can easily make the strips wider, as well, or alternate the width for the really special pieces.

Photo courtesy of Robin Pickens

FIONA’S DAISY CHAIN

And Fiona's Daisy Chain is another sweet chain block, this time with the focal fabric in between and adorable little floral blocks making the chain. (And it uses Superbloom, which I can verify is worthy of being a focal fabric! Or any Robin Pickens fabric, really.)

round up previews

This round up was originally complied for my newsletter. If you want to read a monthly quilt round up before it goes on the blog, you should subscribe to my newsletter. It’s always very theme-y!

AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER

This post contains affiliate links. I might receive commissions if you click on my links and make purchases, at no extra cost to you. However, please know this does not impact my recommendations - I only recommend products and shops that I use myself.

put a pin in it

In
Comment

BOMs Away - Eternal Bloom

Y’all. This is it. The very last in progress post for Eternal Bloom. After nine years, the eternal block of the month has reached…well, mostly the end! There’s still the somewhat pesky little details of sewing it all together and the massive task of quilting it. But for now, let’s focus on the most important thing - all the block piecing is finished!

So for starters, I made the leaf blocks for Corner B, and the two remaining rosebuds.

Then I sewed them together with their actual Corner B blocks.

And then I put them up on the wall and realized just how massive 87x107” borders actually are. (Hint: longer than my design wall.)

I moved them around a few times, then asked my husband to look at the color dispersal. He said it was good and to stop fiddling with things. Rude. But he’s right, there’s not that many different ways to rearrange it, so I’m calling it good and getting it sewn together.

And no, you don’t get to see it with the center, because the center is heavy and I would need to an industrial stapler to keep it on the design wall. You’ll just have to wait and see!

And yes, it’s not finished finished - but once it’s this close, it’s just a matter of sewing it together as a leader/ender during the week, so it’s the last time you’ll see it in progress. And I’ll probably save the finale post for after it’s debut at QuiltFest. So say goodbye to our favorite eternal project! Maybe the next one take slightly less than nine years…

The deets

Pattern: Pam Bono’s Out of the Darkness / Eternal Bloom / A New Beginning - out of print and extremely hard to find (believe me, I tried)

Fabric: Block of the Month kits from a quilt shop that closed in 2015

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!

Stardust Cove Quilt Pattern in Alabama Colors

The secondary version of my Stardust Cove quilt pattern was an easy one to pick - Connecting Threads started carrying NCAA fabrics. When in doubt, it’s safe to use Alabama or Auburn colors around here! (Although my neighbor would probably prefer only Auburn, not Bama. I promise to use orange and blue on the next one!)

THE PATTERN

This is my new pattern, Stardust Cove! This version is a tiny bit different from the Lunar Glow version last week. (I mean, besides the vastly different colors.) Because the University of Alabama’s primary color palette is crimson, white, and gray, I chose to use those three colors instead of the five in the quilt pattern. (So four fabrics total.)

I did audition black as the focal fabric surround, but it was definitely too dark for the lighter feel of the quilt. Since the focal surround (Fabric B) doesn’t touch the outside background fabric (Fabric E), it’s the best place to repeat a color.

I also considered using the Alabama focal fabric for the stars as well, but it’s vaguely directional and I didn’t want to deal with that, so I just added a complementary crimson there.

THE FABRIC

The focal fabric is NCAA Alabama Letters; the crimson stars are Pattern Play Tonals Houndstooth; the gray is Chambray Tonals in Lt Gray; and the white is Faux Tweed White on White. (I like to mix up my basics a bit for texture.) All from Connecting Threads - yup, even the NCAA fabric now!

The backing is also NCAA - Alabama fleece this time. It’s very subtle. You can barely tell what college it represents. LOL

The binding is the rest of the red houndstooth. The Lunar Glow version used the same binding as the outer background, which makes it look kind of endless - which is fun! But I also like the strong frame that a bold, different color gives to this version.

THE QUILTING

The quilting is, again, super subtle - elephants for Bama. What can I say, other than “Kate loves a theme”?!

In
Comment