Floating Hexie Quilt

There are a couple very special young ladies expecting babies soon, so I've been trying to get a head start on quilts for their little bundles of joy.  Neither expectant mother plans to use "traditional" baby colors, so I've really had fun trying different color combinations...  some I'd never dream up on my own!

This one is not my original design; it is from a pattern book called Modern Baby, by Martingale.  It is called "Fractured Hexagons" in the book.

I call mine "Floating Hexies."  

I wish I'd taken some in-process photos; must learn to remember to do that in the future!  

The background part went together very quickly; it was just width of fabric strips of Kona solids sewn horizontally, then "fractured" to get the jagged appearance.  Instructions in the book for doing this were very clear and concise.

For the hexagons, I used a charm pack of organic little prints. I swear I thought I kept the package so I could remember the name, but it appears the black hole in my sewing room has engulfed said package...

I made the hexies a little differently than suggested by the author.  I lined them with very lightweight fusible interfacing.  That allowed me to tack each one down with an iron before topstitching/applique-ing each to the background fabric.  I learned this technique when making circle appliques for the first Lulu Quilt.

The quilting is a simple meader/stipple using gray Aurifil thread.  

For the backing, I used a neat print found at JoAnn fabrics; gray with teal.  The binding is a contrasting antique gold with metallic microdots.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this little quilt.  I do want to figure out what I did wrong with the binding; it is a little ripple-y...  (see first photo)  If you have suggestions, please post!

What did I learn this time???  That hexies aren't quite as daunting as I thought they'd be...  but I sure would hate to have done all of them by hand by English paper piecing, which was one of the methods suggested in the book.  Guess I'm just not a purist...  I'm more from the "Get 'Er Done" school of thought!

Scripture and Cross Quilt

It's been a long while since I posted; time to get back in the swing of things!

For the past year, I've been serving as our church's children's ministry program director.  At the end of our church's Sunday School year, I wanted to do something for our children's Sunday School teachers.  I made these quilts and presented them at our Promotion Sunday program.  Here are two of the three...  the 3rd photo was very blurry so is not included.

Soon after, one of the teachers commissioned me to make similar quilts for her three granddaughters.  I've been playing around with quilting words into my quilts, so I offered to include a favorite scripture.  

Here's the first finished commission.  The quilting is a little hard to see, but it's Jeremiah 29:11.  The lettering is about 4 inches tall.  

Here's a closer view of the quilting and one showing the binding and backing.  I'm in LOVE with striped bindings these days!

The grandmother was thrilled with the finished product; I am too!  Now I'm waiting for her to select scriptures for the other two commissions....

A Quilt for Susan

Here's another charm square quilt; this was for my wonderful sister-in-law, Susan.  It's a late Christmas gift.  While it looks Christmas-y, it's really not... she just happens to use these colors in her greatroom.

The 81 charm squares were from three different packs.  They weren't coordinating or matching packs; the colors just worked well together.  The three borders are Susan Winget fabrics, again not from the same lines as the charm packs, but working well together.

 

I did my first "orange peel" quilting on the squares themselves and quilted swirls on the gold border.

 

 

I tried my hand at quilting feathers for the first time on the outer border.  I followed a great tutorial from Natalia Bonner's book Beginner's Guide to Free-Motion Quilting.  I purposely used a variegated thread that blended in well with the green fabric.  My mama didn't raise a dummy; I knew I should camouflage my first efforts with the feathers!  Actually, though, I think they turned out pretty well for my first attempt.  (oh, and the tute for the orange peel came from the same book, but she called it Double Arcs.)

 

It will be really hard to give this one away; I have the same colors in my greatroom!

A Charm Square Quilt for Weston

Our great nephew, Weston, is five and is really into making things... so I thought this construction-themed charm pack would make a great little nap quilt for him.

To make the charm pack go further, I added rows of 5" black Kona between each row of charm squares. 

I quilted diagonal lines in red across each row to create a grid.

I LOVE pieced backs!  In this case, it was out of necessity; I had to "make do" with what was in my stash...  it was late at night and I wasn't going out!  The back is cobalt Kona and a candy stripe red and white.  The binding is black and white chevron; I really like how it turned out!