The ikea quilt

This quilt just went out to a good friend.  She was actually the person to introduce me to Ikea stores; she was a big fan, and had named her cat Ikea.  We lost touch over the years, but recently connected again on Facebook.  I made her this quilt, pulled together with 5 inch squares from 2 charm packs of Spa, by Deb Strain for Moda, together with solids from Kona in white and Pacific.

The quilting is a loose stipple, to keep the drape nice and get 'er done.  I chose a bright yellow backing and binding, just to break up all that blue.

True disclosure-- the blue kona ran dreadfully in the wash.  I did use a color catcher, but even so, there was a lot of bleed into the charms.  A long soak and an second run through the wash with 2 color catchers helped some, but even then, the color catchers were fully saturated with blue dye.  I've had such a good track record with no issues from using unwashed fabrics, this was kind of frustrating, specially since it was intended to be a gift.

As for the photographs-- well, it's been raining a lot here, so an outdoor shot wasn't going to happen. But where better to photograph the Ikea Quilt than in front of a fully loaded Expedit shelving unit, with assorted Ikea storage boxes and products kin of in view?

Sunnyside quilt -- Gifted

Just sent this quilt to a dear friend.  Made with a jellyroll of Moda's Sunnyside fabric by Kate Spain, plus a few random charm squares, a strip of kona cotton in light grey, and some kona bleach white.  Free motion quilting-- simple stipple in the print fabric areas, pebbles on the grey, and improv sun motifs along the white border-- those truly weren't planned, I just kind of felt like doing something interesting along there as I was wrapping up the quilting. Backing and binding are a light grey chec, and just to break up all those lines some more, I rounded the corners and did a bias binding.

The quilts of 2013

Pinterest Board: Quilts of 2013

I'm still hoping to complete a few more, so it's a work in progress.

Using up more scraps:design wall this week

I've had leftovers from a collection of French General fabrics in my scrap box for years, but finally pulled them out to put together some seasonal projects.  The top photo is a Trip Around the World -- very traditional design.  It's a big quilt-- a good 96" square, so I'm not looking forward to quilting it. 

Other scraps were better suited to the nine patch and snow ball blocks in the second photo -- enough to make a table runner and possibly a table topper or a small wall hanging.

Quick and Easy Baby Quilt

I used a couple of partial charm packs together with scraps from my stash to pull together a quick and easy half square triangle quilt.  48 inches square.   A good one for the "just to have on hand" collection, ready to gift for the next baby shower.