Swooning Again

In November, I picked up a couple of quilts from my quilter on my way to my mom's house. I was excited to see how the Palais Royale quilt specifically turned out, so I took them inside and opened it up. My mom walked past and saw how large it was and said that if I ever had time to make a large quilt for her she sure wouldn't mind. 

I reminded her that I had taught her to quilt and she was more than capable of making a bed quilt for herself, but she scoffed and said she didn't like making large quilts. I laughed, but squirreled it away because her birthday is in February and figured I could whip something up. She is widowed and sleeps on a double bed now, so it's not like it needed to be king sized, anyway. 

I brainstormed quick-ish quilts and settled on a Swoon, a beautiful classic standby. But it's just a hair shy of being large enough for a double quilt at 80", and considered adding an additional row or a border. I settled on a border because adding another row of 24" blocks would have made it too long. I used mostly fabric from my stash, and picked up just a couple of fat quarters to supplement, and went with blue since it's her favorite color, and then added in some green and turquoise. I went out on a limb with those, but I really thought it would work out. For the border, I took one of the prints I had used and figured out how many strips I'd need and then divided the fabric by that number. It's only 2-1/4" wide, but that adds nearly 5" which helps a lot. 

I hustled and got the quilt wrapped up after my Christmas sewing, and dropped it off to my quilter in early January. Luckily, she was able to finish it just in time. I picked it up on a Thursday, bound it on Friday, and gifted it to her on Saturday when we celebrated her birthday. I bound it with another print I had used in the quilt, which helped tie it all together. I usually bind with solids, but I didn't have enough of any that matched well enough, and I was glad to not have to buy some.

She didn't seem as surprised as I expected, but I think she really loved it. And it fits her bed perfectly. I think it was the perfect birthday gift. 

Swoon Sixteen 2.0

My second daughter had been patiently asking for a minky-backed bed quilt longer than my oldest daughter and as most middle children, she gets overlooked more than is fair and often very patiently waits. I couldn't keep pushing her quilt request off when I had just made a quilt for my oldest, so luckily for her, her quilt request shot to the top of the list. I got the top done shortly after my oldest daughter's, and they went to the quilter together and were finished together. I might have finished hers first, just to make sure she got looked after. 

I picked out a stack of fabric I thought she'd love, and she did. I thought Swoon 16 by Camille Roskelley would be the perfect pattern, and I do enjoy piecing quilts in this style. Camille Roskelley and Allison Harris are among my favorites, even still, and they have patterns I'm most willing to resew. I'm contemplating another Shimmer quilt (I've made two already, plus a Wallflower, which is nearly the same pattern), and it's similar to the Swoon in construction and look, and it's just a pattern I enjoy sewing. I was glad when she said she'd like it.

I think it turned out really great. I used some leftover Ruby Star Society lawn (a major sacrifice!) and some others that I'd been holding onto for a while. We backed it with aqua minky, and that gave us a hard time. Apparently, aqua is a color that has been hard to restock, and since it's popular, Abby Latimer had been out for a while. I went on a search of local quilt shops and found it after checking a couple, and they had *just* enough. Like, I texted Abby after they measured it to make sure it would be okay. She said she could make it work and I was so so glad. My daughter really wanted aqua, and I didn't want to let her down. 

She doesn't really sleep with hers, either. But that's okay. I'm pretty sure she loves it too.

Long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed March 2022

Hidden Stars

My older girls have been asking me to make them new bed quilts for a while. They've been jealous that the twins have minky-backed bed quilts, and theirs have boring-and-not-as-soft flannel. Even though they still share a room, I think they were also tired of having coordinated quilts and wanted something more personal.

It was on my list, but low. I have so many other projects that I'm more excited about, and they HAVE bed quilts. 

Then, I ordered a Florida jelly roll by Ruby Star Society when it was on sale and my oldest daughter fell in love with it when I opened it up to brainstorm. I don't usually buy precuts or sew with them because I've always found it easier to use yardage, and I don't typically sew quilts from just one line. Sometimes there's a dominant line, but I rarely use exclusively one line. 

This quilt is no exception. I used the whole jelly roll because it was a half-sized roll anyway, but I added a bunch of strips from my yardage too. And I copied a pattern I had seen online somewhere, doing the math myself  (not sure it was jelly roll friendly anyway). I love the secondary pattern it creates with the stars in the middle between the blocks and she was excited about it too. 

We backed it with dark gray minky and she loves it. At least, I think she does...she still mostly sleeps under her comforter. *shrug*

Long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed March 2022

Passages Quilt

 This quilt came about unexpectedly. 

I had visited Corn Wagon Quilt Shop in Springville and they had a pile of Moda scrap bags. I'd always been fascinated by these scrap bags; they seem slightly less expensive than a jelly roll (though, it doesn't seem by much...) and you get a variety of good sized scraps. But, just about everywhere that sells them online sells them on a mystery basis. 

That is not me. 

I don't even buy any of those subscription boxes, though I would love a surprise in the mail, because it's so hard for me to justify spending money on something I might get and absolutely hate. There are a lot of great Moda designers that I would enjoy receiving scraps of. But there are also plenty that are way too traditional for my taste, and then the fabric wouldn't get used. 

No thanks.

But, seeing them in person...that was different. I could peek through the window, and one was already open! So I got to see what it was. They had Ruby Star Society scrap bags and I found one I really liked. It was a mix of multiple lines, and they worked together well. I added in some from my own stash and bought some solids to go with them, and came up with this design based on some that I had seen on social media. It's made up of two different blocks made in the same way, like a 3 sided log cabin block, one with 2 rounds and one with 3. It reminded me of doorways or a covered walkway, so I called it Passages. I opted to make it large enough for our guest bedroom, and then after, I made a couple of throw pillows to go with it. The Essex linen is metallic and I used a rust orange color that I think works well with the quilt colors. I backed it with a Robert Kaufman wide back that I had purchased for my bed quilt, but when it arrived, I knew I couldn't use it on my bed. It's stiff and rough. My quilter, Abby Latimer, said that she heard that white prints are really tough to manufacture so that may have contributed. Maybe. But I don't mind putting it on the guest bed. It doesn't get used often, and I don't mind not encouraging guests to overstay their welcome ;-)

long arm quilted by Abby Latimer, completed March 2021