She's back! with a Gender Neutral Pinwheel Baby Quilt!

Hello again friends!

The Crafting Accountant's been busy! First I had to do the accounting thing, and now I've been busy crafting. Everybody is getting married and popping out kids left and right! I'm trying to keep up. The blog has suffered. My apologies there. 

I had a hot minute at the end of busy season to throw together a baby quilt for our cousin and her Baby R. It's a tradition in the family to keep the sex of your first child a mystery. Thank goodness I don't tend to make overtly gendered quilts; I was able to use all scrap to throw together this simple pinwheel quilt. 

Remember, just because a quilt is simple does not mean it can be rushed. Accuracy in measurement and cutting is just as important as a larger, more complicated piece.

All the scraps I used were precut squares. I tend not to use precuts anymore, as they never seem to all measure the same.  For quick piecing, I took my neutral pieces and drew a line from corner to corner with my disappearing ink pen. Then, I took a neutral and colored piece right sides together, and sewed with a 1/4 inch seam allowance down both sides of the line. (I used the "archaic" method Jenny mentions here).

This is really important to note- my neutral was one brand, and my colors were many others. This means my "5 inch precuts" were all totally different sizes. When sewing the pieces together, I made sure both points of both pieces always sat on my line (easy enough to do when holding it up to the light). After I sewed them together, I had to trim every square. I did this by using my 6 inch Fiskars square ruler (as seen here). The 45 degree angle line followed my ink line, and I made everything else straight and trimmed around it. 

I didn't have time for my awesome quilt lady Terry to quilt this one for me, so I gave it a shot myself. I chose the simplest method I knew: stitch in the ditch. Because I took my time piecing and lining up my blocks, I knew I could follow those lines and have them be (relatively) straight. I also used a black thread on top and a grey thread on bottom for maximum "forgiveness".  I'm incredibly pleased with the result for my first time. 

I can't wait for Baby R to grace is with their presence! Enjoy the quilt!

Pinwheels can be deceptively challenging. There are a lot of points that need to match up.

I used a circular pattern on the back to contrast the angular nature of the quilt face.

I used a denim binding, and had a very hard time deciding the best color thread to use. I have black fabric on front and white on the back. I finished half the binding in black thread and decided I hated it. The gold worked perfectly. Look at your jeans... what color is the thread?? ;)

The quilting detail isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with it for a first time try. 

I have an AWESOME quilt to show you soon. I just have to finish it......

Keep Crafty my friends!

~Bri

Baby Fitz's Blanket

Quilt Post! Woot! I get so excited when I write a quilt post. 1: because that means another quilt is done and in the books, and 2: I get to share it with everyone! Of all the quilts I've made, I've seen only three reactions. And let me tell you- it is the BEST! It's like watching your kid open that one gift they've pined for ALL YEAR.

I won't see this quilt opened by the ultimate recipient, but I will see it opened by my dear friend who ordered it. Tina (of Tina Mortela Photography- I've mentioned her before, have you liked her page???) has a very best friend that finally conceived the baby they'd been hoping for. A lot of love and time went into planning the quilt. We finally decided on a timeless, elegant pattern that can be enjoyed for years.

I used a few fabrics from Moda's Honey Honey line, and added a green fabric for contrast. The background was done with Moda's Snow White fabric. 2 1/2 inch strips were cut in the white, and 5 1/2 inch squares were used for the colored fabric. The nursery theme is butterflies, so I had Terry Burris quilt butterflies throughout the quilt. With the scraps, I made a small accent pillow. The end result is simply breath taking.

Baby B's Baby Blanket

I am so excited to finally share this blanket with you.

A while back, I made a baby blanket for our good friends. It was finally unveiled at the baby shower yesterday. Everyone was so incredibly impressed and grateful for such a thoughtful present. This quilt was more difficult for me than others I've done. Halfway through this quilt, I realized I was working with faulty supplies. My cutting mat had warped, meaning a square wasn't square anymore, and the quarter inch seam allowance I thought I was using wasn't actually a quarter inch. I was able to finish this quilt using a new Olaf cutting mat, and a Pfaff Quilt Expression 2046 (best purchase EVER my friends).

Face of the Quilt.

This quilt, believe it or  not, is a disappearing Nine Patch quilt. Here is how you do it:

Please Note- Everything I do uses 1/4 inch seam allowances!

For this quilt, I used 2 Moda Noteworthy Charm Packs and 2 Moda Bella Solids Natural Charm Packs. A charm pack is a package of 42 pre-cut 5 inch squares in various different fabric that all coordinate. The boarder was made from 1 fat quarter, and the binding was made from another fat quarter.

Start with your simple Nine Patch. For this quilt, I put the same colors in the corners, with a contrasting color in the middle, but be creative! There are no real rules to this (well, except for your 1/4 inch seam allowances).

Nine Patch after sewing the pieces together

Now, you will take your rotary cutter and cut this finished piece into quarters:

Cut the Nine Patch along these lines

Now, you should have something that looks like this:

Please don't judge my poor computer art skills

Now for the magic. Take the upper left hand corner, and the bottom right hand corner, and flip them so the green square is now on the outside corner.

See what we did there?

Now, resew this bad boy together. You now have 1 finished block. For this blanket, I did 9 blocks (3 x 3) to make it square. And I had fabric left over.

For the backing, I always like to use something that is fuzzy and feels nice to your skin. I chose a light green for this quilt.

Close up of quilt with backing and binding.

The next part I can take no claim to. A wonderful woman named Terry Burris in Merrimack, NH does all my quilting for me. I just don't have the equipment. She and I worked together to choose this fun butterfly detail. I really think it brings the quilt to life, and offsets the blocky-ness of the quilt well.

I also machine bind my quilts. Some people may consider this cheating, but I consider it working smarter, not harder. I can provide a tutorial on how I do this, but I do exactly what the book "Still Crazy for Baby" by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson taught me.

I always reinforce my edges with extra stitches

In the end, I'm incredibly proud of how this quilt came out. This quilt taught me a lot about the quilting world and the importance of the right tools. I hope Baby B enjoys this quilt for years to come.