Bright Stars Quilt

A while back I bought 2 packs of rainbow-colored charm squares from a seller on eBay.  I love the colors and the listing said they were all dye cut.  Howver, the "pinking" (zig zags) on the sides of the squares were so deep (1/4" in some cases) that I ended up cutting them all down from 5" to 4.5" before using them.  Frustrating!

 

 

Anyway.... I took my inspiration for this quilt from this one on Leslie Unfinished. I didn't have a true plan in mind, so I just made some 9-patch star blocks and added colorful blocks around it.  I didn't think the quilt was big enough, so I ended up adding 1 more column to each side and 2 more rows each to the bottom and the top.  (That's why the stars may not look "spread out" enough --- where they end was the original edges of the quilt.)

 

 

Added a few more borders to make it even bigger.  Finished size (after washing) measures 54.5" wide x 70" long.

 



 

I straight-line quilted with a walking foot horizontally across the colored squares, then around the middle section through the borders.  I fell in love with straight line quilting!!

 

 

I didn't have a recipient in mind while I was making this, but as soon as my sister-in-law saw it, she called "dibs" on it.  That was easy!

 

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Rainboz Zig Zags



I made this quilt a while back, last fall, I think.  It was made with a half jelly roll of striped rainbow fabrics and white-on-white stars print.  I added  some additional borders to make it a little bigger.  It finishes at 42"x54" after washing. 

 



 

The back is a soft lavender flannel.



 

 

This is a great "cuddle size" quilt for a child or tween.

 

 

I quilted with a squiggle meander in white thread.

 

 

I'm listing this one in my new Etsy shop.

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

T-Shirt Quilt for Sarah

Last fall, my friend Danielle asked if I knew how to make a t-shirt quilt, and if I might be able to make one for her daughter as a high school graduation gift.  I love when quilt deadlines are very far away -- I had close to 8 months so how could I say no?

 

This quilt is pretty big -- 72" x 90". My husband had to stand on a ladder in order for me to get the picture. I decided not to crop him out :-).

 

Danielle's daughter is an athlete, she plays soccer, basketball and runs (among other things).  Danielle mailed me a box of t-shirts that she had "borrowed" from Sarah's drawers without her knowing.  As you can probably guess, her school colors are black and red.

 

 

Each square finished at 15" and I used a light-weight fusible interfacing on the back.  The blocks were sashed in black with red cornerstones.  (There are prints on the black & red, but they don't show in these photos.)

 

 

I quilted this with straight lines (stitch in the ditch) along both sides of each sashing strip (vertically and horizontally) then added some meandering squiggles within each block, being careful not to stitch over any of the printing on the shirt.  The thread color on the block matches the background color of the shirt.  I really wanted the shirts - not the stitching - to be prominent.

 

All of the shirts were cotton except one.  The red shirt with the white "2" on it was a tech shirt, but it worked out just fine and I didn't have to do anything differently on that block.

The back is black and the binding is red.  I also made a quilt tag with red stitching on white fabric.  I asked Danielle to write a "note" to Sarah in her own handwriting, then I stitched exactly that, making the quilt tag look like a hand written note from Mom & Dad.  Of course I don't have a picture, but this is the method I used.  The only differences from my original post are that the words were hand written (vs printed on a computer) and I used tissue paper in place of regular paper. 

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

 

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

To India with Love - Take 2

I know it has been forever since I updated and there is a LOT to update, but I'll get to all of that another day.  For now, I am just over the moon excited to finally be sharing something again!

Way back in June 2012, I made this quilt for my sweet friend Sujay, who lives all the way across the world in Pune, India.  I was so excited to get it mailed off to him.  The USPS told me they didn't know how long it would take to arrive so we waited... and waited... and waited... and unfortunately, we are still waiting.

After about 4 or 5 months it became apparent that quilt was never going to arrive, so I got to work on another one.  I finished the top at least 2 years ago now.  This is made from all scraps, with each square of strings sewn on to muslin to avoid a billion seams on the back when I pieced the squares together.  I eyeballed the placement of the dark blue strips through the diagonal of each square and worked my way out from there.

After the top was finished, I got it sandwiched quickly... but it took another year before I finished the FMQ and the binding.  There is sat forever (again) while I procrastinated on making the quilt tag. (Below is not the best photo, but you'll get the idea.  Part of my absence from blogging has been photo challenges but I've decided to go with the "something is better than nothing" approach from now on.")

In January I finally got it mailed to him (and it arrived!  yay!).  Cost about 2 weeks' salary to do so, but totally worth it.  Of course I forgot to measure it before I packed it up, but I think it's around 48" x 60" (each block is 12" square). 

No photos of the back, but it's a plain blue.  Definitely not as gray as it looks in the photo of the quilt tag.

Very happy to have this one done and safely in India. Finally!

~*~ May your day be full of Love and Ladybug Hugs ~*~

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~