Classic Pooh Baby Quilt

My sweet friend Rachel is pregnant with her first baby, a girl.  Her shower is later this month and she's decorating Baby Girl's nursery in Classic Pooh.  Last Christmas, she asked me to make some quilts for her nieces and mentioned that someday, if she had a baby, she'd love a quilt also.  Ask and ye shall receive!  (Oh, who am I kidding... she would have gotten a quilt even if she didn't ask!)

I wanted to use Classic Pooh but not make it *all* about Pooh.  I chose soft greens and pink from my stash, as well as a beige solid, since the Pooh fabric was a tea-dyed ivory color.  This is a classic Churn Dash block, each finished at 12".  The quilt (12 blocks) started at 36" x 48" before washing.

Just a few of the block centers --- Pooh, Piglet and Eeyore.

Thought I'd try something a little "fancier" in those beige diamonds.  Far from perfect, but it was fun to practice.

I stitched in the ditch (columns and rows) for most of the quilt, and did an all-over meander in the green and pink sections.  No quilting on the Pooh character blocks.

Even though the front isn't all Pooh, the back is :-).  This fabric is so sweet.... and the quilt is small enough that I didn't need to piece a back, so I used the fabric as is.

This little guy (gal?) will keep the quilt safe until the shower on the 23rd.

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

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

H4P for new baby cousin

My thoughts and prayers are in Aurora, Colorado today.  If you are so inclined, please take a moment to ask God to be with all those who were impacted by this terrible, senseless tragedy.

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My husband's cousin's wife is at the hospital as I post this, loaded up on Pitocin and waiting for Baby Boy to be born.  I can't wait!  I just barely finished this quilt in time for (1) his arrival and (2) my 3 week "sans sewing machine" vacation (which starts tomorrow). 

This is a hidden 4 patch pattern and it went together pretty quickly.  I will definitely make this block again, though probably with more colors or prints.

I started with 8" squares (18 blue, 18 print) and cut 2" away from the 4 patch seam lines before reconstucting.  This made a total of 9 blocks, which I arranged in 3 rows of 3 for a 38" (before washing) square quilt.

It was quite windy the day I took this picture.  The force of the wind was holding this quilt up against the fence.  I was happy to have 5 minutes where it wasn't raining, though, so good enough!

I know that Mom and Dad like Winnie the Pooh, so I pulled this fabric from my stash to use on the back.  It was hard to photograph but those Poohs are sort of "embroidered" on to the fabric and there is a texture to it -- both on the little checkered squares and the Pooh Bears.  It is not cotton but it was OK to work with.

Last but not least, the obligatory "folded up quilt" photo.  I didn't realize until just now the little animals are facing away from the camera.  They're still really cute, though, don't you think?

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Linking up with: 

Confessions of a Fabric Addict for "Whoop Whoop Friday"

Sew Many Ways for "Find a Friend Friday"

Pieceful Life for "Show Off Friday" 

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

Thanks for stopping by!
~ Kat ~

Crazy!! Hexagon Baby Quilt - Part 2

When I first posted about my plan for this quilt, I called it ambitious.  At that time, I had planned for it to be made up of 371 hexagons -- 1" each.

Then I went on a fabric rampage and decided the background should be green and purple, not just green.  I had to revise the pattern a bit to accommodate the two colors.  I also decided that 7 of those flowers would have dark pink outsides (light pink centers) and 6 would have the coloring shown in the photo below.  

Somewhere in this whole convoluted process, my 371 hexagon pattern became 451.  I've upgraded this from "ambitious" to just plain "CRAZY!!!"

On Saturday I leave for a 3+ week trip to Upstate New York to visit my family.  Unfortunately, my sewing machine will not be making the trip.  I wanted to make sure I had a project to keep me busy.... though I think I might need a 3 year trip to finish all of these.

I couldn't resist making a few flowers, just to see how they'll look.  This quilt will have 6 of the light (above) and 7 of the dark (below).

There are 7 or 8 different purple fabrics in varying shades.  All the greens are the same.  I have a feeling I'll rethink that later, but greens are so hard to match that I couldn't come up with a combination I liked (for the greens).  I'm going to make all the pinks and purples first and then see how I'm feeling about making all the greens from a single fabric.

I'm not sure how I'll end up attaching so many hexies together.  I am thinking I'll break the quilt into 12 or so "sections" and attach them all at the end.  I'm also not sure if I need to baste them to another piece of fabric (that you'll never see) or if I can put the big sheet of hexies right onto the batting.  I (clearly) have plenty of time to figure that out, but if anyone has advice, I'd love to hear it.


What's the craziest project you've ever decided to do?  How did it turn out?


Here's my revised pattern which shows the darker colored flowers.  (The photo at the top of this post still shows them all as light colored flowers.)

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

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Missing: My Willpower

If you've visited me here before, you might know I made a resolution to not buy any new fabric in 2012, unless it was specifically requested by someone who needed something very specific.  I intended that to apply to charity quilts and special requests only, and even then only if absolutely necessary. 

But then I ran out of batting.  

Already you can see where this is headed, right?

A few days ago I posted about a little hexagon baby quilt I wanted to make.  The pattern I came up with would have a green background and pink flowers -- dark pink centers with light pink petals.  I mentioned in that post the challenge of finding enough coordinating greens in my stash, especially since greens are so hard to match.

So yesterday I was at Joann's to buy batting.  And only batting.  With a 50% off coupon.

On my way to the register, I noticed this sweet little bundle, which had 2 lovely greens (and 3 lovely blues).  It was 30% off.  Did I mention I also had a "20% off your entire purchase" coupon?  

My 9 year old daughter - who knows I'm trying hard not to buy fabric - was with me.  As I was caressing looking at this little bundle, she leaned over and said, "Don't worry Mom, I won't tell anyone.  You deserve it."  I *so* love that kid! 

I knew those 2 little fat quarters wouldn't be enough for my entire background, but I did have some green at home already.  Then I saw one other single FQ in a pretty paisley.  OK, it's just one more, right?

Oh my gosh, they had purple bundles too!  I had toyed with the idea of doing green and purple for the background of the quilt and how sweet are those??  And hey, I don't want to break the fast more than once, so I might as well enjoy it now, right?

Wait, a Fat Eights of pinks?  That would be enough to do *all* the hexie flowers for the quilt.  Lights and darks.  They look so nice with the green and purple, too.  And come on... how often do I find a 30% off sale *and* have a 20% off everything coupon?  

I can probably stop adding commentary now, since you probably realize by now this is not going to end anytime soon....

A few more light pinks for the petals, just in case.

Just to be on the safe side with the darker pink....

What does a beige FQ bundle have to do with the hexagon baby quilt you ask?  Not a thing.  But at this point, I was already so far over the line it didn't seem to matter, really.

One last fun little bundle because, well, it had a ladybug on it.  No other reason is required.

In case you're wondering what a a "Fabric Fast" looks like, well.... here you go.

*sigh*

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

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Ambitious!! Hexagon Baby Quilt - Part 1

Over the past few months, I have fallen in love with English paper pieced hexagons.  I have made a few items so far (including this mug rug), but nothing very big.


This summer, I will be in New York visiting my family for 3 weeks and won't have my sewing machine (sniff, sniff!).  I knew I needed a hand sewing project to keep me from going crazy productive, so I decided hexies would be the perfect thing.


I found out that a friend of mine is pregnant with her 2nd child (due in February), so I decided to make her a hexagon baby quilt.  It's too early to know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but I'm going to take my chances on "girl" and start making this:

I only have 1" hexagon templates, so it will take 371 of those little beauties to make what is shown above.  I'm hoping this will be a decent size baby quilt (I haven't done all the math yet to figure out just how big it will be) but if it's too small, I'll add more green around the outside, or maybe a few rows of the light pink to frame it.  I'm planning to bind it in the same dark pink I use for the flower centers.  


As of now, I'll need 13 dark pink centers, 78 light pink petals and (gulp!) 280 greens for the background. I'm planning to use many different green fabrics for the background but I'm using all stash fabric in 2012, so I'll have to see how many I can find in my stash that work together.  Green is so hard to match, but my fingers are crossed. 


Next steps: Fabric selection and cutting.  Lots and lots of cutting!

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

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~