my first commissioned quilt top

Here's the Carolyn quilt top, on my newly landscaped front yard:As I've mentioned before, my favorite part about this is the outer border-- all of the fabrics I chose for the pinwheels were inspired by that pattern. Here's a closeup:To avoid having to piece the border, I had to wait and see how much I needed to buy, as this runs parallel to the selvedges, rather than across (like a typical jelly roll strip).

In my dream world, Moda would realize that those stretchy jelly roll strips, while easier for them to produce, aren't half as easy to work with as cuts that run the length-- rather than width-- of the fabric. Cutting the borders this way makes sure that the edges don't ruffle and instead lay flat. I got this tip from my favorite quilt shop owner when I was buying the aqua and brown Snow Flower for Mr. and Mrs. D's quilt, and sure enough, it made a big difference.

I still need to piece the back, making sure to include four of these little girls to represent Carolyn and her three sisters. The backing is a really soft faded denim-colored blue, which I think will make the quilt a bit more dimensional (I didn't realize how green the top was until I put it all together).

thread storage

I'm not one of those women who get all crazy at places like the Container Store or have piles of Tupperware always ready.  But I do love to repurpose items, and finding a good hiding place makes me feel clever.

I used to store my thread in a shoebox, then I got one of those ubiquitous wooden thread racks that I planned to paint some brilliant color, like aqua or orange, but I never got around to it.

Then, a fortuitous event occurred: I had the option of giving a very old metal four-drawer film strip cannister cabinet a new home.  My home.  It's an ugly gold and black with silver pulls, but I will actually spray paint it soon.  It was made by the H. Wilson Company, probably in the 1960s.  The drawers are each lined with a plastic liner with 90 indentations per drawer that are the perfect size for most of my thread.  The little Guttermans don't fit very well, but I'm using the wooden rack for those.  It's incredibly heavy, and I totally love it.  Pictures to come soon.

I haven't been sewing too much lately because it's super hot and our furnace and AC are getting replaced this Saturday.   That's an annoying and unsexy (not to mention very expensive) project, so expect to see some scrappy quilts (read: more economical) coming soon!

Nicole

Fresh from the dryer, bound and ready to go to Milwaukee:It's a good thing, too, since her birthday is July 30. I started and finished this one in no time at all.I found some packages of ready-made quilt binding, so while the binding is thicker than what I typically go for, it was really very easy. I think one of my favorite parts of the entire quilt is the one green corner.
This quilt isn't very large, but I'm hoping it gets used while on the couch, or as a picnic quilt. Nicole and Max go to a park and listen to jazz with a bottle of wine pretty frequently. This one is surprisingly heavy, because of the home dec fabric on the front, and the yellow on the back is also pretty thick. It killed my fingers while binding, especially with the dense stippling, but it was so worth it.
I've also just added the final borders on to the Carolyn quilt and will be basting it shortly. It's really coming together, and I'm liking it a lot more.

this is more like it

My second commissioned quilt, in progress:
This is for my brother's lady friend, Nicole. Her birthday is coming up, and she loves yellow. I used a cheater panel for the middle and I'm totally in love with this little quilt. I used some of my solid scraps to make a wide border around it, and went around 1 1/4 times (see the double wide border on the left-hand side?) That made it as wide as I wanted it to be, and also I liked that the panel was now a bit off-center. I ran out of yellow thread when I was about 80% done quilting the top (the part where Cassidy is standing) is unquilted.
Here's the pieced back, again, all from my stash:
There's a tiny strip of leftover Patchwork Promonade from the front on the back. The wrinkled part hasn't been quilted yet. Am I the only one who can't lay out a quilt without a dogfriend joining the party?
I've decided that I need to buy Dual Duty XP thread in color 7310 in bulk. It's the same thread I used (and ran out of) on Rebecca's quilt, and I did the same thing here. It's a pretty butter yellow color, and I've gone through no fewer than 5 spools of it in the past month. Yikes.
I'm unsure what colour I'll use for the binding. Maybe I'll make it scrappy, just to add to the whole thing. I totally adore this quilt-- I told Max that if he and Nicole ever break up, I want the quilt back (I kid, I kid... mostly.) Once the quilting is complete I'll post better and brighter pictures. I think this is just what I needed to go back to working on the Carolyn quilt.

a lack of confidence

I spent 2.5 hours in a quilt shop yesterday.
Normally, I'm in and out in about 30 minutes-- I make decisions pretty quickly. But yesterday, I needed to pick out fabric for the Carolyn quilt. I decided on an easy pinwheel pattern from Material Obsession called Cowboy Baby. Since the quilt in the book was tiny, about 40" x 48", and I have limited time, I decided to make my blocks twice as large (you know how I love the big blocks).
But I had the hardest time picking out the fabric. My eyes always go immediately towards stripes, dots, brights, solids and contemporary prints. I knew that those wouldn't do for a lodge-inspired quilt living in the Adirondacks. This is probably the first time ever that I've been continuously second-guessing my choices. I had a lot of help from the women at the shop, which was great (though one thought I was nuts for not putting dark binding on every quilt I make, but that's another story).
Since the quilt is surrounded by a large border, I had help picking out the print used as the border in this pattern as my inspiration.


I haven't bought the border yet because I want to cut it parallel to the selvedge as opposed to the way it's shown in the picture, and I need to know the length first. It's actually pretty cute, with half moons and red flowers on a dark blue background. Most of the fabric I picked for the middle of the quilt is from the same line, American Primer:
I'm not in love with this, though I did like it much more next to the border. Maybe I just need to wait and see.

Mr. and Mrs. D

This is a wedding present, just about a month late, for my stepbrother and new stepsister-in-law:I went to my favorite nearly local quilt shop (an hour away) and bought the stripes for the binding, the pale aqua border, and I splurged for the good stuff for the back:That strip in the middle was going to be a fifth row on the front of the quilt, but I knew I wouldn't get around to ordering the 2.5" x 7" piece of fabric I needed, so I decided on a big border instead.
I also joined the Cult of Mettler yesterday-- that thread is amazing. I used nearly 3 spools (and nearly $10) of the silk-finish. I picked aqua, and it blends into the border and the flowers in the backing perfectly. Between using a ton of safety pins, superpremium thread and a new needle, this quilt came together really easily, despite all of the little pieces.

I quilted diagonal lines 2" apart. I always forget how much I love straight line quilting. Because this quilt is pretty busy, I thought that stippling would've been just a little too much.
Once I put the binding on, I'll be ready to send this to southern California. I know they aren't expecting this, so it'll be a nice surprise.

so excited!

I just got asked to create a quilt on commission! My stepmother has a sister, Carolyn, turning 60 next month and wants me to make a quilt for her. Of course I said yes!
The one thing (besides time) that's making me nervous is that my stepmother's sister (my step-aunt, I guess?) lives in a log cabin/lodge house on a lake in upstate New York. The quilt should evoke a lodge, and my stepmom wants me to also incorporate the theme of "sisters". There are four girls, all with first names that start with the letter C.
So, I think the quilt will be much more traditional than I typically lean. Which is fine-- good, maybe, to test my boundaries. Do you guys have any ideas?
My first thought was to make four patchwork girls, but I'm unsure what else I should do. Trees? Those houses that are so popular? My mind is really reeling, but the timing is great: my husband is going out of town for the weekend with his brother, so I have the whole weekend to sew. And the weather is really cooling down, so it should be a good time to quilt.