Ah, Layouts!

Part of the fun of putting quilts together is getting the quilt layouts just so. Getting the color placement right. Adjusting here and there. 

I'm getting to the layout part of this project. The picture above shows 12 blocks placed side by side, but I'm still figuring out whether that's my final layout.

Since this is a quilt-as-you-go project, I quilted each block separately. Then I trimmed them all nice and neat.

Full disclosure: sometimes the designing and layout phase is just ... messy! 🙂

But I think it's coming along. Once I figure out my layout, I'll quilt the next components and start assembling!

When Tuesday comes, I'll be linking this post to this week's "To Do Tuesday," the link party at Quilt Schmilt. I'm looking forward to seeing the other projects that are featured there. 

***Edited to add: I'm still figuring things out: "To Do Tuesday" is probably supposed to list a "To Do" list for my projects, and an update on how the list is going. 

So ... for this one, my next steps are:

    1. Finalize a layout

    2. Cut & Quilt the next components (setting squares and borders)

    3. Trim the newly-quilted squares & borders

    4. Prep the attachment/binding-strips and start attaching components

Joanna's Nautical Quilt

I recently finished this nautical-themed quilt as a custom order for my friend Joanna.

This was a fun design challenge, and a special project to work on.

A couple of months ago, Joanna sent me a message, asking if I could work on a quilt for her family. A dear relative of theirs was cleaning out his closet, and had given them a stack of shirts. Not being able to use the shirts, but not wanting to give them away, Joanna had the inspiration to ask about turning the shirts into a quilt.

A nautical theme was chosen, which is a perfect fit - many of the shirts were nautical prints and colors, and this relative loves all things nautical.

I started out with these stacks of shirts, and a list of nautical quilt-block ideas ...

 After some design work, I sent Joanna this drawing as the plan ...

And then, there was a lot of cutting and measuring and figuring and stitching and quilting!

I may have mentioned before on this blog that my favorite "quilt fabric designers" involve shirt fabrics! I've made quite a few quilts out of men's dress shirts (see the label in my blog sidebar "Dress Shirt Quilts"), and this one was a lot of fun.

Here are a few close-ups, in various stages of assembly ...

Mariner's compasses, and life preservers ...

Lighthouses, of course! Just pieced, before quilting in the details ... 

  

Nautical knot and rowboat  ...

  

Ship's wheel getting some "wood grain" quilting ...

An assortment of blocks in progress ...

Sailboats!

Lake Houses and a sunset ...

Sea gulls, made from a fleece shirt ...

With plenty of shirts (about 2 dozen), I made the borders and backing out of shirt fabric, too!

Here are borders in progress ...

The back includes big shirt pieces, small shirt pieces, and quite a few shirt tags!

Here's the entire quilt back.

I decided to use a quilt-as-you-go assembly method (like I used for this quilt and one of these ones), to give each block its own custom technique. This was helpful, since I had a variety of pieced and appliqué blocks that need a variety of quilting techniques. Each block (or border row) was put together: front, batting, and backing, and it was quilted all by itself before being put together with the other parts of the quilt.

One of the fun things about this quilt is that all of the fabric in it came from that stack of shirts, except for the tiny gray borders between each block and row, and the solid white fabric. 

Even though I don't usually, I decided to take this quilt outside and lay it on a sheet for a whole-quilt photo. That seemed like the best place to get a full view of the quilt.

I know how much my family enjoys having quilts around to keep cozy, and I hope Joanna's family will get just as much enjoyment out of theirs!



One of my favorite quilt blogs, which is full of lots of quilt-y inspiration, has a weekly link party for finished quilt projects. I'll be linking this post to this week's Finish It Up Friday at CrazyMomQuilts, and I'm looking forward to seeing what other quilters have been working on and finishing up this week.

Quilt-As-You-Go in Progress

Today, I'm starting the assembling-process for this quilt. The blocks are all pieced & quilted. Today I'm trimming the blocks & getting them ready to put together.

Two Little Quilts for Two Little Guys



Not long ago, I finished up these two little quilts.

I may have mentioned bits and pieces of these quilts in the past ... 

The one on the left showed up a few weeks ago when I posted about Playing with Orange Fabric.

 The one on the right was in progress a few months ago, and I blogged about it in a post called Another Shirt Quilt Project FMQ-QAYG-style.

These fun little quilts were gifts for my friend Christy's newest little sons.

I mentioned a few months ago (see this post) that my friend Christy would be adopting a little boy from Eastern Europe. As it turns out, God has allowed Christy and her husband to adopt TWO little boys!



So, of course, I wanted to make the little guys quilts to welcome them home.

These quilts are smallish sizes - The square one is 38" x 38", and the other one is a little narrower than that, and a little longer ... The boys are 1 and 3, but small for their ages, so I wanted quilts that would be little, but not babyish. 

Introducing my new favorite combo: Shirts and Sheets! (Perfect for Guy Quilts, if you ask me!)

The squares on this one are all cut from shirts; the beige sashing and binding was a sheet.

Putting together a Quilt-As-You-Go quilt was easier than I expected. (See more on "quilt-as-you-go" here and here and here.)

For one thing, quilting a 10½" square is SO much easier than quilting an 80" x 80" square! Because of this, I've been enjoying "the quilting" part of quilt-making a lot more lately.

For another thing, the method in this video works great for putting the pieces together.

And the orange fabric was a sheet (and so was the green on the binding & back of the orange quilt) , while the remaining triangles were all shirt fabrics.

  

I love the bright, happy look of the shirt-plaids & solids!

  

I though how fun it would be to take pictures of these quilts outside, on the clothesline.

It was windier than I thought it would be, so, not surprisingly, I ended up with a lot of this ...

... and this ... which made me laugh! I did a lot of waiting around for the wind to settle, so I could snap pics really quick before the wind picked back up!

The quilting details for the quilt-as-you-go squares were in this post.

For the triangles quilt, I decided to go with a spiral design, because I figured spirals would contrast nicely with the angular lines of the patchwork.

If you look closely at the middle spiral in the picture below, you'll see the "spiral" that's probably my favorite. Even though most of my spirals were tolerably round, and some of them were pretty near perfect, THIS one ... wasn't! I thought about taking it out and redoing ... But more and more, I realize that I'm quilting better and better. AND, more and more, I'm realizing that some things don't require stressed-out perfection. It's O.K.; it's unique. And it was made by a human, and not a robot. :-)

Speaking of favorites, I LOVE this puzzle-quilting on this block in the quilt-as-you-go quilt. Like I mentioned in other posts about this, the puzzle-quilting inspiration came from here.

Probably my very favorite block in the quilt-as-you-go quilt was this rocking-horse one, the last one I finished. Traced this little rocking-horse from a printable coloring page (I think it was this one) and added some details to make it work as a quilting design. Because the little guy getting this quilt happens to have a thing for rocking horses.

I finished off the little quilts with the boys' names ... stitching them in like the lettering I did at the end of this post and the end of this post.

Many congratulations to Christy and her family on the newest additions to their wonderful family!

Another Shirt Quilt Project FMQ-QAYG-style

I've been working on another Free-Motion-Quilted, Quilt-As-You-Go sampler project, made of shirt fabrics. With a bunch of 10½" squares that I already had cut out of cotton shirt fabric, and some batting scraps (edges trimmed when quilting medium-sized quilts) I've been learning some new techniques.

This project is similar to that other one that's still a work in progress.

Below are pictures of some of my latest experiments. Actually, I turned this into a fun little quilt that I'll probably be blogging about soon.

With each picture, the caption-explanation includes where I got the inspiration and/or instructions.

Many of the designs came from Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project blog, so many of the picture-captions have links there.

Several of the designs below have Pinterest links, because I've started gathering up FMQ ideas on my latest Pinterest Board, called "Quilting Techniques". Click here to see the board and you'll have the option to Follow the board if you'd like.

Bubble Path. This one was fun, and not hard. Leah Day's instructions are here.

Checkerboard, from The Free Motion Quilting Project (Leah Day's blog).

I'm calling this a decorated crosshatch.
Inspired by Cindy Needham's work here and here.

This is a funny little design. It reminds me of dinosaurs or dragon heads.
I was inspired by the idea of a floral stipple (a Jo's Country Junction favorite),
but I wanted to steer away from flowery, and try zig-zaggy. I like the result.

Lately, I accidentally see quilting patterns in all sorts of things.
This design was actually inspired by the design on a tissue box.
(See below.)
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. :-)

This is a neat concept, but needs some work.
It's another tissue-box inspiration (see below). Weird, I know.
But I'm pretty sure I'm not the only quilter who sees quilt patterns everywhere. :-)

This was an experiment ... not too bad. Inspired by this quilter's work.

My first attempt at "McTavishing". Still working on this concept.
Instructions/inspiration from Leah Day and from Pinterest.

Puzzle Quilting! I mentioned this one before; inspiration from here.

This is my rendition of "Sea Oats", seen here at Leah Day's Blog

Here's my version of Spiral Chain; again, the how-to is at Leah Day's blog

Free-motion loops-and-stars ... I saw an FMQ style like this on
a beautiful batik quilt that was displayed for several weeks at my local library;
a local quilt guild had donated it for a library raffle. 

Super Star. Fun stuff. Leah Day's instructions are in this blog post.

Wiggly Woven Lines. I like how this one turned out.
It's another one of Leah Day's designs.

Zen Breaks. I need some more practice on this one ...
Again, Leah Day shares instructions on her Free Motion Quilting blog.

Friday Update:

I'm linking this post to this week's FMQ Friday at The Free Motion Quilting Project blog ... and looking forward to getting some more free-motion-quilting inspiration there!