36 hours later...

A baby quilt is born! I was comissioned to make this quilt for a customer whose granddaughter had recently passed away. The quilt was intended as a baby shower gift for the new baby as something to remember her sister by - very sad, but sweet...

Scraps of fabric from the girl's clothes were used to make the quilt, as well as a few favorite photos. I ordered the prints from spoonflower.com, and was pleased with the results. For privacy, I don't want to post any of those photos too close up, however. Here's a few favorite blocks:

I think (hope!) she liked it! It's probably the most complicated quilt I've made yet, and I'm proud of my work :)


Here are some in-process pics. The colors are more true in this as well...there wasn't a lot of lighting on the day I handed it off, unfortunately.

Hawkeye Quilt

I made a baby quilt a few months ago for one of my managers. It was only the second quilt I've ever made, and technically the only 'real' one - the t-shirt quilt I made previously can only be loosely defined as a quilt :) 


Anyway, she is a huge Hawkeyes fan and not very 'girly' so I thought this theme was appropriate. 

I tried a traditional pinwheel pattern I'd seen online, but from what I know now about quilting there's many things I could have done more efficiently.

I used my regular sewing machine with it's regular do-everything foot to machine quilt a basic diamond shape.

You can see in some of the photos that there is some puckering, but overall I'm satisfied with the results. 

Did I mention I made this in under two weeks start to finish? They asked if I'd known about the baby shower beforehand when I delivered it, but nope, I started thinking about it once I received the invitation!

Overall, it was good practice and the gift was well-received. What more can I ask for? 

Stitchin' Mission

Have you heard of Stitchin' Mission? 

Image Source: stitchinmission.org

It's a really cool concept started by local Iowan Linda  who wanted a way to give back to the community. Essentially, Linda offers a series of quilting lessons for FREE along with needed materials, provided that each student donate their first quilt to a charity that really needs it. 

There have been 24 missions so far, and quilts have been sent all over the world!

I'm really excited to be a part of Stitchin' Mission #25! Our quilts will be going to a local women and children's center in Des Moines. I have made two quilts on my own so far, but as I'm a completely self-taught crafter I thought it wouldn't hurt to get some expert advice.

If you click to Linda's blog post here, you can just make me out in the first group photo. Not that I enjoy being photographed (who does?!), but there I am! 

Tonight will be the next class and I'm really excited! Here is all of my fabric, pressed and ready to go:

This seems an odd combination to me, but I couldn't resist the cactus fabric. I'm looking forward to seeing how this comes together! 

I'll be blogging about this for the next few Thursdays, so check back with me to see my progress :) 

Ciao!