Blue Moo Baby Quilt

I'm no scientist, but I've read and heard that babies enjoy the high contrast of black against white.  So I've made quite a few quilts that are black and white with a selected color, for this reason and the following...

I truely hate picking out fabrics for quilting... I spend hours wandering around the fabric store, picking things up, carrying them around, finding something else I like better, then trying to figure out where I got the original item from so that I can put it back.  I'm sure the people working there hate this, but also I've been assured that it is relatively common.  Also, having worked in a fabric store I feel like I've done my time doing the clean-up :)

Using B/W fabrics generally solves this issue for me... B/W fabrics nearly always match, and it's easy to incorporate just a bit of color, rather than worrying about color schemes, shades, etc.  

The following baby quilt was relatively easy to lay out, and I'm posting it to celebrate the 3rd birthday of the little one for whom it was quilted.  I cut 5" squares out of each of the selected fabrics, put one in the middle of the floor, and then built out from there making a symetrical yet not too obvious pattern.

The back was a cow print, and the stitching was done in blue.

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

I know way too many people that are pregnant right now!  When I started this blog I was worried that I wouldn't be able to sew fast enough to keep up regular postings, but what I have found is that I'm too busy sewing to sit down and post!

So this is a baby quilt for my friend Lena, who is expecting a little girl in June.  Her theme is ladybugs (who knew there was SO MUCH ladybug stuff out there?) but I tried to be more subtle and just use the colors of her decor.  I think her husband appreciated this because his home has been overtaken by red and pink insect cartoons. Here's the originally selected fabrics, although I added a touch of green later just to add visual interest.

I tried* to use a pattern on this, it was free online at this link: http://www.camelotcottons.com/files/file/free_projects/27.pdf

*By tried I mean I loosely followed the instructions... I'm not good at patterns.

I've also heard of this pattern as "spiderwebs" which smart people do as paper piecing.  If I were to do it again I would certainly consider the paper piecing approach because, as the image below illustrates, it's REALLY difficult to match 8 triangles into a single point!

The primary deviations from the pattern were the following:

-I resized the pattern to about 60% of the original since this is a smaller quilt (approx 45"x45")

-I didn't want the "flowers" to be cut in half along the borders, so I made additional templates as needed to have only complete flowers.

Here's the finished product!

My first Man-Quilt...

My best guy friend just turned 30.  I figured such a monumental birthday called for a serious gift, and thus, the "man-quilt" was born.

Man-Quilt Rule #1 - No pastels or frilly prints.

This quilt is for manly men.  They stand when they pee and think grilling meat brings them closer to God.  Pinks and flowers are not permitted.

Man-Quilt Rule #2 - No delicate, intricately pieced designs.

He's not going to "cuddle" with anything too dainty.  Also, this rule is kind to the quilter as it takes less time to piece.  This quilt is pretty big, at least in comparison to baby quilts (already gifted it, so I don't have the exact measurements but it was at least 60" by 100").  

Man-Quilt Rule #3 - No quarter-inches here!

Due to the unpredictable nature of these non-traditional (read: synthetic) fabrics, the seam allowances are all at least 3/8".

I've thought for years about making a quilt out of menswear fabrics (likely from watching too many episodes of Project Runway).  I frequently use black and white fabrics in my baby quilts, so this was a natural transition for my monochromatic brain.  

It's no secret that I'm "thrifty" when it comes to fabric, so I started by cutting the fabric into 3.5" strips and sewing them end to end.  Next I sewed together the 4 super long strips (one of each fabric) length-wise.  This was so long that when I ironed the seams I had to roll the fabric onto a tube to keep it from tangling.  The fabrics weren't consistent in width, so the seams were staggered throughout and aren't noticeable in the finished product.  Some quilters would scoff at this, but I just don't think quilting should be unnecessarily wasteful... 

The long pieced fabric strip is cut into right triangles (45-45-90 degrees), as seen in this lovely sketch:

There will be two visually different triangles (A and B).  Blocks are made by placing together the right angles (top of the pyramid) of four triangles.

The final layout alternates blocks of A and B triangles.

The top stitching was a combination of meandering and loosely rotated spiraling squares.  The spiraling squares can be seen here:

The back was a small white on black plaid with strips of the grey fabric along the sides to fit the width of the quilt front.  Binding was also the grey fabric.

Here's the finished product...