LOVE Mini Quilt

Hooray! A last-minute finish for Friday! 

My LOVE mini quilt is finished & hanging on our wall. I finished sewing the binding on tonight while watching an episode of Call the Midwife, then got it up on the wall right after that! 

I really debated about the binding. White was not my first thought - I was leaning toward a navy or grey print. But after auditioning a few, nothing struck me. And the walls of our room are a blue-grey, and the fabrics that I sort of liked for the quilt seemed to clash with the walls. So, white it is, and I'm hoping I don't regret it.

I followed the suggestion of the tutorial on Sew Mama Sew and hand quilted 1/4" from all of the letters, but I just used white perle cotton instead of a color to match each letter. It adds just a little texture.

Other than deliberating for a while over the binding fabric, this was a quick, fun project! I think we'll enjoy this new addition to our walls. Happy Friday!

Linking up to crazy mom quilts and My Quilt Infatuation.

Why Hello, February!

Since it's February, I wanted to share my current favorite WIP - a LOVE mini quilt.

I have been eyeing this little mini quilt from Sew Mama Sew for quite some time. It's a simple paper-pieced pattern, but is quite fun to put together! It definitely has a Valentine's Day feel to it (and could be even more so with different colors), but I'm hoping it will have a permanent home on one of my bedroom walls. Our master bedroom could use a little sprucing up.

I'm trying to keep it a secret from my husband, so progress is a little slow. (I really like surprises, both giving & receiving them!) The plan is to start the quilting tomorrow and hopefully have it finished by Friday. So... check back on Friday to see the finished quilt!

For some more love-themed quilty fun, check out Sew Cute Tuesday over at Blossom Heart Quilts. I'm also linking up at Lily's Quilts for her Fresh Sewing Day & Small Blog Meet. If you're visiting from one of those sites, thanks for stopping by!

And if you enjoy book recommendations, check back tomorrow to see what I've been reading this year.

Anna's Quilt

First off, Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas & a great start to 2015! It seems like every year things slow down enough at the beginning of the year that I'm able to find time to blog.

My mom has a tradition of making quilts for all of her grandbabies. Mom has given each of my two kids a quilt for their first Christmas. These are so special to me - I know all of the love that goes into making them!

Here's Anna opening her quilt, with a little help from me. BeBe & PopPop are looking on. 

Maybe she'll be a future quilter? :) Mom asked me to help pick the fabrics & pattern for this quilt, so that was really fun! It's based off the Little Wheels quilt from Blue Elephant Stitches.

Mom made her quilt a good bit larger than a baby quilt so that she'll be able to use it for a while. Also, I'm realizing now I don't have a picture of the quilt by itself. 

Thanks, Mom, for such a special quilt for Anna!

Vintage Quilt Progress

I'm excited to share some progress on my Vintage quilt! Six of the 12 blocks are completed, and I'm really liking the way it's looking.

Blocks all laid out on my design... floor. :)

Thanks for all of the encouragement when I mentioned I wasn't sure that I would like the solids. It's been fun so far.

 Two blocks are finished in Kona Caribbean...

 ...two in Kona Aqua....

 ...and two in Kona Pool.

My favorite color keeps changing to whichever block I just finished. :)

Oh - and I recently joined Instagram! I'd love for you to join me over there, or subscribe to Homemade Engineer with Bloglovin' or Feedly (or see the other options on the sidebar). Thanks for stopping by!

Linking up at WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, and Pretty Bobbins.

WIP Wednesday: Grannies Galore

Hello and happy Wednesday!

My Christmas quilt finish has really motivated me to work on some old works-in-progress. This week I managed to finish two more blocks for my scrappy granny square quilt, bringing the total block count up to 7! Woohoo - only two more to go!

And I finished the first block of my Vintage quilt from Simply Retro. Guess I wasn't really thinking that I was already in the middle of one granny square quilt when I decided to start this one... oh well! 

First block out of Kona Pool

I'm having a few doubts about this quilt already and I've barely started out. First off, this is one HUGE block! It finishes at 20" square, which I know is big, but it looks so much bigger actually sewn up. I'm also questioning my plan to make it out of all solids. I think I'll like it - it's just a little different for me!

What have you been working on this week? Head on over to Freshly Pieced to see some more works-in-progress!

Next Up

These lovely solids arrived in the mail last week & I can't wait to cut into them! I'm planning to make the Vintage quilt from Camille Roskelley's book, Simply Retro. (I LOVE this book, by the way!) Guess I can't get enough of granny squares. 

In order from left to right, these are Kona colors: Oasis, Sage, Caribbean, Aqua, Turquoise, Pomegranate, and Pool. I don't have a Kona color card, so I was scanning different websites, trying to find good shades of blue-green, and unfortunately ended up with three that look awfully similar:

The finished quilt has 12 blocks, so my plan is to make 11 of the blocks in the blues, with one block of Pomegranate. Right now I'm thinking I'll pull out the Oasis and hunt down one more shade of blue - maybe a really dark turquoise. So, the colors I *think* I'm using are these: 

Excited to start this next project - I'll keep you posted on progress! Oh, and if you want to see some lovely examples of finished Vintage quilts, check out this link party hosted by Jana.

Christmas in... August

So excited to share a finish with you! It may be August, but I finally finished my Christmas quilt!!

This Christmas quilt has been in the works for a ridiculously long time... I don't actually remember how long. Two years? Three? I decided last Christmas that I wanted to finish it in the middle of the year sometime... not even remotely close to Christmas. There's always enough going on at Christmas without trying to squeeze in one more project.

The fabric came from Connecting Threads several years ago, and the pattern is Small Plates from Elizabeth Hartman's book The Practical Guide to Patchwork.

This was my first "big" quilt finish. I've only completed baby quilts thus far... although I have a couple other big quilts in progress. Finishing this has definitely motivated me to work on the others, though! I was a little intimidated by a bigger-than-baby quilt, but it was fine.

I quilted it with straight lines 1/4" on either side of the main seams. I'm pretty partial to straight line quilting - I just really like how it looks. Also, I spray basted it (with Mom's help). It was the first time either of us had ever spray basted (and Mom has made TONS of quilts), and I'm a big fan now. I thought the spray basting was much easier than pin basting, plus it was SOO nice to quilt it without worrying about removing all those pins. And, I'm super pleased with how it turned out - there are a few small puckers after quilting, but I think it would have been worse with pin basting (for me, at least).

One quick note about the backing - when I ordered this fabric from Connecting Threads, it was on clearance. I couldn't find coordinating fabrics with enough yardage to make the backing, so I just got two completely different Christmas fabrics. Soo, when I picked this project back up this summer I was no longer thrilled with my backing choice, but I decided to go with it anyway since I already had the fabric. I ended up being okay with it once it was quilted, though. My tastes in fabric have changed quite a bit, and I'm learning so much about sewing and quilting that I'm content to consider this just another learning experience.

Oh, and a name...I'm {obviously} new to this naming-your-quilt thing, but for now I believe I'll call it A Square Christmas. Feel free to leave more creative ideas in the comments!

Looking forward to snuggling with this quilt in December!

Linking up with Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation and Finish It Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts.

WIP Wednesday

I decided to join in the fun over at Freshly Pieced for today's Works in Progress Wednesday! I've already shared about the beginnings of a granny square quilt, and here's an updated shot of the 5 blocks I've made thus far.

This is a much older WIP. I bought the fabric for this Christmas quilt 2 years ago, did most of the piecing about a year ago, and have left it sitting in the closet ever since. I'm determined that it WILL be finished for this Christmas, so putting it up here will hopefully keep me accountable!

I also have another super-fun WIP but I can't tell you about it yet!! Ahh, so hard to keep fun projects a secret.  I better not say too much more... but I'm super excited with how it's looking!

Finished Baby Love Quilt!

It's finished! The quilt top I showed you in this post is now a finished baby quilt. It measures 36" x 36" and I love it! Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions for how I should quilt it... I ended up doing a square spiral. (Does that even make sense?) These pictures are a little over-exposed, as I still have lots to learn about how to take good quilt pictures, but hopefully you can sort of see the quilting.

 This backing fabric is so much fun. All the fabric is from the Riley Blake line "Boy Crazy". 

As I mentioned in my post about the quilt top, this pattern came from Camille Roskelley's book, Simply Retro. Well that's it for today - Happy Friday!! 

a little progress on a GIANT churn dash + question

This weekend's project was piecing this fun giant churn dash for a baby quilt top.

The pattern came from Camille Roskelley's latest book Simply Retro, although it would be relatively simple to turn any of your favorite quilt blocks into one giant block that's perfect for a baby quilt. I loved how quickly this quilt top came together & can't wait to finish it!

The fabric I have for the backing is my favorite of the four fabrics I picked for this quilt. Looking forward to showing you, but I'll wait until the quilt is finished. You'll just have to check back to see!

Question: How would you quilt this? I'm considering zig-zag quilting (as shown in Simply Retro), a big spiral, or possibly concentric squares. What's your pick? Any other ideas?

And if you're stopping by from Plum & June's Let's Get Acquainted Link Up, thanks for checking in! I hope you'll take a look around & come back soon!

Beginnings of a Granny Square Quilt

Sometimes, I just get bogged down in my current sewing projects. Progress is slow, and I'm a little burnt out. So, what else to do but start a new project?

Sometimes something new, fun, and uncomplicated is what I need. Since I've been eyeing this amazing Granny Square quilt from Blue Elephant Stitches, I figured sewing up a block would be good medicine.

I'm pretty pleased with block #1! Didn't intend for those two flowered blocks to end up right next to each other, but it still makes me happy. :)

Then last week while visiting my mom, she let me cut lots of 2.5" squares from her scrap stash! I love poking through Mom's fabric!!

Here's block #2 all ready to go:

What's the plan for these fun blocks, you ask? Why, I think they would make a sweet little baby quilt. At least that's the plan for now, unless I'm not able to stop with just 9 blocks!

Susanna Cate's Quilt

As I explained in this post, I haven't been sewing consistently for very long. And for quilting... I'm even more of a novice. I've finished 2 {baby} quilts, a practice quilt for my dog, and a tablerunner. That's it. But, the engineer in me really loves quilting! Why not - the more precise I am, the better the quilt turns out. So great to have a way for meticulousness to merge with creativity for a fun finished product!

One of those two finished quilts was for my newest niece, born this past November. It's featured in my header and I love it! I've had a few requests to see the whole thing... so here it is.

I used this Charming Lucy quilt pattern from A Bright Corner featuring a Tradewinds charm pack. I didn't really plan for this, but the fabric matches my sweet niece's nursery. Bonus!

I attempted free motion quilting for the first time in a loop-de-loop pattern. It definitely got better as I went.

Anyway, I'm hooked. There will certainly be more quilts to come.