Pink Lemonade Finish

Pink and yellow together really do make me think "Pink Lemonade."  I quilted a simple cross hatch through the quadrants.  Are they quadrants if there are 9 of them?

Add some bubblegum pink binding and how cute is this?  There is a daisy quilted in the very center, and I tried to free motion a leaf on each corner.  I need to practice free motion quilting for sure, but this was fun.

The backing is the same daisy fabric as the center square on the front.  It finishes out roughly at 24 x 24.  I haven't washed it yet though, so that might tighten it up a bit.

I did list it for sale on the Etsy site, and you can find it here if you just can't live without it!  I think it would make a sweet dolly quilt for a little girl.  I love scrappy layouts in other quilter's work, but I have a hard time committing when I'm putting something together.  This turned out even better than I expected.

Rack 'em up!

The Daisy Chain lap quilt is finally finished and has been duly tested several evenings in a row on the couch.  Here it is on a quilt rack that my mom purchased for me ages ago.  I wish she could see the rack with my own quilt on it.   

This is my first quilt, so please gently ignore any crooked seams or things you would have done differently.  This was the brightest room in the house today, so would you please also excuse the presentation on the doors of my fabric stash cabinet!?!? I couldn't bear to put it on the floor just yet for a full photo shoot.  How silly is that?  Here's the front:

And the back:

It completely slipped my mind to make a label, so I intend to embroider the details or applique a label soon.  I love the large panel in the back.  It's visually soothing compared to the front.  I just read a great blog post by Julie of Jayburd Quilts over on the Robert Kaufman blog.  She shared some wonderful photos of her quilt backs and opened the discussion to ask how people like to prepare their backs.  Since this is a lap quilt which will live on my couch and get lots of use, I didn't want the back to be scrappy or seem unplanned.  The math was easy to figure out with one large leftover bit and a frame of white.  The wide binding was a way to fix an error that happened during quilting.  Ooops - the cat is out of the bag now!

Not bad for a first try!  I'd like to do a coordinating pillow cover for a throw pillow, and then my next project is a narrow quilt to fit on the backseat of my car for Katie's travels.  Let's be honest, its to protect the backseat upholstery from muddy, leafy, dirty, detritis-filled paws!



Happy stitching!



Daisy Chain

I had my own little Friday night sewing session and I am a happy girl.  True confession time: I have never finished an actual quilt.  Mostly I have made applique blocks and a few pieced blocks, and lots of small sewing projects but when it comes to coordinating fabrics and picking a pattern, I stumble around and never accomplish anything.  I buy alot of fabric, but I've never committed to a quilt.  A while ago I bought a set of 5 inch fabric charms from Amy Butler's Daisy Chain line in the blues, but its not a pre-made charm pack.  A seller on eBay (Material Girl Chic) groups about 8 different fabrics and you get 5 of each.  I love her kits!  I have the hardest time choosing which fabrics go together well, even from a single line, let alone a whole shop full of choices.  Her well designed kits make it super easy.

So I purchased the set of Daisy Chain in blues, and decided to start easy.  Since there were 5 of each pattern, I just lined them up on my design wall (aka flannel pinned to the wall) and decided to do white sashing.  Simple, pleasing to the eye, and hopefully not too much of a challenge for my first finished quilt.  Once I got the math figured out for the size I wanted, I realized that I needed 6 charms in some fabrics and had to shop.  Shucks, I had to shop. ;)  I picked out the fabrics that I needed for the extra charms, for an inner border, for the binding and for an interesting back.

I started chain piecing and I plugged away for a good hour or so, until I needed to rip out one seam.

I fixed my seam and quit for the night, with 5 of my 8 rows all ready for the next set of sashing.  I'm using white Moda muslin for the sashing because I have alot on hand. Can you tell which rows are sewn together? 

I can't wait till Sunday afternoon when I can go at it again!