Patriotic 4th of July Quilt

I am building my collection of themed quilts. I got the idea of this quilt on Pinterest, although I did lay out the squares in a different pattern.

I bought the fabric from JoAnn's. They had a nice selection of patriotic fabrics.

Putting the blocks together was very simple. I sewed strips together and cut into the size of squares I needed.

I tried laying out the blocks in different patterns and liked the way it looked with the chevron.

Again, this was a very easy pattern to put together.

Here's the finished quilt top ready to take to the quilter.

I had my machine quilter make a firework pattern with a variegated red,white and blue thread on the back. The backing is a white star on white, so the quilting shows up prettily with the simple fabric. Below are the details.

So happy that this quilt is done and I'm excited to display it come July.

Valentine Quilt

The Valentine quilt is ready in time to enjoy for the month of February. I used the Moda Table for Two fabric with the Radio Way pattern. This was a quick and easy pattern to piece together. The framed rails are quilted with a heart pattern and the inside rails and long rails are quilted with a feathered pattern. My machine quilter was excited how it turned out and sent me a picture after she finished.

Below are details.

 

 Looks great on the wall...bright and festive to cheer up the room!

BYU No-Sew Fleece Blanket

I made the perfect Christmas gift for Mike last month. If anyone knows him, he's a fan of BYU football. I'd say he has a love/hate relationship with watching them play. So when Mike mentioned he would like a BYU blanket (I think he was a little jealous that I hadn't made him a blanket since I've made Ben and Levi quilts) I remembered that when I was in Texas last November I helped tie a blanket for my mom to give as a gift to my Uncle John.

Before making my Uncle John's blanket, I had only made a tied fleece quilt once before. It was tied making knots. The technique for Uncle John's and Mike's blanket was different because after cutting the strips, instead of tying them in a knot, a hole was cut in the top center of the strip in order to thread the strips through. I used a crochet hook to help pull it through. This reduces the amount of bulkiness around the edge.

It has been a cold winter so far and I'm happy to see that Mike uses is every time he gets a chance to settle down to watch a show!

Star Wars Jean Rag Quilt

Remember that pile of jeans? Here is the second quilt to come from all those jeans. This is the Star Wars Jean Rag Quilt. I had plans for doing plain red flannel backing with red bandannas for the star cutouts but when I saw the Star Wars and Millennium Falcon/X-Wing Fighter flannel fabrics I had to change my original idea. It was going to be perfect for a gift since the new Star Wars Force Awakens movie was coming out last month.

This was a fairly easy quilt to put together. Clipping the edges is the most time consuming portion of finishing the quilt. After clipping I tossed the quilt in the wash to achieve the ragged look. I had to stop the wash a few times to strain out the lint. This is important so that the lint doesn't get clogged in your pipes. Below are pictures of some of the details.

 

Circle Jean Quilt - The Picnic Quilt

I was so happy to make a quilt that used a lot of scraps. This wouldn't have been possible if my cousin, Ingrid, didn't give me a basket full of old jeans. I immediately went to work researching different jean quilts when I got the basket. 

When I determined the quilts I wanted to make I set out to sort and cut the jeans into the different sizes and made my piles. I think I'll get four quilts out of the stack.

I chose to make the circle jean quilt first. The jeans had to be starched before I cut the circles to help prevent stretching.

Once cut out, I drew lines to mark where I needed to sew. Then pinned the circles together.

Sewing the circles together went fairly quick.

In each circle I placed  a square of batting...

and then a square of fabric.

The layers were then sewn together along the circular flap.

Once completed the strips were sewn together.

I love how the jeans and the scraps of fabric turned out random.

This quilt will be used as our family picnic quilt...sturdy on the bottom and comfy on the top with the splash of vibrant colors.

Puffy Quilt - Baby Boy

Here is a baby boy puffy quilt I made for a friend. Another fun quilt to make.  However, it was a battle between me, the quilt and the sewing machine. My hands were a little thrashed after making this one, but I won since I finished this on time.

I'm planning on using a different technique the next time I make this style of quilt. This quilt (as the previous one also) was stuffed after each strip was sewn together. The other technique is to sew all squares and strips together and then making a slit in the backing to stuff the blocks. After stuffing, the squares would be stitched closed. It would be a bit more time consuming, but it might be easier on my hands.

Compression Quilt Hanger

The compression hanger to display my quilts is finished! I love finishing projects! I found the tutorial on Pintrest to make it myself. In the amount it would have cost me to buy the hanger somewhere else completed, I was able to do it in less than half.

Here are some pictures of the supplies I used: decorative trim, cabinet knobs with screws, sand paper, wood stain and polyurethane (thanks to Donna for lending me). Not shown is my drill and paint brushes used. I did have to buy countersink drill bits so that I could sink the screws into the wood so they would stick out and make holes in the wall. I made sure to use gloves when staining; even then I got stain on my fingers that took a day to completely wash off.

Below is the test run to make sure the hanger would hold the quilt and the screws matched up in the right place.

The final part was sandwiching the quilt into the hanger and leveling it on the wall. I used 3M command strips instead of picture hooks because it gives me the flexibility to place the hanger higher or lower on the wall depending on the quilt size. I'm excited to get holiday themed quilts made so I can display them for each season!

Acacia "Raccoon" Quilt

I love this collection of fabric, Tula Pink's Acacia. The colors and the patterns are bright and happy! Can you find the raccoons? Details are pictured below. I had my machine quilter sew a simple pattern so it wouldn't distract from the busy fabric. I will be snuggling into this quilt for the winter.