Big Finish: Plus Quilt

My recent finish was this Plus Quilt, commissioned for friend Lily's 1st birthday.  You can see my first post about this project here.  It's a twin size (approx. 65 x 90 in) and possibly the largest quilt I've made to date.

The fabric is Hot Chocolate by Jacqueline Savage Mcfee, purchased from Hawthorne Threads. For the back, I used a large dot print, with a pieced insert to get the desired length.  Despite some trouble with my basting process, the dots on the back are surprisingly straight.

Because of the size of the pieces, quilting this was tricky, and I ended up mixing techniques. First I hand-quilted inside each plus sign using #8 perle cotton (pink and white). Then I stitched in the ditch of each horizontal seam. Left with some spaces that were still too large to leave unsecured, I added a tie in the center of each block. (Thanks Mom, for helping with those ties while I finished the embroidered label!)

Lily's grandmother requested the label below.  I made a similar label for Lily's Raw Edge Circle Quilt and still had the font saved on my computer, so that's a nice link between the two quilts from Lily's grandparents.

 

The timing worked out perfectly and I was able to deliver this quilt in person to Lily, her mom, and her Gigi.  I hope it will be well-loved and used for many years to come.

 

 



 

 

Big Finishes: More Chenille Blankets

Picture-heavy post, folks.

I recently finished two more chenille blankets for baby gifts.  The first one I made late last year was paisley with orange, red, and yellow chenille -- check it out here.  For blanket #2, I used a blue floral print (Momo for Moda) with blue, green, and turquoise flannel for the chenille.

Blanket basted and sewing lines (1/2 inch apart) in progress.

Tension reliever -- slicing through the flannel layers. The slash cutter is essential for this blanket.

After being washed and dried, the flannel edges curl up into chenille.  I was happy with this result and the pop of turquoise.  These blankets are a bit of a risk -- it's really hard to envision the finished chenille, so it's always a surprise to see what comes out of the dryer.  This blanket went to my friend who is expecting a little girl.

  

The binding is a DS Quilts print from Jo-Ann
 

Blanket #3 is a chevron print and chenille that reminds me of ribbon candy.  I ordered the chevron from Fabric.com and selected red, aqua, and white flannel for the chenille.  This blanket now belongs to my cousin, who's also expecting a girl soon.

This binding is also a DS Quilts print.  It's the perfect tomato red, and I like that the little slashes mimic the sharpness of the chevron.

Birthday Cupcakes for a Yarn Enthusiast

My dear friend was nice enough to surprise me with these amazingly decorated cupcakes for my birthday last month.  It's yarn!  In frosting!  On cupcakes!  With chocolate needles!

The design/instructions are from the book What's New, Cupcake?. You've probably seen the book, or the first one by the same authors, Hello, Cupcake! It's one thing to admire the designs and think, "Some day, I'll give those a try," knowing full well that you're being optimistic and those gorgeous cupcakes will never materialize. It's another thing entirely to create them -- and do such a great job of it! (Oh, and that's while knowing that you won't be eating said cupcakes because you're in the throes of gestational diabetes. My poor, selfless friend.)

These were a great birthday surprise, and they were almost too pretty to eat.  Almost.

Best Wonton Soup

If you are sitting through a rainy spring day and just want something to warm your bones, try this great Wonton Soup recipe for dinner.  I made it this weekend and it just hit the spot. Don't be intimidated, the wontons are easy to assemble and yummy.

Filling
1/2 lb ground pork
1 green onion, diced
2 Tb. soy sauce
2 tsp. corn starch
Dash of pepper

Broth
2 boxes of chicken stock (approx 4 cups)
Sliced mushrooms (as much or as little as you like)
3 green onions, diced
3 Tb. soy sauce or to taste
1 Tb. seasame oil
1/2-1 tsp. ground ginger, depending on preference

Wontons
1 package store-bought wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten

Steps

1. Mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl and set aside
2. Mix all the broth ingredients together in a saucepan and keep warm on medium-low
3. In a second saucepan, start 4-5 cups boiling while you assemble the wontons.
4. To assemble the wontons, put about a 1/2 tsp filling in each wonton and seal with egg wash. I would recommend you watch this how-to video on wonton assembly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsDOWCyf3tc.
5. Drop the wontons in the boiling water and cook until they float. With a slotted spoon, make sure the wonton wrappers are not sticking to the bottom of your pan. Then, add 1/2 cup of water, and let reboil. Once the water is boiling again, scoop the wontons out of the water and add them to the broth.

I personally like more wonton and less broth (see picture) but this recipe should provide you broth lovers with enough out there if you want more.

Fabric Scrap Cards

I've been making these fabric scrap cards for birthdays, after getting tired of spending money on store-bought cards and not always being in the mood to get out all my paper cardmaking supplies.  With a container of small fabric scraps and a stack of blank cards, they're fun to make!

 

I put an old needle in my sewing machine so that I'm not ruining a good one by stitching through the cardstock.  Any color thread works, too.

 

These pennants are one of my favorites.  It's really satisfying to use such tiny scraps and make something cute.

 

 

Before stitching around the scraps, it helps to use a little dab of a glue stick to hold them in place.

Sneak Peek: Plus Quilt

It was a good mail week when I received this selection of fabrics from Jacqueline Savage Mcfee's line Hot Chocolate.  It was all I could do not to cut into them immediately -- had to snap a few pictures first.  I'm using these to make a commission project, and my "client" picked the fabric line.  Talk about good taste!  I picked the eight prints above for the front.

The large dots will be the quilt back, and I'll turn the stripe into bias binding.  When I saw the fabric online, I knew that I wanted to use a pattern that let the prints and colors shine and didn't chop them up into lots of small pieces.  I turned to my Pinterest board and picked a plus sign design -- simple, but bold.

The quilt will be twin size (approx. 65x90), which is larger than I typically make, so I decided to make things easier by increasing my block size a bit.  The single squares will be 5" finished.

After a couple of hours of cutting, I used my sketch and design wall to start the layout.  Right now, I have 8 or 9 rows assembled, and it's coming together nice and fast.  I'm happy with how the design and fabrics are working together.

Stay tuned for more progress reports on this Plus Quilt...

Big Finish: Chenille Blanket for Baby

 

Last summer I bought this paisley cotton twill and three colors of coordinating flannel solids at my local Hancock Fabrics with the intention of making the Heirloom Cut Chenille Baby Blanket from Aesthetic Nest.  The stack of fabric sat around my sewing room for a while as I worked on other projects.  Then I found out that a friend and fellow quilter was expecting her first baby, and when Baby was revealed to be a girl, I decided to finally make the blanket and give it as a baby gift. 

 

The lesson I learned with this particular type of blanket is that the flannel on the top of the stack is the one that you will see the most of after it frays and crinkles up in the wash.  I used red, yellow, and orange in that order from bottom to top, so the finished look is very orange.  I probably would have changed that and put the yellow on top for a softer look, and it's a lesson learned for next time.

The tutorial uses satin blanket binding and mentions double fold bias tape as another option.  I bought premade bias tape but found that the fabric was too sheer and the paisley print showed through.  So instead I pulled this Joel Dewberry stripe from my stash and made my own bias binding instead.  The process of creating bias binding is definitely not my favorite, but the results are worth it, and I'm glad I went this route.

This blanket was a big hit.  My friend seemed to really like it, and other gals at the baby shower were asking how I'd done it and wanting to see it up close.  The chenille gives it a nice weight and cushion, so it's suitable for use as a warm blanket or for playtime on the floor.  My friend welcomed her baby just a couple of days ago, and I look forward to seeing her on this bright, colorful blanket.

Here's the cotton twill and flannels I'll be using on my next go-around: