Sail Away: Kiddo quilt finished

Happy end of the week, everyone!  The sail boat quilt I started a couple weeks ago has been finished and gifted to its new owners.

This quilt is based on one I saw here at Blue Elephant Stitches.  So simple, just half square triangles, but so cute!  This design is great for featuring novelty kid fabrics and there is so much you could do with it.  A simple blue and white two-color version of this quilt would look classic and more mature for an older child.  You could change the arrangement of the sails on each boat and/or change the layout of the boats themselves to change the look of the quilt.

I was initially planning to do some sort of all over design on this but then got the idea to outline each boat in it's corresponding thread color.  Ideally I was imagining some of that chunky embroidery-thread hand quilting that's been all the rage lately; it would have looked wonderful against that natural linen. Realistically, though, I knew that if I did that it would take me months to get it done.

Instead of doing the hand quilting I went ahead with the machine, using my walking foot as a guide to outline the boats in their matching colors.  I used a cream thread to fill in a little echo quilting in the open spaces and called it a day.

I am really a fan of less is more when it comes to quilting.  Minimal quilting keep the quilt soft is flexible.  Of course that works out well for me since I generally prefer piecing to quilting and would rather devote less time to quilting :)

I bound it in red, which goes perfectly with the backing.  The backing may be of this one may be my favorite part of the entire quilt.  I decided to do a pieced back of 12" blocks of aqua, loosely water-themed fabrics.

From novelty pirate-themed fabrics to (my favorite) a slice of Tula Pink's Salt Water collection.

Of course I also included the embroidered label (if you missed the details about what it says you can read more here.)  This was where I made use of the bonus triangles I got from doing to boat hulls on the front.

The quilt finished at about 60" x 50" (I had to work to keep it throw sized and not let it grow too big).
It was wonderfully well received with strict instructions that it must be used, not put away.  I even made the background neutral linen rather than white to make it stain resistant. It has already been snuggled by little boys :)

Linking up to Finish it Friday!

Sailing Along: WIP Progress

Two days off is barely enough time to recover before I am back to work. I spent the entire day Monday napping and still went to bed at 10! Despite spending much of my "weekend"asleep, I did manage to assemble the "Sail Away" quilt top this afternoon.

I elected to go without borders or corner-stones because the top was becoming larger than I wanted. Instead I just sashed it with more of the same natural-colored linen and used the HSTs on the back.  I have an embroidered panel for the back (detail of the embroidery in this post), so I made the HSTs into a border for it.  Worked out perfect!

I have the weekend off coming up, so hopefully I can get this basted by Monday.

 Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

Sail Away on the Design Wall

Well, it's Monday again. Feels like Saturday to me since I worked all weekend. I can't wait to get busy putting this top together! I made these blocks last week based on a quilt I saw at Blue Elephant Stitches. The blocks need to be trimmed up and sashed and then I will need to settle on a border option to make use of my bonus HSTs :)

Happy Sewing! I am linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

What I did on my day off...

Tomorrow starts a 3-day weekend of 12-hour shifts, so I had a long list of things I wanted to get to today before I headed back to work.  I have plenty of UFOs that need to be worked on, so what did I do? Started a new project, naturally!!

Chain piecing like the wind!

I decided to make a throw quilt based on this one at Blue Elephant Stitches.  The biggest change I made was to make the boat's hull out of one piece so that I could showcase some novelty fabrics.  These cute little sail boats will be perfect for two little boys :)

Brights fabric selections

I selected my fabrics and cut them last night.  I went with my usual method of making two HSTs at a time by cutting squares and sewing on either side of the center diagonal. (Method #2 here.)  Making the hull pieces yielded 2 bonus HSTs per boat. I am thinking about using these as corner stones in the sashing, or else on the back.

Hulls and HSTs

Each boat gets 6 little HST sails.

Lots of sewing, pressing, and cutting and at the end of the day I have a stack of 16 cute little boats!

Can't wait until Monday when I can get back to work on this one. I have promised myself that this will not become another UFO :/

Yesterday was my last day at the job I've had for over 2 years at the embroidery shop.  I took the opportunity to make a few more embroidered panels for quilt backs.  These feature a poem that's been on the side of our refrigerator my whole life.  I made 5 in various colors.

"Cleaning and scrubbing

can wait 'til tomorrow

for babies grow up

we've learned to our sorrow

So quiet down cobwebs

dust go to sleep

I'm rocking my baby

and babies don't keep" 
 

Wilson had a rough day

Speaking of babies, Wilson had a rough day. (His least favorite parts by far were my attempts to give him Benadryl.) I think he got stung by a wasp or a bee; his face was swollen up like a chipmunk. I was worried about his breathing with so much swelling around his airway, especially since he is always so congested with his allergies already and gets winded easily.

a better picture of the swelling

Fortunately, he seems to be fine and by dinner the swelling had started to go down.   So the kitty is well, the laundry is done, a new project is well on its way and I guess everything is ready for me to go back to work tomorrow :)