Bright log cabin baby quilt

A former colleague commissioned a quilt for her fourth baby, due in early January. I made eight placemats for her a couple of years ago, and those were bright too. She loves wonky quilts, and her whole house is painted in bright, vivid, tasteful colors.

Baby #4 will share a room with his big brother, which is painted in lovely shades of orange and blue.

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I sent a photo of the first log cabin block I finished for this project to Heidi for approval. She said "I think it is lovely. Brighter the better. :)" I got the message and set that one aside! I did not have many bright fabrics in my stash, so I stopped at Joann's and picked up several fat quarters in brights. The next try was a winner.

Then I had to get even more brights, solids this time, for the back, which is one big log cabin block.

back

There is a little black and white center of each block that you'll see if you look closely. I decided to bind the quilt in this black and white dot from Joann's.

Besides the new brights from Joann's, I had a few other new fabrics on hand
as well as scraps from friends and my own projects.
There are a few thrift shirts also.

I couldn't be happier with the result. The mama says she is in love with it.

Finished quilt measures 44" x 59"
Machine pieced and quilted every 2 1/2"

A scrappy baby girl quilt

Well this is probably my favorite quilt yet. The process from beginning to end was blissful.

A friend commissioned this quilt for her brother's first baby. She is the same friend who commissioned wonky Mother Goose log cabin baby quilt for her friend's baby, below:

Quilt for Adelaide, made about a year ago

I kick myself that I didn't take photos on the weekend, before washing the quilt, because I ended up having to take pictures in artificial light. Except for this first one below, of the binding, made with Alisse Courter fabric.

In this closeup you can see the Sujata Shah wonky flying geese;
also, the half square triangle blocks were pieced by stash sister Nancy's former daughter-in-law

The parents like owls ... apparently ..

There are scraps from every which source ...

.. scraps from thrift clothes, from a special friend's stash,
from Nancy, from a quilter who sold me her stash before moving to Switzerland ...

scraps from my dear friend Susie .. 

.. scraps from my old vintage stash ..

I just had to document every square inch. As I quilted over each inch of this I enjoyed it more than I can express. I wish I could have kept it. I hope Eveyln and her parents will love it.

"ships & sails" baby boy quilt finished and listed

This has been a fun project. The strips of stripes (from a dust ruffle) were narrow, and I enjoyed letting that guide the design.

I've had the anchor fabric forever (from Nancy?) and felt happy and relieved to finally use it, for the backing.

The triangles are from my old stash, and from Nancy's old stash. Some are left from pillows she made for her beach lodge condo.

The quilt measures 39" x 48"

all cotton

cotton batting

machine pieced and quilted

Etsy listing here

stash placemats and a baby boy quilt "ships & sails"

Stuff for Etsy. Placemats from my stash, which is big enough (thanks to Nancy) to create a thousand combinations.

The pink and yellow polka dot is left over from Casey's "sugar sand" baby quilt. Some of these fabrics I've had since the 1980s, some I've bought more recently, and some have been given me by my stash sister Nancy. There is even fabric from my mom's old doilies, the ones I made coasters with.

* * *

This blue and white stripe was a dust ruffle. I am trying to remember if we used it in one of our houses or if Nancy gave me this too. Besides that fabric, many of these triangles (flying geese) were fabrics she gave me which are shirting. I have always loved quilts made from shirts. Anyway, this will be a baby boy quilt to [hopefully] sell in my Etsy shoppe. I've quilted one small section. I think I'll straight-line quilt the triangles and free-motion quilt the other panels in swirls to resemble wind and waves. The quilt is called "ships & sails," which rhymes with "snips and snails and puppy dog tails." I'll post when finished.

"sugar sand" finished

I am pleased with how "sugar sand" turned out. It was an exercise in minimalism, something that does not come naturally to me, as much as I appreciate and love it.

If it had not been for the colors the mom-to-be favors for her baby girl due in June, I'm not sure I would have ever made a quilt with hot pink and yellow. But I really like it.

I machine quilted in the ditch.

And now that it's done, we're off for a walk on this glorious day!

Sugar Sand top finished

For my great-niece whose baby girl is due in June.

She lives on a dune near Lake Michigan. So I used one of my favorites, a light brown linen that looks like sand[paper] with her favorite baby colors hot pink and yellow. The sand along Lake Michigan is so beautiful they call it "sugar sand."

Hanging next to it is the backing fabric. Many of the fabrics are from my stash sister Nancy, including the framing fabric with pink leaves (which I love!). Nancy loves pink, so she gave me tubfuls. I purchased the ones with pink and yellow combined. I must say I like this combination.

So much fuzz and fabric dust

I really love this book. I was inspired for this quilt by Jacquie Gering's alternate grid Scandia Crush (second photo below), using variable framing. The idea is to "float" the blocks in various positions within blocks. It was a very pleasant, creative, improvisational process.