From baby book panel to quilt.

Time for a baby boy quilt! I had some Life in the Jungle alphabet book panels in my stash, but wanted to make a quilt out of one of them instead. I followed the order of the letters on the fabric designer's pages and came up with this layout.  A bit of a meandering effect I think.

The Lorax fabrics are organic and amazingly soft and easy to sew with. The Textures fabric in the center is such a beautiful grey.

Converting the panel from book layout to quilt form was surprisingly easy. Looking forward to trying it again. :) So many ways to quilt this one! I kept it simple with triple machine stitched rows.

So many fresh and fun baby fabrics to choose from these days!

Keeping it Fresh

Another baby quilt has been in the works. Fresh pinks, green chevron, bright yellow, turquoise, and a little bit of black for contrast. Dena Designs has some of the most beautiful fabric for girls and their nurseries. I've been waiting to use some of her jelly rolls and the time was right.

I added some Aneela Hoey's sherbet pips and Alexander Henry's Shoopping Bags for fun. The back could be another quilt in itself! I think my kids would have loved to wrap themselves up with a Suess book.

I rotated the back, so I could still do some simple quick machine quilting along the strips on the front. I didn't want the story lines of Cat in the Hat to become unreadable with too much quilting.

Happy Monday!

Storing A Favorite Quilting Tool

I've got many favorite quilting and sewing tools. This one is my current favorite! I like to press seams open and my flat iron does an excellent job pressing seams as I go along. I first talked about it in this post, http://rosecoloredquilts.blogspot.com/2013/07/my-new-favorite-tool.html

Today I wanted to show how I store and use it at my sewing table.

The iron is long and the metal bucket from the $1 bin kept tipping over. So I use a mug inside of the bucket for weight. I think a crock or pitcher would work too. Didn't want to scorch my table.

The flat iron heats up very quickly. Great temperature control too for more delicate fabrics. With this size iron I'm able to press up to 12" block. I've been using it for half square triangles, sewing squares, rectangles, and even more free form pieces. Today I'm using it for another WIP. 

Ahoy there! Here comes another babe.

I never get tired of making baby quilts. Making a nautical one is just icing on the cake! Baby Will was on the way and I jumped at the chance to make a signal flag quilt with his name front and center. With only four letters needed, it would be a synch to design.

Sarah Jane Studios has some of the best children's fabrics. Out To Sea map fabric? Perfect! Found some Going Coastal Bottle Caps in my stash to add as well.

Marking my quilting lines with an Omnigrid ruler. Since Will has two L's, I framed each letter some chevron.

My handy dandy wavy edge ruler for more quilting lines.

Ready for binding! Picked Castle Peeps by Lizzy House and some more Out To Sea for the back.

Now, let's go paddle!

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raren2sew's photostream on Flickr.

Tee-Niny

Being tee-niny is an old southern expression. It's all about being small, tiny, and usually cute. At least that's the way I think of it. And the way I remember my mother and grandmother using here in the sweet south. I've always been drawn to creating and collecting tee-niny art pieces and quilts. This one is for my sister. She's battling breast cancer and is beating it down with courage and strength and plenty of laughter!! I would hope to be that brave if that's where my life took me. I made her a lap quilt in the hopes it would wrap her in love and comfort during her treatments. Called it Save the Hooters and here's a miniature version, framed for keeps! 

Hang in there Sis. We're all still praying and hootin' for you! XOXO, Rose

Mom sent me two of these foundation pieces she never used. They came in the mail on a day I could really use a quick project like this one! She must have bought them while visiting us out on the Oregon coast. That was our second duty station for this Coast Guard family. What a beautiful place!

Of course I knew exactly what I wanted to use one of them for. Thanks for keeping them Mother! :) And muslin, you're so much better than paper piecing. Have to remember that. You can see the larger lap quilt on my Flikr page.