May Blocks for the LDQB

For May’s block, Evelyn asked for any blocks that might go with a cabin in the woods theme. She didn’t mind traditional or free-pieced blocks. I decided to try to make her a campfire with some awesome fabric scraps I found in my local quiltshop’s scrap bucket.

campfire or bonfire?

It didn’t turn out quite how I envisioned. It turns out, fire is HARD. I sent her a pic of it, and she said she liked it, but just in case it clashes with the rest of the blocks she will receive, I made her a maple leaf too.

Then, because I found some really cute Christmas elves fabric, I made another present block to send along to Lisa (Evelyn’s daughter). I couldn’t resist. I was able to mail them all in the same envelope which made it easy.

Long Distance Quilting Bee 2012 Quilt, Compiled

Jars on shelves.

My mom recently came to visit, and while she was here she helped me manage to get the shelves onto the strips of jars that I’ve had sewn for over a year now. This past week I was able to get the background onto the shelves to give it more perspective. I like how the legs turned out. Now I’ve just got to get some background fabric picked out, and I can finally be caught up with swap block quilts!

Girlie Giftbox Quilt

I love this quilt pattern by Kate Spain. I had a bunch of leftover Riley Blake scraps from the 9-patch blankets I made for my friend, and decided to make a cute little girl’s quilt using chevrons, stripes, and dots.  Some of the scraps were a bit on the short side, so I’ve got some short presents here to mix it up. I think they turned out cute, and it adds interest to the overall quilt.

I made the binding out of more scraps, and I love how it is variegated. I sewed it onto one side with the machine, and then my mom hand-stitched it down on the other. I had it quilted on a local long-arm quilting machine. I love how it turned out.

There are so many fun color combinations in here, I have found myself more than once just staring at it, a little bit awed that I could create something so bright, colorful, and sweet.

I think this quilt is the perfect combination for my baby’s 1st birthday, Easter, and spring in general.

Sampler Quilt Blocks: All But Complete

A long time ago I started this Y Seams blog in order to have a place where I documented the fun stuff I made, so I’d have a place to go look at my projects concisely. Well, I took a break from sewing/quilting in 2013 for the most part, and so many projects got put on hold. There are so many fun little projects I would love to do but I don’t want to have the same unfinished projects 30 years from now that I have today; therefore, when I get little bursts of creative energy (and the time to utilize it) I am focusing on those. If you’ve scanned through all my past posts then you’ll remember my random little quilt blocks featuring brown, green, pink, and yellow fabrics. This past week I made four more, and fixed one that I had made 2 years ago to better coordinate with those in this collection.

This is not the final layout.

Eleven down, one more to go! Now I’ve got to think about what color to use for sashing…

February Block for the LDQB & some other things.

February’s block was so easy, I may or may not have gotten carried away & cut out the wrapping paper for about 20 more gifts….I guess I’ll plead the fifth on that one! But really, isn’t this the cutest block idea you’ve ever seen?

Chevron Christmas gift!

The pattern for making these can be found here.

Also, I think I finally fixed the settings on my camera to get a more true representation. Check out January’s block, in real life the colors are much closer to this image than the ones on my January post.

January block with a French theme.

And, check out a group photo of the boy-theme blankets I made for my friend. These were so cute & fun to make, I’m glad I took this photo of them together.

Chevron, dots, & solids.

2014 LDQB January Block

I’m running the 2014 Long Distance Quilting Bee with my cousin Lisa. I took a break from it in 2013 but this year I jumped back in again. I’m glad I did, simply because making 1 block a month makes me feel like I’m doing something for myself (even though its really for someone else) while not creating copious amounts of projects that might stress me out or cause more work in the long run.

For January, Carol asked for a block having something to do with Paris, France. She’s giving a Paris quilt to a friend who lived there for several years. As luck would have it, I had a narrow strip of fabric patterned with a street map of Paris. Because I always saw people sitting at cafes drinking wine when I’ve walked around Paris, this is what I came up with:

I designed this block myself, and am pretty happy with how it turned out. I’m not planning on making many wine bottle quilt blocks in the future but if I were I might try a different technique to give a skinnier slope of the bottleneck.

And I’m back for 2014!

My plan for 2013 was to take a break from bees to finish quilts that I’ve started but that didn’t happen. My quilts are all in various stages of completion still. I didn’t really sew anything in 2013 once my baby arrived. That is, I didn’t really sew anything until November when I started making these cute little 9-patch blankets for my friend to use with her photography business.

My banner helpers enjoyed this shot.

I ended up making 14 of these little guys. I really enjoyed it, and wanted to make more, but ran out of time. That is, I have time but now that I have 3 kids it is spread out a little thinner than it has been in the past.

More newborn blankets.

I tried taking some pictures of these blankets, but the settings in my camera were a bit off, and I couldn’t figure out how to adjust them.

The orange squares are all the same tone, actually.

In this blanket, the yellow polka dots are all the same fabric. But in the photo it looks like sunshine yellow & squash orange. So strange.
I think this little red, gray, and white gem is one of my favorites.

“Look Mom! I’m a robot! See my robot body??”

Here is a composite shot of the first 6 blankets I made, side to side. I think it would be a pretty cute blanket for someone’s toddler bed:
One of the most fun parts of this project was picking out fun bright chevron & dots & solid fabric colors that I might not ordinarily buy for myself. There really is something about fresh uncut fabric all ready to go that is just so rejuvenating.

April Block for Design Camp 3

This month we were sent fabric swatches from Amy Butler’s Love fabric & were asked to make a wonky log cabin block.

The sample block posted by this month’s recipient was framed in white, so thats what I did with this block. I think my favorite of all the fabrics is the dark blue floral. There is something so appealing about the contrast large floral designs provide when set against solids & smaller prints.

Very fun block to make, and came together very quickly—less than an hour! A win-win combination.

March block for Design Camp 3

Its been a while since I’ve posted in regards to the flickr quilting bee, Design Camp. The girl assigned February is/was so behind getting her blocks finished & posted to other members that she felt guilty asking people to make blocks for her, so February ended up being a sort of catch-up month for anyone running behind. I’ve only received about half of the blocks from November, so I’m convinced she wasn’t the only one running behind from last fall! For march, we were given gray fabric along with 3 shades of pink, and asked to follow a rough outline to create a 12.5″x12.5″ block reminiscent of tube socks. This block gave me a lot of trouble, more than I’ve had for a bee block for a while, mostly because the fabric stretched in bizarre ways when I pressed it. I’m not sure if it wasn’t shrunk before getting mailed out or what, but I ended up picking out half the block & resewing it in order to reach the proper dimensions. I think the finished quilt will look very fun, but I’m glad my contribution is finished & safely on its way to its new home.

Baby Gift

One of my friends is having a baby girl, due about a month after mine. Her baby shower was this past weekend, so I made her a baby blanket & teddy bear to match.

I sewed around the edge twice to add a little more of a finish to the edge than a simple turnover would give it.

To be clear, all I did with the bear was sew on buttons & the bow, but I chose colors to match the strawberry blanket. I think this duo turned out quite cute!