Baby Harper

My friends are finally welcoming their first baby this fall!  Little Harper has been a long time coming and they are over the moon excited, so am I :).  She finally had her baby shower today, so I can share this quilt with you!  She requested a while back a gray/pink theme.  Here's the final product. 

The top is a large churn dash block, 12 inches square.  For the back, I used the extra blocks and some squares from the quilt.

The pink and grey with the cream background is my Mother's favorite so she requested it to get it's own photo.  For top quilting, this quilt got a dogwood flower all-over pattern.  They are so cute and pretty easy to quilt.

Ok, now it's back to being summertime lazy!  Sorry to those of you who have been commenting, I will get back to you, PROMISE!  This summer has been crazy busy, but things should calm down after this week.  

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels

Quilt - As - You - Go - Adventure

A while ago, I posted about making a Thimble Blossoms sampler. I will never have enough time to make all of her beautiful quilts, so this is the next best thing. One of my blogging friends called it a Quilt-As-You-Go-Adventure. I really liked the name, so it stuck! The top is still in parts but it's at least progress, yay.  

Fireworks Pattern

Dwell from the book Simply Retro

Dapper from the book Simply Retro

I absolutely feel in love with the Dapper block, it would make a great baby boy blanket.  This might have to become a full quilt. It's super easy and looks complicated, my favorite kind :)

Now the bottom half needs to come together, but at least now I am half way done!  How is everyone else doing on their WIPs?  This month is almost over.

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels

Be ... a Servant

This month's theme is to be a servant for the Sugar Block of the Month. Doing kind things for one another and what not. Sometimes we get stuck in the daily life routine and forget to do things for the people we love. This month is all about doing nice things for those around us. My biggest thing so far this month, is watching my sister for the weekend so my parents can have some alone time away from us kids.  

Who knows what kind of shenanigans will ensue!  

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels

A to Z

Yay, to my second summer finish ... or down to 18 WIPs! The quilt already has a lot of pizzaz so it got a simple solid for the binding (Kona Slate). It has been finished for a while, but I have been too lazy to take pictures. I guess that is downfall of summer vacation, there is always tomorrow. Speaking of summer vacation, nothing beats spending time on the lake :) How about this view!

Ok, now back to basting.  My friend probably wants her baby quilt soon!

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels 

Happy 14th of July

This patriotic quilt didn't get finished for the 4th, but was finished for the 14th! Ten days late, not too bad. I love how the sideboards were finished on this sugar "shack" so my friend and I did a little photobombing with my quilts. (It's her brother's camp so no illegal trespassing occurred!)

Next I need to make a plan to finish. None of my stash working for me as a backing, so I may have to go purchase something.  The top quilting is also undecided.  Oh the decisions, any suggestions?!?

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels

P.S. Oops, I forgot to mention the source for this pattern.  Check out the tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew.

Someone is Getting Older

My sister Aja has a birthday coming up ... very shortly. This year I decided to make her a quilt for her bed, a twin. It will be the biggest quilt I have ever made! She picked out the Hello Petal line by Aneela Hoey. After a trip to my favorite LQS Bits n' Pieces to raid their holiday sale I walked away with all the goods I needed including a FREE, yes FREE charm pack.  They had this spinner wheel with tons of prizes ... my prize was a free charm pack.  The woman said she found the last Hello Petal charm pack out back and went to get it for me, so it was my lucky day :)  This also made my day! Love having such a great shop nearby, these ladies are phenomenal :) 

After doing some thinking, Aja has never been a pink fan or liked anything super girly. I was very surprised that this was her fabric pick! The whole line is sweet, girly, and includes lots of pink. After asking more questions I come to find out she only liked the blue and yellow prints, and not the pink. She did say I could only include a very little pink, the dark pink was fine.  There went half the layer cake and charm pack! Good think I got some extra FQs just to make sure. 

This will also be the first time I quilt with linen.  I have used linen a million times but never in a quilt. I was inspired by the Sugar Block of the Month over at Stitchery Dickory Dock.  I am also going to use the January pattern from that BOM to make the quilt top.  Each block finishes at 12 inches square, so hopefully that will speed up the process!  Any advice for quilting with linen?  This piece has been pre-washed :)

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels

Modern Maples

Finally finished my Modern Maples quilt! I backed this one using some number fabric from Ikea and a grey binding.  This time around I also tried the spiral top quilting. It was difficult at the center with my small domestic sewing machine, but started to get easier as less fabric had to fit through the throat!

This one might be one of my favorites!  Now it just needs to find a good home.

Sew long for now,

Patch & Chels

Happy 4th of July!

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!

This week bas been crazy busy and to be honest I didn't think I would have anything to show today. I did manage to rephotograph some quilts and get up to date on my Etsy account. At least one thing got crossed off my summer to do list!

My poor patriotic quilt didn't become so patriotic this year. I cut the fabric on Monday then frantically found time to get at least the blocks done. Here are the cut stacks ready to make their way through the sewing machine.

Needless to say I got the blocks finished, not so bad for a weeks work. Maybe by next week I can show you a Happy 14th of July this quilt? Maybe ... 

I love everything red, white, and blue and this quilt might become one of my favorites! What is everyone else up to on this day off (for my American friends!)?  I am off to order some backing for this one :) 

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels

  

Fabric Fast 2014 Update

After all the excitement of school ending, I took a week off from blogging to regroup (I did have some scheduled posts ready to go).  So if you commented in the last week, I promise to get back to you!  It was nice to detach from the computer and spend sometime with friends and family.  Now I feel refreshed and ready to take the summer on!  Plus I missed my blogging buddies :)

Mid-year health check is a tisk, tisk! I will admit that I wasn't 100% good on this fabric fast. I "had" to reorder some low volume fabric, and "had" to buy backing (sometimes too much so I would have a half yard to add to my stash!). At one point, some FQs that were on sale also got added, oops.

All in all, I actually did pretty well. This experience has gave me an opportunity to assess what is/isn't necessary and realize that I have more fabric than what is reasonable. Even with my little stash. I did de-stash fabrics that I will never use, and got a grip on my scraps (3 quilts!), so that was a bonus. This year more fabric has been quilted than purchased. Although, I would still like to get my stash down a bit more! 

My conclusion is ... I will never need more than this cart of fabric. For my sewing needs, this will be considered my "healthy" amount.  It provides a good variety, and isn't overwhelming. My new rule is simple, once fabric doesn't fit, it's time to stop buying and start sewing. Hopefully, this will keep my obsession with fabric in check. 

Sew long for now, 

Patch & Chels