Gifts for friends.

Posted on 29.Apr.13 by kait

My friends Austin and Erin, the people who graciously let me live with them last year after a break up, recently bought a house so I made them this mini quilt.

I pieced the tiny houses from scraps, raw edge appliqued a key in one block, quilted it in a boxy meander with their name in one corner, backed it in a vintage sheet with my label, and bound it in white with a couple scraps.

Congratulations on the new home, dear friends!

My long time friend Tara got married recently so I made her a little wall hanging.

Her bridesmaids dresses were yellow so I pulled a few yellows and greys, drew up the plan, and put this together in a day.

I have been inspired by Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations lately, her simple patchwork, her straight line quilting, her mini quilts. This is the first time I’ve quilted something this heavily and I love it. I can’t imagine quilting a large quilt like this but it was great for this little lady.

I backed it in a yellow floral I’ve had for a long time and bound it in more yellow with a tiny bit of heath in black. I’m really happy with it and hope they are too.

Congratulations Tara and Jeremy!

I made this pillow a while ago but never blogged about it. It is now my friend Lindsay‘s and I made it to thank her for her kindness and friendship.

I used Anna Maria Horner’s feather bed quilt block and her Field Study fabric scraps, surrounded them with FreeSpirit light jade, added an exposed zipper, bound it, and left it behind as a little surprise.

Thanks for being awesome, Lindsay!

Happy 2012!

Posted on 01.Jan.12 by kait

Alas, another year. Here are all the things I started and/or finished this year :)And here’s to another year of growth, creativity, and fun!

The tale of two minis.

Posted on 20.Dec.11 by kait

I’ve been really wanting to finish things lately. I have a couple full sized quilts that I’m excited about but they’re just taking so much time! So, what’s simpler? Minis of course! These have been sent off and received so I can finally blog about them.

This one was made as a thank you to someone who has been supporting me, most of my life, really. I’ve known Dan since I was two years old, he’s the dad of my best childhood friend. He commissioned me to make two quilts this Christmas and I included this as a little bonus for him to say thanks. I based it off a picture on Quilt Dad’s blog (for a project in the current issue of Fat Quarterly) and I used a Basics by BasicGrey for Moda charm pack, something I got from Quilt Dad in our mini swap! (Thanks John for making this quilt happen!) It’s backed in a print I’ve had forever, a different colorway of the print I used to back my houndstooth quilt, and bound in dark brown. The label reads “Thank you, Dan. ♡ kait”

For some reason I see this quilt belonging in a study, a room with dark woods and lots of books. I have no idea if Dan has a study but he strikes me as the kind of person that would, and that’s the feeling this mini quilt invokes in me.

The second mini is for my friend Corrie, just because I think she needs it :) She blogged about how she doesn’t have any art hanging on her walls at work, a place she’s been for over three years. So when I pinned this quilt on Pinterest and she repinned it, I looked through her boards to find colors she seemed to like. Picking out some blues and greens from my stash, I whipped it up for her in a day. I didn’t even think to follow the link and find the original tutorial for the block so I just figured it out. However, if you’d like to make your own, the tutorial is here! The only thing I did different is started out with 5″ squares which resulted in a 7½” block (charm pack friendly!).

I decided to make it two blocks wide so I could use some of the batting samples we got from the Sewing Summit, and a fat quarter for the back. I used various blues and greens from my stash for the ribbons and the grey background is Manatee by FreeSpirit (what I used for my Single Girl), it’s backed with a couple Amy Butler prints from my stash, it’s straight line quilted with zigzags, and bound in an olive green from my stash. I hope she enjoys it! I love surprising people with little gifts :)

A quick check in.

Posted on 07.Nov.11 by kait

Things have been so busy in life recently that I’ve hardly had a chance to write about any of it! I wanted to quickly check in and show you a mini quilt I made for a Post Sewing Summit Swap (my first online swap ever!) that I’m really happy with. The swap was for either a mini quilt or a zippy pouch and I went with a little of both! I’ve wanted to make a dresden plate for a while now, especially after seeing Katherine’s beautiful quilt so that what I went with.I wanted to make something snowflake-ish but I only had that tiny piece of snowflake fabric used in the middle of the mini dresden. I dug through my cool color scrap bin and using Elizabeth’s tutorial on Sew Mama Sew, came up with this.It’s backed in a print from DS Quilts’ Picnic and Fairgrounds, the white is linen from my stash, it’s quilted in a meandering pattern with white thread, bound in the leftovers from this quilt, and I used a label I made through Spoonflower for the first time!I’m also sending along a zippy wallet from Noodlehead’s pattern, a half apron from Alexander Henry print, and a travel tissue holder. I hope my partner likes what I’ve made her, and I can’t wait to see what I receive in the mail!

A little clean up.

Posted on 20.Sep.11 by kait

Nothing like guests to make you clean the house. Usually that just means the kitchen and the dining room but since Caitlin was coming over on Sunday afternoon, I had to clean my studio and make sure two people could fit in there :) While cleaning, I came across a few orphaned blocks that I stuck to my project wall, thinking maybe I’ll do something with them.

North Carolina is one of the hungriest states in the US. It was brought up recently (through a source I cannot find) and it spurred on some people around here to do something about it. My friend and coworker Philip put together a compilation of local bands for fall. (You can listen to it here.) A local visual artist was paired with each band to create a piece of art that correlated or was inspired by the song on the comp. There was also a festival this last week/end including most of the bands and a gallery show of the art. All the proceeds from the sale of the compilation go to the Second Harvest Food Bank (you can also buy it here!). We got a group of artists together to make art pieces that were approximately 6 by 6 inches that were donated and sold to benefit the food bank as well. I made this…

It didn’t sell but I really like it and it’s inspired me to make a series of 6″ blocks to finish and hang. I started a small paper pieced hexagon block to get my collection going.

Mini quilt swap.

Posted on 12.Sep.11 by kait

My quilt guild did a mini quilt swap this month that was really fun. I made this previously mentioned quilt for Colleen (a fellow Traid-ite). She had said her sewing room was light green or blue and I had no idea what to do. Hearing of the swap, I had originally wanted to do a red and white log cabin like the Bright Furrows quilt in Modern Log Cabin Quilting but thought I should take a different route. I then noticed her affinity for Denyse Schmidt and stars so I came up with this star within a star block, grabbed some of her fabrics, and got to work. Most of the points aren’t perfect and the corner stars aren’t wonky enough to look purposeful, but I had fun making it and Coleen liked it so that’s what counts.

I received a lovely little quilt from John (aka Quilt Dad).

He packaged it in this great fabric box that is very Amy Butler-esque (from World Market, I think he said). Then not only did he include the quilt, I also received a couple charm packs! I love the text covered fabric and will promptly be hanging this mini in my sewing room. Thank you John!

(Sorry it’s a little blurry and don’t mind the crease :)

Today.

Posted on 30.Aug.11 by kait

Today is gorgeous, and taking it’s time. It’s wonderful.

It’s been in the mid-60s in the mornings so I’ve been trying to get in the backyard in my papasan chair for a while and enjoy it. I’m still reading “Geek Love” and really enjoying it. I’ve been thinking about getting a library card since I joined an online book club and won’t necessarily want to purchase all the books we might read. We’ll see. Otherwise, I might read “Franny and Zooey” by JD Salinger next.

I cut all the patterned fabrics for the Modern Crosses quilt today. Seeing Caitlin‘s at the last guild meeting and a recent life change for a friend, I decided to make it. I used all fabrics from my stash/scraps but I don’t know what color to do for the background. Navy blue? Grey? Once I figure that out I’m sure the rest will come along pretty quickly.

I received my first ever Spoonflower fabric order today! I made a quilt label design and got them printed up in a few different colors. I’ll mainly use them for quilts I sell and will still embroider the special ones. I have a few quilts to sew these onto right away! I’m curious to see how these wash up.

I switched to decaf iced coffee today and just now I’m getting a really bad headache. I hate being reminded of my addiction to caffeine.

I worked on a mini quilt today. Nothing much more to say about that now…

Lightening speed.

Posted on 27.Aug.11 by kait

I made another mini quilt yesterday in a feverish 5½ hours.

The company Marcus works for is called Airtype (and is the reason we moved to Winston Salem) and they had their 5 year anniversary/grand opening of their new building party last night. (They also soft launched their new website yesterday; check it out!)

I had thought for a month or so about making them a mini quilt with their logo but didn’t know how I could achieve exactly the look I was going for, I didn’t put it into action. But yesterday at work I decided it was going to happen in a simplified form so I drew it up around 11am and set to work when I got home at 1.I used Oh Fransson‘s interfacing method from Sew Mama Sew for the squares, which I especially like to use with wall hangings, as it makes everything a little stiffer. I then sewed a black and hot pink border on it before backing it with some skulls, adding a hanging sleeve in with the binding (my new favorite method),

outline quilting the logo and some random black squares, binding it in black with a couple white stripes on top,

and adding a tiny label.I wrapped it up and headed out the door, only 20 minutes late. I gave it to Bryan (the owner) and he seemed to really like it and was so grateful. I hope I find it hung up next time I’m st the office!

Two finishes in two days.

Posted on 25.Aug.11 by kait

Whoo hoo for me!

This wall hanging was the beginning of a quilt that was not at all like I pictured. I cut all the rectangles I’d need to make a full sized quilt in this design but after making this many, I kind of hated it. I brought it out a few months later and cut things up more and tried something else, something I also didn’t like. So into a box it went, until recently. I hung it up on my design wall for a little while to see if I wanted to continue down that path but in the end, I decided to just make it a wall hanging.

And wouldn’t you know, now that it’s all quilted and bound, I actually quite like it, and it’ll be perfect for the person I’ll be giving it to. You can read a few more stats on my 2011 finished quilts page.

I made this baby quilt from start to finish in five days and pulled it out of the dryer to photograph it yesterday. It’s one of the most improvisational quilts I’ve done and I love it. It’s for a friend’s baby so I can’t show too many pictures yet, but I will before too long. I used the same fabrics as I did for the wall hanging and a green dot from JoAnn’s. More info to come!

I started a mini quilt today. I’ll be keeping it mostly a secret for a while (like most things seem to be these days) but it started with this. (Sorry the picture’s so blurry, the lens fogged up when I went into the humid outside and I didn’t notice until just now!)

And now the rest of my evening will be spent with some tea, chocolate chip cookies, my Single Girl quilt, and The Kennedy’s on the television. Not too shabby.

Yes this cup is from Starbucks but I bought it in London at a great little two story shop by a harbor. That justifies it in my mind :)

Finish it Up! check in.

Posted on 07.Jul.11 by kait

I’m ashamed to admit that I forgot to put Meg’s blog in my reader after I joined this “challenge” so I didn’t even think of having a check in until now! That has been remedied and here we are, three weeks in and I have made some progress.

I finished the Tetris mini quilt and I’m pretty in love with it.

I found a perfect black fabric with tiny hearts on it at JoAnn’s that I used for the binding.

I wish I’d found it earlier and I probably would have used it for the back but instead it’s kind of a starry space looking print.

I embroidered a small label and it’s ready to be hung! (Or given away?)

I finished the tops and backs to the large hexagons

backing

and the lap sized Single Girl. this picture is only a part of the backing, don’t mind the creases.

I think I will be learning how to use my friend Lindsay’s long arm quilting machine in a couple weeks and I’m saving up a few quilts to bust out over a weekend. I can’t wait! I’ve been looking at thread and pantographs and figuring out the perfect combinations.
I decided, a bit reluctantly, that I’m going to take out all the quilting done thus far on the black, red, and white monster so that it can be redone.The thread I used was giving me big tension problems and breakage and my stitches just weren’t very good. So I’ve begun removing the quilting and keep telling myself it will be totally worth it. I haven’t decided if this quilt will be mine or someone else’s once it’s finished…

kaitcetera

quilting and other sundries.

Tag Archives: mini quilt