A quilt and sweater for Baby Kiera

Seeing as Last But Not Least snapped up the vajayjay quilt, I had to whip up a new one on the double for Baby Kiera!


Like the other, this quilt used the grey, yellow and pink colour scheme, to match Kiera's nursery. I love how the two quilts look so entirely different! I have to say this is one of my favourites. I loved every minute of making it, I completely improvised as I went, adding bits here and there. I started with the wonky log cabins, and as Kiera's mom likes strip quilts, I added a couple other different block styles in strips. My kids especially loved the strip of "ruler" fabric along the top, saying that would be perfect to help Kiera's mom measure her as she grows!



I quilted it with an all over loopy pattern, my first time trying this, and I honestly kinda sucked at it. But overall I still think it looks fine, and I love the crinkly effect. I used some Aurafil variegated yellow/white thread, another first, and liked the product. But I am just as happy with the performance of my Connecting Threads thread, which is much less expensive!


On the back I used a large piece of my new absolute favourite fabric by Heather Ross, the pin people, that my friend Angela was kind enough to pick up and send to me when it went on sale at Hancock's (I think??). I absolutely love the light grey colour with the pink and orange and lime accents, it is the perfect backing for this quilt, and I think I need to plan an entire other quilt around this fabric. Lovity love it!


On the back I included a label that I made using printer friendly fabric, and made it in the wonky log cabin style that I had on the front.


This quilt was a bit big for a baby quilt, about 40 by 50 inches. It will be good for Kiera to snuggle up with for some time, I hope!


Along with the quilt, I knit up a sweet little coat using the Baby Tiered Coat pattern by Lisa Chemery on Ravelry (see details on my Ravelry page here). Such a cute pattern! I made it in a nice neutral grey, using a Wool Ease worsted weight yarn held double for thickness, and added some cute yellow buttons as an accent.



Inside I added a label by Izzy and Ivy Designs that we got in our grab bags at Sewing Summit last fall. They are a great product with some really cute styles! I may just order some more of these.


The two were gifted at a nice casual baby shower the other day at my home, and seem to be well loved.

Welcome to the world, Kiera!

Shared at Sew Modern Monday.

Quickie quilt done!

Lately I was feeling a little low in the quilting mojo. No lack of inspiration (or fabric), just not much energy in the tank and starting something new (or finishing up other quilts) felt daunting.

I needed a quickie.

So, when I had an unexpected afternoon off work recently, I neglected to pick up the kids from daycare or do my "to-do" list (it never gets any shorter, anyhow). Instead I spent 3 uninterrupted hours cutting up and sewing together my AMH Little Folks that I bought, in full, May of last year! A very simple strip quilt, completely inspired by the ones by Red Pepper Quilts. I made sure I did it with the rules of:
1. no thinking and
2. no pulling apart seams, no matter what.

Just pulled a fabric from the pile, cut a strip of whatever width, sew it on, etc until it was long enough. One strip was even sewed on with the back facing outwards! Whatever. Left it like that. And I didn't die or anything!


For the backing, I used a sheet I bought on clearance from IKEA. Easy peasy! It is a charcoal color and has a sheen to it that I just LOVE. I normally go for a fancy pieced back, but really like how this simple solid accents my quilting.
I did some simple line machine quilting, using grey on the back and colors that coordinated with the fabric on top. I popped on the binding (by machine) and hand stitched it here and there with Perle 8 thread in contrasting colors until I felt it was "done." Love the randomness, and how the hand stitching pops against the solid back.

I love it. It was stress free, simple, and as far as I am concerned, looks fantastic. Been so overwhelmed with all that is life lately, this was a much needed escape.

I was feeling guilty about my unfinished vintage sheet quilt, and also that I hadn't started the promised birthday quilt for The Middle Child (her birthday is this weekend) but I will get to those, eventually. Had to take time to remember that quilting is supposed to be FUN, right??

Bring on the next project!