springy baby irish chain

I've talked about my partner in baby quilt crime before - we live in a baby prolific area and have teamed up on many projects over the last couple of years. And most recently we have churned out about 4 baby quilt in almost as many weeks!! It's been a little crazy. Brynn is normally the piecer with myself doing the quilting and we've swapped around who does the binding.  But we've been able to work together to give a gift that both of our hands have made.  And I really love that.

Admittedly, Brynn has a pretty amazing hefty stash that we've worked from.  Plus she's great at quilt math and is a very precise piecer.  I've gotten comfortable in my role as the quilter and actually really enjoy free motion quilting these smaller quilts.

However, on this particular quilt I had all of these fun scraps leftover from my scrappy trip around the world quilt.  And I wanted to contribute materials too so I offered to piece the top. I really love an Irish Chain and after watching this awesome tutorial, from the Missouri Quilt Co, was super inspired to get it going!

So I started with my scraps and some trusty Kona Snow and made up some nine-patches.  Side note: I love chain piecing.  Side note 2: all photos here taken on my iPhone 5 and don't look as good blown up.  Please forgive me.

I started to get really excited as I started laying out the nine patches with the solid blocks.

And even more excited when I got it all put together and thought about backing it with the aqua chevron and binding it with the red dots!

I then packaged it up and sent it to Brynn for quilting and binding and a good washing.  Side note 3: the sun was really bright at the shower.

And here's a quick detail of the quilting and binding.  Brynn is also super proficient in her binding skills, they always look so nice and crisp.  Side note 4: in a house with poor night lighting and phone camera photos sometimes Kona white gets mixed in with the snow and you don't notice until you get it in some real daylight *smacks head*.

I do love the way this quilt turned out. The colors seemed really cheery to me and perfect for our friend who is having her 3rd baby and 3rd girl.  Aqua is the new pink.  Did you know?

I have several more baby quilts to share.  How about we have a baby quilt exclusive sew & tell soon?

travelling baby quilt

I don't know if you remember back when Babylouwho was born, but several of my awesome blogging friends collaborated on a little quilt for her.  You can read about it here.

One of those sweet friends had a baby this year and we reprised our roles except this time I got to help in the making and Natalia got the quilt!!

I received a partially pieced top with fabric to add the rest including borders.

These are the blocks I added.

And here's what the top looked like completed.  I thought it was pretty cute, but after Rita worked her magic, it's even cuter!

Once again, Candy hand dyed some fun fabrics and we used a (scaled down) pattern from Amy's book.  Amy E. and I pieced the top, Rita appliqued his name on and Vicki quilted and bound it!

It was so fun to see the evolution of the quilt as the others shared their progress.

Amy was able to hand deliver to Natalia last week so we finally get to share our parts in the process!

I don't have pictures of the finished quilt, but if you visit the links below, you can see it's progress and final destination!!

I love making handmade gifts for new moms.  And I love working on them with friends.  The collaboration is almost as fun as reaching the finished product!  Plus then I don't have the pressure of finishing something from start to finish! I need to work on that.

The links below will take you right to the post about this quilt:
Candy - Candied Fabrics
Amy E. - Amy's Creative Side
Rita - Mochi Studios
Vicki - Sew Inspired
Natalia - Piece N Quilt

sew & tell v3.32 - a pot pourri

Hi friends! I'm sorry I'm a little tardy in getting this post up today.  It's been a super busy week and I fell asleep on the couch last night before I got to this.  Plus, I wasn't sure what to share, but I had a few things I've been working on over the last couple of weeks.

My baby quilt collaboration finished another project that was gifted last week.  Fabric selection and piecing by Brynn, quilting by me, and binding by Teri.  Be sure to click on Brynn's blog so you can see her amazing Central Park quilt!

It was a straightforward strip quilt with Anne Kelle, Full Moon Modern and some Echo.  I love the striped binding!  Teri also made an awesome cake with a cute whale on top that matched! I wished I'd gotten a picture of that!

Next up another New York Beauty block.  This is going to turn into a pillow here in the next few days after I sew up a couple more blocks.  I love a little monochromatic color scheming! You can see my (not a) tutorial for this block HERE.

Kona white, Amy Butler Sunspots in Aqua, and Amy Butler Lark (not sure the name of the print).  I'm trying to decide if I make two more of the same blocks or add some more fabrics in.  What would you do?

And then yesterday while I was on a little day trip I stumbled across a Joann's and picked up a few prints.  And I actually have plans for each of them!

Dish drying mats (lemons), Purse (black and white), tunic type top (floral swiss dot).  Maybe I'll be super productive this week!

What have you been up to this week?  Looking for some eye candy?  Sara and Kim both have some awesome Quilt Market Recap posts!  And I have some things I made hanging in one of the booths!  Can you guess where?

What finishes do you have this week?  Can't wait to see!

Linky Rules.  Please follow along for a fun party!

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button (HTML on my sidebar).

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

Please put your (blog)name instead of your project name, it helps us get to know each other better!

sew & tell v3.29 - catching up

Hello friends! My motivation has been coming in spurts, but I was able to catch up on some bee blocks and finish up the last bit of binding on a quilt.

This block right here, I love.  These chubby Dresdens from the book Material Obsession are my favorite of all Dresdens.  Fabric is from LOVE by Amy Butler.  Finished block measures 20"

When I received these fabrics she sent a picture of a flower and asked us to be inspired by it and make something.  When I finally figured out what to do it still took me forever to actually make it up.  Why? I HAVE NO IDEA.  Somethings just keep getting pushed to the back, and I'm embarrassed that this was one of them. It's from the bee I was in before BeeTweet started last spring.  YES.  It's that late.  And it's been eating at me.  But I wanted to make good on my committment.  Luckily the person for whom I made it is very sweet and forgiving and loves it.  Whew!!

This next block is for Ali of a²(w).  She sent us this picture of a painting and said she wanted to recreate it into a quilt:

 
Isn't that a genius idea!?

It was totally free formed pieced and just grew out of picking colors and sewing and slicing!  I may need to do more like this in the future. I love the way it turned out!

And last, this quilt from another collaborative effort!  I finished the last bit of binding (it had been sitting around so close to finished!) and now is ready to go to it's new home.  Well, almost, I still need to wash it and take some clothesline photos!  Brynn chose fabrics and pieced this one.  I quilted and bound it.

I am getting into a bit of a groove with my sewing.  I have a bunch to do for next week!  Be sure to come by on Monday for my part in the NYBeauty Quilt Along!




What have you been finishing up this week?

Your turn to share ~ Show us what you've got finished!
Linky Rules.  Please follow along for a fun party!

1. Please write the post for sew & tell - or add a blurb mentioning sew & tell to a post written since the last sew & tell.  If you are linking to a post with your own tutorial, please make sure it was a finish from this week and that the completed project is shown first.

2. One linky per person. (please put multiple projects in one post.)

3. Link to your specific post.  (See here for permalink instructions - or email me.)

4. Link back here with a link or a button (HTML on my sidebar).

5. Be sure to visit and leave comments on other's posts!

Please put your (blog)name instead of your project name, it helps us get to know each other better!