Rose's Rainbow

I finished up two (that's right, TWO!!) quilts recently! It was a wild weekend...

Quilt and Cactus

One of the quilts was the quilt for Rose. She bid on a custom baby quilt at an auction for my friend's Doula Collective. We collaborated on the design, and she was really easy to work with. Her stipulations were basically primary colors, sampler, modern-ish.

Close up of Arizona square.

I used some of my favorite fabrics (Arizona by April Rhodes, some Cotton+Steel for the low volume, and some of the Birch Organic fabrics), and some fabrics that I couldn't resist buying when I saw them, but I've never been able to use. The low volumes form a background that is a scrappy low-ish volume hodgepodge. I wasn't sold on it at first, but I like how it is kind of busy up close, and fades into the background as you retreat. The binding is a stripe that my family got for me in Barcelona, Spain so this quilt is definitely full of special fabrics!

Hanging out at the turtle pond. 

The quilting is really simple. I started by stitching in the ditch around all the colored sections. I was going to do some matchstick quilting over the low volume to make it more cohesive and to really make the design pop, but I lost my momentum. I figured a finished quilt is better than a half finished quilt - and if I had started the matchstick I wouldn't have finished anytime soon!

Alligator pond in the background.

I took this quilt to the local park: Estero Llano Grande, about 5 minutes from my house. I am always looking for alligators at the pond, but I haven't seen any yet! It's a popular place for birders, and they all thought I was a little nutty for coming with my nice camera to take pictures of a quilt.

Full quilt!

I backed it in some home dec scraps and some other scraps of the Ride collection by Julia Rothman. Not my favorite backing ever, but I was able to use of some scraps! And it's still appropriate with the masculine, primary color theme. I put corner squares in each of the four corners because there's no right side up or down. I have one way that I consider up, since I designed it, but I want Rose to be able to hang it however she chooses. 

Back of quilt. 

Well that's about it for this quilt. I hope that Rose likes it, and I'm excited to send it to her!

Hopefully linking up to Finish it up Friday with Crazy Mom Quilts and Scraptastic Tuesday from She Can Quilt

HST Sampler for Rose

I haven't been blogging much because I haven't been sewing much. I come home from teaching and the gym, have to walk the dog, and have to make sure I know what to do the next day and by the time that's all done I'm beat and need to hit the hay. Well, this weekend I finally made the time for some sewing.

Some HSTs. 

I agreed to make a quilt or pillow for an auction that benefited my friend's doula co-op. The winner was a woman named Rose, who likes samplers and modern fabrics in primary colors. I decided that I would make a HST sampler using a scrappy low volume background. And it's all completely from my stash. I had fun using some of the fabrics that I bought because they jumped out at me, but I've never had a reason to use before. 

Some warmer colors. 

So glad I finally found a project for these elephants!

I made nine 12-inch blocks for the sampler. I was definitely happy that I had the block loc ruler to help with all the HSTs. I'm so sick of making them! I was a little hesitant about the cohesiveness of my background, and if the fabrics I chose as the feature for each block would work out ok. Seeing them together and from farther away I'm happy with it, and I hope Rose likes it. 

I decided to arrange the blocks in a sort of rainbow layout, which I haven't tried before. 

The final layout. 

Now I just need to figure out how to quilt it!!