HST challenge

I finished a small baby quilt last year, as part of the Minneapolis Modern Quilt Guild's half-square triangle challenge using Kona Cotton charm packs. I used all except the grey and white squares in the charm pack. There were a ton of greens!

 


I made flying geese blocks out of my HSTs, using a grey Kona cotton for the background.





Isaac has been using this quilt for a while, but he is starting to outgrow it already. Plans are in the works for a toddler bed quilt.

Sailboat top

I finished a sailboat top (pattern by Oliver and S) for Isaac using Liesl sailboat fabric from Joann's. I think I made the 2T size, although it could've been 18-24 months. It's been sitting in his drawer finished for months. It's a little big through the shoulders and the sleeves are long, but he'll grow into it.

The next one will be solid fabric, with contrast stitching and shorter sleeves. Extra long sleeves on this kiddo requires extra stain-sticking later.

 

He had a busy afternoon of digging in the yard and distributing dandelion seeds at the neighborhood park.

Crib quilt #5

Last month I mailed the fifth (and I think final) crib quilt for this year to its owner, my new niece. I fussy cut pieces of Peacock Lane Menagerie in brown and added borders of Kona Cotton solids and coordinating leftovers from the big pink quilt I made a few years back.

 



This is the first pieced quilt I've made with so much negative space. It was a challenge to piece the negative space efficiently - I hate wasting fabric. At first I tried to do the math to plan the exact dimensions of each piece of brown fabric... but I realized it would take f-o-r-e-v-e-r to accurately cut pieces. Instead I cut strips of brown fabric in varying widths and used those to fill in the space around the blocks. The end result is not *exactly* the layout I had planned, but it's pretty close. I'm happy with the end result, and not much fabric was wasted. Win, win!





The only part I'm not happy with is how some of the quilting lines pulled the fabric. I can tell that some lines really pulled the fabric in the direction of stitching, so the pink stripes on the back are not as straight as I'd like. I hope that I'm the only one that notices. Sigh. I think I tried to get by with too few basting pins this time, and didn't pull the fabric as taught as usual when I taped it to the floor.



I really love the pink + brown combo, and I'm pleased with the way the fussy-cut blocks turned out. I know it will be appreciated in its new home.