My (almost) one-day quilt
March 21, 2011
The single girl quilts are finished! And they are fantastic. I could go on and on, but without photos I'm not going to. You'll have to wait, but not long. A photoshoot is in the works.
In the meantime, I'm going to tell you about a different quilt that I started yesterday. And that I finished today. And that could have been finished yesterday if I was so crazy-tired by 9:30 p.m., leaving the hand sewing portion of binding until this morning. Yes. A quilt in almost one day.
This is a baby gift for a dear friend who had her second girl last month. I had so much fun making Liam's quilt, that I decided to make another, much pinker one, for this sweet baby.
All of the fabrics came from the stash. EVERY ONE. I even pieced two large batting scraps so I could make the entire thing from materials I had on hand. That felt good. Scratch that. It felt great! All the pinks came out of the scrap buckets and the backing is a 60" wide pink gingham that has been hanging around for a couple years at least. I made some dresses out of it when the girls were little and this was the left over bit. And it was *just* big enough. The white is Kona cotton in Snow - my new favorite white because it's not harshly bright and not too yellow so it blends beautifully.
I pieced the letters using the Proverbial Quilt pattern by Denyse Schmidt. I traced the templates onto freezer paper, cut them out and ironed them to my fabrics. This made adding the 1/4" seam allowance super easy - I lined the 1/4" mark on the ruler up with the straight edge of the freezer paper and cut. I also layered 2 fabrics for each piece as I need 2 of each of the letters. Again, fast. And bonus - those freezer paper pieces can be used again so I tucked them into an envelope and put that with the pattern. I added big rectangles of solid above and below the name to get it to the size I wanted (about 40" x 50"). The loopy quilting was done freehand after I marked horizontal lines 3" apart as a guide.
Start to finish, I think it took about 6 or 7 hours. Perfect for a baby gift. And probably my new go-to baby gift if I have that kind of time.
Right ON!
Posted by: tracy | March 21, 2011 at 04:23 PM
mad genius, you are.
(we're on a yoda-speak kick around here.)
you inspire me so much all the time, woman.
xo
Posted by: Account Deleted | March 21, 2011 at 04:29 PM
lovely, erin!
Posted by: melissa | March 21, 2011 at 04:32 PM
I love how the quilting and letters blend - it's just perfect. And go you for using stash and scraps.
Posted by: Jennie | March 21, 2011 at 04:34 PM
Holy schmoly!!!! You are amazing. What a lucky baby!
Posted by: Vintage Chica | March 21, 2011 at 04:36 PM
So cute!!! And my granddaughter's name is Hannah, too. One question - what is a scrap bucket? Do you save all of your fabric scraps - regardless of size?
Posted by: Cathy | March 21, 2011 at 05:25 PM
You are my hero.
That is SO ADORABLE - your friend is so lucky!!!
And little Hannah now has a keepsake for ever.
Posted by: seashoreknits | March 21, 2011 at 05:46 PM
oh I LOVE this! you did a fabulous job! I have wild dreams about making my 2 boys & their 9 cousins all quilts that have backings which spell out their individual names...
Posted by: Heather | March 21, 2011 at 06:27 PM
It's so great Erin and it's given me an idea for a quilt I want to make.
Posted by: Mama Urchin | March 21, 2011 at 06:54 PM
I love love love this quilt - especially how crinkly the finished product looks.
Posted by: Emmmylizzzy | March 21, 2011 at 07:44 PM
As I tell my kiddos, "You Rock my Socks!" Great job, Erin. I am sure the mama and the baby will love it.
Posted by: Heather | March 21, 2011 at 07:52 PM
That is beautiful! I am sure it will become a valued heirloom.
Posted by: Jo | March 21, 2011 at 08:09 PM
it is awesome, erin.
what a treasure they will have.
Posted by: leslie | March 21, 2011 at 08:11 PM
What a beautiful, sweet quilt for a baby girl. I love the backing fabric! I'm planning on making a couple quilts for babies due soon, perhaps I'll pick up some gingham, too...
Posted by: Patty | March 21, 2011 at 08:11 PM
so, so sweet! I could never do this...for two reasons. 1) I can't quilt and 2) if I could I would have to stop 18 thousand times to break up the fights between my boys ;)
Posted by: jane | March 21, 2011 at 08:23 PM
awesome :)
Posted by: beki | March 21, 2011 at 08:56 PM
Wow, that is very sweet and it only took a day! I hope to make a scrappy quilt soon.
Posted by: Angle | March 21, 2011 at 09:13 PM
I love it, dude.
Posted by: carolyn | March 21, 2011 at 11:25 PM
love this quilt so much. what a wonderful gift! I may just have to copy you on this. :)
Posted by: anna | March 21, 2011 at 11:27 PM
erin. i love it. man. i still need to make a proverbial quilt for my little one. you must be a super fast hand stitcher. that takes me hours and hours. please share your secrets with me!
Posted by: leslie good | March 22, 2011 at 02:03 AM
I love the way youve quilted it in lines of swirls
Posted by: wendy @ thetexturedleaf | March 22, 2011 at 05:14 AM
It's beautiful. Just simple and beautiful. And even better because I have a new niece named Hannah.
Posted by: Jessica | March 22, 2011 at 07:44 AM
LOVE this! it's awesome.
Posted by: larissa | March 22, 2011 at 10:08 AM
I've been doing that with batting lately too and it works great AND feels good! I love the quilting too.
Posted by: sewkatiedid | March 22, 2011 at 12:27 PM
Oh, Leslie, hand sewing is time consuming for sure! It took me 1 1/2 hours to hand sew the binding on this one.
Posted by: Erin | house on hill road | March 23, 2011 at 02:54 PM
Feel free!
Posted by: Erin | house on hill road | March 23, 2011 at 02:55 PM
You can too quilt. Just do it. ;)
Posted by: Erin | house on hill road | March 23, 2011 at 02:56 PM
I do save most scraps, even the smaller ones. I love digging through the buckets to find *just* the right thing for small patchwork projects. I just made some more little scrappy items that I'll share later this week.
Posted by: Erin | house on hill road | March 23, 2011 at 02:59 PM
That feeling is mutual, friend.
Posted by: Erin | house on hill road | March 23, 2011 at 03:00 PM
erin. that's it?! that would have taken me 1 1/2 hours per side. seriously. you are my hand sewing idol!
Posted by: leslie good | March 23, 2011 at 03:28 PM
As always, you are inspiring!!! Adorable. I dream of making something like that my go-to baby gift someday... at least a girl can dream!
Posted by: amy | March 23, 2011 at 04:54 PM
The quilt is absolutely gorgeous. I love the quilted white with the name in the middle.
Ruth
Posted by: Ruth | March 24, 2011 at 06:42 PM
I am SO impressed! You must be a very efficient worker.
Posted by: Krista-Lee | March 24, 2011 at 06:48 PM
i love it!! you have been on such a roll lately... so many beautiful projects! it is so inspiring. i really lost my mojo for machine sewing a couple of weeks ago and i need it back badly. because that king-sized quilt top is not piecing itself! hoping for a sunday sewing session this weekend.
xo
Posted by: amisha | March 24, 2011 at 11:08 PM
I just HAVE to make a Proverbial quilt. Of some kind.
Posted by: Grace | April 04, 2011 at 01:16 AM