TGIFF!

I fell in love with the Doe collection from Carolyn Friedlander when it came out and purchased a jelly roll at a fabric shop in Virginia last December.  I've hung onto this jelly roll until recently when I put this baby quilt together using the Jelly Roll Jam pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop.  This quilt is for a little boy that was born today!

I found this fabric at Joann's that coordinated well for the back, and I used scraps from the jelly roll to complete the binding.

This was a quick quilt to put together, and it looks great finished.  I'm so glad I finished the quilt in time for the baby's birth.

Now it's your turn to link up those fabulous finishes here. Don't forget to tour the other finishes and spread the comment love! Please include a link and/or button for TGIFF! so your visitors can see other fabulous finishes.

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Cathedral Windows

I have always loved the cathedral windows quilt pattern, but I was never really excited about all the folding and pressing.  I found this Faux Cathedral Window Pattern on the Diary of a Quilt Maven blog for a pin cushion and decided to use it to make a quilt.

The short cuts did cut down on the amount of fabric used and still allowed me to enjoy the cathedral window pattern.  I was able to really enhance the scrappiness throughout the whole quilt and throw in the occasional pink to welcome a baby girl, the intended recipient.

Although I appreciated the shortcuts, I was still dealing with a very thick quilt with some very thick seams to quilt through.  I won't lie and tell you the quilting was a breeze.  I broke 6 needles in the process.  Lets just say I was thankful this was a baby quilt.

I found this confetti print at Bumbletees, a local fabric shop in Germantown, TN.  It really pulled all the colors together along with some fun orange.

This shot really helps to showcase the quilting of the quilt. Again, I focused on building and improving my free motion quilting skills.

I'm glad I finally tackled the cathedral window pattern...sort of.  I think I've fulfilled my desire to make this pattern.  On to the next project...

Quilts for Le Bonheur

The Memphis Area Modern Quilt Guild has made the Le Bonheur infant floor it's primary outreach.  Most people make baby quilts for the NICU babies, but they tend to forget about the ones not in NICU.  We donated quilts last year to this floor and it was just a wonderful experience.  We got to go up to the floor and take a tour.  We got to donate quilts directly to some of the families on the floor.  It touched us so much and decided right then that this was what we wanted to do as a guild each year.

This year, I utilized a quilt I started in my Color Value class at Quiltcon with Cheryl Arkison.  I learned a lot about the value of color and how to really develop a quilt by value and not by the color itself.  It is an amazing skill that I'm glad to have been introduced to.

I've found that yellows are the exception to the value rule.  I think I'll be spending some more time evaluating my yellow selections in the future.

The quilting was a fun Free-Motion Quilting (FMQ) practice.  It has been my goal to get more comfortable with my FMQ this year.  I've found the smaller the quilt the easier, but I'm sure I'll be tackling more difficult FMQ projects in the future.

The back is just some fabric from Joann's that coordinated really well with the assortment of fabrics used on the front. This will be a wonderful little quilt for a special little someone in need and I'm so glad I get to participate.  For those of you in quilt guilds, what type of service projects to you participate in?

Broadway Mini Quilt Swap

I have a love for Broadway musicals.  I've already bought my pass for this season's Broadway series with the Memphis Orpheum.  I can't wait to be able to introduce my children to the wonders of singing and dancing on stage.  It's going to be great!

When I saw the Broadway Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram, I signed up immediately! I couldn't even begin to describe the excitement.  My all-time favorite is Wicked.  When my swap partner also indicated she loved Wicked, I went for it.  I found a paper-piecing pattern of Elphaba online and expanded it a bit.

I then used tracing paper to draw the Wicked musical logo onto the black fabric and stitched it out.  It took a while to complete this, but the texture it brought to the quilt was great.

I struggled with the quilting of this one.  I didn't know quite what to do or how to approach it.  In the end, I'm glad I went with some dense wavy lines.  It adds a fun element without taking away from the piecing.

The back is just a solid piece.  I found this print at Joann's that matched exactly.  I decided to not make things more complicated and finish with a solid piece.  Since this is a wall hanging, the back really doesn't matter too much.

I had so much fun making this mini.  I think I'm done with online swaps for this year, but next year should be lots of fun.

My First Mini Swap

This year I decided to participate in a couple of online mini quilt swaps.  The first one I joined was the Cotton and Steel Mini Quilt Swap.  I just love the Cotton and Steel line and it sounded like loads of fun.  I also fell in love with the tissue box mini pattern by Jeli Quilts.  Combining the two led to this fun creation.

It was a bit of a challenge placing the correct color in the correct spot, but it all worked out well in the end.  This pattern really does a nice job showcasing lots of prints all at once.  The original tissue box mini is absolutely amazing using solids.

The back is just some slicing and dicing.  I knew I needed to utilize the fabrics and wanted a bit more interest than just a solid back.

My first mini quilt swap was a success.  We mailed the mini back in June, so I'm a bit behind on my posts.  I'm trying to catch up I promise!  I currently do not have a computer at home, and my frequency of blog posts has dropped dramatically.  I've really missed the online community, but I hope to have a solution soon.  Stay tuned!

TGIFF!

Welcome to TGIFF!  It's that time of the week to share all our wonderful finishes.  This week I finished a star baby quilt for some dear friends of ours.  Their baby is due next week so I really was cutting it close with this one.

This quilt allowed me to utilize some of my scraps from other projects.  I really love how the colors pop against the dark gray and the text print.

The text print is actual chemical equations.  The dad is Dr. Chemistry himself so this was truly fitting.  I'm sure the baby will be able to understand all those equations by the time he/she starts kindergarten.  

The back ties into the front with the elements in the periodic table.  When I found the Equations and Periodic fabrics at Pink Castle Fabrics, I just couldn't decided which one to go with.  I ordered both and I couldn't be more please with the results.

Now it's your turn to link up those fabulous finishes here. Don't forget to tour the other finishes and spread the comment love! Please include a link and/or button for TGIFF! so your visitors can see other fabulous finishes.

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Herringbone

I've been quite busy working on a large queen-size herringbone quilt for a while now, and I've finally finished it.

There are 528 half-square triangles in this quilt. Talk about a lot of trimming!

I ended up using Windham Fabric's wide quilt back writing for the backing. This is the first time I've used wide quilt backing, and I must say it was wonderful. I've always pieced my backs before today, but I might just be looking for more opportunities to use the wide backing in the future. It saved so much time!

I used Kona Royal Blue for the binding.  I really think the blue compliments the quilt nicely and doesn't distract from the pattern.