I've been overcommitted. Completely over-scheduled and over-extended in every area, and nothing is coming together quite right.

Spring is coming. Soon. It has to.

I've been working on this quilt off and on for months. I fought the urge to completely scrap it and start over a couple times, and I'm glad I did. Below is how I made it. It's more of guidelines rather than a pattern, so feel free to ask if you have questions.

Finished size

44.5" x 52" - I tend to make baby quilts larger than crib size, since the babies are only crib size for less than two years. I like to give them things they'll be staining for years.

Supplies

Piecing

• Six fat quarters - I used batiks in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet
• 1 yard sashing fabric (white). You might want to get a little extra, to be safe.
• 1/3rd yard border fabric (red)
• Thread and other common quilting notions

Finishing

• 1/2 yard  - Binding - I used the same fabric as the backing.
• 1.5 yards 56" fabric - Backing - I used a solid red.
• 48" x 56" Batting

Cutting

Cut each of the fat quarts into strips that vary between 1" and 2.5" at their thickest and thinnest.

Divide each color into thirds. Sew the strips back together, alternating one third with the color prior in the spectrum, one third with the color after, and one third with itself. Continue to sew them together, pressing the seams open, until you have one long strip of fabric.

• Cut this reconstructed piece of fabric into 5" strips, cutting the same directions as the seams.
• Cut each of those strips into pieces that are 2.5"x5"
• From those, select 22 and cut them in half to make 44 2.5" squares - C1
• You will need 60 5" x 2.5" blocks. You should have extras. - C2

From the sashing fabric, cut

• 40 - 1.5" x 2.5" - S1
• 55 - 1.5" x 5" - S2
• 8 - 1.75" x 2.5" - S3
• 10 - 2" x 35.5" - S4
• 2 - 2" x 46" (if you use standard 42" width fabric, you'll need to piece these) - S5

From border fabric, cut

• 2 - 3.5" x 38.5"
• 2 - 3.5" x 40.5"
• 2 - 3.5" x 12.5"

Piecing

Finishing

Create 4 short rows and 5 tall rows, pressing the seams.

Short row (SR):

S3 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S1 - C1 - S3

Long row (LR):

C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2 - S2 - C2

 

Alternate color rows and sashing as follows. Press seams.

• S4
• LR
• S4
• SR
• S4
• LR
• S4
• SR
• S4
• LR
• S4
• SR
• S4
• LR
• S4
• SR
• S4
• LR
• S4

Sew the S5 pieces to the side.

Sew short border to the top and bottom. Press seams. Sew remaining border pieces to the left and right. Press seams.

Quilt and bind.

I was highly productive while avoiding writing my final paper. Now that I'm trying to finish my sister's Christmas present, I'm working on everything but it. Deadlines are crafting dementors.

I knocked out my first clapotis for a friend. It's about 3.5 skeins of Cascade Luna. I still don't know how I feel about cotton yarn, but this stuff was nice to work with, and seems to wear nice.

I think I only did two repeats, both horizonatlly and vertically. I finished it in a weekend, by far the fastest I've ever made a scarf.

 

All that's left to do is hand-sew the binding on the quilt I made from this fabric. I'm pretty happy with the result. The owner should be making her world debut in about 2 months, so I'll post the top after I give it to her folks.

I'm pretty pleased with my quilting, though. I did something other than stippling.

I bought fabric for the nephew's quilt. It's fishy, so I think he'll grow up to be a marine biologist. Hopefully, I'll start that this week or next.

I made Oliver some catnip toys using scraps from the quilt.

I have this.

I made it from cutting up 6 batik fat quarters and reassembling.

I was thinking about doing a paintbox-style quilt, and cut this up into squares and then put white sashing between the blocks. Not sure if I'm going to do that now.  I'm thinking vertical rectangles with white between.

Whatever it is, there will be lots of white. That much I know.

Finished a damson last night. I do like it, but I fear that it's one of those things that knitters love and wear and non-crafters think are weird. There is something about making things that makes you completely blind to whether or not you should actually wear them.

I'll wear it 'backwards', so that the back bunches up in the front. Can't quite do the shawl thing. It's a little too 1940's Poland for my tastes.

I also finished the quilt top for one of the baby quilts. I went with a slight variation of Layout #3. I don't have any backing fabric, so odds are this one will sit on the shelf for a while.

I can't really decide if I'll actually give it away. I kind of want to drape it on Pico's chair, but that's all but a death sentence for the poor quilt.

Two more babies coming. Babies everywhere!

This means quilts. Any opinions on which layout I should use?

I'm pretty sure I won't use 4. These are all layed out as squares, but I'll probably add two more rows to the bottom to make these a little taller.

This quilt was inspired by one I saw at the International Quilt Study Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mom, my aunt, my grandparents and I went when I was home for Thanksgiving.

This version is for the newest little one in my life, Rowan. It's 40" square

I'm not going to write up instructions, but here's the Excel spreadsheet that shows construction and has some notes. If you have questions, feel free to drop me a line and I'll answer it here. Close up of the fabric is here.

Download Excel spreadsheet of pattern.

Supplies

• Main color (MC), white - 1 yard
• Color 1 (C1), green - 1/4 yard
• Color 2 (C2), blue - 1/4 yard*
• Color 3 (C3), yellow - 1/3 yard*
• Color 4 (C4), red - 1/2 yard
• Binding fabric - 1/3 yard (2.5" binding)

*You will need exactly this amount of cut fabric, so you might consider buying a little extra to be safe.

 

This was a quilt made for a friend's first born.

Finished size: 49"x55"
This is a good size for a blanket for a baby to play on and works well for a toddler bed.

Materials

• .25 yards of 6 colors

Finished size: 34"x41"