Duvet Cover & Pillow + Eli + Aurifil!

My three favorite things:

::

1.

Playing with fun fabric to make a duvet cover and pillow for my sassy little cousin heading back to college!  Its an XL twin cover made from Modern Whimsey in organic daffodil by Laurie Wisbrun... and the back is extra fun!  Black and white alphabet print which was originally a duvet cover from Ikea!  LOVE!

The pillow is 18" square with super quick and easy free-motion quilting in a diamond shape to echo the string blocks.  I finished this one late at night and couldn't manage to think of a better quilting design.  I really like how it turned out, though!

An envelope opening for the back.

2.

My little guy attempting to "help" me take photos.  Well, more accurately, trying to find every pair of scissor, rotary cutter, and pin he can get his hands on.  Boys....

But he's getting so big!  Almost two and a half already... how time flies!

3.

AURIFIL THREAD!

... keep your eyes peeled for a giveaway!

*I told you it was three of my favorite things*

So tell me if you've started working on sewing Christmas gifts! its almost September and I haven't even thought about what I might sew up for Christmas... is it too early to feel behind?

{WIP Pillow}

 Been working on a little something for my cousin before she heads back to college next week.  This is going to be an 18" throw pillow for her bed... and the matching Duvet Cover is done too! 

She's going to have the most stylish bed on campus, I think!

Man its been a productive two days!  What's wrong with me?!

Wiksten Tank: 3rd Time's a Charm

I've said it before and I'll say it again:  I'm not one to make clothing!  But this Wiksten Tank is just too easy!  This particular tank is for my sister (Happy belated Birthday sis!) and I needed a different size, thus more taping together of pattern via the pdf pattern. Although, this time I cut out each piece of pattern BEFORE taping it together and it was SO much easier! Better alignment of pattern, to be sure!

I love this fabric by Joel Dewberry, from his Heirloom collection... in 100% cotton voile!

Sister received it in the mail today and appeared to be slightly more than pleased, to say the least.

Needless to say, I think my couple of Wiksten Tanks will be staying in my wardrobe for the fall - just add cardigan and go!

Sunday WIP {Improv Blocks}

 More wonky improv style blocks, all 21" long, but ranging in height from 3.5" to 5".

{Olivia's Quilt} Eeek its done!

My first KING sized quilt is finished and on its way to its new home in Pennsylvania!

Measures 96" x 105"

Foundation piecing for bright strips - more on technique here.

Most of these fabrics were already a part of my stash, I'm reluctant to admit!  Only had to make a purchases of the zig-zags, a few purples, and a few yellows.  Overall, I'm extremely happy with how it turned out!

And the layout was all done by the customer, per below jpg file!  This was her design idea, and I just sketched it out on paper for measurements sake... love her style!

 The back is ALL Amy Butler honeycomb fabric... as chosen by the customer.  I love it!

 The solid grey fabric is Kona in Coal... one of my favorites!

 I'm lucky enough to have a friend who owns a quilting business in the 2nd floor of her house, so I dropped off Eli at a friends and spend the morning learning the ins and outs of programming a longarm machine!  It was fun!  And MUCH better than anything I could have done by myself!  Thank you Lofty Quilting!

This is the backstop of a baseball diamond... sort of gives you perspective as to how huge this quilt really is! The step stool I brought along almost wasn't tall enough... 

 Scrappy bindings are my favorite, so I just used scraps from the top and made 410" worth of 2.5" binding... fun fun!

Custom quilts make me anxious, so I usually only take one or two orders per year.  But I really enjoyed creating this quilt, as the requests were right along my lines of modern, bold colors, fun fabrics, and wonky design.  It also gave me a bit of a confidence boost that I can handle a king size quilt... not that I want to tackle such a huge quilt again, any time soon, mind you! But I survived, learned a lot, and made an heirloom piece to be enjoyed for decades to come.

 Somehow I didn't get a photo of the label, which is a shame, because it was darling!

 Finally, I have to give a monstrous THANK YOU to my fellow quilty friend, Jaclyn, who assisted me in taking these photos!  I could not have done it by myself!  And my sunglasses would have been lost for sure.  She's got the same OCD-detail-oriented-must-be-lined-up-perfectly-get-just-the-right-angle demeanor as I've been blessed with.  

What big project do you have in the works?  Christmas is coming! :-)