Granny's Medallion Quilt

A few years back, I came across a quilt that my friend Amy of Diary of a Quilter had taken a photo of at a quilting retreat and posted it on her blog. The moment I saw it, I was obsessed. It was one of the most beautiful quilts I had ever seen. I reached out to Amy to get more info on who the maker of the quilt was.

Once I had the makers information, I reached out and asked about a pattern for the quilt. It wasn't until I took at look at her Instagram that I realized that it was actually someone that I knew and had met a couple years prior at the Spring Quilt Market in 2016. I had been sitting in a room waiting for the Tula Pink schoolhouse to begin when the woman sitting next to me struck up a conversation. She was very friendly and we got to know each other a little in the 15 minutes we chatted before the class began.  Little did I realize at the time, just how talented the woman I was sitting next to was! Her name is Paula McKinlay and she teaches classes to make her quilt designs at quilting retreats.

When I contacted Paula, she graciously offered to send me the pattern so that I could make the quilt since I live out of state and wouldn't be able to attend one of her classes. I was so excited!

Then, I found out I was going to have a baby girl, and this quilt couldn't have been more perfect! 

It took me some time to pick out my fabrics. I knew that I wanted to make mine in colors very similar to Paula's original quilt, but I wanted to put my flair into it with fussy cutting the center of the star. All while making the quilt I had this idea of doing a hand appliquéd scallop border for the final border. The original pattern calls for plus blocks- which are just as cute as can be, but I took a leap and started making half circles to hand appliqué. It took a while to complete that final border, but when I finished that last stitch I was so happy that I had done it. I love the way it turned out. 

I used various fabrics from my stash to make the quilt, Paint Brush Studios Shell Pink solid for the sashing and backing, and hand quilted it with Aurifil 12wt thread. 

I finished just in the nick of time before our sweet baby girl arrived this summer. She is just as cute as can be and we are so in love with her. I've been taking time away from sewing to soak in all of the snuggles, and I have been moving every moment of it, so I'll be back sometime...

as you know, "Babies don't keep."

xoxo, Ashley

P.S. For those interested in making the Granny Medallion quilt, you can email Paula at pauladmckinlay@gmail.com and she can sell you the pattern.

Quilted Scripture Case

 We have a tradition in our family of giving a set of scriptures to our children when they are baptized. This August my daughter turned 8, so it was time to get a set of scriptures for her. Which meant she needed a scripture case....

(We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Click here if you want to learn more about what I believe) 

I don't have a ton of time to sew these days, so if I can find something pre-made that's cute and does the job, I'll usually go that route.

(I usually like to save my sewing time for English Paper Piecing on the couch in the evenings) 

I looked around at the scripture cases that were available and none of them were really jumping out to me, so I went to my stash and pulled some fabrics.

The main floral is Rifle Paper Co Birch Floral in Periwinkle from the Les Fleurs line, and the other prints are just random ones I had in my stash. 

I drafted my own pattern for this little case and it turned out darling. There are a few things I would tweak next time I make one, but overall it turned out just as I envisioned it. 

I have one more case to make for my almost 10 year old, because after seeing little sis's case, she pulled some fabrics of her own and has deemed her store bought case not quite what she wants. ;) And... I love that they still think it's cool that mom makes things for them, so I will happily make her a case as well. 

Carnaby Street Messenger Bag

Pattern: Messenger Bag from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew

I've literally had this post sitting in my "draft" folder for ages. I made this bag for my niece over 4 years ago and she still uses it to this day. She's now a senior in high school, and it makes me smile when I see her carrying it around. I'm not sure why I have never hit the publish button on this post- probably just that I have made over 9 of these bags now and figure "enough is enough" (haha), but it's a cute bag, so I figured it was worth sharing. 

I can't say enough, how much I love this pattern. It's very well written and after several years of putting the bag to use I can say that it holds up great and is very versatile. 

TIP: I follow the suggestion in the pattern and used a layer of duck cloth between the interior and exterior fabric since I was using quilting cotton and it worked great. Iv'e done this for each of the bags I've made and the only one that had issues was the bag that I put through the washing machine. The duck cloth shrank considerably more than the quilting cotton and resulted in the exterior of the bag looking loose/baggy. SO... if you are going to wash your bag in a machine instead of just spot cleaning it, I would recommend pre-washing your duck cloth and probably your quilting cotton too. 

I've been doing quite a bit of hand sewing lately. I've been working on my Kingfisher Stitch Along Quilt. I have close to 20 hexie flowers made so far, so I'm almost halfway. For my Grandmother's Flower garden quilt I used 1.5" hexies, so these 1" hexies seem to stitch up quick! I'm really excited to get them all finished and start arranging them on the background fabrics and piece the quilt together. This free pattern by Tales of Cloth and Stitched in Color is a great mix of EPP and machine piecing so if you are wanting a project with a bit of both, it's a good one!

What projects are y'all sewing??

Patchwork Needle Book

I love a good sew-along and I have found some fun ones this year on Instagram!

 Last month my friend Mary (Molly Flanders Blog and Sunny Day Supply Shop) held a needle book sew-along and it was so much fun. I have been needing a needle book, so I was happy to have incentive to make one! 

I used the free Butterfly Charm Block Paper Piecing Pattern by Lily Ella to make the butterfly for the front and then followed Amy of nanaCompany's needle book tutorial to make the needle book. It was a fun little make! 

Do you like Sew-A-Longs? The very first one that I participated in was the Scrappy Trip Along back in 2011. This year I also jumped on the #mushroomsewalong bandwagon and will share what I made soon! There is also Farmers Wife Sew-Along just starting up and I am so tempted! 

Low Volume Strip Quilt

I've always loved the look of low volume quilts, but have just never gotten around to making one until this summer. I think the queen of low volume is Rita of Red Pepper Quilts. She is so talented and has such an eye for putting fabrics together- I love everything she makes! A few years ago she made a low volume strip quilt and it's been on "my list" of things to make ever since.

I wanted my quilt to read as low volume, but girly from afar, so I selected fabrics that had a white background but used a lot of florals and pinks. I cut 2x10 inch strips and pieced them all together randomly. If I were to make this quilt again, I would probably just cut 2xWOF strips and then piece them in long rows, then after they were pieced, trim the rows to 10 inch width. It would have been a lot quicker!

I made this quilt for my niece as a birthday/early graduation  present. I've been trying to do better about adding quilt labels to my quilts lately, so I stitched up this simple label and used leftover strips of fabric to create a log cabin-ish little block.

I backed the quilt in some white/cream flannel that I had in my stash (can't remember the brand, but it is the good stuff- not the thin, cheap kind), and then used my very favorite batting IN THE WORLD- Warm and Plush.  Julie Hirt did the quilting for me. She used the "daisies" pattern and I love how it turned out!  She has quilted 5 or so quilts for me and she does an amazing job!

The flannel backing, batting, and quilting combined to make one snuggly quilt! My daughter had a hard time letting me hand this one over! She begged me to make another quilt and let her keep it! haha

Meet Betsy the Kitty

Last year, my kids and I were walking though a high-end boutique in the city with home goods and also the cutest little kids/baby section full of cute little clothes, toys, and decor. My middle kitty-loving gal found a little knit cat that was both adorable and very expensive. She begged and begged to let me let her use her hard earned money to buy it, but I just couldn't justify the price for what it was. She quietly put the kitty away and we moved on to another store. 

Fast forward several months... Her birthday was approaching and I was trying to come up with ideas of what to get her and I remembered the cat. I found a link online of where I could purchase the cat, but again- the price tag was too high for me to justify buying it for her. I was talking to my mom about it and showed her the cat and she said "That's cute, but I bet you could make one even cuter." I wasn't so sure I could pull it off, but I decided to try. (She plays the role of a mom well and always has faith in my abilities- even if I don't have faith in myself ;)

Like I said, the original cat was knit, so it was all one piece. I wanted mine to be similar but with my flair- and obviously made with fabric instead of yarn since I don't know how to knit! ;)

I used freezer paper to draft my pattern. I like using it because it's large paper on a roll, but also because once I draw a pattern on it, I can iron it to the fabric and cut the pattern out effortlessly. All in all, the pattern I drafted worked out pretty nicely- only a few moments in the construction that I was scratching my head with the design. ;)

(If I were to make the cat again, I wouldn't make her head so wide, or her neck so long. The peter pan collar was an afterthought to cover up the long necked awkwardness! Is this a giraffe or a cat?!? haha)

I used linen fabric (found at Joanns) for the body of the cat and embroidered the face with DMC floss. For the bow and collar, I used Liberty of London Betsy floral in gray. Robert Kaufmann Chambray for the dress, and some scraps for the placket and dress detail. 

I didn't calculate exactly what the project cost since I had a lot of the supplies on hand, but I can tell you it cost roughly less than 1/4 of the price of the cat in the boutique- plus it was made by momma so it's extra special. ;) 

I named her Betsy because of the Liberty of London Betsy floral  that I used to accent her outfit, but my daughter named her Buttons- which I think is very fitting as well. She's already a very loved little kitty!

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Thanks for stopping by!

xoxo, Ashley 

How to Attach a Quilt Label to a Quilt

Quilt labels are the perfect touch to personalize a quilt.... But....

I'm usually so excited to just finish the quilt that I am working on, that I normally skip this step. I've come to realize that a label is important for many reasons though. 

#1- if you are giving the quilt as a gift, it really adds personalization because you can add a name, or a date, or an occasion for the quilt being gifted

#2- if you are keeping the quilt for yourself, you can add any details that you (or posterity) would like to remember for years to come. (for instance, back in 2012, I made Scrappy Trip Along quilt as part of a quilt along on instagram, so for that quilt I made a label that said "Scrappy Trip Along 2012". Original- I know! haha)

I personally love to make quilt labels that are embroidered. I usually stitch my words and then add fabric scraps from the quilt around the edges in some way- just to tie everything in.

I recently discovered Sulky printable sticky fabric-solve stabilizer for embroidery. It's pretty cool stuff. You can print right onto it, so you don't have to trace any patterns, you peel the back off, and stick it to the fabric. Then after you stitch, you soak it in water for a minute and the stabilizer disintegrates. Initially I was kinda skeptical about soaking my newly stitched label in water, but it totally worked. A word of cation though- The first time I tried it, I used a calligraphy sort of font that printed a lot of thick dark ink to for the letters, and then didn't follow directions to use the "draft" setting on the printer so that the ink would print lighter. BIG MISTAKE! Unfortunately some of the ink from the paper stained my fabric while I was soaking and resulted in the label looking slightly blotchy in spots. So make sure that you don't do that. The second time I tried it, I used a font that was thin and printed in the "draft" setting and had no issues.

So once my label is stitched, I trim the fabric down to the size I want and sew strips of fabric around the edges- in this case, a log cabin sort of design.

*side note: I did add a little fabric appliqué detail to the label- for the "8". I printed an 8 on reynolds freezer paper, ironed it to my fabric, cut out the 8 and then applied Pellon 805 Wonder-Under Fusible Web to iron/stick the appliqué to the fabric.

After the label block is finished, I iron the top and left side edge under 1/4" inch to give it a finished edge for stitching. The right and bottom raw edge will be covered by the quilt binding so you don't need to do those sides. 

Next, I pin the label on the back side of the quilt on the bottom right corner. I used a basting stitch and 1/8" seam allowance and baste the right and bottom edge of the label to the quilts edge. 

Then I used straight pins to hold the top and left side edge  in place and used a whip stitch by hand to attach the remaining two edges to the back of the quilt. I do this because I don't like to see where the quilt label is attached when looking at the front side, but if you don't mind you can totally use your machine and sew around all of the edges and be finished. The hand stitching those two edges doesn't take long, and I like the look of it better, so I don't mind the extra step.

 After the label is attached to your quilt, just attach your binding and bind as you normally would.

Voilà! You are done! A finished quilt with a cute little quilt label.

Hope this helps! Thanks for stopping by!
xoxo, Ashley