a quilt for my mother

on a fence at my parents' place, May 2013

The first quilt I ever made was for my niece's first birthday in Jan 2011, using Bonnie and Camille's Bliss collection. My mom loved the fabrics and wanted a quilt of her own. I was brand new to the online quilting scene but had read somewhere that once fabric was printed and sold that was it, gone forever.

my first niece on her first birthday with my first quilt, Feb 2011

So, with the intent of making her a quilt for mother's day, I immediately went back to my local quilt shop (which is now closing, btw) and bought five charm packs, a jelly roll and three yards of the cheater print, all that was left of the Bliss fabric they had in stock. That was two and a half years ago.

bliss stash, Feb 2011

Fast forward about six months and some lovely blogger ladies (Jennifer and Sarah) were hosting their Across the Sea quilt along and I mistakenly thought it was a Greek Cross block pattern. I jumped on board and cut into my bliss stash, this time intending to finish a quilt for my mother by Christmas. I had a digital mock-up I made in paint and new-found ambition.

original mock-up, Aug 2011

I got all the half square triangle and half-square rectangle segments pieced before realizing that the quilt I was making didn't fit with the QAL at all. Talk about embarrassing! I'd been posting pictures on the flickr page and I'm sure everyone was thinking "who is this chick and what the heck is she doing?!"

on the design wall, Nov 2012

I also noticed that the fabric I'd used as a background was basically blending together with many of the lighter fabrics in the Bliss collection, which felt like a mistake on my part. My mom then mentioned that the quilt I'd made for my niece had a lot of brown in it, which was the main thing she liked about it. I'd pulled all the browns since there weren't enough of them to really work with my design. This is when I stalled out and let things sit for a while.

on a fence at my parents' place, May 2013

Christmas and her birthday came and went. I briefly pulled it out again to work on for Mother's Day but didn't get far. Then I met my husband, so I didn't get a whole lot of quilting done for a minute. Fast forward to November of 2012, I was feeling like a major loser for not getting any sewing things done to give as Christmas gifts. Jon suggested we finish up the Bliss quilt for my mom. WE? This man spent a whole evening arranging nine-patch segments oh so perfectly given my strict specifications. I would sew, he would press. Talk about love!

on the design wall, Nov 2012

I made the executive decision that my original plan for 30 blocks just wasn't going to happen. I stole some of the HST units from said unmade blocks to construct a border, and would have added another border using background fabric but there wasn't enough of it left. I think the quilt would have looked awesome if the design were floating, but I had the opportunity to quilt it on my aunt's mother's longarm while visiting family over Thanksgiving, so there just wasn't time to order more.

on the longarm, Nov 2012

Oh, and I added some brown! For two reasons, really. My mom wanted more brown, and I think the quilt needed some blocks that "pop" out of the design, since several of the others seem to fade in and out. I grew to love that about the others once I added the brown focus blocks. It gives kind of a modern vibe to a traditional quilt. I also used a brown thrifted bed sheet for the backing and the same fabrics as those added brown blocks to construct a scrappy binding.

swirly quilting, brown stripe backing, scrappy binding, May 2013

Christmas crept up on me and I had to gift-wrap the quilt sans binding, but I did manage to sew the last hand-stitch to finish it while sitting in the car on the side of the road with a flat tire in subzero weather on the last night of the year. Just in time to hand it back to her twelve hours later on her birthday. She's a New Years baby!

mom on her birthday, Jan 2013

Quilt stats:

Name: Bliss Cross Quilt (clever, I know!)

Size: 56" by 68" finished
Focus fabric: Bliss by Bonnie and Camille for Moda
Background fabric: Faded bouquet by Meg Hawkey for Lecien
Batting: 100% cotton low loft
Binding machine sewn to front, hand sewn to back
Pieced and long arm quilted by me

It took just over a year to make and just under a year to finally blog about, but it's FINISHED! So I'm celebrating by linking up with Finish it Up Friday over at Crazy Mom Quilts to celebrate :D

Note: I accidentally hit "publish" instead of "preview" when I wasn't quite done yet, so apologies to those email subscribers who got the in-progress version first. Oops!

comma mini charm zip pouch

The Moda booth at Quiltcon was handing out free mini charm packs, comprised of 2.5" squares. I picked the Comma line by Zen Chic and immediately sewed it up into a simple patchwork panel when I got home. I pieced them using the fusible interfacing method, mostly because I planned to make a zip pouch from it and figured the stiffer it was, the better.

I added some batting and quilted it using a zig-zag stitch along all the seams, then decided it wasn't quite stiff enough for my liking and went back over it with a grid on the diagonal through the points. All this was done with my walking foot. I used some mechanical genius circuit boards (a Timeless Treasures print I got for 50% off at Fat Quarter Shop a while ago, gotta love a good deal!) for the backside and quilted it with wavy lines in orange thread. 

The lining fabric is a Tina Givens print called "on the fence" which I picked up a few months ago in a super sale at delta patchwork for something like 2 dollars a yard. Talk about cheap! The scale of the print turned out way larger than I was expecting, so I figured I'd use some of it up for this. 

I put little tabs on the ends of the zipper and kept the zipper+tabs length a good 1.25" shorter than the width of the outer panels so the tabs wouldn't get sewn into the seams. This way it's less bulk to sew through and the corners look neater, I think. I also kept the lining a good half inch shorter on the sides and bottom, making it a tad smaller so it would fit better inside the pouch. 

I'm very please with how it turned out, even though it took me a month and a half to finally install the zipper and finish the darn thing! It measures in at a generous 12x14 inches and will be perfect for carrying my rotating cutting mat, square rulers and other larger, flattish quilting tools when I'm traveling. And kudos to me for whipping up a post about it the same day I finished it!

There are still two hours left in this Friday, so I'm linking up with Amanda Jean over at Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday :D

Oh and don't forget about the Give Me Liberty! sew-along Nicole and I are hosting! I plan to post about my progress on Monday and would love for you to come by then and share where you're at in the comments. Have a fantastic weekend!