Floating Pyramid Quilt Finish

It isn't often anymore that I have a reason to make a baby quilt, unless it's for charity, like Children's Home Society of Florida. So when my good friend in Central Florida MQG, Courtney (I rode home from QuiltCon with her in 2023 and 2024) told me last fall that she was expecting their first baby in May, I knew I'd be making a a quilt. 

In March I made Floating Pyramid, a pattern in the book "Modern Baby." 

It was the perfect design to use solids scarps scraps, and my neutral print stash. 

Each triangle shape in the pyramid is cut from made fabric - scraps sewn together and then cut into a triangle shape. While the book provides a triangle template, my Hex 'n more Ruler work well with a strip of blue tape to mark one triangle side. 

Also, the pattern called for specific yardage of four prints for background triangles. But it worked much better for me to cut a wide variety of low volume prints - including a baby print, and floral designs.

My limited stash forced me to come up with a creatively-pieced backing.

From a koala print, purchased in Australia when my grandsons were toddlers, I cut a single triangle, slightly smaller than the one on the quilt front. Then I pieced other prints around it. Across the top is a piece of Project Linus fabric that says "Security is a thumb and a blanket." 

Batting is Quilter's Dream 100% cotton, Select loft. 

From the start, I had a simple quilting plan: spiral quilting starting in the center of the pyramid to fill the pyramid. 

Then, around the pyramid I quilted an old, familiar, unbroken quilting design: a snail trail. 

I bound the quilt with scraps of low volume prints.

I have quilted this snail trail design on dozens of baby quilts. This is the quilting viewed from the back. 

I created a label using MacBook Pages, and printed it on EQ Printables. The graphic I'm sharing here has been edited to remove personal information. 

Anne, a Central Florida MQG member, was my quilt-holder for these pictures which were taken in Oxford near where our chapter meets for workshops and sew-ins. 

Floating Pyramid finished at 48½" X 54½". 

I wrapped the quilt and gifted it to Courtney at the conclusion of Saturday's Central Florida MQG meeting. Courtney and her husband are expecting their baby girl's arrival in May. I hope they get lots of use from this quilt. Linda

WIPs Before Christmas

This season's special activities, functions, and parties have come and gone, and I'm looking forward to a Christmas Eve service, and Christmas day dinner shared at a neighbor's home.

Since we don't have family or friends coming to visit us for Christmas or New Year's, and we aren't traveling anywhere, I've set my mind on keeping busy in the sewing room, enjoying my Bernina 770QE, and tackling a few WIPs (works in progress) that have been occupying a closet shelf for far too long.

Three projects floated to the top of the pile.

Barkcloth Dress 
In July 2017, I started making this barkcloth dress using a GertrudeMade pattern...

...and GertrudeMade barkcloth fabric. The fabric print is called "Bindi," by Ella Blue fabrics in Australia. Both EllaBlue and GertrudeMade have gone out of business, so that makes this dress even more special.

I was stunned to discover that this size 14 pattern is a perfect fit! In commercial clothing, I wear a size 4. Boy. The garment industry has sure messed-up our sizes!

I adore this dress and the way it fits, and I definitely appreciated sewing it on my new machine.

I tried buttonholes for the first time (for those decorative button tabs on the sides), and used a zig-zag stitch to finish raw edges. For future garment-sewing and raw edge stitching, I'm getting a Bernina 2A overlock foot.

Weekender Travel Bag
In 2015 I bought the Weekender Travel Bag pattern, by Amy Butler. I'd heard the pattern was a bit daunting, and learned that for myself as I finished putting it together. The print I chose is a home dec JoAnn Fabrics piece.

I added pockets to the inside lining that are not included in Amy's pattern.

Once again, I wasn't pleased with the instructions which I thought were quite vague in several places. Mostly I find that pattern-writers don't use enough measurements when writing instructions. By my way of thinking, every section should end with "This piece should now measure XX" x ZZ."" My complaints are moot though. Amy Butler isn't designing fabrics or patterns anymore.

Year of Scrappy Triangles
I have one more finished quilt to share! I started it in August 2017 when I joined Leila's Year of Scrappy Triangles.

Each Tuesday, for 52 weeks, Leila published on her blog, free six-inch foundation paper-pieced blocks. Every block is different. I had only to repeat a few to come up with 56 blocks for this quilt.

Joining 56 blocks meant setting-up my 770QE using: 1) the single-hole throat plate; 2) setting the quarter-inch guide bar; 3) putting on the 97D quarter-inch foot, and; 4) engaging the dual feed. Talk about precision piecing!

It's been a long time since I've pieced a quilt top where I could use the web method of joining blocks together. If you haven't tried it yet, my tutorial is here.

I pin-basted, and then quilted it on my Bernina.

Low volume chevrons were walking foot quilted with white 40-weight YLI thread.

All colored fabric areas were free motion quilted with swirls, using gray 40-weight YLI thread.

This is the finished 42-1/2" X 48-1/2" quilt. 

Quilt back

Here's the quilting from the back.

Though the quilt top was pieced exclusively with small pieces of fabric, and bits and bobs from my scrap bins, I can't see any reduction in my stash.

But I have to tell you that in fact, I did go the whole year without any extraneous fabric purchases! That is except for one May purchase of two eight-yard bolts of gray and white, and two wide-backs for backing. They were used to finish quilts, so most of the white bolt is gone, and both wide backs were used.

So I'm patting myself on the back for making 2018 the year of no fabric-buying! And given that I completely finished 13 quilts this year, I think that's pretty good!

An update on our dear boy... This is Hogan last week. He's 15 years and 2+ months old, and has been showing signs of declining. If you'd asked me a couple weeks ago how long he'd be with us, I would have tearily said he'd be gone by the end of the year.

Though he's rallied a little, he suffers from arthritic stiffness, and occasionally coughs, explained by the vet as a collapsing trachea. It's difficult to watch him slowing down. We are grateful for every day with him.

I'm wishing you joy-filled, lovely days ahead, shared with family. May we be filled with reverence and thanksgiving for the blessed gift of Jesus. Linda

Elephant Family Quilt

I've neglected blogging about a baby quilt I completed at the 5GalsQuilt week-long retreat in October. But since Miss Madelyn didn't arrive until November 19, I had to save pictures until the quilt was sent to her. And I waited so I could post these pictures of her with her quilt.

Maddy's mother is my nephew's wife (I made this quilt - Love Links - for their wedding) and she requested a quilt with pink, gray, and elephants. I was happy to oblige, especially when she gave me free reign to make it as I wished.

Using the elephant shape on the invitation I received to the baby shower (which I wasn't able to attend), I enlarged it to different sizes. At first I made only a mama and baby elephant, but when Dan saw them on the design wall, he suggested that they needed a "daddy" - a perfect idea. Each elephant is machine-appliquéd to the background fabric which is Kona Silver.

You'll probably notice that I prefer a quilt to not have an "up" or a "down." So the elephants are parading along the top and bottom of the quilt which should look good draped across a crib rail. Or whichever way Maddy sees it from her stroller seat.

Scrappy pink Three Rail Fence blocks frame the elephants.

Quilting is mostly cross-hatch, though there are a couple rows of quilted letters: "M." Yes, we knew ahead of time that her name would be Madelyn.

The 38" x 48" quilt is backed with an elephant print in flannel.

Babies are very precious, and this little one is exceptionally so. I can't wait to meet her in person next spring.

Linda

No News

For those who have been concerned about our Hogan... we haven't yet heard anything about his pathology report, though the surgery was six days ago. Yesterday the vet phoned to inquire about the condition of his skin infection which appears to be gone, as he is no longer scratching, and the sores have scabbed over. That's good. We're keeping him on doxycycline for one more week. But we don't know anything more about the cancer in the tumor the vet removed.

Hogan is still wearing two of my t-shirts as that's the only thing protecting his sutures.

If he looks a little "dull" here, it's because he's still on pain meds, six days post surgery. We've cut back to one a day. Though he walks a little stiffly, he doesn't seem to be favoring his right side, even laying on it as he is in this picture. His five-inch long incision is on his chest, through the muscle of his right front leg. You can see where the vet shaved his leg, presumably to insert an IV.  

So, we wait.

In other news, my hubs made the local www.Villages-News.com. He's now the official vice president of The Villages chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). He got into this organization after we moved to Florida. A neighbor who's into genealogy, did most of the work to trace Dan's roots. After finding Jehiel, who was Dan's link to the American Revolution, our neighbor helped Dan put together the paperwork to officially induct Dan last year. The same neighbor then took it upon himself to start this SAR chapter in The Villages which was dedicated last Saturday.

Dan's the one on the far left, looking especially trim in his navy blazer. Iowa friends: He's lost weight since we moved here.

I've completed quilting the baby quilt. The design is curvy veins that flow between the white and print rectangles, and off the veins are individual and clusters of hearts. The same pattern is in the print fabric, so it was an easy design to mimic. My friends know how much I dislike hearts/the shape of a heart - have never liked them - so it was a stretch for me to quilt this. But, I'm not keeping the quilt, so it's okay.

The backing is pieced rows of different prints.

For the binding, I'm thinking of trying flanged binding. My friend Karen presented a demo of this method to our Central Florida MQG. It looks pretty neat, and is completely machine sewn. Now that's something new for me! I'll let you know how it goes...

From a life-long, binding hand-stitcher, Linda

Book Giveaway

My Swiss house guest is gone, and I miss the good times we shared, playing together every day. And now it's time to return to the sewing room.

Do you need to make a quilt for a baby? Or make a quilt that's a little larger, for a young child? Then, have I got the quilting book for you!

My quilter-friend Carla of Lollyquiltz and I know Shea Henderson of EmptyBobbinSewing who has a quilt design in Modern Baby. I was sent the book and asked to make a quilt from it - such an honor to be asked! It just so happens I need a boy quilt for another grandson who's due January 6.

So besides Shea's quilt in the book, there are also designs by:

Audrie Bidwell - BlueisBleu

Carolyn Friedlander - CarolynFriedlander

Melissa Corry - HappyQuiltingMelissa

Jen Eskridge - ReannaLilyDesigns

Sarah Flynn - FairyFaceDesigns

Dana Boldsyard - OldRedBarnCo

Amy Smart - Diary of a Quilter

Carrie Bloomston - SuchitySuch

Jake Finch - MamaMakesQuilts

Victoria Findlay Wolfe - BumbleBeans

Lindsey Rhodes - LRStitched

and Pippa Eccles Armbrester - PippaPatchwork

Yep a whole lotta talent, and a whole lotta patterns in one book!

back cover

If you'd like to see more of what's inside Modern Baby, look here at the Martingale site.

The design I chose to make is "Square Dance," by Lindsey Rhodes. I didn't exactly follow her layout though because I wanted to use this Robert Kaufman "Friendly Seas" print as the center focus of each shape. 

It was easy enough to refigure what amount of fabric I'd need to make the substitute. My pencilled notes are on the lower left side of the page. 

All the solid colors came from my stash, so I only needed to coordinate them with colors in the print.

Making the top was a piece of cake! Instructions were clearly written, and it was easy to sew.

It seems like I whipped this up in no time at all!

So far, the Square Dance quilt top measures 43" X 59-1/2" - a nice size for a baby growing to toddler. Lindsey's finished quilt is cross-hatched, but when I get to it, I'll be doing something different.

I give Modern Baby a big thumbs up for the variety of designs it includes, some of which I wouldn't hesitate to make in other colors to hang on a wall in my own home!

If you're in the US, and you'd like to win the book Modern Baby, leave a comment for a chance.

This giveaway is now closed.

Fractured Hexagons by Jen Eskridge

For a second chance at the book, visit Carla at Lollyquiltz to see her take on the Modern Baby "Fractured Hexagons" quilt, and then comment to enter her giveaway too!

Sorry, due to shipping costs, these giveaways are open only to residents of the US.

This giveaway is now closed.

Both our giveaways are open through Thursday, November 14.  Linda

Another Finish

I haven't finished another quilt, but I did finish teaching my first-in-Florida five-week series of beginner quiltmaking lessons. The last class was Thursday morning, and it's was fun to see what everyone created, and hear their plans for future quiltmaking. (Five of the 18 students were unable to attend the last class.)

Most students completed their quilts, and several have started another. Those who didn't finish got a little hung up on binding, but all have said they will finish their quilts. I'm so proud of them!

The Daily Sun newspaper came out to take a few pictures and talk to a few women... who said the nicest things.

A picture didn't appear with the article, but that's okay. We know who we are and what we accomplished! Way to go quilters! Linda