Gaudy Kitty Quilt

  
Oh, gaudy kitty quilt.  I love you so so much.  I am 99.9% sure that this is my favorite quilt that I've ever made, beating this quilt by only 1/10 of a percentage.



Background - We moved Phoebe into a twin size at the beginning of summer;  hence, she needed a new big girl quilt for her big girl bed.


 
If you learned anything about Phoebe from her Rainbow Kitty Party, you know that this girl has a *bit* of an obsession with kitty cats.  So I decided to take all of my kitty fabric - including the super gaudy novelty prints that had been in my stash for forever - and combine them all in a quilt that any 4 year old, cat-lovin girl would go nuts over.  In turn, the Gaudy Kitty Quilt was born.


 
It took me quite awhile to figure out what kind of layout would be best for this crazy quilt.  I didn't want to cut the fabric pieces too small since a lot of these novelty prints have a larger scale.  Plus, I got into quilting because of all the amazing textile design, and I like to really showcase the prints in my quilts.

   

My good friend Rossie is the one who recommended this layout of equilateral triangles with the prints laid out in rows.  I had just finished working on this poor quilt that was never blogged about, which was also made up entirely of triangles, and the last thing that I wanted to look at was MORE TRIANGLES, but I knew that it would be the way to go.



This was my original fabric pull.  I have some other great cat prints in the stash, but once I started putting the majority of the fabrics together, the quilt's own color palette started developing, so I decided to remove the blues and most of the other darker toned prints.  Yes it was being made with novelty cat fabric - but I wanted to at least try and make the final product pretty!



I didn't have enough kitty fabric to complete the entire top, so I started mixing in other things Phoebe likes - butterflies, bugs, birds, bunnies (apparently anything that starts with B), and some blender floral prints that I thought made the color scheme a bit more interesting.  I'm proud of myself for even cutting into some of my preciously hoarded japanese fairytale prints.



After getting the top pieced, I made the decision to send out the quilt top to a professional long-armer to be quilted.  I've always quilted my own quilts on my machine at home - even some much larger than this, but my friend Brenda put the idea into my head to have a design of cats quilted all over the top - which was pretty much the best idea I'd ever heard in my life.

Luckily I know Kathy though our Modern Quilt Guild who owns Thread Bear Quilting.  Not only is she an amazing quilter, but she was able to quilt this design all over the gaudy kitty quilt.

I wish I would have remembered to get a detail picture of the quilting itself, but take my word that it's amazing.  If you look closely in the third picture in this post, you can make out the quilting the clearest. 

And that brings us to the end of this quilty journey.  Phoebe loves, and I mean LOVES her quilt, which makes this momma so darn happy.  But even if she didn't, that would still be okay - because then I'd get to keep it for myself!

Meow! 

**This quilt is part of the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  Click here to be inspired by hundreds of beautiful quilts!

Sewing for school

First day of school!  First day of school!  We have been talking up preschool all spring and summer long and it was wonderful to see my normally clingy child so bouncy with excitement on the first day.



All we needed to send her on her way (aside from one of ten monthly tuition checks and a boatload of paperwork, meetings, orientation, etc.) was a couple of momma-made items to make her feel at home during those long three hours a day, four days a week that she is away from us.



First off - a brand new skirt to wear on the first day.  Fabric is from Sarah Jane's "Out to Sea" collection (narwhals!!!), and the double layer skirt was made using Dana's tutorial.



Next was the most quintessential of school items - a backpack.  I love love love Rae's Toddler Backpack pattern because it's super easy, holds it's shape really well - and it's toddler sized!  Most commercial backpacks are sized so that they practically swallow middle school students - let alone preschoolers.  This one is perfectly proportioned - but also comes with instructions on how to size it up for when your toddlers turn into big kids.



Phoebe picked out the Contended Cats fabric from Tammis Keefe tribute collection by Michael Miller.  A quick search revealed that they have it on sale over yonder at Fabricworm right now!



Truth be told, I don't actually give Phoebe total freedom when picking fabrics for her projects, because otherwise we'd end up with crazy psychedelic animals, or something that would leave a trail of glitter wherever she went.  So I end up picking about four or five fabrics that I think would appeal to her, but yet still stay within my realm of design sense, and let her pick from those.  Win win.



And here's my silly girl at the end of her first day.  Super happy and excited to go back again tomorrow.  Her funniest comment about the day?  "I didn't cry or scream at all....  but lots of other kids did!"

Ack! The cuteness!

This is a post about the Cutest.  Fabric.  Ever.

A Thumbelina border print with flowers, birds, mushrooms, and ladybugs.  If there was a hedgehog or a fox hiding in there, this print would probably burst into flames from the cuteness.

So of course, I had to make it into a skirt for Phoebe. 

I bought a yard and cut it in half parallel to the selvedge (so it was 36" wide x 21" tall), sewed it in a circle, and added some elastic.  Something super simple that lets the fabric do all the talking.  There was still a bit of excess fabric from the half piece that I used, so I whipped up a cute little purse to match.

And what makes this fabric even more amazing and awesome???!!!.....

 

......you've still got the other half of your fabric left to make into a matching skirt and purse for your daughter's bff!  More times that not, sewing your own clothes doesn't save money, but in this case - I got two skirts and two matching purses out of only one yard of fabric.  A high quality, Japanese cotton-linen blend, nonetheless. 

Can it get any better?  Well heck yes, it can!  It's currently on sale in Brenda's shop!  I'm just trying to refrain from making one for myself....

My Preciousness

I don't usually join online quilt-a-longs, bees, and the like, for a couple of reasons.  A) Ever since having children, my sewing time has dropped drastically.  B) I don't like to be held to time constraints when sewing.  I always have a million projects going at once, and I hop between them constantly.  So with A and B going on, I'd never finish anything in time for deadlines.

However, I found Kelly's, My Precious quilt-a-long, so easy and relaxed that I decided to join in the fun.  The basic guidelines?  You can sew whatever you want - it doesn't even have to be a quilt - but you have to use your most precious, hoarded fabric that you'd never dream of cutting into.

Success!  I was in desperate need of a small purse or clutch to stow my wallet, phone, etc. in for when I go out sans children.  And my super precious fabric of choice?  Meadow print in olive from Heather Ross' line Rabbits and Racecars (even though I had previously cut into it a little bit for my kitchen rug project).  I went with the Curvy Clutch pattern from Michelle Patterns.

Why is this fabric my absolute favorite?  The color simply rocks my face off.  I love that bright olive with the hints of orange, pink, and yellow flowers.  And let's face it - those random little turtles and chipmunks are pretty darn cute.

The Curvy Clutch pattern itself came together really nicely - my only issue is that I think that the sew-in interfacing that I used was too thick.  It was a beast to turn, and there is one area on the interior where the interfacing does buckle outward a little bit.  I'd definitely go with something more lightweight next time.  I went ahead and lined it with Wildflowers in brown from Heather Ross' Lightning Bugs line. 

Even though my olive meadow print is now down to scraps, I'm glad that I finally took the plunge and made it into something special.  I'm sure I'll enjoy it much more than if it was still sitting on the shelf.

Check out what my other fabricaholics most precious fabrics are, and see what they made out of them on the May link-up page!

Scattered Stars quilt

Remember this bundle of fabric?

Well, that led to this sketch...
 

Which led to this quilt.

This quilt has kept me pretty busy.  The construction of the stars went rather quickly, but cutting and piecing all of those little extra pieces of fabric that offsets them from one another took forever!  And since I have yet to construct a design wall, I would lay everything out on the floor, and then the cats would promptly dive bomb into my array of perfectly placed little quadrangles.

Isn't that Flamingo solid just fantastic?

I quilted it by first outlining all of the stars, then throwing in some extra star outlines in the larger areas of negative space.  You can't really tell from the photo - but I went with an orange thread that looks fantastic on the pink.

The back is a Jenean Morrison print from her California Dreamin line.

And the most difficult part of this quilt is yet to come - shipping it off to it's new owner!  It's hard not to fall in love with each completed quilt :)

Kid's Clothes Week Challenge

I didn't plan on participating in Elsie's Kid's Clothes Week Challenge this year, but a visit to a local quilt shop led me to this fabric, which was just screaming out to be made into a shirt for Phoebe.

I used Rae's Flashback Skinny Tee pattern, which is super quick and simple.  I made this in size 2T since that fit Phoebe really well when I sewed with it a mere three months ago, but this waffle weave cotton doesn't seem to have as much stretch as a typical knit, so when she went to try it on, she got a little stuck in the shoulders and arms.

After almost scrapping the whole shirt, I decided to chop off the arms (it was originally long sleeved), and that seemed to be just the ticket!

A fun animal shirt for my animal loving girl.

Five Fabricaholics

I am so incredibly lucky to have made four wonderful, amazing, talented, and pretty darn crack-me-up-hilarious friends who share my love of sewing, quilting, and all things fabric.  Even better - they live right in the same town as me (two of them within walking distance).  Another plus - one of them owns her own fabric shop, so we're always surrounded by (and spending way too much money on) gorgeous fabric.  

We get together quite often at our Modern Quilt Guild meetings, Rae's Crafty Meetups, and many of our own sewing nights to gossip about blogs, talk about the latest fabric lines, and of course, SEW!

Last night's get together included a scrap swap, and yes - that is Brenda, owner of Pink Castle Fabrics, that is currently being buried in scraps by Natalie of Greenleaf Goods and Ashley - who really needs to start a blog of her own! Omg - Ashley does have a blog!  Nobody tells me anything...SassafrasGirl.  Anna of Woollykat was standing off camera, probably thinking, "these people are out of control".

Let's do it again soon, girls!  Who's free this weekend?

A little too matchy-matchy?

Last week at the Southeast Michigan Crafty Meetup, I discovered that my new shoes (pardon the dirt that they've already accumulated) perfectly matched the fabric that I was sewing with (from this post).

Now if only I could find whatever fabric was used for the interior of the shoe....  I think it would make a pretty great dress for Miss Phoebe.

Coming up next....

This beautiful bundle was all pulled from my stash except for the Bella solid in Flamingo.  A few more vintage sheets might join the mix, because I really love mixing them with the modern prints.  This stage of choosing and combining fabrics is my favorite in the entire quilting process.  The design for this quilt is all in my head, now I just need to sketch it out and do the math - definitely not my favorite part!

New and vintage fabric acquisitions

I've been stuck in a bit of a thifting rut lately.  It's pretty much darn near impossible to scour the cut throat estate sales with a toddler and a newborn in tow.  Plus, estate sales are pretty few and far between in the middle of winter.  Luckily, I've got quite a backlog of items that have been in need of being washed, photographed, and listed in my shop.


A couple months ago I went to an estate sale that happened to be in the home of a former quilter.  In addition to this quilt that I already showed you, I picked up eight doll quilts, a lap quilt and two gorgeous, hand pieced, trip around the world quilts.


This lady must have finished each quilt then immediately stashed it away, because all of these are in such amazing condition - they look like they were just made yesterday.  And each one of them contains the most beautiful little pieces of vintage fabric that look like they were just cut right off the bolt.


All of these - plus lots of more vintage sheets, fabric, and pillowcases - are all now available in my shop. 


And if vintage quilts and sheets aren't your thing - how about some new fabric?  Brenda, owner of Pink Castle Fabric, has asked me to come up with my own fabric Blogger Bundle to celebrate the move of Pink Castle from their Etsy shop to the new PinkCastleFabrics.com!

I usually gravitate towards aquas, greens, and blues, but I'm ready for some sunshine and warmer weather, so this bundle entitled Citrus Sunrise is full of cheery lemon yellows, watermelon pinks, and tangerine oranges.  Delicious!  You can find this designer 12 fat quarter set available here in Brenda's shop.