John's quilt

I finished this quilt for my nephew, John Shea, in October 2013, and sent it in the mail to him.  He lives in Okinawa, Japan, with his mama and daddy!  This quilt was designed to match his nursery - calm, soft colors of the sea, and a few little lambs. =)  The fabrics have lots of interesting prints - including herringbone, stripes, medallions, and chevrons. The top is an original design of strips and blocks, and the back is a cute lamb print.  I had lots of help from Nana once again - including most of the quilting.

Baby John sleeping with his quilt

Lots more cute (and great quality) pictures of baby John with his quilt here - his mama is so talented with her camera!  I love the mix of colors in this quilt, and I love how much it is loved!

Girls + quilts

I got to visit my nieces Piper, Tallie, and Maddie over the weekend.  They all got their quilts out to show me, and we got this cute picture of them snuggling together. (Yes, Maddie wanted out of there by the time we got the photo, but it was still cute!)  Love these girls!

Nathan's quilt

I got to deliver this quilt to little Nathan this weekend - it was so much fun to see the joy on his face when he realized that this quilt was for him!  Big brother Caleb and big sister Emma LOVE their quilts, so Nathan was thrilled to have one of his own.  Right away he lay down on the couch and demanded, "Cover up!"  I am so glad that he likes it, and his little "I love you, An Dewey" (Aunt Julie) was a priceless thank you!  It was fun to see Caleb and Emma's well-loved quilts too.

Nathan's quilt is pieced from 4-inch blocks in blue, green, yellow and white.  There are star prints, stripes, plaids, and ginghams, and the back and border are blue flannel.  Several of the fabrics are from Caleb's quilt (and some of them have also made an appearance in Noah's, Evan's, and Matt's) their quilts are quite similar, but still individuals, like brothers. =)

Elijah tested it out for me - he said it was cozy.

Me, Jackie, Emma (and her quilt), Caleb (and his quilt), and Nathan with his new quilt!

Finn's quilt

This is my son Finn's quilt, which was finished in August, 2012.  The theme in his room is firetrucks.  The quilt is made of large blocks of firetruck prints, stripes, ginghams and plaids, with denim blue sashing and red plaid borders.  The back and binding are solid red.  It uses many of the same colors from Elijah's quilt - red, denim blues, and yellow - since we are using all the same bedding, etc. My mom did a lot of sewing when she visited to help me get this quilt done!

Madeline's quilt

The top, with a peeking corner of the backing

I made this quilt with my mom for my niece, Madeline (aka Maddie or Lion).  Her mom picked out a fun sheet for the back, and used this crib skirt from big sisters Piper and Tallie.  I used some pinks from Piper's and Tallie's quilts, and added lots of beautiful bright colors - coral, turquoise, green, yellow, and lavender - to match the sheet that we started with.  The design of the top is 6 large blocks with a pink and white striped border.  The back is the large-print floral sheet that Linde picked out, with a double border of pink and pieced aqua strips.  It is bright and bold and pretty and so fun!  I designed and cut the quilt here, mom and I did the piecing together when she came to visit, and then she took it home and did all the quilting and binding at her house.  Isn't the quilting beautiful!?  It was finished in March, 2012.

Work in progress

The back

The top

Brynn's Quilt

Brynn's quilt is finally finished!! Hooray! I made this quilt for my niece Brynn. The design is based on her nursery (and the crib set here, and below), which she inherited from her big sister Rylee. I used many of the same fabrics from Rylee's quilt, including the green gingham Pooh and friends fabric from the crib set. The fabrics are dots and stripes in strips of various sizes, set into 12 inch blocks divided by sashing. The quilting is in 1/4" borders throughout the center.

This is my mom's awesome new sewing machine that we used to finish the quilt. We tried out a fun new stitch for the border quilting. I think it turned out really cute!

The border with heart stitch quilting.

The back is a cute green polka dot.

I like all the soft colors and the playful style of it - maybe because I love polka dots. =)

Emma's Quilt

I made this quilt for Emma Grace, daughter of my friend Erin. I finished it in October 2009, the day after Emma's first birthday. Emma's nursery is lavender with butterflies and flowers. The quilt is made up of 10" blocks with a pieced border. The quilting is in a diamond pattern through the middle of the quilt. I really enjoyed picking out the fabrics for this quilt, and I think the border is fun.


The back is gingham with a polka-dot border and binding.

Tallie's Quilt

Update (August 2010): Here are a couple of pictures of Tallie (age 2) loving her quilt. Sorry that they're fuzzy - they're so cute I had to post them anyway!




My mom and I made this quilt for my neice, Natalie (Tallie) Beth, who is four weeks older than my Molly. We started this quilt while my family was moving across the country, so I designed it, Mom and I put it together, and then Mom did all the finishing - quilting and binding. The quilt was finished in April, 2008. I designed it to match Tallie's nursery (including this bumper). Since they were sharing a room, I also used some of the fabrics from Piper's quilt. The quilt is made up of horizontal stripes in various sizes. The fabric is in various shades of pinks and greens in polka dots, stripes and florals. The quilting is in the ditch.

The backing is floral and polka dots

I really like the effect of the stripes!

Tallie, Piper, and Daddy snuggling with Tallie's quilt

Piper in Tallie's quilt

Fabric shopping

I got to spend an evening recently at craft night with some of the ladies from church - so I was able to work on my current quilt project and hang out with other grown ups! Wow! It was a fun evening. I was asked where I get my fabric and if I have a favorite store. When we lived in Colorado I had a whole bevy of fabric shops that I liked and I enjoyed making the rounds to find just the right fabric for each quilt. Well, I'm sorry to say that I haven't found many fabric stores here yet. We've already lived here for, um, eight months (?) and I think the very first thing I did when I found out where we were moving was to Google fabric shops in the area. (Yeah, and then I looked for the grocery store - priorities!) You would expect me to have all the shops in the area checked out by now, right? Me, too. And um, I found a Jo-Ann's that's 45 minutes and a toll bridge from here. Instead, I have found a whole world of fabric on the internet. (I can go when I want, and I don't have to drag my kids with me. It's what works right now.) So I thought I would share!

Some of my new online finds:

Fat Quarter Shop
The Calico Cottage Quilt Shop
A Counterpane
Sweet Peas & Angels
Desperate Quilters


And here are a few of my old favorite fabric and quilt shops from around the Denver area (I am glad that some have online ordering so I can still shop there!):

Denver Fabrics (They don't carry much quilters' cotton any more, but I find all sorts of great solids, plaids and stripes there that the quilt stores never have.)
The Great American Quilt Factory
Calico Corners
Quilting Hands
Tomorrow's Heirlooms

Of course, I do find things at the big chain stores - Jo-Ann Fabric, Hobby Lobby, and even Wal-mart sometimes. I have been (pleasantly) surprised this year to find a lot more variety and more things I like in the "nursery" fabrics at Jo-Ann's. One of the big problems that I run into when fabric shopping is the lack of nice, appropriate fabric in the colors that people are using for their nurseries. (Not that people are picking odd things, but that the fabric world and the baby decorating world apparently don't talk to each other.) The other thing is that I am always (OK, not always, but usually) looking for nice plaids, stripes, ginghams and tiny floral calicos and they're a lot harder to find than you would think.

I have to say that I am a lot more picky about getting exactly the color/pattern/style that I want than the stores that I shop in. I like to get higher quality fabric when I can, but I am also shopping on a tight budget. So I get the best color, fabric, and price I can, whatever that may look like today.

My kids with their quilts

I took a couple of pictures this week of Elijah and Molly with their quilts:



I had to wash Elijah's again this week, and I am pleased at how well it has done so far. He's been sleeping with it consistently for a year and a half now and I've washed it several times, and it still looks like new (and as far as I can tell, all the seams are still rock solid). It is really important to me to make quilts that are washable and durable as well as beautiful, so I am thrilled that my own personal tests are turning out well so far!

Here we go again!

I am starting a new quilt. Yes, it's a crazy thing to do - Molly is just 2 months old and just keeping up with the house is more than I can do sometimes and my mom isn't here to help me, and maybe I won't be able to finish it anytime this year, but I want to try. My friend Erin is having a baby girl soon, and since big brother Caleb got a quilt, I can't let his little sister go without. So we will see if I can do it. We are also excited that we are going to have a new niece or nephew in February, so I'll have one more quilt to work on soon!

Molly's Quilt

Molly's quilt is finished! My mom did the rest of the sewing while she was here. This quilt is pretty random, but I really like it. I wanted to make a pretty baby girl quilt that would go with the colors in Elijah's room (which Molly will soon be sharing). I started with red gingham and chambray blue and added pink, lavender, yellow and green in ginghams, florals and dots. The border is chambray blue stripe with eyelet. The back is a light pink dot print. The quilting is in the ditch.

And two more on the way

Well, my mom has done a lot of sewing lately, even if I have been too busy and tired to do very much myself. There is no way that the two baby girls coming this summer would have gotten quilts at all if it weren't for Nana sewing like a maniac!

While Patrick was moving us to RI and Elijah and I were staying at my parents' house, we designed and did all the fabric shopping for both quilts, then cut out and pieced the top and back for my niece's quilt. I left that one in Colorado in my mother's capable hands, now that my part is done. And I hear that it is already quilted and ready to be bound! WOW! I will post pictures when I get them.

Mom and I brought all the fabric for my daughter's quilt to RI with us, and spent the week accomplishing more sewing than unpacking. I laid out the patchwork and Mom got it all put together. Now I just have to add the border, cut the back, quilt and bind it. I'm excited about it, but it'll just have to wait until we get all unpacked and settled in here. Soon!

Rylee's Quilt

Here is Rylee's quilt - my mom helped me finish it a couple of weeks ago (while we were moving into the new place) and last weekend I was able to give it to Rylee when we went to PA to visit. I am glad that the sewing went quickly and fairly smoothly and I'm very glad Rylee (and her mom) like it!
Rylee's quilt is a patchwork of 5" squares in yellow, blue, cream, sage green and pale pink, with a Winnie the Pooh theme. I designed it to go with her nursery (you can see pictures of it here and here), and the fabric on the back is from her set, with a green border. Both front and back borders and the binding are flannel. I think it is soft and pretty. =)

Sewing up a storm - hopefully

Now that Caleb's quilt is finally finished, I have started working on three little girl quilts. I've got a pretty tight time line, but my mom is helping a lot and I think we can do it! We started on my niece Rylee's quilt this week, for which I had already had done the fabric shopping, and the patchwork top is already done! Hooray! Now I just have to design and shop for the next two - our little bean who is coming in June, and our next niece who is due in May. It will be fun to be working on pretty, girly quilts for a change!

Caleb's Quilt

Caleb's quilt is finally finished! Here is the final product. The quilt is a random patchwork of 2 1/2 inch squares in blue, green, yellow and white. There is a combination of gingham, plaids, stripes, and star prints, with a border, binding and back of solid blue flannel. I designed it to go with his nursery theme. I think it turned out really well, and I'm so glad it's done!