Happy Birthday Julie–One Block Wonder Quilt

My dear friend Julie hit a milestone birthday this year and so I wanted to give her something special.  I’ve been quilting for about 4 years and since I started she’s dropped a hint of two that she’d like one.  She even asked if she gave me the fabric, would I make her one and I said yes but nothing ever happened.  So as her birthday approached, I knew what I had to do. I contacted her son, Patrick, and asked him what colours were in her bedroom.  He said poppy. 

I was off to Joanns and saw this fabric.  It may not be exactly the colours I was after but it grabbed my attention and I usually take that as a sign.  So I bought 6 yards and brought it home.  Six yards????  Well I wasn’t making a typical quilt where you match up different fabrics.  I decided this fabric would be fabulous for a one block wonder.  A one block wonder takes the repeats of the fabric and then you cut it into triangles and create hexagons of identical pieces.

I had intended to get it to Julie before she went of her birthday holiday to Australia but alas, life got in the way.  I did actually finish it before her birthday but with the mail system and crossing the border to Canada, it wouldn’t have made it before she left.  So I mailed it so it would be there when she got home.

I don’t get to quilt as often as I used to but I love it.  It’s a great use of brain power!

So here’s how I did it!

I bought fabric:

I cut fabric, this is but a fraction of the number of triangles I had to sew together (approx 1300 triangles):

I sewed lots and lots of hexagons:  They are all sitting on the design sheet and the rows are pinned but not sewn together. 

I sewed the rows of hexagons together and added a border:

I chose a backing: It’s an awesome Chinese characters fabric.

I quilted front and back and added a binding:  The binding is the original fabric to bring it all together.

I added a birthday note:

I folded the quilt and took another pic, because I love this look!

I mailed it!

From start to finish it took about a month part time.

So Happy Birthday Julie.  I hope you have an awesome year and may the next part of you life be better than the last!

Thanks for looking!

Linking with:
Tuesday To Do Party
Handmade Tuesday
Get Your Craft On
Gallery of Favourites

Welcome Baby Damen!

Another baby, another quilt.  Our good friends Jeff and Wanda just added another bundle to their little family.  Big sister Nyah is proud to introduce Damen Jeffrey Madott!  He was born on June 1st as scheduled and from the pics I’ve seen is just the cutey petutey!

Wanda had always said if they ever had a boy they were going to use Dr. Seuss in the decorations. I’m not entirely sure that is the case anymore but I had the most amazing Dr. Seuss fabric, I just had too.

So for little boy Madott, I give you Dr. Seuss!

I added his name and date of birth and used the word fabric for the binding, so all the book titles go around the quilt!

Thanks for looking!

Linking with:
Mingle Monday
Get Your Craft On
Chic & Crafty
I'm Loving It Friday

Welcome baby Stella Isabelle Pecorella

Our dear friends Isabelle and Santo have just made a new addition to their brood.  They welcomed baby Stella on July 2nd, 2011 (also my daddy’s bday!)  With two boys, Mario 4 and Santino 2,  already running around and causing chaos, this baby girl will be quite the change.  With two girls of my own, I can definitely say that with certainty.

Since I didn’t get a chance to make anything for the boys, they get a little something too!

For Stella I gave her my first attempt at an applique quilt.  I saw something similar at Pottery Barn and thought I could do that!  So this is what she got:

 

I found this totally cute mermaid fabric that I had to use and with that, I matched all the wild colours on the front.

And of course her name and date of birth is on it.  They are in Canada so the date may look wrong, but we Canadians like to do things different, day-month-year!

and then for the boys. Pillows!

Thanks for looking!

Linking with:
Party Mindie Stlye
Weekend Wrap Up
Show and Tell Saturday
Mingle Monday
Get Your Craft On
Chic & Crafty
I'm Loving It Friday

Welcome Baby Jordan!

Our good friends Keith and Manon just added an addition to their family. Welcome baby Jordan Edouard Young.  Jordon is the cute baby brother to Elliot who is one and a half.  God bless Keith and Manon for having 2 kids under 2! 

So in my true tradition, I made baby Jordan his very own quilt.  I made one for Elliot when he as born too, you can see it here.

This is a crazy nine patch pattern using the cutest owl and turtle fabric. This is a fun and easy pattern which you can find at Oh Fransson! Elizabeth has the most awesome site with great and easy to follow patterns, tips and tricks.

I found this awesome quilt back fabric at Joann’s.  The match of colours was perfect.  I used a cream thread to quilt, so it’s hard to show.  I sewed stitch in the ditch around each square of colour and then quilted hearts, stars, owls and turtles into each square.

In this block I did his Monogram!

My new machine also allows me to add alphabet stitches to my quilts, so I added Jordan’s name and date of birth!  It slipped a bit at April, so it looks like Aprll, ah well.  Still working with it.

So congratulations to the happy family! I hope he loves his quilt.  Can’t wait to meet you Jordan!

Thanks for looking!

Linking with:
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up
Show Off Your Stuff - Fireflies & Jellybeans

Black, Red and White–a tale of two quilts and a giveaway!

Who would have thought that black, red and white would be the colours for my latest quilting projects?

The first one is the one-block-wonder quilt I started to blog about in The Start of Something New blog post and now it’s finally completed. Here’s a peek at it while on the sewing machine.

This took longer than I thought but in the end looks great!

I chose a funky oriental black and red fabric for the quilt back.

I had intended this quilt for me, but really what do I need with another quilt. So what to do? Maybe a giveaway????? (keep reading).

The second tri-colour quilt was commissioned by my mother for a friend’s new grandson. And black, red and white was the colour theme chosen. Apparently they are the first three colours babies can see, or so I’ve been told. Either way, it was tricky to find fun kids fabric in these colours, so I chose three solids and 3 prints. Polka dots are pretty kid friendly and the third print reminded me of the little doodles my sister, Terrell, use to draw all the time when we were kids. FLASHBACK 1980s !!!

I then decided on doing pinwheel blocks as they are nice to look at and fun for babies.

I had planned out the quilt after I finished all the pinwheel blocks and laid them out on my design floor (my living room floor that currently has no furniture ). This was my original idea.

Then I sewed them together and got this:

Oops! Well actually, I like this better! Maybe having a glass of wine whilst sewing is not such a good idea.

Then I again used my design floor and sandwiched the quilt (backing fabric, batting and quilt top) and pinned. I like to use painters tape as it won’t stick too much to the floor and it’s easy coming off the fabric too.

After some initial swearing (it always takes me a while to get back into the quilting swing), the quilting came together. I used circle patterns to go with the fabric theme.

I used the leftover quilt top fabric and made a pieced binding and voila! The back is a fun black and red car flannel fabric. I hope she likes it.

So now about that giveaway! Please leave a comment below with your name, email address and your favourite sweet treat or email me at trilogyedibles@hotmail.com. I’ll be using your treat ideas for future postings! Then on April 23rd I’ll draw a winner for the One-Block-Wonder Quilt! Thanks for looking and come back soon. I may give away something else. Sorry, I can only ship within North America.

Thanks for looking!

March Madness - more than just recovery from SAD!

Well since we've moved to North Carolina I've learned many things, but most of all, March is all about basketball. Having only ever gone to a couple of Toronto Raptor games when living in Toronto, I know as much about the game as I do about lacrosse (Canada's national game). Everywhere you turn here in NC or anyone you talk to, they always seem to ask, "who's your team?" I shall confess I have no allegiance either way but I did learn how much fun a college basketball game is. We went to see Carolina (UNC) play State (NC) at the RBC center and what a blast. I suspect that by next year, I'll have a team (I'll take allegiance bribes anytime :))

My sisters great friend, Debbie, just had a baby girl. Deb is a die-hard Tar Heels fan. So since I had just finished my one block wonder and I couldn't find more than one UNC fabric, I decided to try it again. So the front is the one block and on the back, I found a cute girly flannel.

The Front:

The cute girly fabric for the back:

Loving my alphabet stitches - Baby girl's name and date of birth!

Wrapped up and ready to go!

Also, as I post, I'm watching UNC play the Huskies (Washington). Go Tar Heels Go!

And for those who don't know what SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is, it's what us Canadian's go through in the winter when the sunshine is rare. For us; March starts the season of sunshine :) and everyone goes a little bit crazy!

Quilt top done!

I finished the piecing and then added a triple border of red, white and black solids. I have to finish the back and then quilt and bind!

The start of something new!

Well I'm not blogging about running anymore and life is a bit chaotic so I've decided to write about my newest creation. The One Block Wonder quilt. I got the inspiration from Maxine Rosenthal - One-Block Wonder's quilts! Lots and Lots of pieces and mental anguish!

So here's the fabric I started with.

Then I made identical 4" triangles to create hexagons and with each hexagon a completely different look.

After cutting about 1000 pieces and sewed them into hexagons and laid them out. This is with half the fabric:

And this is with all the fabric:

I'm debating if I like this layout b/c everytime I pick up and put down it changes the look. Good times.

More pillows!

Really had fun making pillows so I made some more for some friends and family.


For Sophie - just because she's a cutie patutey!


For Jacquelyne - family and adorable

For Carson - also family and little brother to Jacquelyne

For Julianne - for an amazing friend



and for Eamonn - nephew and because he's awesome!

Lots of pillows

I finally got my sewing stuff and a new machine for my bday and started with a few cute pillows for the girls. Not as long as I would have thought to make so now I need a bigger challenge. I used Kellie Wulfsohn (from http://dontlooknow.typepad.com/dont_look_now/) and Elizabeth Hartman's (http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/ ) tutorials to help with the directions for the pillows.