Blog / birthday gift

Not long after posting about the mini color wheel quilt top I started for September's LMP+QG challenge (which I opted to create using only shades of purple), I managed to quilt it, bind it and mail it to one of my good friends (who loves the color purple) for her October birthday.


I opted to hand quilt the piece, using purple floss in the wedges and white floss in the inner and outer borders.


For...

Though I already made a quilt for my friend who is due with her third son this month, I decided to make one more quick, last-minute project: a flannel baby blanket. The project is from Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts (I'm obviously constantly inspired by the book's projects!) and is super simple and cuddly---it consists of one yard of charcoal flannel and a yellow polka-dot binding. I...

Each month, my friend Kait and I are making a project from the book, Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts ("LMP+QG" for short). You can see previous projects here.


For September, Kait and I decided to make the iconic Color Wheel Quilt from LMP+QG. While I love the original pattern, I decided to change things up a bit since the idea of sorting through my scraps and selecting and arranging 52 fabric wedges in color order quickly overwhelmed me. Instead, I decided to shrink the pattern down and stick to one color. Thanks to this Purl Bee tutorial, based on the Color Wheel Quilt, I was able to print out smaller templates for my mini version.



I typically don't work with purple, but since I decided this would be a birthday gift for a good friend who loves purple, I decided to give the color a shot. Thanks to some creative piecing, I managed to scrounge up 16 unique purple wedges.


Though the piecing is not perfect (there was definitely some bubbling due to all of the bias-cut edges stretching), I love the results and am particularly smitten with the purple---I'm surprised at how well all of those scraps work with one another. I can't wait to quilt it and turn it into a wall hanging!


Coming up next month: Sewing Summit! We'll be back in November with Bird Ornaments.

P.S. Want your own hand-stitched cross-stitch button? I'm sending one to everyone who donates to our team for the Walk to End Alzheimer's and leaves a comment! Details here. 

UPDATE: And here's the finished purple color wheel mini quilt!

One of my good friends is due with her third little boy in October, so for her baby shower a few weeks ago, I made her a quilt.


I started with two cute jungle animal prints by Eleanor Grosch, which I picked up from Spoolduring a trip to Philadelphia last year, and then pulled two coordinating dots and a solid blue to go along with them. I wanted to keep things simple, and show off the adorable...