The Quickest Quilt

Some situations call for a quilt, others demand with such intensity that a quilt almost appears out of thin air. This was such a quilt. A couple I had met during my college years had recently announced they were in the midst of an adoption. They'd spent years hosting foreign exchange students, but knew they wanted a child of their own.  I knew right away I wanted to make a quilt for them and their little one, and I knew I wanted to use a + shape to celebrate the addition to their family. 

Fortunately, I had some yardage perfectly suited for this occasion in my stash. I used some Heather Ross strawberries in green surrounded by Architextures Crosshatch in Grey, I added a punch of pink with a Kaffe Fassett shot cotton.  

The pattern came from Southern Fabric and is aptly named The Easiest Quilt in the World. It really was super easy, and may become a go-to pattern for when the stork is out and about. This was so easy to put together I didn't even get to take photos while I was in process. Seriously, the top came together in about an hour, and that was from yardage to finished top! 

I did make one modification to the pattern. If you follow the links above to look at the original quilt, you will notice there are two black squares, one in the center at the top and one in the center on the bottom. They appear to be + that have run out of our line of sight. I chose to make these two squares out of the background fabric rather than the focus fabric so that all of the + were contained within the quilt. 

I quilted this little baby quilt on Louise, with some inspiration from Angela Walters who blogs at Quilting is My Therapy. I used spirals in the green + and cross hatching in the shocking pink +. I used a combination of leaves and pebbles in the background and drew a wavy meandering line and finished with straight line quilting. 

 The new family is special indeed. The two fathers were among the first who could jointly adopt in my childhood home state of Michigan. They were legally married during a brief period of time after a US District Court ruled the state's denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples unconstitutional and before an appeals court ordered a stay on the ruling. Little Baby "A" was due on June 13, but she didn't make her arrival until June 26th, the day the U.S. Supreme Court made their ruling on same-sex marriages. Not only does this baby quilt celebrate the addition to a family, but also the equality of the family with an = on the back. 

I have great admiration for this family and hope that one day my husband and I might follow in their footsteps and realize our dream of a family. 

This was my quickest quilt, from yards of fabric to the mail box in three days. I'd like to say this is the first #lovewins quilt. There are several swaps that have formed on Instagram to celebrate marriage equality after the SCOTUS ruling on June 26th. Check out #lovewinsmini and #winninglovemini on Instagram for more of whats going on there. Also remember to leave a little comment love on the TGIFF link party hosted this week by Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty. The button for the event is on my sidebar. 

What has been your quickest quilt?

First Finish of 2014

Yesterday I had a mini celebration for myself as I completed my first quilt for 2014. The quilt is a small lap or crib sized quilt made of fun 1930's reproduction fabrics and some of Carolyn Friedlander's Architextures. After reading so much about improvisational piecing all over the quilternet (Mainly the Quilt Improv blog hop for Lucie Summers book) I decided to give it a try for this project. 

So here's the thing, I love to read and learn tons, but I am horrible with keeping track of where all of the information came from. The blogger of one of my favorite posts talked about how they liked to riff on the improv notion by setting up a couple of rules for improv blocks and then loosely sticking with them. The rules for my blocks were:

1. Each block would be made of random width strips of fabric.

2. One of the strips of the blocks will be made of two pieced fabrics.

3. The blocks would be sashed.

I followed these rules loosely and as I hope you can see from the photo above that some of the blocks do not have rule #2, but that is fine. It's fun to break the rules sometimes.

The quilt came together quickly. The blocks took one evening, and putting the quilt top together took one more evening. I used IKEA fabric for the backing and sashing. The green backing is an IKEA sheet. I've read about other bloggers using some of these great prints and the sheets in their quilts. I'm a thrifty guy, so the $5.00 green twin sheet was a great buy to help cover the back.

Here is the completed quilt with the green IKEA twin sheet and a fun animal print from IKEA pieced to make the back.

Here is the front of the the quilt completely hand quilting with straight lines and a chevron, the point of it follows the seam between the green sheet and animal print of the back.

I also used the IKEA animal print for the binding. I haven't done the binding on a quilt since 2007 and I needed a little refresher. Jenny at Missouri Quilt Company refreshed my memory in this great video tutorial. I love the way the large print and color of the binding almost looks like a pieced binding. 

Now, if you've read this far I have to tell you my favorite discovery from working on this project. This is not only my first quilt finish of 2014, but it's also my first gift quilt. I made this for the new born of my best friend from college, Anna. Making a gift quilt was a great experience. I thought about my friendAnna during every step of this quilt. I reminisced about all of the great times we shared. I thought about what a great mother she is going to be to her daughter and how lucky this little girl is to have such an awesome momma.

I am already thinking about my next gift quilts and the great memories that I can think about as I create. Who will you share your gift with next?

Jan-Michael