Quilter Bees Quilt

April was my month for Quilter Bees. I decided to have my fellow bee members help me make a quilt for the Hopes and Dreams Quilt Challenge for ALS. I sent out fabric and asked for 12 1/2 inch blocks using circles as the theme. Everyone came up with lovely blocks. One of the reasons I asked for circles was because I wanted to do some curved piecing myself. I ended up feeling in a bit of a rush (deadline for the challenge is the end of the month,) and used raw edge applique instead. Obviously, I still need to do some curved piecing, one more to add to the list.

Thanks to my fellow quilter bees for all of your help!

If Dr Seuss Was a Quilter...

This quilt is for a friend of mine, who asked me to make a quilt for her next baby. Of course, she asked this more than 2 years ago, before she was even trying to have a baby. When she found out she was pregnant, she then decided she would like a Dr. Seuss quilt. She's due in the next couple of weeks, so, as usual, I'm getting it done down to the wire.

It took me awhile to plan this one. I had originally planned on doing the cat in the hat in applique. Instead, I decided to use a potterybarn kids sheet. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it. I decided that I wanted it to be fairly fun, as if Theodor Geisel had designed the quilt. You can see in the detail how I quilted each color slightly differently.

This was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I had a twin set of sheets, so I used that on the back as well as fussy cutting on the front.

The quilt is approximately 42x51-ish.

Baby Mermaids

 

I'd been admiring these Mendocino fabrics for awhile. Last year I decided these would be perfect for a friend of mine's baby girl and ordered them. (I also ordered them in the blue colorway, just because.) Of course, at the time, she wasn't even pregnant. I knew they wanted to have another baby, though, and, ideally, they would have a girl. As luck would have it, they got pregnant and had a baby girl last month.

My original thoughts with these fabrics, was something involving waves. I kept playing with different designs and just didn't like any of them. I finally decided that what I really wanted to do was highlight the gorgeous fabrics. Simple does that best sometimes.

I used a couple additional blocks and solids to make an interesting back as well.  I ended up doing pebble quilting, just felt like it went with the design really well. I used white thread on the front and a variegated pink on the back. I love the back.

And my favorite block. Love how the mermaids in pink seem to be swimming around the one in yellow.

I ended up being very happy with how it turned. Hopefully, the momma and baby will love it, too. Finished size was about 45 x 60.