Neutral Colors Chevron Quilt for Sister

My sister's birthday is the first week of January, and sometimes it's hard to come up with gift ideas for her since it's so close to Christmas.  This year I decided a handmade gift would be best and made her a quilt.  I sort of hinted that I might make her one so that I could get some idea of what she was interested in.  She wanted it to be made of neutral colors and she also said she wanted her monogram on it (great idea, Sister!).  So, this is what I came up with.  I ended up using solids in a mix of warm and cool tones which I thought would fit in anywhere.

I found a super soft chambray-like cotton for the backing that has small white pin-dots.  I thought it made the perfect compliment to the front of the quilt.  For the binding I found a small scale navy and blue stripe.  I think it ties everything together perfectly.

To make the quilt I used half square triangles (referred to as HST).  There are lots of different ways to make HST's, but I used the Magic Eight Method and was really happy with the results.

I did not have a pattern for this quilt, just started with 12" squares and kept making them until I had enough for the quilt to be the size I wanted.

Making the monogram was easy - I found a font that would be simple to embroider and printed the letters out, adhered fusible webbing to my fabric, traced the letters, cut the  letters out and ironed on to my backing fabric.  Then I embroidered using a zig-zag stitch around all the edges of the letters.  

Uneven Log Cabin Quilt

It took me a while, but I finally finished the BIG quilt I have been working on!  It is a queen size quilt and it the largest I've made.  It took me a long time, but mostly because I started and stopped on it so much.  The sewing part wasn't hard, but cutting all the pieces took a really long time!

The pattern for this quilt was published in the Better Homes and Gardens Quilts and More Magazine, Summer 2015 issue.  It was designed by Natalia Bonner (pieceandquilt.com).

Here are a few in-progress shots:

And, the finished quilt!

I tried to do a project without any green in it, but it just didn't happen!  I ended up going with a solid green for the edge-banding, and I'm glad I did.

It took me a long time to select a backing for the quilt.  I finally found this blue gingham print,and I think it works perfectly with the front of the quilt.

I want to point out that I quilted this using my standard size sewing machine.  It was tricky, but after watching a few instructional videos on YouTube, I was able to figure out how to work with a quilt this large on my standard machine.  

On to the next quilt...

Grey & White Gingham Baby Quilt

If you've read the blog before, you might have noticed how much I enjoy sewing baby quilts.  There is something so fun about making a homemade gift for a new baby.  I made this quilt last fall for my friend Kelly who had a baby boy.

I used two different shades of grey and a white fabric to create the gingham pattern for the front of the quilt.  Gingham is so popular right now, and it was fun to create the pattern out of squares of fabric.

For the back, I used Michael Miller's 'Zoology' pattern.  I've always liked this pattern - I just think it is an adorable fabric!

I kept the binding simple, and used a navy and white polka dot pattern.

I took these photos back in September.  Boy, do I wish it was still that warm outside right now!  As I type this post, it is a cold January day and it is only 11 degrees!

I hope your 2016 is off to a great start!