Welcome baby Joey!

This might be the sweetest picture I've seen in a long time!  Look at this darling little bunny in his Easter outfit!  Not sure who made that outfit but its precious!

Congratulations to Joe, Stephanie and Nonnie Debbie.

I made up a quilt to welcome little Joey into the world.  

The quilt in the background is the back of a disappearing 9-patch in teeny woodland creatures flannels.   

Disappearing or split 9 patch.  This a great design if you have 3 or 4 fabrics but not sure what to do with them.  

Create blocks of 9 patches, I like to make the most contrasting fabric the center square.

Then cut the block into 4.  Turn and sew back together.  No pattern needed really.

This one was with 4.5" squares.  made 20 blocks.  End quilt 48x60

  You can look on Pinterest and see so many ways to put it together.  

the front

the back!

one of the fabrics...i couldn't find the designer of this, but super cute.

http://www.fabriceditions.com/shop/3-Wishes-Projects/p/3-Wishes-FabricbrPlayful-Cuties-Quilt-Coral-x27132123.htm

That's all for now!  I hope you get a chance to sew this weekend!

Love Aunti Nicole!

Jelly Roll Race

In January our Busy Bees quilt group wanted to do a jelly roll race.  We did a test run with a group of 6 and this is the first one.  Since rarely do anything in its simplistic form, I inserted a folded rectangle in between each end to end.  Then opened and pinned each one to make cathedral windows.  

The Jelly Roll is Hushabye Hollow by Lydia Nelson of Dreamy Quilts for Moda.  

This was a gift for my neighbors Grandson.  I got permission to share the photos because they are so dang cute.  The quilt was huge and Theo looked a little lonely so Ren joined in the show. 

So we finally did the actual jelly roll race.  I chose this Grunge Jelly Roll - Moda.  For the prep, I added a square in a square block in between each end to end.  The race a lot of fun and we had about 12 participants.  Most of which who have finished their quilts!  I shared a long table with another Bernina person and that table was shaking so hard I could not thread the needle.  Crazy people!  Lots of yelling and whooping!  

Those of you who know me, know I follow Judi Madsen's work and have several of her books.  I love the concept of secondary design.  So I used this opportunity to give me a focal point.  

This one was given to a charity auction and helped to send a kid to Camp!

It you have a jelly roll and need to get a quilt top done in a day, give this a shot.  

The prep.  No planning, just sew your strips end to end in a very long strip.  

Round 1 Take the two ends and sew wrong sides together.  It will likely be twisted, but when you get to the last few inches you can press flat and cut with scissors.  First round takes about 40-45 min.  

Round 2 repeat, each round cuts time in half, Repeat until you get the size you want.  

If you pinterest, you will find jelly roll race variations. If anyone wants to know instructions for my variations, let me know and I'll work up a tutorial to share.

I hope you get a chance to sew this week!

Love

Aunti Nicole

The Fernandez Boyz Quilts

 Congratulations to my friends Patty and Jorge, they had a new addition to their family.   This is Aaron Daniel Fernandez. Is this boy adorable or what?

So of course I had to make him a little quilt.  Very fun little puppy fabric.

For the label I took a photo of one of the little paw prints and used Photoshop Elements to put some text on it.

His big brother Aiden was born in 2009 and for some reason I did not do my Aunti diligence.  Turns out he has a thing about choo-choo trains.   I saw this train fabric at Calico House in Brea and thought of him.  I am not usually into panels, but these just fit the bill so perfectly.  My husband Pete had the idea of just cross hatching the panels and I love the way it turned out.  This is a big boy quilt, about twice as big as his little brother's.  That ought to do it!

The label was screen captured from an image on line and kind of colorized with Photoshop Elements. 





I hope you all get to sew this week!
Cheers,
Aunti Nicole

How much is that Window in the Doggie?

My friends Jorge and Patty are expecting in February.  I found this puppy fabric and my neighbor Betty picked this stripe for me.  A big stripe like this is fun to work with and just adds so much to a normally simple block.

I love how the little puppy pieces show up in each window!  Dog noses are my favorite!  and who with dogs does not have paw prints on their windows, hmmm?

 A lot of fun and silly surprises with this quilt.  I only fussy cut a few of these blocks, the rest of them just came out fun!

So the puppy fabric is by Timeless Treasures Fabrics, #Dog-C5855
The stripe is Nottingham Village, Judie Rothernel Collection for Marcus Fabrics.

The choo-choo quilt I did last week was for this little one's four year old brother.
I will probably machine quilt both of them next weekend!

Hope you all get a chance to sew this week!
Love Aunti Nicole

100th post!

Hi All,
Hope you are keeping warm.  I finished my nephews quilt only a little after he was born.  I just need to pop it in the mail!  But I wanted to share it with you first.

My husband picked out the border pattern from my templates.  I like the way it came out.

A little something different in the corners.

What a handsome boy!  I hope he likes it.  I know his Momma will, she is a quilter ;]

Busy day today, I'm off to get my hair cut and then I have an embroidery workshop.  One of my friends is teaching the guild workshop at Flying Geese Fabrics in Tustin.  Here work is extraordinary and I can't wait to learn how to embroider "properly".

Hope you get to sew this weekend.

Aunti Nicole

Campbell's Baby Boy

My husband's sister Susie and her husband Will are expecting a baby boy.  I worked this up in my Quilt Pro program, its 54"Square.  Of course none of the blocks were very simple, but it was fun.  The fabrics are by Bernartex Forever Spring and Tried and True by Nancy Halvorsen.

 

 Took me a while to piece with all the other stuff I have going on but its now ready for sandwiching and quilting.  Hmm I'm thinking I many hand quilt this.  Better get going, baby is almost here!

Hope you all find time to quilt this weekend!

Aunti Nicole

Someone Special is on the Way!

My sister-in-law Susie and her husband Will are expecting a little baby boy around November.  I am so excited for them.  I wanted to make an heirloom quilt with a little more traditional piecing and hand quilted.  I know you are supposed to do bright and exciting for babies learning eyes, but some things need to feel warm and comforting.

I put this together using Quilt-Pro.  I'll probably change the sashing once all the blocks are finished, but just wanted to get basic measurements.

I picked out some Benartex fabrics, from Nancy Halvorsen, from the Forever Spring, and Tried and True lines.  The background is also from the Forever Spring line.

 The blocks are 8" and here is the first block finished.  

They take a while as most are odd shapes and really need templates to get the edges right.  I keep them together in groups when I'm done, in case one is just so fun that I need to make more.








Have a wonderful week!
Aunti Nicole

Lucy June

Some friends of mine recently had a baby, her name is Lucy June and I can't wait to meet her.  I'm hoping to bring this to her soon. 

I found the Seven Berries fabric at Calico House in Brea when shopping with Mom.  This allowed me to buy fabric as well as use some of my abundant stash.  Hardly made a dent in the stash... but it was fun just the same. 

The piano keys are actually somewhat blended all around but you would have to look closely at the fabric.  This green fabric has bits of yellow so I move to yellow and so on all around.  Didn't really follow a pattern just kept building until I was done.  Very fun.