designs from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts

modified "Just Sweet Enough" quilt in space fabric from Two Young Street (Prints Charming)

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This was how S described the quilt he wanted me to make for him.

Yes, he suddenly asked if I would make him a quilt. I suspect that by now he knows that the answer to this sort of question will always be an enthusiastic YES! And not only did I say yes, but, since I'm constantly trolling the internet for fun and fabulous fabrics, I'd already bookmarked some awesome rocket fabric.

He liked it and we got to work on designing the quilt. He would have had me just sew three strips of fabric together - stripes on the bottom, rockets in the middle and blue sky on top - and wrap his favorite color red all around it, but I wanted something a little more interesting. I flipped through the few quilt books and magazines I have and found this design, Just Sweet Enough, from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. (Love that book!)

Joelle Hoverson does such a good job in this book coming up with clean, simple designs that are striking but not overly complicated. In this design, she's essentially got horizontal stripes of several different solids, but since they're broken up into columns and separated again with the background fabric, the result is really neat. This was going to be perfect for S's rocket quilt!

I sketched out what the quilt would look like for final approval from S before I bought the fabric. I've learned from previous design collaborations with the boys that they are completely incapable of imagining the design in the book in any other color or print. Nope, the picture's got to be exactly right or they'll keep insisting that they didn't want pink and yellow. So I even made a little mock-up in Photoshop so he could really see it.

The design approved, I bought the fabric (I got most of the fabrics from this awesome etsy seller) and once I had it, I got to work washing and cutting it all. There's a lot to be done before you can get sewing! But once that was finished, sewing it up was a snap. (Seriously, I thought "last minute patchwork" would have to be a joke, but this one went FAST people!)

click for the BIG version

We like it! I love those zoom-y stripes on the bottom. And he's sure got plenty of blue sky for the rockets to fly up to.

There's still the actual quilting to be done (that's sewing the quilt top here together with the batting and backing) and I'm planning on trying something a little fancier with that, so this is still a ways from being done, but so far, so good. It's so satisfying to be able to bring something to life that one of the boys has kind of dreamed up in his head!

Since we're leaving for Germany next week (yikes!), grandma santa is coming this weekend to do early Christmas. This means that I had to finish up the handmade gifts I'd been planning for her.

These are my versions of the stitched scrapbooks from Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. They were so much fun (and so easy!) to make. Mom loves these little notebooks, so as soon as I saw the pattern in the book, I knew I wanted to make her some. I picked out fabrics that she said she liked from (from left to right) my rulers quilt, my first quilt project, and Ikea.

The instructions in the book are awesome and it genuinely is a "less than 2 hour" project as the book claims. I thought it would be hard to stitch through the notebooks, but it wasn't (I used a jeans needle just to be sure and it went through the notebook cover like butter). I thought the thread would just pop right out of the cover, but it didn't (the pattern calls for a little Elmer's glue on the inside cover). I only wish I had bought more little notebooks to make more of these for me. What a wonderful way to use scraps from your favorite projects!

More handmade gifties and early Christmas coming soon....