Throwback Thursday: The Quilt I Wish I Could Change

Please ignore all the laundry in the floor and instead pay attention to our devilishly handsome cat. Lol.

Howdy y'all, it's that time of the month again! That's right, Throwback Thursday is upon us once again! This month, I'm sharing the only quilt I'm not particularly proud of. And what frustrates me even more is this quilt was made for my mother.

It's like Tetris with fabric!

After making all the kid quilts for Christmas 2014, my Dad approached me and asked me to make a quilt for my Mom. He said he would pay for the supplies and throw in some extra for my time. I would have made it without being given a dime, but it was a nice plus. :)

If only I could go back, I would change that awful quilting job! This quilt (and my Mom) deserved more!

It all went downhill from there. I struggled to find a layout I liked so I winged it (of course). And honestly, the result isn't that bad. But I'm furious with myself over the quilting. It's just...meh. And there's a gigantic pucker on the back. The quilter that I am now would seam rip and fix it before it left my sewing room. The quilter I was back then was apparently okay with it. Ugh!

I have plans to make another quilt for my Mom eventually. But then, I want to make a quilt for my Dad too! Maybe one for the two of them? Hmmm... decisions, decisions! Lol. Anyway, that wraps up my Throwback Thursday post. Head on over to A Quarter Inch From the Edge to check out all the quilts linked up! :)

Throwback Thursday: The Final Kid Quilt of 2014

 

Howdy y'all, it's that time again! Jenn over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting Throwback Thursday again! I can't believe I still have quilts to share, but quilts for the kids in my family are keeping me going. :)

This one is the last of the 'quilts for the kids' saga that was Christmas 2014. This one was for the oldest boy of the kiddos, though he is still little in my eyes. He's in grade school and is allllllll about sports. It was surprising how hard it was to find coordinating sports fabrics. This was also the time I experienced sticker shock when buying a college sports fabric (THOSE LOGOS TRIPLE THE PRICE, I SWEAR!)

I'm not entirely sure what I was going for with this quilt. The layout is...I'm not entirely sure. I think I was running out of ideas for simple layouts involving squares and just sort of winged it! Lol. Super simple quilting and a plain backing kept with the KISS method (keep it simple, stupid!). A scrappy binding rounded things out for a quick finish.

I remember I actually delivered this one after Christmas. I got sick right before Christmas that year and wasn't able to finish this last one in time. By some quirk of fate, however, this kiddo didn't show up for our family Christmas party and didn't miss out on getting his gift that day! My aunt texted me when he opened it after I delivered it and said he loved it! I think she sent me a picture of him curled up in it on the couch around that time too.  I have to say, my favorite part of making quilts is the love they receive after they are gifted.  :)

What about you guys? Do you have a ghost from quilty past you want to share? Head on over to Jenn's and link up if you do, there's a giveaway too!

Throwback and Looking Forward

Howdy y'all, I've got a double post for you today! First up, I have an oldie but goodie to share for Throwback Thursday over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge. This is a continuation of 'quilts I made the kiddos for Christmas'. This one is the third I will have shared, called the Garrett quilt for my little cousin that received it. He is quite the pirate, so I knew right away that it had to involve pirates and all things ocean.

This one is quite busy also (this was before I learned about using neutrals and blenders to keep things calmed down), but it's just so fun! And I remember I loved doing this FMQ. I was shooting for ocean waves and I feel like this simple and quick design was spot on.

And I love this backing fabric! I randomly find bits of it in my scrap bins and it always makes me smile. :)

I've been a scrappy binder since the beginning! Those bits of red really pop!

After looking back, it only seems fitting to look forward now! I'm sure many of you are getting sick of reading everybody's goals and resolutions for the coming year, but I'm here to add another! (I'm actually one of those people who loves reading those posts, anybody else like that?) One thing I wanted to do this year was be more active with goal setting, so here's what I have planned for the next 3 months thanks to the Finish-A-Long link up, which you can see here!

My biggest goal is to get City Blocks completely finished - quilted, bound, and labeled! I've already started quilting it, so this one is on its way to being completed.

Next up is my Orange Peels! I just ordered some fabric for a backing thanks to a gift certificate I won on a linky party. I also snagged some Aurifil thread to try out, which excites me to no end! My plans for the Orange Peels is the same as City Blocks - completely finish her up!

My final goal was a bit harder because I wasn't totally sure where I wanted to go after these 2 WIP's, but I think I know what I want to do. I've got my Scrap Vortex blocks back up on the design wall and I want to do something fun with them. I don't want to make an entire quilt out of just scrappy blocks (not yet at least!), but I do want to make a quilt top out of the ones I have. So my goal is to get them pieced into a top, then finished up like all the rest!

I've made more since this picture was taken, but forgot to take a picture!

Three quilts in three months is quite ambitious for me, but I'm shooting for the moon since there isn't a penalty for not completing all my goals in the time limit. After all, if there is something left to do, there's always next quarter to wrap things up! :)

Throwback Thursday: Pretty in Pink

It's the time of the month again, y'all! That's right, it's Throwback Thursday over at A Quarter Inch from the Edge! This month is Christmas themed and though I don't have a Christmas quilt, I have a quilt that was a Christmas present to share!

Until I was 16 years old, I was the baby of the family. Then along came Ms. Ella, a cousin! What a learning experience it was for me to suddenly be sharing the spotlight with a little baby. Moody teenage me got jealous pretty often, though I never admitted to anybody. Growing up some changed that though and I love this little girl to bits. :)

It's hard to tell, but those pink-on-pink polka dots are glittery! :D

I shared before that for last Christmas, I got the hairbrained idea to make all the kids in the family a quilt for Christmas. Ms. Layla's was shared a little while back here, and this was the second one. When I asked Ella's mom for her favorite color, it was an overwhelming PINK! Pink makes me nauseous, but I took one for the team and came home with a stack of pink fabric and got cracking. Although Ella is still pretty young (still in single digits), I wanted this one to be a little bit grown up so that it would be fitting for years.

I love the pieced backing and the quilting. I straight lined around the patchwork sections, then did the big zigzagging through the white areas. I'm not sure why I chose that but I have to pat my past-self on the back for that one! Lol. I didn't mark or anything, so it's certainly not perfect. But I worked harder on this quilting than any of the others and it worked out. :) Also like Ms. Layla's quilt, I appliqued Ella's name on it to give it a personal touch. This was before I started labeling my quilts, so I guess my brain wanted it to be labeled somehow!

I absolutely love this pattern, there's so many possibilities! I think I saw something similar to this on Pinterest originally, but I didn't have a specific pattern to follow. I just decided on the size of square I wanted and built up from there.

Thanks for reading y'all! Have an awesome Thursday and don't forget to check out TBT at Jenn's blog, there's always lots of fun entries to check out and there's a chance to win a prize!

Throwback Thursday on a Saturday: The Beginning

It's that time of the month again! That's right, Jenn @ Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting another link up for Throwback Thursday!

I've talked about this crazy little mess before here, but I didn't share any pictures. It's quite a travesty, but it still holds a bit of charm for me. Points are decapitated more often than not. I had no guidance on how to make a binding, so I just winged it (seems I've had that mindset from the beginning! Lol). I didn't know you could machine quilt either when I made this, so I rushed a crappy hand quilting job to be done within the time period I was given.

This originally just sat on my bookcase, but after I moved out of my parents' house, it became a mat for my sewing machine. It kept my machine from bouncing around when we had a glass topped desk and now makes it easy to slide it around on the card table I use. When I made this, I never realized it was laying the groundwork for where I am now! It's funny how things work out! There's still a little bit of time to link up with Jenn for Throwback Thursday (it ends tomorrow night!), so hop on over and share some of your quilty past with us! 

Throwback Thursday: The First Baby Quilt

Howdy y'all, it's that time again! Jenn over at A Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting Throwback Thursday, so it's time to dig into the past and see what we can find! Just a disclaimer, the pictures are less than superb! They were taken with a phone back before I started blogging!

Dear. Lord. Lol

When Jenn started TBT, she encouraged us to share the good, the bad, and the ugly. This quilt, for the most part, falls into the latter 2 categories I feel like. Despite that, I still smile when I think about this quilt. Mr. LBC and I got married last year (our 1 year anniversary was this past Sunday!) and for some reason, my newlywed brain thought it was a good idea to make all the kids in the family a quilt for Christmas...still not sure how that sounded like a good idea! Lol.

This little baby quilt was for my cousin's daughter who had just been born that summer. I...I know I said I liked busy baby quilts, but this one still burns my eyes a little bit where it's so bright and loud! LOL. When I made it though, I was so proud despite its mistakes. This was definitely a quilt only a baby could love. ;)

Before blogging, this was my signature picture of every quilt I made for some reason. Lol. It shows off the binding issues quite nicely. Bahahaha

This was full of firsts for me! First quilt I made after being married, first try at FMQ (oh, how terrified I was!) first time with applique. I'm still ridiculously proud of the name block with the little birds on it! It still had the usual issues (DARN BINDING TROUBLES!), so I was nervous to hand Layla's mom the bag for her to help her open it. I remember holding my breath as they pulled it out, everybody oohhhing and aaahhing. But I didn't breath until little Layla looked down at the quilt, let out a happy squeal and started smiling. When that happened, I finally finally took a breath of relief!

That font and those birds! I think this is my favorite applique so far!

I legit thought about cropping my head out of this. Lol. But I look so happy, I want to share. :)

Gawh, what a trip down memory lane... :) The link up is open over on Jenn's blog, be sure to add to the fun of looking back at our earlier quilting ventures! Thanks for reading!

Throwback Thursday...On a Friday?

Howdy y'all! Once again, I'm late on posting something, but better late than never, right? I have to be quick about this one because life is screaming down my neck at the moment, but I had to share something with y'all today, even if it was small. Jenn @ Quarter Inch From the Edge is hosting Throwback Thursday again, so here's my contribution.

This is my first mini quilt! I made it after seeing a picture on Pinterest; it reminded me of LBC and I couldn't help but imitate the original maker. The blue fabrics were from a fat eighth bundle I snagged at Hobby Lobby and the rest were scraps from previous projects. I used Heat n' Bond to set all the shapes, then I stitched around all the edges. I used FMQ to draw the lines on the umbrella.

So what about you? Are you digging up an oldie but goodie to link up with Jenn's party too? You've still got a couple of days to join in the fun! 

Throwback Thursday: My First Selfish Quilting

Foxy, bright patchwork. YES.

As I sat down to work on some sewing in hopes of finishing something for tomorrow (expect a late post!), I checked up on Blogger quickly before settling in. That's when I saw Jenn at A Quarter Inch From the Edge started Throwback Thursday today! It's a link up to bring up those old quilts that you made back before blogging, to give them a chance to shine despite being around for a while.

I would not have picked these fabrics to go together in a collection, but I love them all together. Funny how that works, right?

 HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN?! I looked outside, only to see that daylight was gone...of course. I had planned on snapping outside pictures of my quilt for weeks and, wouldn't you know it, I didn't remember until the day of posting! I purposefully chose this quilt as my first TBT post for a couple of reasons. First, the other nominees are in other homes and I can't get better pictures than the few I had taken before gifting them. Second, this quilt is absolutely LOVED in our home. Before the Supernova came along, there was bickering over who got the quilt and who was stuck with a store bought blanket when we were lounging in the living room.

I adore the quilting on this, I've never been prouder of my FMQ!

But the biggest reason I chose this quilt is that it was my first bout of selfish quilting. I had made half a dozen quilts before this one and none of them stayed with me. They went to others in my family, which I don't regret at all. :) I stalled out on this quilt when all that was left was the binding and it sat unfinished for quite a while (at least a month, maybe more.) Finally bucking up and sewing the binding on got me back on my feet after a rough spell and got me back to sewing. This is the quilt I have snuggled under, cried under when I was sick, and laughed with Little Black Cat as he rooted around it as we tried it out right after I finished it.

SO. MANY. FOXES!

I got these fabrics as a fat quarter bundle from Connecting Threads back in late December/early January. It was actually my first 'designer' fabric purchase; I was so excited to get them in the mail!  The fox fabric on the back is from Jo Ann's, you might recognize that foxy face from my scrappy qayg pouch and scrap vortex slabs! I'm pretty sure that red polka dot binding is from Jo Ann's as well. :)

An asymmetrical pieced backing, no surprise there, right? ;)

This quilt is riddled with mistakes. A lot of my squares don't match up; I remember I was learning how to use my rotary cutter so no surprises there. Hahaha! There are puckers on the back and a small one on the front. The binding is kind of kinky in spots too (does anybody else have that issue where it gets kind of ripple-y?). You know what though? I wouldn't change a thing. :)

So what about you guys? Do you have any quilts that came along before your quilt blogs? If you do, why not show it off and link up at A Quarter Inch From the Edge?! Thanks for stopping by y'all! :)