A Quilt for a Dude: Which Direction? & a Giveaway!

My brother moved to LA about 6 months ago to find a job.  He knew one person.  That kind of leap takes guts, right?  He had actually been living with me for several months before he moved to LA and it was a neat time to get to know him better.  He's 4 years younger than me, but we were 5 grades apart in school so I went to college when he was only in junior high.  

His job prospects weren't the greatest and the whole family is naturally worried about him.  I decided a couple months ago to make him a surprise quilt to hopefully cheer him up, remind him of home, and comfort him when he's down.  I don't think he necessarily needs a blanket for warmth in LA :)  It's hot enough in Austin that people give me crazy looks when they see the piles of quilts all over my house, so I need to send them out in the world!  

I didn't think to take good pictures of the quilt because I was just so excited to mail it to my brother as soon as it was finished, so my apologies.  I call the quilt "Which Direction?" because the triangles point east and west on the front and north and south on the back.  My brother is going through a trial in his life where he's struggling to carve his own identity apart from me or our mom and dad and I know that can be confusing, so I think I subconsciously chose this pattern to fit his current circumstances.  

The pattern is based on "Trail Marker" by Ashley Newcomb (Film in the Fridge) for the Jan/Feb 2014 issue of Quilty magazine.  The pattern called for the blocks to be trimmed to 5.5" wide, but since I'm lazy and my ruler was 6" wide, I cut them 6" wide and added more blocks to make it almost queen size.  I pulled fabrics from my stash that seemed manly.  The quilting is curvy, watery type meandering that softens the sharp angles.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out!  I love the dark binding and the backing fabric is Dear Stella that I absolutely adore.  I mailed it last week and he sent me a text as soon as he got it thanking me.  

I'm so proud that I'm able to make nice things for the people that I love.  I'm usually a selfish quilter and make quilts just for me, but every now and then I make a quilt for someone special.  My brother is a great guy and I hope he knows how much I love and believe in him.  We may be thousands of miles apart, but he can remember his family when he needs to wrap up in something warm.  Sorry for all the sentimental stuff in this post, but isn't that what makes quilting awesome??  

I have a lot of neutral low volume larger scraps left over after making this quilt that I've stuffed into a gallon ziplock bag.  Turns out it's over a pound of fabric!  Do you think the scraps should be your next project?  I feel a giveaway coming on...

Here's how to enter.  Choose as many or as few as you like!
1.  Leave any comment you wish on the blog.
2.  Tell me how you follow me: Bloglovin, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, Pinterest.  Leave a comment for each way!
3.  Repost and tell me that you did.
4.  Check out my Etsy store and comment below on what's your favorite fabric.
5.  Like my Etsy store on Facebook and leave a comment below.

US entries only please.  Make sure I can contact you through email.  Entries will be accepted until midnight CST Wednesday, June 25.

Quilty WIP Wednesday/ALYoF 2013

I finally finished another quilt last week, but it's a secret one that I can't show off just yet.  After I finished though, I determined not to start anything else until I tackle my growing WIP pile!

This WIP quilt is for my Dad.  I've titled it, "Manly Meadows" because it uses mostly Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow prints, plus a few others.  Here's my original post about it from over a year ago - eep!  I was inspired by some machine quilting books I received at Christmas to just branch out of my typical stipple.  I've been making loopy squares and sin waves!  For the back of this quilt, I just bought a sheet from Target.  The quilting really shows up well on the back.  Hopefully I'll have this finished and in the mail to my Dad for Father's Day this month.  It's about time if I started more than a year ago, right?

Carlton snuggled up on the pile o quilts my BF and I photographed last weekend :)

WIP List:

Finished!

  - None this week

Being quilted

  - Urban Cabin in Modern Meadow

Finished quilt tops

  - Aqua/Yellow Patchwork Chevron

  - Over and Under in Sew Cherry

  - Happy Go Lucky in Vintage Modern

  - Round Robin Medallion

In pieces

  - Hexa Go Go Stars & Stripes

  - On a Whim in Birds & Bees

Man Quilt Muscled into Submission!

I was toying around with the block layout on this quilt for what seems like forever!  I felt like all the same patterns were touching too much and I needed to spread them out more.  I was happy with this layout, until I started staring at it while writing this post : P  I'll probably go back and rearrange one more time for good measure - it's my Type A+++ personality talking I guess!


Anyways, this is a quilt using mostly Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow that I'm making for my dad.  The pattern is Atkinson Designs Urban Cabin.  I thought about using my FMF grey seeds for the binding, but the greys don't match that well so I'll probably end up using the light blue circles because I have a lot of that left. I'm trying to shop my stash lately!  

I've been working on My Precious Quilt Along Round 2 project - Neptune.  I made up my own design that's basically sashing each charm square in grey, then using some of the original dark blue DS Quilts fabric from Joann as another set of sashing.  Here's my progress so far.  Can you tell I've been into grey lately?

And finally, I finished up a quilt top that had been languishing in my "please quilt me I'm dying to be snuggled" pile.  And guess who's back??  Carlton!  Such a good helper.  He makes sure the fabric is nice and soft, has a good drape, and can withstand lots of use.  He had been on sabbatical at my parents' house for awhile when I had a roommate who was allergic to cats.  Now he's back and ready to quilt!

This is the second version using Oh!Fransson's Mod Sampler tutorial.  The first  version, here, is made using reproduction 1930s prints that my grandma gave me for my birthday awhile ago.  Carlton is modeling the vintage sheet version.  Doesn't he look smashing in blue and green?  

This is his 'oh no you din't' face.  He doesn't really like his picture taken.  Who knew a cat would be camera shy?

My current list of projects:

Finished!

Vintage Sheet Mod Sampler 

Completed tops needing backings & quilting:

My Precious Tufted Tweets 

Simply Squares Vintage sheets 

Central Park Charming Stars

Cherish Nature- Flights of Nature

Vintage Sheet New Wave 

Tops in pieces:

Modern Meadow Urban Cabin

My Precious Neptune

Sew Cherry Snapdragon #2

Sew Cherry Over & Under

Hunky Dory Pandora's Box

 

New projects this week: 2

Finished projects this week: 1  

What's Cookin Wednesday

I've made a quilt for my grandma, my mom, my boyfriend, my friend from home...now it's my dad's turn! 

I acquired some Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow and fell in love with some of the prints, especially the blues.  I decided this would be great fabric for my dad's quilt!  I bought a scrap pack of Modern Meadow on Etsy, which actually turned out to be several yards, to round out my collection.  There's a few other fabrics in the mix too. 

The pattern is Urban Cabin by Atkinson Designs.  I thought it seemed more manly than lots of HSTs or stars and such :)  I'm making a total of 25 blocks for his lap sized quilt and have 8 of them finished already.  The pattern goes together very quickly and the blocks are large so I should be done in no time!



Finished blocks




Color combos left to finish




Color combos left to finish