Vanilla's Baby Quilt

Those of you who follow me on instagram are probably already aware, but Vanilla arrived last week! My strategy was to eat so much food on Thanksgiving that she was pushed out of the womb. I am thrilled to report that it worked! And lucky for me, I (mostly) finished her quilt, just in time.

The adjustment from a family of five to a family of six has been relatively painless, and the challenges have been expected ones. I look forward to seeing how Vanilla continues to fit into our family.

As you can see, I didn't get around to handstitching the friendship stars. I may revisit that at a later point. Or not. I think I'm going to wait and see how different my life is with four kidlets before making a firm call on that.

This is A LOT of quilting for me. I know this is like regular quilting for many people, but for me, oh man. This is crazy town. And I have to say, for the first time maybe ever, I really enjoyed all of that quilting. I really enjoyed the thought process. Maybe it's an instance of finally feeling like I kinda know what I'm doing? Or maybe it's just that I cherished every part of the making of this quilt?

This quilt is scrappy down to its core, but I made sure it had some cherished favorites. OOP Tula and AMH, shot cottons, even some batik scraps. The backing is a Heather Ross strawberry print with a couple of scrappy strips to bring it up to size. Not gonna lie, I was pretty pleased to use up some of the gypsy wife strip scraps that have been sitting in my scrap bin for ages. I hoarded this HR print for ages, originally planning to make myself a skirt, but it's a much better fit for this baby.

Has this quilt made my top five quilts of all time list? Um, yes. For sure! I adore how this quilt turned out. A wild explosion of pattern and color and randomness with a hint of order--even that description doesn't quite make sense! But these are the best sort of quilts for me.

This is finish #3 from my FAL list. Admittedly, I'm a wee bit behind where I wanted to be, and I can't see myself making much progress over the next month, but I also kinda expected that. Vanilla will be my big finish for the quarter.

Vanilla's Quilt in Progress

After what I think was a successful spray basting session--or at the very least, what I hope was successful--I've commenced the quilting on Vanilla's baby quilt. So far, it's involved seven different types of thread, three different sewing machine feet, and by-the-seat-of-my-pants creativity.

I cannot get over echo quilting. I just can't. So that's what I spent a lot of my start doing, and let me tell you, it involved a lot of quilt turning around those NY Beauty wedges! I would do a bit at a time to make sure my back and shoulders didn't punish me later. (And even then, I spent some time with a heat pad and/or ice pack, but that could also be the whole, eight months pregnant thing.)

The straight line machine quilting came along really nicely, and I love this shot from the back. I didn't think to snag a picture after I added the FMQ in two of the corners, but I added a triangular meander to two opposite corners.

And then I jumped right into handquilting the center, as I haven't completely decided what to do with the friendship stars just yet. I'm using perl cottons, which I adore--I love the chunky texture and uneven stitches up against the machine stitched bits.

The center portion of the medallion is now complete, and you can see I did some infinity loops in the first border. I need to figure out a plan for the other borders, then attack!

I may not finish the quilt until after Vanilla arrives. I had an appointment a couple of days ago, and Vanilla is doing well. Oh, and she's locked and loaded and sitting really, really low. While I could still make it to my due date (later in November), it's highly likely she'll come before then. Given my history, and the fact that my three sons all came long before their due dates, it seems prudent to make sure everything else is ready to go. So we've been doing a lot of prepping around here. Laundry, carseat installation, laundry, hospital bag packing, trying to figure out a name, and MORE laundry. I keep thinking we're almost done--minus the tiny matter of not having a name picked out thing--but then I think of more stuff I need to do!

I'll keep you posted!

Vanilla's Quilt Top

Friends, hopefully by the time you're reading this, I'll have finished basting this bad boy using my latest acquisition--505 basting spray. Hopefully, the spray is good to me, and it revolutionizes my basting experience. We shall see. But first! Details on this lovely, which is finally done!

This was my original sketch for Vanilla's quilt, aka, #10 from the #30daysofquiltdesign challenge, and I'm not gonna lie, I still really love this design. Three-quarter dresdens in two corners? Fun blocks of color? Yowzas! This was going to be epic and just right.

Except, when I finished my friendship star border, I started to get worried. I really liked the dark navy of the quilt and the feel it gave to the top. I loved my original drawing, but I hadn't bothered to color anything in, just assuming I'd go navy/LV/navy/LV/etc. as I worked. And the more I looked at the quilt top, the more I started to think a thick low volume final border would significantly change the feel of the quilt, and in a way I wouldn't like. I didn't want to do it. I wanted my navy!

I stuck with my gut, and I didn't make the final border a low volume pièce de résistance. I split it into two thinner borders, one a thin low volume, and one a slightly thicker navy solid border--Kona Indigo, I think? And when I finished sewing that second border, I knew it was the right call. While not as flashy and skill-challenging as the dresdens certainly would have been, it finishes off this quilt top properly, at least in my opinion.

Besides, there is already kinda a lot going on with this top. A New York Beauty center...

...a round of friendship stars, two of which intentionally rotate in a different direction...

...and a backing pieced from Heather Ross' Briar Rose collection, the ever delicious strawberry fabric that I have been hoarding for just a wee bit.

So while I didn't follow my original plan exactly, I let this quilt take me where it would, and it was the right call. I have no idea how I'm going to quilt it. I love the idea of a mix of hand and machine quilting, but I may just machine quilt it for now and add in the perle cotton elements later. I do know I intend a scrappy binding using the warm colors in the top because while this quilt has a lot going on, I'm sure to pack in more. It's the Audrey way.

Wordless Wednesday WIPs

Just a few shots of WIPs from the last week or so.

FF: K's Mini Quilt.

I started up work again on my City Sampler quilt this week. I thought I had finished through #60, but in fact, I stopped at #58. And would you look at #58? It's maybe the easiest block in the entire book. It took about two seconds to finish.

But I've only posted that pic because this post is about my friend K's belated Christmas gift, and I don't want even the slightest hint of what it is to reach her blog feed. (She's been instructed to stay far away from my blog today.) Here's what I really want to show you: 

It's ridiculously late for a Christmas gift, but it's done, and that's what matters, right? Oh, and I kind of think it's awesome. But I'm happy to give it away because it's going to one of my favorite people, K! (In case you're new around these parts, K taught me how to quilt over two years ago, and that poor girl has since had to put up with my almost out of control obsession. Because of this, she deserves all things pretty. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if the reason for her move last fall wasn't entirely because of the new job....)

But back to the mini: Oh, NY Beauty blocks. How I love you.

Not when I'm putting you together, of course. I absolutely hate you when I'm piecing you. But when you're all said and done? Oh la la. YES. 

The background is Kona Nightfall, which is a really yummy dark blue. The rest are a smorgasbord of prints, including fabric from my very first quilt. I echo quilted the interior triangles as well as the outer triangles using four different thread colors to match the four different triangle colors. (See what I did there? Yeppers. I'm super clever and creative.)

And the back, using a print from Lizzie House's Constellations line. I had been hoarding this print, but how could I not share it with a friend, especially when I knew it would be perfect. We'll be having a visit from K's husband this weekend, and I'll be sending it back with him, so K will have it soon enough. (I really hope she likes it!)

I'm linking up today with TGIFF, hosted by M-R at Quilt Matters and Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. This is also a finish from my 2014 Q1 FAL list. You can see my original list here.

Yum.

This 28" square represents ten hours of my life. Actually, more, if you count the time it took me to pull fabric and cut out templates and make design choices. Maybe ten point five? Eleven? Twelve?

Normally, that many hours spent on such a small square might make me a little grumpy, but to be honest, it didn't feel that long. Those hours were with it. Every seam rip was worth it. (And there was a lot of seam ripping.)

I'm going to be in and out for the next couple of weeks because my mama is getting married, and I'll get to see both of my sisters, which means I'll also get to meet my cute baby niece! You all know how much I adore you, but you just can't compete with a new squishy cuddly baby.