Hopeful Homemaker

I’ve said before that my Color Stack pattern is my favorite for quilts that are gifts (such as this one ), so I guess today I’m here with more proof.  It’s a quick project and has a great modern style for boys and girls both.  Plus, it’s just plain fun to make.  This sweet little quilt is a very special one.  It’s Harrison’s color stack quilt, made for a treasured baby boy.

Several years ago my daughter spent 18 months serving a full-time mission in Paraguay.  One of the (many) lasting blessings from that experience is her friendship with Abby.  They’ve been dear friends ever since, and Emmeline even introduced Abby to her future husband.  They were married in 2020, and just had a baby boy.  And the sweetest thing of all?  They named him Harrison, which is our last name.  To say that we’ve been ooh-ing and aah-ing over him, and pictures of him, since his birth, is an understatement.

I made Harrison’s color stack quilt before we left on vacation, knowing we would get to see his parents and meet him for the first time while there.  And Emmeline doesn’t know it, but I’m sneaking in a picture of her holding the quilt, because she is the reason we know this darling little family.  It amazes me, this joy of knowing good people.

Most of the fabrics in this quilt were designed by Carolyn Friedlander.  The backing, however, is a Conservatory crafts print, designed by Monkia Forsberg.  I love the vines and movement in it, as well as the animals.  But that vibrant blue sold me first.  It’s one of my favorite colors.  The finishing touch is a dark blue binding.

And a personal victory for me was finishing it in the car!  I get so carsick, but was able to stitch a little on our road trip.  Counting my blessings!

This little mini quilt was a delight to make.  When Treehouse Textiles offered a free pattern, I jumped in, so here is my Treehouse stitching sampler!  The pattern is a great mix of improv and pattern, giving the maker lots of opportunity to make an original piece.

First off, I chose low volume scraps, a few pre-made half square triangles, and one favorite square of Liberty tana lawn to create the background.  Next I selected a few Liberty prints for the flowers and started on the bouquet.  I particularly liked making those cute flowers, using some favorite green scraps for stems.  Every piece in this project holds memories of other projects I’ve worked on.  That’s the joy of sewing with scraps.  You get all these happy memories in a new project!

This Treehouse stitching sampler also represents some firsts for me.  I had never embroidered on a piece of fabric for English paper piecing before, but those hexagons were begging for flowers on them.  The tiny beehive is a remnant of my Beehive mini quilt from years ago.

I also added some patches to this mini quilt.  “You are enough” was a gift from my sister.  The skinny strip above is a scrap from a lone star block.  I also used a pattern from my favorite embroidery artist, Yumiko Higuchi, along the side of the quilt.  I loved the motif of a teardrop made of flowers.  (It reminded me of my Through Tears She Saw More Clearly quilt.)  For the quilting, I chose big stitch style hand quilting with Perle cotton, size 8.

Finally, I finished the little beauty with a pre-made bias tape with a crochet edge to it.  I bought it years ago in a quilt shop but never used it.  I’m happy it’s found its home.  This turned into a wonderful little mixed media kind of project for me, and I loved every minute of making it.

Of course I couldn’t resist adding fresh peonies to a few photos of this sweet little quilt.  I think I need to do more sewing like this.  Just looking at it makes my fingers itch to go dig through scraps and come up with a plan!  

I hope you’re sewing something fun today!

We took a trip to the beach over the summer and had a lovely time.  And of course, I brought along some stitching.  I had wanted to make an updated version of my Prosper Quilt when I finally released the pattern .  I love this version, my Prosper in Conservatory Crafts fabrics.

These photos were taken during an early morning walk along the beach with my husband.  When we found the heart on the rock it seemed like the perfect spot to pause.

The actual sewing of this quilt top was back in 2019, and it has hung patiently in my closet ever since.  Lots of things went on pause for me in 2020, and it’s nice to be going back through them all now, trying to finish up and enjoy them.  Prosper in Conservatory is no exception.  It waited until I was brave enough to put something I cared about on my (new to me) longarm, and then it got the organic straight line quilting treatment.

Most of the fabrics here came from the first release, called Chapter 1, from Conservatory Crafts fabrics which are curated by Anna Maria Horner.  I loved the whole collection and wanted to feature them.  Three years later, these fabrics are still gorgeous and so fun to look at.  They looked so beautiful against the beautiful cliffs of Laguna Beach.

The backing is made from two colorways of the same print by Arounna Khounnoraj.  It looks blurry, but it’s just the shadow on all the shapes.  This is one of my favorite backings ever, and so rich in color.  I have yardage of the black colorway stashed, too.  It will be amazing with applique, if I can ever decide what to applique on it!  For now, we’re loving our new quilt!