Finished Deco Inspired Baby Quilt

 Done on time and ready to be delivered tomorrow. 

The mom-to-be, my niece E, lives in Florida and likes Art Deco design and colors. The baby is a girl. My other niece N and her husband, as well as my brother the grandpa-to-be, live in the Phoenix area and are coming for dinner and to see our new home tomorrow. I'll pass the quilt to N who will take it to E when the Arizona member's of E's family go down to Florida when the baby comes. 

This is definitely one of my favorite baby quilts ever. And the backing couldn't be more perfect for it. 

The strong sun shows the texture from the quilting well, but washes out the colors. The colors look better in the shade.

The top measured 48" square and after quilting and washing the quilt came out at 46" square. 

I would definitely make this pattern again, with a modification. The blocks are were inspired by Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework and I'll definitely use this block design again. Next time instead of including the white strips in the block itself, I'll treat them as sashing so the top and bottom edges of the center will come out even without all the fussing and finagling I had to do to make this work. 

Like I said, one of my most favorite ever baby quilts. Even my husband likes this one, and he very rarely comments on my quilts. I hope the new mom will like it. 

Link Ups: Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Alycia Quilts, Wendy's Quilts and More, My Quilt Infatuation

Fabric Shopping

 Last week I went fabric shopping at two new-to-me shops with a couple of girls from the quilt club. I was specifically looking for backing for my Deco-inspired baby quilt, and of course I was open to some stash enhancement if something jumped out at me. 

The first shop we went to was 35th Avenue Sew & Vac (Northern Ave. at 35th Ave). This is the shop that was described as being comparable to Hancock's of Paducah. In some respects the description fit, but in others, no. It was a huge store. They had a large area devoted to selling sewing machines and long arm machines, and accessories for them. They had bay after bay of patterns and notions. They had a very large selection of quilting fabric, very well organized and presented, but probably only 2/3 the stock Hancock's has. No home decor fabric at all. They had one little bay of sale fabrics; everything else was full retail price, $12-13 per yard. The store was organized so that complete collections were presented together, with several collections from the same manufacturer or designer grouped in the same three-sided bay. Fabrics were on shelves three high with room for fat quarters, although the stock of fat quarters was slim. Other than the one scant sale area ($8/yard) there were no bargains. The store accepts guild discount cards for 10% off but all my old STL guild discount cards are expired and the PCQ club hasn't issued anything yet, so I tried to use my AQS card and they rejected it, no discount. 

I was able to find the perfect print for backing for my quilt (see previous post below).

I also found a few stash enhancements from the sale area, just because I liked them. 

Not shown, I found a couple of sports prints suitable for boy quilts so I bought quarter yards of each. One is footballs and the other is football helmets. I'm using them in another project which will be the subject of a future post. 

The girls and I had lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Cajun place on Northern Ave. and I had a delicious shrimp po-boy. The girls had catfish po-boys which they enjoyed but I'm not a fan of catfish. One of the girls had lived in Baton Rouge for several years and she thought the food was very good and authentic. 

After Lunch we went to Mulqueen's, at 59th Ave. and Northern Ave. Mulqueen's was smaller than 335th Ave. but does a good business in sewing machine repair and service. The fabric selection was okay but was more basic and was mostly past season. There wasn't as much organization, although solids or batiks or flannels were grouped together. Prices were $8 per yard for prints. I didn't look at batiks or flannels so I don't know about the prices for those. They had a big table of FQs, half yards, and remnants. I found some FQs of good basics that came home with me. I also found another sports print, cars, not shown. I wasn't inspired to collect anything else this trip, but I'll definitely go back. 

Both shops were a bit of a drive, more than a half hour. I live at 164th Ave. and we went all the way to 35th Ave. I'll definitely go back to these shops. Most likely I'll go to 35Th Ave. when I'm looking for something specific that I'm willing to pay full price for, and to Mulqueen's when I'm looking for bargains or something for a donation quilt. 

The girls who were with me are both new quilters but experienced sewists. One found a kit to make a baby quilt for a baby coming in October, and the other found fabrics for a tote bag pattern she wants to make. Neither had ever heard of stash enhancement....😉

A good day was had by all. 

Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt

Deco Inspired Baby Quilt: a Finished Flimsy

The borders have been added, and now it's a finished flimsy. It's currently 48" square. Yes, it's square, the picture's crooked. It's also a little washed out looking due to the bright sun. 

I went fabric shopping with a couple of girls from the PC quilt club earlier this week and found the most PERFECT backing. It's "Tropic Canna" by Amy Butler from her Bright Heart line. 

It may not look "babyish" but the mom-to-be lives in Florida and likes Art Deco designs and colors. The baby is a girl. To me this is totally fitting. So far I think this is one of my most favorite ever baby quilts of all that I've made. 

I just have to get it quilted, labeled and bound by next Friday. I'm on track so I should be able to finish it in time. 

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Alycia Quilts

Coming Along Nicely

All the blocks plus partial blocks for side triangles are done. In keeping with the Art Deco inspiration, I'm setting the blocks on point so they have that uplifting look that so many Art Deco elements have. 

Since I'm pretty much winging this, I had to figure out how to make the side and corner triangles so they'd look like partial blocks in the finished quilt. A bit of trial and error was needed, and there's excess to be trimmed away. 

It would have been better if I'd made colored blocks and set them with white sashing, instead of including the final white round in the blocks. I had to compensate with some extra long strips and a partial seam at the bottom to get the bottom to match the top. But it all worked out, and here's the top, all trimmed up and ready for a border. 

Because all those edges are bias, I'll add a narrow coral border to contain it all and keep it from stretching. It'll be a finished flimsy soon, so I'm on track to meet my deadline of May 1st. 

I'm going fabric shopping with some new quilter friends today and I hope to find something special for a backing. If I don't find anything, I have something that will work, but a splashy tropical print would be cute if I can find one. Maybe flamingoes for a baby quilt? 

My new friends are taking me to two highly recommended fabric shops today. One of the shops is said to compare with Hancock's of Paducah, but it's in a sketchy area so one doesn't go alone, hence the road trip together. We're making a day of it with shopping and lunch. Stash enhancement here I come!

Link up: Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

A Baby, a Palette, and a Plan

 But first, thank you to all who commented and offered advice about my HEIC issue. Turns out, several of the conversion programs may work for Android as well as iPhone photos. And a helpful commenter suggested searching for advanced settings in my phone's camera app to see if I could set it back to jpg. Problem solved!

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Another niece - this time on my side of the family, my brother's daughter E -  is expecting a baby girl. My brother and his other daughter N live in the Phoenix area, but the mom-to-be lives in Florida. N says she likes Art Deco colors and design. Very fitting for Florida!

I can certainly create a baby quilt with that inspiration. The problem is, I have a May 1 deadline to get it finished and delivered to N to take to Florida. So not much time for a tricky or complicated design. 

As for colors, I'm going with black and white plus the colors of Miami architecture. Who can resist turquoise and coral! I popped in a vibrant dark pink to make it just that much more more girly. 

Like I said, I have to keep the design simple, so I'm going with quarter log cabin blocks inspired by Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun than Housework.  A few of these...

... and a few of these...

... and a few more yet to be made but you get the idea. I'll set them on point with the nine patch at the bottom so they radiate upward. 

I'm going to have to stay focused in order to get this quilt finished on time, but fortunately it's only baby-size so I'm sure I can get it done. I have a potential backing fabric on hand, but I'm going fabric shopping with a couple of new quilter friends on Wednesday and I'm hoping to find something I like better. 

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Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt

HEIC Files - Advice Needed

 Well, I had a surprise this morning - It seems my phone camera is suddenly now saving photos in HEIC format instead of JPG. 

I can upload the HEIC files to my laptop okay. But the photo editing program* I use can't accommodate HEIC files, so I can't import the files to it; therefore I can't do any edits. 

Does anyone know anything about converting HEIC photos from an Android phone to JPG photos? I might need either an Android phone app or a laptop app to convert.  

Any suggestions or recommendations?  

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And because no blog post is complete without a photo, I'm featuring an old favorite, Broken Chevron.

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Link ups: Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt

*I'm using an older version of Photoshop from CAS 6 purchased as a student in 2013. Since my Photoshop skills are very basic, the old program has been meeting my needs quite well. 

Animal Print Quilt

The animal print quilt made from the fabric Libby sent is finished except for adding the donation label. It turned out to be a cute toddler quilt at 42" x 49". I kept the quilting simple: SID in the pieced rows and chevrons and curvy lines in the print borders, meandering around the animals so no stitching shows on top of them. 

                            

I'm still disappointed in the color in the photos. I guess my camera just perceives the pretty chartreuse green as yellow, even in outdoor light. 

For backing I looked through the bins of fabric the PC Quilters have in their sewing room for charity quilts, and found something that made me smile. Lobsters! And I couldn't resist adding a zebra and a leopard print as well. 

I'll get the required label sewn onto this and take it over to the PCQ sewing room next chance I get to go over there. 

Link ups:
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Alycia Quilts