Switching Things Up: A Quilt

car-quilt1

So. When I start posting things from the past, we all know what that means. Take this quilt, for example. I made it three years ago or thereabouts. Possibly the easiest quilt to make as it’s two large rectangles sandwiching batting, then stitched with random diagonal lines. I read about this method online somewhere (here, I’m pretty certain). It was a birthday gift for a friend’s son, and I was smitten with that Kokka car fabric. The backing is my usual grey linen-blend that is my default fabric to use, it seems. I hand-stitched the bias binding, so that part was snail-paced, but a very satisfying project if I’m remembering things correctly. At the time, the little boy had a fire engine toddler bed, so I thought it would look adorable with the car-themed quilt.

Oh wait, you don’t know what it means when I’m posting old stuff? I didn’t get around to sewing anything for K this weekend, much to my chagrin. What with a school ice skating event, a date night (which I had to curtail due to previously and incessantly mentioned coughing), and teaching a class (which, despite my less than ebullient presentation, went fairly smoothly), I realized that I had grossly overestimated my ability to get K’s outfit done.

car-quilt2

The outfit will come later this week, but for today, we’ll admire my one-and-a-half-day quilt, shall we? I must have a thing for car-themed fabric, since I’d loaded up on the knit fabric that turned into this little romper.

Now that I’ve reacquainted myself with KatieDid’s quilt, I’m getting the itch to try my hand at this quilt method again with two solid-colored fabrics and a stripey binding. Mmmmmm.

Time to go sew!

12 thoughts on “Switching Things Up: A Quilt

  1. I love easy quilts like this. They take no time at all really (except for that hand-binding of course)… I don’t know why these aren’t on the top of my baby-gift giving list! Those cars are so great. Look forward to K’s outfit later this week!

    1. Yep, the hand-binding, though meditative, took FOREVER. But if you’re okay with sewing the binding (I’m not so good at it – always miss spots), this is a speedy project and a good one for baby gifts!

  2. I love quilts, especially baby quilts. I think my favorite quilt was the one I made my son Sam. We sent it to China before we could come and get him (he’s adopted). He loves it and I think having our smells (my other son slept with it a bit before we sent it) helped him to know us better. But it’s just a simple 6″ square block quilt all made with soft flannels and tied together. 🙂

  3. What a fortunate little boy to receive such a great gift! Quilting scares me, though I hugely admire many I see on Pinterest . . . usually ones with color blocking and bold, modern appeal. This sounds do-able though! And don’t you just love KatieDid’s blog? It was one of the first ones I started reading years ago and was so sad when she (understandably) stopped posting.

    1. I absolutely loved KatieDid’s blog! The clothes she made for her girls were so inspirational! I was very sad about and creeped out by the circumstances that caused her to stop blogging. Quilting is pretty intimidating for me too, but with all the scraps I’m accumulating, I think it’s an inevitability for me.

  4. Yay. That’s great! I never thought I would be interested in quilting. I come from a long line of quilters, but it didn’t appeal to me when I was younger. I now love it, but still only make maybe 2 a year.

    1. Woah, 2 quilts a year? I’m SO impressed! If I can make even one in the next couple of years, I’ll consider myself a major overachiever 🙂

  5. I know you said it was bronchitis, but some years ago, I had a unrelenting cough that was killing me (wouldn’t let me sleep for more than 30 min at a time). Doc prescribed albuterol. I pointed out that I didn’t have/never had asthma, but she sort of shushed me and told me to try it – and damned if it didn’t work. After I was able to break the coughing cycle, I got better really fast. Hope you are doing better.

    1. Oh, not being able to sleep more than 30 minutes at a time sounds awful, June! Reminds me of when K was a baby…that’s good to know that albuterol worked. We have some on hand because K has seasonal asthma – I might have to steal a puff or two…

  6. Hi Sanae,
    i always puzzled about you and quilts. There are so many examples of japanese style quilts, neutral colors, freepiecing, indigo accents, you know… that i always thought “this is something a can see Sanae do!”

    The whole style of mordern quiltmaking is something i love love love

    The tutorial from Katiedid was btw. one of the first i found when i started to quilt.

    The aestetic of using two solid fabrics and pair the with a bold, floral or striped binging caught my eye immediatley.

    I also loved her “you can do it” attitude for encouraging newbies (like me) to start such a project. I loved her blog and was so so sad ( even though i understand the circumstances) when she quit blogging

    I still like quilts that were build on the fabrics more than build of the quilt-pattern. IMO you dont have to cut a bazzillion little pieces to make a wonderful heirloom quilt. Feel free to hop to my site (click quilts in the sidebar) to look at one of my quilts.

    This quilt of yours is just darling. Those Cars are bold, and friendly and cheerful. The little boy will treasure it for a long time, i’m sure!

    Greetings to you

    Marit

    1. I love your quilts, Marit! I’ve been wanting to make more involved quilts forever, but the time commitment always stopped me. Perhaps 2014 will be the year I take the plunge…

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