number two!

as soon as i finished my last quilt, i took it to a party at a friend’s house to show off (part of the party was in a chilly room and we had been encouraged to bring along blankets–i wasn’t just bragging). as soon as i saw the quilt in their house, i realized that maybe i’d been inspired by the colors they’d used in their home when i was creating this quilt and that it would look really nice there.

making these lap quilts is my new favorite thing. those of you who know me or have been reading this blog for awhile may have noticed that i go through crafting “phases.” but there’s really only so many quilts you can make for yourself and i don’t think i want to sell them. i tend to get impatient with them and want to be done quickly. i enjoy the process, but i’m not interested in any hand stitching, so everything (including the binding) is sewn by machine. plus, not all the seams are straight and there’s probably some other wonkiness and if i were going to sell them, i’d feel more obligated to “fix” those things. i’d rather give them as gifts to friends and family who don’t mind the imperfections. i also enjoy making quilts with a non-traditional, modern aesthetic and that isn’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. i definitely don’t want to give someone a quilt that they’re not going to love, so when i realized how much this friend would enjoy a quilt like the one i’d just finished, i decided to make one for her. plus, i still had enough leftover fabric from the first one that i only had to purchase batting, backing fabric and a little extra binding in order to finish the whole thing over the course of a few evenings. i left out the hand-painted back and did something a little simpler and since i’d already made one and didn’t have to think about the design plan too much, it went really quickly. plus, the quilting plan was much simpler. today i got the chance to give her the quilt and she was so very pleased with it and that made me happy! i quilted this second one a little differently. here’s a photo of the two side-by-side. can you see the difference?

hmmm…. yeah, a little bit hard to see, isn’t it? (still haven’t quite gotten the hang of photographing quilts) i’ll describe the differences–in the original quilt (the one on the right side of the photo above) i quilted the colored squares so that they look like they are suspended in the middle of a larger white square. in the second quilt, each of the colored and white squares appear to be in an equal grid of blocks. i hadn’t realized before this how much difference the quilting plan can make in the final design of the quilt. thanks for the opportunity to experiment and learn that! here’s another photo:

and here’s a sneak peek at my next lap quilt:

this one will take a bit longer as i’m making up the pattern as i go and it’s a bit more detailed than the last two. i was thrilled today when i finally did the math and mapped out how many blocks i would need to make the quilt the size i’m aiming for and discovered that the fabric i had purchased in guesstimated quantities was almost exactly the perfect amount. i need enough to make 208 blocks and i had enough to make 216. huzzah! i promise i’ll show you the final project again when it’s been given to the recipient. but until then, shhhhh!!! it’s a secret!