Thursday, December 31, 2015

Christmas Mini and Monthly Mini recap

One last finish for 2015!

Even though this was finished after Christmas, I'm keeping it up until I take my Christmas tree down next week.


It's just so cute! The tree and part of the outer border is actually made out of the extra fabric from my Blitzen Basketcase quilt. While I was initially thinking I didn't use enough red, I think the very red border helps balance out the green-ness of it.

I quilted each section with a different filler pattern: the tree pot is bricks, the tree itself is overlapping wavy lines, the star is an echo star, and the background is a meander that alternates between swirls and stars. I did all of the quilting with off-white thread.




For the binding I used a red tonal print that I had in my stash that was already cut into strips (I think it was a left over from one of my mom's projects that I commandeered the scraps from) and used a decorative stitch to do the final tacking down.

The backing is a fabric I bought in the Joann's clearance remnant bin YEARS AND YEARS AGO. And it was perfect for this project! The pockets are from an old Denyse Schmidt line that I still seem to have a whole pile of in my scrap bin.



So here are all of my wall hangings that are done:


I think that is pretty good progress on these considering how many quilts I finished this year!

Happy 2016!

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Best of 2015

Merry (belated) Christmas to you!


We just got back yesterday from 10 days with our families -- we had five Christmases!

Now on to the good stuff -- The Best of 2015! I picked my most popular posts and added a little bit why I think they are a Best.


1. Frame of Mind Moda Bake Shop Quilt


Why it's a Best: It's my first MBS quilt and it's my most viewed post this year! I love everything about this quilt and it reflects me in it!

2. Blitzen Basketcase Quilt


Why it's a Best: This is my first Christmas quilt! Although I didn't quilt this one myself, I could not be happier with how this one turned out and I have enjoyed cuddling with it all of this month!

3. Firecrackers Quilt


Why it's a Best: This quilt was fun to make and I went outside my comfort zone with these fabrics! I am hugely proud of the quilting on this quilt too.

4. May Flowers Wall Hanging


Why it's a Best: Because pink and green are my favorite colors! I had a lot of fun quilting this one with the vine pattern and the little bug-a-boos are just too cute!

5. Lazy Sundays Quilt


Why it's a Best: it is my BIGGEST finish of 2015! Everything but the backing came out of my stash for this quilt and I loved using it on my bed all summer!

Check out all of the Best of 2015 posts at Meadow Mist Designs!

Monday, December 14, 2015

Finished Pink Rings Baby Quilt

Hooray for finishes!

Friday night I was finally able to get the flannel to back the Pink Rings quilt and I got it all pinned that evening. Saturday morning I intended to get the whole quilt quilted in the morning and bind it in the afternoon. That happened -- sort of, with a major detour where I had to unpick about 50% of the quilting I had done because of some major nasty pleats and tucks in the backing. These ones were just too bad to try to smooth out. So I unpicked for two hours the quilting that it had taken me less than a half hour to do.

BUT. I did finish the quilt on Saturday!

Here it is all quilted and trimmed:


And here's the back. There's a few places that ended up a little "puffy" but nothing a little washing and love won't fix!


I bound it in brown fabric from my stash and it is quilted in off white thread.

The finished product:



Sunday this quilt and its "mate" were delivered to two friends at church -- the little girl was born two weeks ago, and the little boy is due at any time!

Stats:
Size: 36 x 48
Blocks: 12" finished, from Quiltmaker Magazine
Fabrics: Pink Sock Monkey fat quarters
Backing: pink flannel
Quilting: off-white thread, chunky meander

Sharing at the normal Tuesday places: Sew Cute Tuesday, Building Blocks Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Pink Rings

Thanks to a little bit of bonus free time, I was able to take my pink rings blocks from this:


To this:


And the last night I finished up the last three blocks and put the top together!


This quilt ends up being the exact same size as my Picnic Pinwheels baby quilt, which is perfect because these quilts will be going to two babies at church who are bound to be each other's first friends!

Now to quilt this one -- I am planning to do off white thread (unless I can find a perfect light pink) with a pink flannel backing and brown binding! And while I'm at it I'll be quilting my Taffy quilt too!

Happy Thursday! Don't forget to enter my Sew Mama Sew giveaway! Linking up for WIP Wednesday!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- it's Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!


For those of you who aren't regulars around Little Bunny Quilts, welcome! I'm Alison and here are a few of my finishes since the last giveaway day:

1. Blitzen Basketcase 2. Turkey Wallhanging 3. New Bedford Firecracker for Fat Quarter Shop
4. Frame of Mind for Moda Bake Shop 5. Square Pegs for Moda Bake Shop 6. Halloween Swap Mini
And now to the main attraction!

Today, I'll be giving away a whole pile of Honey, Bunny, and Doll patterns! Click over to Craftsy to see all of the patterns!


One GRAND PRIZE winner will win THREE patterns of their choice and five runners up will each win one pattern!

BUT WAIT! If we get over 700 likes on the Honey, Bunny, and Doll Facebook page, the number of pattern winners will double to TEN!

To enter:

1. For one entry, leave a comment with your favorite kind of Christmas cookie!

2. For a second entry, if you are some sort of a follower/liker of Little Bunny Quilts and/or Honey Bunny and Doll Designs, let me know how you follow/like us -- follow on Blogger/Bloglovin, like on Facebook, follow on Craftsy, etc. 


Wednesday, December 2, 2015

WIP Wednesday: Baby quilts, what else?

After taking a little breather after finishing up my Firecracker and Square Pegs quilts, it's high time to get back to making baby quilts. Partly because I have so many to do, partly because one of my friends had her baby Monday and the next one is due anytime.

I decided to sash together my Twelve Taffies quilt with black strips from the same jelly roll and grey cornerstones. I think I want to back it in grey and also use light grey thread to quilt it. What I didn't think about was that I don't have enough strips left to bind it, so I might have to find something in my stash that would work.


(Hooray for honest pictures with socks and reindeer PJ pants! And of course the sashing on the one side isn't ironed right -- boo!)

And since I now need to make two girl quilts (finally! It seemed like I was making boy quilts forever.) I started into another one of the fat quarter bundles I got ages ago in the girl colorway. I picked a pattern from a quilt in Quiltmaker magazine but I am just making the churn dash-like blocks and not doing any applique blocks for my quilt. I am going to keep the red at a minimum because it makes the quilt look so much darker! I am planning to back this one in pink too.

Here's all of my progress thus far:


I have the strip piecing for the blocks all done and the sub-units cut which is awesome! Next up is to make all of the HSTs --  hopefully that's my project for tonight!

Linking up at WIP Wednesday, Let's Bee Social, Fabric Tuesday, and Sew Cute Tuesday!


Wednesday, November 25, 2015

November Stash Bee Blocks

It's always sad to make and post about the last blocks of a bee! These are my blocks for Bev made from the Quatrefoil pattern from the Bee Hive.




While the end of a bee is quiet for some, it means that I've been working like crazy working on getting the 2016 hives together for the Stash Bee! It's only a few more days before the official end of 2015, and then I'll announce hives for 2016! I am so excited for a new group of wonderful ladies to participate! :)

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Square Pegs Pattern at Moda Bake Shop!

I am so excited to share that my second pattern for Moda Bake Shop is now up -- Square Pegs!


This quilt is made with one jelly roll, one charm pack, and a little bit of white yardage. It's a modern take on a log cabin and made with the gorgeous new line from Studio M -- Basic Mixologie.



This is a great beginner quilt but is fun for any quilter! The blocks go together very quickly and the pattern is easily scaled up or down with more or fewer blocks.

Here's my original diagram:


And here's my finished quilt:




It's somewhat visible in the "tree pictures", but for the quilting, I did a "mod meander" -- it's like Leah Day's "circuit board" pattern but the corners are all rounded or curves rather than sharp turns. I can try to take some closer up pictures of the quilting!

The background is a great teal print from the line that is diamonds and the binding is an orange diagonal stripe -- perfection for binding!

I hope you pop over to Moda Bake Shop to check out the pattern and if you make your own version, be sure to share it!

Sharing at Finish it Up Friday!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

November Midnight Mystery Progress

Unlike October where I actually got my set done in November, I actually completed my November portion of the Meadow Mist Designs Midnight Mystery quilt in November!

This month we made a few half square triangles, but mostly we sewed our units from the previous months together!

The half square triangles were used to make the units in the upper right hand corner and an olive rectangle added in. We made two of those. Our flying geese units and square in a square units were all sewn together (which I totally expected!!!) and then some of them were sewn to olive squares for the units in the lower right hand corner.



So here are all of my units together:


I think I know how it all is put together BUT I don't want to say it and then end up being wrong! I definitely think some of those units get turned into stars, because what quilter doesn't like stars?

Linking up to the normal Tuesday places!
Linky Tuesday
Fabric Tuesday
Sew Cute Tuesday
Building Blocks Tuesday

Friday, November 13, 2015

Firecrackers Blog Hop and Giveaway!

I am SO excited to be a part of Fat Quarter Shop's blog hop for their new Firecrackers pattern!


If you're visiting Little Bunny Quilts for the first time, welcome! My name is Alison and I've been quilting for close to 12 years and I've been blogging here for just over 4 years. I live in Frederick, MD with Park Ranger Husband and my quilt inspector, Clara the bunny. I work at at non-profit by day and am a quilter and pattern designer by nights and weekends!




For my quilt, I worked with New Bedford by Denyse Schmidt!


These rolls include solid strips, but I only used the patterned strips in my quilt. Since you only need one and a half jelly rolls for the pattern, this worked out perfectly!

I love to strip piece so putting the strip sets together and them slicing them up into wedges was lots of fun!





I really like the 30 degree ruler that this pattern uses (click here to see it!) and I am trying to think of more ways to use it! (And you might have a chance to get one too... :D)

Thoughts on construction:
-All of your blocks will have bias edges, so be aware of stretching and avoid picking out seams when you can to prevent distortion.
-I found it was pretty easy to match up seams and points with this pattern since the blocks are all trimmed to the same size. This is also one of those situations where you can use the bias to your advantage!
-I also pinned like a fiend and even though it was time-consuming it was TOTALLY worth it!
-I think my seam allowance when I made my strip sets was a scant quarter inch and could have been a touch wider so that the fifth strip's piece in the final square was wider. You can definitely use an accurate quarter inch seam!

And here's my finished quilt!




For the quilting, I filled the white diamonds with loops and then went back and filled in all of my "firecrackers" with loops as well. (I do all of my free motion quilting on my domestic Janome Magnolia.) Here's a close up shot:


For the backing, I used the mustard plaid print and it looks gorgeous! The binding is also one of the mustard prints.


And here are all of the links if you're interested in making your own Firecrackers quilt!



Here are all of the quilters participating in this hop -- go visit them to see their versions!

Lauren of Fly Away Quilts


And now for a little celebratory giveaway to thank you for visiting! Fat Quarter shop is graciously allowing me to do a give away for a Creative Grids 30 degree ruler which is used in this pattern! 


Two ways to enter:
1. For everyone: pop over to FQS and let me know which jelly roll(s) you would use in your version of this pattern!
2. Followers of Little Bunny Quilts -- old or new -- get a second entry! Tell me that you are a follower and what color background fabric you would use in your version of the pattern. 

Thanks to the Fat Quarter Shop for asking me to be a part of this fun blog hop and to any new visitors! I will announce the winner of the give away on Monday! 

Sharing at Finish it up Friday and Free Motion Mavericks!