House Quilt: finally finished!

Life got in the way of quilting for a while--I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! I have a new job, new home, new city, and new sewing space now, in beautiful Charlottesville, Virginia. I'm so lucky! I have finally finished the quilt I was working on for so long: baby Veronica will enjoy it, I hope, but she is too old for swaddling! Oh well. Here are some pics of the final product. First, the whole quilt. That's Veronica on the bottom as I imagine her someday. While the remainder of the quilt is original improvation, I got the idea for this square from a great flickr group, "sarah and molly's free piecing":

Next up, the skyscraper is my personal favorite block. I love how the cynical owl turned out, and the butterfly floating above. It did seem a bit intense for a baby quilt, but I decided it was too wonderful to leave out:

My second favorite block is this one, of a little girl wistfully standing outside a house. I have had this retro kid fabric for at least ten years, and I finally figured out how to use it without it looking corny. The snippet on the left is from a wonderful fabric designed by an artist in the southwest somewhere, purchased at the Houston International Quilt Festival a few years ago:














Everyone else likes this modernist block best! I don't mind it myself:









I think the reason it has taken me so long to finish this quilt is, I don't really want to let it go. But it will head off in the mail tomorrow. Goodbye quilt!

Improv houses

I am making a baby quilt for some friends having a little girl this summer. For some reason, I've gotten really into the idea that they should have a house-themed quilt, and finally decided that I didn't like any traditional house quilts, so I would improvise! I decided on a creamy-tan background, rather than white, and have shot these against the wonderful green wood-grain fabric I will use for the sashing (that is, if sashing is the way I go--this is improvised after all!). I am having SO much fun with this. I've uploaded the images in the order in which I made them. I'm working on a high-rise apartment building right now:

I got the idea for the girl block from "sarah and molly's free piecing study" on flickr:

This modern house is inspired by my sister Anne's research on the architect who built her house--he liked big heavy flat roof styles. This is my favorite block so far. Check out the selvage curtains in the window, and the stop-light chimney: