Easy projects Archives : Indiana Quilter 40

DONATED BABY QUILTS TO THE LOCAL CRISIS PREGNANCY CENTER

I am a big believer in giving back to my community. Here are six simple donated baby quilts to the local crisis pregnancy center that I made. As I make these quilts, they get donated in batches of 6 – 12 to two local pregnancy centers.

The blocks are a mix of flannel and cotton with the batting being scraps left over from my own projects. The backing is usually a flannel or child print cotton. They are tied with yarn. People know that I make many of these annually so many of the supplies are donated to me for this purpose.

Supplies For the Donated baby quilts:

Nine 9.5” cotton or flannel squares (3 rows of 3 squares each)

Batting

Bright colored yarn

Backing fabric (flannel or cotton – 1.25 yard)

At a minimum they should be tied at each corner and in the center of each block. They could be machine quilted easily in straight lines.

I do a self binding by trimming the batting even with the top, and then trimming the back to 2″ on each side larger than the top/batting. Fold the over hang in half once (so now 1″ wide all around quilt) and sew down as binding.

If using fleece as the backing, when self binding trim to 1″ and zig-zag stitch down. I have found if using fleece for the backing, I do not use batting.

Please remember that these donated baby quilts for the local crisis pregnancy center are meant to be loved to death, so make them well and colorful.

Reach out to others:

If you ask or look around your own community, there are people or places who would love to receive warm and cuddly quilts. These are also a simple way to teach people basic sewing skills.

In the past, I have used these quilts to teach basic sewing and giving skills to a group of teen girls at church. It was a fun way to learn and for them to socialize as well. Currently I am making the donated baby quilts alone as the girls have all left for college, and none of the current teen girls are interested in sewing.

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2015/02/10-crisis-pregnancy-quilts.html

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2014/09/19-crisis-pregnancy-center-quilts.html

FIRST GRANDBABY QUILT

I recently spent some time looking at my old blog and walking down “memory lane” of quilts that I did years ago. I thought this quilt “First Grandbaby Quilt” would be a fun one to share. It was simple and made with a lot of love for a wonderful surprise.

Our first (and to date only) grandbaby was a wonderful surprise. Our daughter was and is a planner, and as far as we knew babies were not part of the her life’s plan.

So being a quilter, my mind went into “quilting mode” and what kind of quilt to make for the expected precious little person. The daughter refused to have a sex test done on the baby so any quilt would have to be for either gender.

After much sorting through the stash, I finally decided on cheerful and bright. Some bright scraps, some flower fabrics, some cat fabrics, and a newly purchased piece of Winnie the Pooh fabric for the border.

The grand-daughter arrived as scheduled in March 2015. She was (and is) a precious addition to our family. We are so glad to live only a short distance away which means we are able to babysit a few hours weekly. The years slip by so fast and she is now in kindergarten. She is beautiful just like her mom.

The First Grandbaby quilt is faded and well used, which is exactly what it should be.

See another easy quilt on this blog.

Completed quilt:

Remember these are the sizes I used and feel free to adjust to suit your needs.

Finished size is 54″ square.

Center 9 blocks are 10″ square. The strip blocks are 2.5″ wide strips sewn together side to side. Trim to the size you want.

Inside border of cat fabric is 6″ wide.

The outside Winnie the Pooh border is 8″ wide.

Machine quilting by RLM is a medium size stipple.

Binding is self bound with the gray flannel backing being pulled to the front and machine sewn down.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

ODE TO VINTAGE CARS

As I mentioned in the previous post, a current project is a quilt for my nephew. He loves vintage and muscle cars. I am making him an Ode to Vintage Cars quilt for his high school graduation this year. Simple and personal.

I try to do my business locally, and in this case the search for specific fabric took longer than expected. I found so many vehicle fabrics, but most were juvenile looking or were not the right kind of cars. Amazing as it is, I was able to get four vintage car fabrics on my last road trip to the Daviess County, IN Amish community.

My plan is this –

Double bed size made from 10″ squares. The car fabric will be alternated with solid orange fabric. It will be 8 rows across by 9 rows up and down for a total of 72 squares. So 36 orange and 36 car fabric. Can you tell I like to keep my math easy?

My thought is to add three separate borders: 2.5″ wide white, 2.5″ orange, and 4″ navy blue with small white stars. The borders will be my ode to my favorite muscle car.

I am aiming for a finished size of 85″ x 95″.

Right now, the rows are sewn together and the top is waiting the borders. I should be able to get the borders added this week. Then it will go off to be machine quilted.

I will add more photos once the quilt is complete.

It should make a young man who loves vintage and muscle cars a happy guy.

My favorite muscle car:

During my teen years in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, muscle cars were common. I had my favorites – Corvette’s and Nova’s. Then this TV series came on in 1979 named the Dukes of Hazzard. I fell in love hard for the most “magic” muscle car of them all – the General Lee. It was beautiful jumping and it always drove off after a jump.

Coolest vintage car — Source: Google images

I found out the hard way that jumping a muscle car was not smart and very dangerous. A school mate and I ruined his dad’s newly restored Camaro by jumping it on a country road. The moral to that lesson – let the stunt guys drive crazy.

Conclusion:

Easy and personal quilts can be made from any novelty fabric that suits the interests of the recipient. Here’s another idea for a personal quilt that involves vehicles. I also found an unlimited amount of car quilt ideas on Pintrest.

This kind of quilt is simple to make and a joy to receive. Have fun making these for the special people in your life.

In the meantime, I will finish the Ode to Vintage Cars quilt by adding the borders and getting it off to the machine quilter.

Have a great day.

EASY ONE PATCH BABY QUILTS (or my “go to” pattern for quick, easy quilts)

Easy One Patch Baby Quilts (or my “go to” pattern for a simple, quick baby or lap quilts) is the One Patch. They can easily be made in any colors or themes desired. Simple beauty at its’ best.

How to

I use 8” blocks of whatever colored or themed cotton fabric is wanted for the quilt. For these two quilts, I did 4 squares by 5 squares for a total of 20 squares in each quilt. I then added a 6” border. A great thing about doing quilts this way is that they can be adjusted to bigger or smaller by using more or fewer blocks.

Two piles of blocks - 1 gray and 1 yellow. — 20 gray blocks, and 20 various yellow print blocks

The gray was yardage I had on hand, the yellow blocks were scraps, and the border print was purchased last week at Hobby Lobby. I was working at a comfortable speed (with the phone turned off) and the ironing, cutting, and sewing took me three hours to complete both tops. They will be machine quilted to complete.

The finished sizes are about 43″ x 49″.

Showing off the various yellow squares, or one patch blocks

The two baby quilts pictured here are for a couple at church who have been approved for fostering to adopt. They are not sure whether they will get boys, girls, or one of each so wanted the fabrics to be gender neutral and cheerful.

The really great thing about doing this simple pattern is that it can look so different based on colors, themes, or even some different border design.

Check out how different a One Patch Quilt can look:

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2011/11/one-patch-quilts.html

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2011/11/patchwork-quilt-pieced-for-new-baby-in.html

Try it

Have you tried this or something similar for a quick and easy gift? Please comment below or contact me at Indianaquilter40@gmail.com with photos or questions.

PLEASE NOTE:
ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

SCRAP RECTANGLE PARTY QUILT

Scraps, scraps and more scraps. Do your scraps seem to multiply without much help from you? Maybe while you are sleeping? It sure seems that way in my sewing area. Welcome to the super simple Scrap Rectangle Party Quilt !!

Here’s the inspiration from Pintrest for my own quilt: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/782570872732967356/

Inspiration from Pintrest for Scrap Rectangle Party quilt — Inspiration for my quilt – from Pintrest

I liked the look of the gray on the inspiration quilt as the alternate blocks between the scraps. My stash had several yards of a gray with white polka dots so that became the alternate blocks and the stable color all through the quilt.

The rectangles:

I decided to work with a larger size rectangle. After cutting and experimenting with several various sizes of rectangles, I decided on 4″ wide by 7″ long. It was an easy to piece top that was also quick.

The scraps were pulled out of the scrap bins and cut to size. I did not use anything that blended in with the gray, but otherwise, the scraps were fair game.

I sewed the blocks together long wise into pairs, those pairs into groups of 4 rectangles , and those into 8. Using 24 blocks across made for easy math with 3 sections of 8 rectangles each.

Another view of the Scrap Rectangle Party quilt.

The rows were 24 blocks across with a total of 16 rows. Now to frame it with some sort of border.

Borders:

My daughter came over and between us we came up with the narrow black border (cut 2″ wide). We found the tough part was the outside border, nothing seemed to really work – more gray made the quilt too dark. There was not enough of any florals that looked right. I didn’t have enough of the solid purple that looked really neat.

Am I the only one frustrated with finding the perfect border fabric for scrap quilts? Somehow I doubt it. Anyway, daughter and I continued to dig through the stash and came up with a fun novelty fabric that was perfect. Cut a 4″ border from it for the outside border.

This really was a quick quilt to make. I started ironing and cutting on July 4 and put the final stitch in the top on Aug. 3.

Remember that you can adjust the size of the rectangles bigger or smaller depending on your own fabrics and desire. This quilt will be easy to piece no matter the size of the rectangles or completed size you want. Depending on the fabric choices, it could look totally primitive to very modern.

I am actually going to try another one of these in a planned color scheme.

Finished top size is 92″ x 110″.

Have a fun time making your own Scrap Rectangle Party quilt. Please send me photos – I love to see what other quilters do with ideas from this blog.

More scrap quilt ideas:

https://indianaquilter40.com/lemon-drops-and-blueberries-quilt/

https://indianaquilter40.com/the-great-migration-quilt/

Have a wonderful day, and happy stitching.

Girl with sewing machine and quilt top. — Source: Google clip art

PLEASE NOTE: ALL PHOTOS AND WRITTEN CONTENT ARE MY OWN UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.

NAUTICAL SCENE WALL HANGING (fabric panel quilt)

I am sharing this quilt because I thought the readers would enjoy this small quilt. It is another idea for a personal quilt for yourself or someone in your life. I love the ocean, and purchased this panel in Maine on one of my trips there. Eventually, it evolved into the Nautical Scene Wall Hanging. It is another fabric panel quilt.

NAUTICAL SCENE WALL HANGING (a fabric panel quilt)

The actual panel is larger than the part I used for this wall hanging. In the photo, the panel extends from the solid blue inside border (between bubbles and sea shells) to the center section.

I trimmed the panel up and added the blue bubble batik fabric as the outside border. It was cut 2.5″ wide.

I pieced the top while up in Maine and somewhere in my travels the top got dirty. I opted to wash it after completion so that there was no much unraveling and threads to deal with.

For quilting, I used my sewing machine. I outlined around the sailboat and the lighthouse on the panel. I did simple stitch-in-the-ditch around three of the borders.

The backing is a nautical toile. The binding is the same fabric and was cut 2.5″ and ironed in half. It is machine sewed to the front and hand finished on the back.

Backing and hanging sleeve of the Nautical Scene wall hanging.

The hanging sleeve is also hand sewn to the back of the quilt. The finished size is 24″ x 25″.

The Nautical Scene wall hanging (a fabric panel quilt) is a gift to family friends who allowed me to stay at their home while dealing with mom’s final days and funeral. They are wonderful and I really appreciated all their help. This couple is very minimalist and a large quilt would not have worked. However, a small wall hanging in a nautical theme is perfect because they love the ocean too.

And so ends the story of the Nautical Scene Wall Hanging, a fabric panel quilt…

You can do this too

Making personal quilts for other people in our lives is fun and a great way to utilize the fabrics in our stash. Keeping the quilts simple can also make them fast and easy.

Here’s some other ideas for personal quilts using fabric panels:

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2018/06/farmall-quilt.html

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2018/04/thankful-harvest.html

https://indianaquilter40.com/sailing-ships-of-old-quilt-another-panel-quilt/

ROAD TRIP FOR FABRIC

Last week I had a chance to combine work and a road trip for fabric !!! I was in Washington, IN for the day. Instead of eating lunch I made a fast trip into the Stitching Post for some fabric I had already perused on the website for a planned project. See here: https://stitchingpostquilts.com/index.html

I haven’t been anywhere close to this store in a year or two. It has been here many years and always has an outstanding amount and variety of quilting fabric. If you are in the area, it is a great place to shop for fabric.

I like the wooden quilt squares on the outside too.

Wooden quilt square on outside of building.

But you ask, “why were you there? You have made 2020 a year to work in scraps.”

Why? I saw some photos of several quilts I did 10-15 years ago that were super simple but had a definite theme. And thought it would be fun to make something to do with sewing /quilting in that pattern. The stash did not have enough of any themed fabric to do a planned quilt. Oh the distress…….

By looking at the website ahead of time, I knew the store had fabric that would work perfectly for what I had in mind. Even better the fabric I wanted had been moved to the sale room.

Road Trip for Fabric - the final purchases.

I purchased two yards of the burgundy fabric with the sewing supplies, and one yard each of the other three in the photo. I have plenty of solid black, solid burgundy, and a small print grey in my stash that will be worked into the design.

Road trips and buying fabric – quilters they go together so well.

Happy stitching today.

Other road trip ideas:

https://indianaquilter40.com/quilt-show-paducah-ky-2013

https://indianaquilter40.com/quilt-show-powell-wyoming-1994

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2017/06/presque-isle-quilt-show-1991.html

FRENCH COUNTRY LIFE

I pieced French Country Life in early 2013. I collect toile fabrics but can’t bare to cut them up for piecing. Plus they are so busy it is hard to work larger pieces of them into a quilt. So I decided to be “brave” and just cut up a piece of toile to go in this quilt.

Many of the yellow and blue fabrics of the nine patches are reproductions of historic prints. Combined with the toile, I thought it would make a really historic looking quilt, especially if I hand quilted it.

I am going to admit that I didn’t measure correctly (a good reminder to measure twice and cut once) and the quilt ended up to big for my hand quilting frame.

The flip side of it being to big for my hand quilting frame is that I simply love the colors. It has a real “old world” feel and look to it. I can and have put it on the bed back side up for a different look.

French Country Life was machine quilted in an all-over wave design by RLM in May 2013, and it took me until Dec. 2013 to get the binding and tag done.

I made the binding from left over pieces of blue and yellow bindings from previous quilts.

The top is cottons, it has a poly batting and a blue/cream floral backing.

The finished size is 102″ square.

Even if there are mistakes in your quilts, finish them. If you are happy with the end product – enjoy the quilt, show if off, and tell it’s story. If you are not happy with it, complete and give to a family member who does like it. Or donate it within your community. Quilts are comforting and snuggly even with mistakes.

More ideas for nine patch quilts. Also toile fabric:

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2011/12/nine-patch.html

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2011/12/nine-patch_17.html

https://indianaquilter40.com/collecting-toile-fabric-how-i-use-them-in-quilts/

AMISH 4 PATCH DOLL QUILT

AMISH 4 PATCH DOLL QUILT: A fun and easy project to make for the wall or a doll.

I pieced this a few years ago on one of my trips to Maine. It was easy and a great way to see if I liked the pattern in these colors.

This was a the perfect size quilt to “stitch in the ditch” on my sewing machine It only took about an hour to pin and quilt. Then it went into the pile that just needed to be bound and get a tag. Of course, it got sucked to the bottom. When I found it a few months later, it only took a couple hours to hand bind.

The backing was a print of Amish life I found while at the quilt show in Paducah, KY. I only bought a yard and used most of it on this project.

The finished size is 24″ x 28″.

The Amish 4 Patch Doll Quilt is currently hanging in my dining room and the colors just glow.

Another great thing about small quilts is that you can have a personal, rotating quilt show in your office or cubicle. At home, they make a great show on room walls or hallways.

I cut all the individual blocks rather than do the 4 patches using strips. I was working with various scraps so it was easier just to do them as blocks. However, the next time, I will sew the strips together and then cut the the blocks.

I learn something new with every quilt that I make.

I encourage quilters to do small projects as well as large ones. The small ones allow you to try a technique or color scheme before committing yourself to something large.

Here are some other ideas for small quilts:

https://indianaquilter40.blogspot.com/2011/03/four-patch-doll-quilt.html

https://www.favequilts.com/Miscellaneous-Quilt-Projects/Four-Patch-Quilt-Patterns

WEDDING QUILT (SIMPLE & PERSONAL)

What do you do for a wedding gift for a cousin who waited forever while finding the right guy and has a complete house already?? Make a wedding quilt of course !! This wedding quilt was simple and personal and super easy to make.

Cousin and hubby like to do road trips on the motorcycle, so that was the theme I went with. It’s not like they got a duplicate of this. They loved it.

Finished size: 70″ square.

For this quilt I purchased a yard of the center fabric and cut it square (so about 34 – 35″). I added 5 borders in various widths (2.5″ to 6″) that coordinated with the center fabric until it was the size I wanted. In this case I wanted a big lap quilt that my cousin and her new hubby could snuggle under on the couch or recliner.

I cut and pieced this quilt in one day while in Maine in Sept. 2015.

Machine quilted by RLM in an all over stipple design.

This wedding quilt could easily be made in any theme or size depending on the need or fabric available. This is a super easy way to make a personal quilt for that special person in your life.

https://indianaquilter40.com/prayerful-leader-a-george-washington-quilt/