Fort Firefly Baby Quilt

Leaving our home in Ohio was hard on many levels... But one of the hardest parts was leaving my friends. Especially since two of my very best friends were pregnant with babies due just weeks after we pulled out of town! It was so heartbreaking to know that I wasn't going to be there to meet their babies or help them afterwards! 

So during the month before I left, I was frantically sewing some gifts for the babes amidst trying to get our house together and ready for the move. Crazy times, but it was so nice to have a project that I could work on and take a break from the craziness.

The first gift that I made was a quilt for my friend Rachel and her darling baby boy. I used some of my leftover scraps from the Fort Firefly Quilt I made for my daughter. I used most of the fabrics from the line, minus the prints with the little girls on them and added a few other prints I had lying around in my stash. I really love the colors of the quilt. It different than just the average baby boy quilt- which I love.

 I am so thankful for technology when it comes to living far away from family and friends! Thanks to Instagram, I was able to see pictures of Rachel's darling little boy hours after she had him. It was ALMOST like I was there... Ok... Not quite, but the next best thing! He's a cutie!

Hope you are all having a wonderful summer! I'm only days away from leaving Utah on a new adventure- trekking across the US again to our new home... This time to states I've never been to before! I can't wait! Wish me luck! 

xoxo, Ashley

Ahoy Matey Quilt

With me having little girls, it's pretty rare to see me sewing for a little boy... but one of my friends just had her very first baby boy last week and I couldn't resist making the new little guy a quilt.

I can't even tell you how much I love this Ahoy Matey fabric by Michael Miller . When I saw that it had a panel and that it was so darling, I knew that I wanted to try making a quilt using a panel. Usually I am not a huge fan of panel quilts, but this one may have changed my mind. 

To make it, I used one panel (which is the main part of the quilt with the ship and waves on it), and then I used the Navy Stay the Course fabric for the side sashing, and Dumb Dot in Clementine for the prairie points, Clementine Ship Shape for the binding, and then Quarter Dot in Midnight for the backing. 

I have been wanting to try doing prairie points on a quilt and I felt like this was the perfect quilt for it. I found an awesome tutorial for continuous prairie points on Sew Take a Hike. It was such an easy tutorial to follow! Love how they turned out!

As soon as I saw the panel for this quilt, I knew that I wanted to hand stitch along the outlines of everything. I love the way it looks around the waves, clouds, and boat. Once I washed it and dried it, oh my goodness!! I was in love... it was a tad bit hard to part with this lovely quilt. ha ha

But lucky me... I happened to buy two panels and have just enough leftover fabric to make myself this exact quilt- should a little bundle of blue pop up into my future.... And if not, I am sure I can find a loving home for such a darling little quilt- don't ya think? :) 

Happy Sailing!

xoxo, Ashley

HOT WHEELS pow wow quilt

Last weekend, I did something that was a first for me. I used a quilt pattern. 

Usually when I make a quilt, I come up with an idea in my mind and make up a pattern for it.  

I used a pattern by Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew, called Pow Wow.

I am so glad that I used a pattern for a quilt like this. I would have never been able to figure out how to make arrows like these on my own. I love the way it turned out.

I will warn you though- this quilt was time consuming! Very much so. By the time I was sewing the binding on- I was so ready to be done with the quilt! ha ha 

-But it was well worth it once I held it up to see it all finished. 

I think that this pattern is the perfect quilt for a boy. It would be cute with girl fabric too, but it just screams boy to me. Since I am in a house full of girls (with the exception of my hubby) I mainly sew with pinks and florals. It was totally different to sew with boyish prints. To be honest.... I love sewing with my girly fabric more! I think sewing with the boyish fabric added to my readiness to be "done" sewing this quilt! ha ha

(nothing against boy fabric at all! I love it too- I just love making girly things more.)

I made it for my little brother Logan, who just turned 19 this week. He loves cars and he has an awesome sense of style, so I thought it would be fun to make it bright, fun, and kinda youthful, but not babyish of course.

When I saw this hot wheels fabric I knew it was perfect for the quilt. It totally screamed "Logan". I chose a couple colors (yellow, gray, and greenish turquoise) from the hot wheels fabric and just found fabric in those colors to coordinate. 

When I bought my fabric, I got enough to make the lap sized quilt, but once I finished the quilt top I realized that it was going to be a bit small for my 6 foot tall brother. So I used a bit of leftover fabric and added a small border. 

I have never used a solid print for binding before but I kinda like the way this solid Kona Charcoal turned out. Sometimes less is more, and with the busy-ness of the hot wheels print I don't think another busy print would have looked good as the binding.

I did a 3 inch border of the hot wheels fabric and then a 3 inch border of white around that. So it added just under a foot to the width and length- which was perfect. 

(I liked it better before I added the border, but it was a necessity since I didn't have enough to make more of the arrow blocks to add on.)

My hat is off to Allison of Cluck Cluck Sew... Awesome pattern woman!

P.S. I bought my pattern here. I got the pdf version so it was just emailed straight over... perfect if you are wanting to get started "right now". Which is how I roll, once I find something I like! ;)