Funky Monkey Scrap Quilt

December 27, 2011March 19, 20134 Comments

My sister adopted her second baby boy this past summer and I couldn’t be more thrilled. His nickname is Jacob-Monkey so of course I had to make him a Funky Monkey quilt!

I started off with one of my favorite patterns which I’ve named Baby Bricks. I cut random scraps of 3 1/2″ x 7 1/2″ rectangles in a coordinated color scheme. My sister wanted green and brown so I combed through my stash of fabrics that would fit the theme.

Once the top was done, I felt that it needed something more. So I took one of the larger themed monkey fabrics depicting playful monkeys on scooters, with pogo stocks, hoola-hoops and more! I made my own iron-on appliques using light Steam-A-Seam 2 on the back side of the cream monkeys.

Then I appliqued them randomly on the top. I stitched around the edges of the monkey patches and randomly stippled the rest of the top. It turned out rather cute, don’t you think?

I used an allover “Goodnight Monkey” print for the back in brown and green.

Jacob seemed to like the cozy quilt. He took to it right away, chewing on it and looking at the monkeys.

It matches his car-seat carrier, too!

Baby Bricks Free Quilt Pattern Tutorial

November 30, 2011June 15, 201313 Comments

Here is one of my favorite quilt designs I want to tell you about, that I call “Baby Bricks”. I’m developing a pattern for it so I’m making lots of “tester” quilts as part of the process. Enjoy this free tutorial version but please note that these are copyrighted images and text.

I love taking a pile of fabric and cutting it up into useable rectangular pieces.

A piece of “Cute as a Button” flannel for the backing was the inspiration for the color scheme. It also limited how big the quilt would be. Since there are two sides to every fabric, I used the backside of one of my blue bricks since the right side was too “girly.”

Cut out as many rectangle bricks as you want to make your quilt big enough. Make them as wide or as long as you want.

I like to offset each of the rows so it gives a “staggered” look. To do this, fill in the gaps with 1/2 of a rectangle (plus seam allowances).

Randomly sew the bricks together to create rows, then sew the rows together into the top.

I laid all my bricks out into a pleasing arrangement first.

It was fun to stitch baby phrases on the quilt.

Here’s the finished quilt, made for a friend’s new little baby boy.

I’m making the green version for my sister’s new baby boy. It still needs a few more monkeys!

Updated: Baby Bricks is has now been featured at FaveQuilts.com.

Click here to see my other featured tutorials.

Baby Showers Galore

October 14, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I live in an area where I’m really close to a lot of ladies that I attend church with. Many of them are sewers, several are learning to quilt, and most of them are young moms. That means lots of baby quilts and oodles of baby showers!

I went to lunch this week to celebrate two friends and their baby girls. For my friend Alissa who has been hit by the quilting bug, I gave her this little wrapped up bundle for her new bundle of joy.

My gift to her is to teach her to make a quilt from it. I selected a pack of pink & green City Girl fat quarters along with the French Rose Buds baby quilt pattern.

We are going to have a good ole’ fashioned sewing bee while she puts this quilt together.

A few years ago I made Alissa’s first daughter the quilt below. I thought it would be cute for her to make a coordinating quilt for her second daughter. It’ll be “sew” much fun!My other friend Heather has 3 boys and finally had a sweet baby girl last month. She’s the one I made the pink and green French Roses quilt for. (See previous posts for pictures of that one). I had to snap this adorable picture of her cute little girl dressed in a day of the dead skirt with matching “Skull” cap! Perfect for an October outing, don’t you think?

It was hard to get her to wake up and the lighting was bad but it’s still a cute picture!

The skirt reminds me of the new Day of the Dead & Sugar Skulls fabric from Alexander Henry that I just posted on my website this week. Too fun!!

Designing Quilts is Right on Target

September 6, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I have rediscovered the joy of quilt designing with the help of EQ7 (Electric Quilt Design Software – Version 7). I used to teach quilting classes years ago and always designed my own patterns to teach. However, these were pretty “home-made” looking and not really suitable for publication. Now with this handy technology, I’m on my way to producing my own original Christa Quilts Designs!

Today was efficient and fun because I got to play around with the software while my boys were attending Archery practice. With my laptop and a borrowed table from the target-shooting warehouse, I could design away while they shot arrows to their heart’s delight! (They both shot 200 points in 10 rounds – enough to advance to the next level.)

I’m just glad that I was sitting behind them, quite a distance away!

One Person’s Trash is Another Quilter’s Treasure

August 15, 2011March 19, 2013Leave a comment

A pattern designer friend of mine recently cleaned out her sewing room and gave me hundreds of stacks of paper and pictures for patterns she used to sell in the late 80’s and early 90’s. She said she was done with it and wanted it to be gone!

Never one to turn down such a treasure as this, I eagerly accepted her gift.

Whenever someone orders $25 or more worth of quilt fabric from my on-line quilt shop, they are entitled to a free gift.

If they forget to add it to their order, I will throw in a little fabric treat or free pattern for them. I call these goodies “Christa’s Candy”, and I think these cute patterns will make such wonderful freebies!