Fiona's Baby Quilt

March 22, 2022 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

My friend Laura Hopper, aka Sonic Stitches, has brought so much to my life since I met her at guild 5 or 6 years ago. She is so smart and thoughtful, a great writer and guild leader, a talented curator, a good friend and human, and a brilliant quilter! In spring 2020 she embarked on the journey of birth and motherhood and I was so happy for her. I asked friends to make blocks with 9” circles in black and white. I had never organized a group quilt like this before and it was so fun to collect blocks through the mail. Everyone did a fantastic job. I added sashing in some of Laura’s favorite colors, some additional applique, quickly quilted it with my walking foot, and handed it off to a friend who volunteered to put on the binding. We were in a bit of a time crunch, trying to get it done before the baby arrived. Despite the pandemic, a few of us were able to carefully meet in their backyard and gift this quilt. It was wonderful to watch them open it in person at a time when nobody was doing much of anything in person. This quilt measures 60” square. Mitch Hopper, aka Fiona’s dad, took final photos.

Thank you so much to all of Laura’s friends who contributed to this quilt:

Ellen Pomes, Heather Kinion, Amy Struckmeyer, Julia Bryant, Deb Pentak, Natalie Holz, Melissa Bogusch, Jennifer Lowe, Bill Keller, Holly Harper, Sarah Evans, Jen Beatty, Emily Bruzzini, Sarah Shulman, Lyndsey Rankin, Jenni Grover, Emily Lang, and Katie Cooper

Fiona’s baby quilt, 2020. Measures 60”x60”

Marigold Quilt

December 01, 2016 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

I was asked by Lindsey of Pen and Paper Patterns to try the pattern for her Marigold Quilt. I enjoy following her work on Instagram. Her style is so clean and cute, and she is always churning out new patterns.

I love how this pattern uses two sizes of the drunkard's path block to create a super fun flower motif. The applique details in the flower centers are so fun too. Since my Juki only does straight stitch, I had to dig my old Necci out for the zig-zag around the applique. It actually worked! I was so relieved not to have to hand-stitch it. :)

I also quilted this myself, by echoing the flowers. I chose a wool batting to make this quilt extra puffy.

I went with a combination of solids for my version of this quilt. I love how it turned out, but I know from seeing other testers' versions that it looks amazing in some well-chosen prints too. Thanks for asking me to test this adorable pattern, Lindsey! Now I'm just waiting for someone I know to have a little baby girl.

Shot Cotton baby quilt

January 08, 2016 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

Susan got a wedding quilt and I decided to also make her a baby quilt! Why does Susan get two quilts when many people in my life have yet to receive one from me? I don't know. Maybe I miss her, or feel guilty about not visiting her more? Most likely her big life events just happened to fall at a time when I had an open quilting schedule.

Front of quilt.  Measures 49"x35" — Front of quilt. Measures 49"x35"

Again, I wanted to make something simple for her, in line with her taste for all things clean and minimal. I started with big stripes in soft tones. Then a friend at Chicago Modern Quilt Guild told me about making a quilt using shot cottons and wool batting, and how the quilt was so soft and had such a nice hand. Typically I don't give a lot of thought to the hand of softness of the quilts I make, but in this instance it seemed like making a baby quilt extra soft would be a great idea. I had a gorgeous stack of shot cottons that I had purchased at a great price on Craftsy. I loved this stack so much that I decided to use it as it was, not changing the order of the colors at all. I paired the colors up as they came off the stack, cut them into pies and crusts, and sewed them into drunkards path blocks. I decided to add borders, and the phrase "Hello, world" to the bottom of the quilt. I wanted to make examples of the letters I had sketched out for a pattern (Simple Shapes Alphabet, hopefully coming out soon), and I thought it was a cute expression to welcome a new person into the world. I did not know at the time that this is a famous reference to computer programming. Even though I did watch Halt and Catch Fire. But I digress. By now I had come to think of the original front as the back, and this more colorful patchwork as the front. Of course Susan can use it in whatever way she prefers.

I sent this to Nikki Maroon for some very simple, open quilting. After it was bound I added a label made from a piece of vintage embroidered linen. I hope it's getting plenty of use by sweet baby Nico.

UPDATE: Nico is the most adorable butterball and he looks perfect in his stripes on his quilt. This picture made my heart leap.

triangle baby quilt

October 07, 2014 by Laura Hartrich in quilts

This quilt was another project completed over the summer. A friend from high school had a beautiful baby boy and I wanted to make her a quick quilt. I used Big Thangles to make a bunch of half square triangles in blues, greens, greys, and just a bit of red and orange. Even using Thangles, my HST's did not come out perfectly. I have a talent for non-perfect HST's. I decided not to trim them up since I was in a hurry and this quilt would be used by a tiny human. Despite my not trimming, and many points not matching up, I was pleased with how this quilt came together. I had fun pulling fabrics from my stash, and my favorite part of the process was arranging the squares on my design wall until they were in a nicely random pattern, with the pops of warm colors exactly where I liked them, and three full diamonds strategically placed. I quilted this myself, with some very simple straight lines. Hopefully baby Nico and his mom are getting a lot of use out of this little quilt.