A Hand Quilted Housewarming Gift

Since learning the art of sewing and quilting, I have learned that I love to give hand made gifts. (It's one of the reasons why I started making custom quilts!) Handmade gifts mean that I can make someone something they don't already have or will never find in stores.

Handmade quilts are special like that. They are the fruit of tens or hundreds of hours of work and they tell a story of not only the maker but also the recipient.

I made this particular quilt for my sister and her new husband the year they got married and moved into their first home. This was only the third quilt I had ever finished but I sincerely love how it turned out.

I knew I wanted to make a striped quilt with a little bit of twist. This quilt features long stripes with random bits of background to create an interrupted stripe. I initially thought I wanted to incorporate prints into the front, but ultimately settled on some coordinating prints for the back and kept the front all solids colors. The pattern I created was all self drafted.

Something that I did differently with this quilt was use natural muslin as the background color instead of a bright white. Natural muslin has flecks of browns in the cotton and I think it works better for the warm vibes I wanted to give off with the warm color palette of pink, tobacco, rust, and mustard. This muslin is from Bella solids but I also love the natural muslin by RK Kona cotton. I'm glad I went with my gut on this one because I think the bright white as a background color would have created a totally different feel.

One of my favorite parts of this quilt is the big stitch hand quilting. I spent nearly a month working on this a few hours a week in order to get it done in time for Christmas. I used an DMC pearl cotton floss in an ecru color to complement the off-white muslin background.

Big stitch hand quilting with a large pearl cotton thread are my favorite details--plus the yummy crinkle of the quilt only gets better with each wash!

I finished this quilt more than a year ago and I had forgotten how much I loved the pattern! I'll have to get to work on another in a new colorway. For now, enjoy some more photos:

Did you know I make custom quilts? Find more info on the Custom page to learn more about pricing and working with me to create one for your home or someone else.