A Night with Jay McCarroll

Shhh, don't tell anyone - but when I first found out about Jay McCarroll's first fabric line, I hadn't heard of him before! Shock, right?! Well, I wasn't a big Project Runway watcher and I had never seen the first season, so I was totally clueless about Jay winning the competition in its first year. As it turns out, I really loved his fabrics, so of course I learned about his past success in fashion design.

I found the first two lines - Woodland Wonderland and Garden Friends - soon after I first started going to Spool in Philly. I then went to see him at a meet-and-greet at Spool and got to see some of the projects made with the fabric. At the time I wasn't a quilter, but now that I am, I appreciate his newest line, Habitat, even more. Jay came to speak to the Philly Modern Quilt Guild last Tuesday night and it was tons of fun! Jay talked about Habitat, Project Runway, and everything in between (and beyond). Jay also was there to announce the Modern Quilt Guild's Habitat Challenge. This is really exciting and I've already started on some block designs! I can't wait to see all the entries.

Enough of the talking, let's get on to some photos!

Jay showing off the Skyscraper quilt made by Spool.

Jay hiding behind his fabric board.

Three pillows showing the three Habitat colorways.

Jay modeling a skirt made by Spool.

Jay shows off a chair seat that he covered using Habitat fabrics.

Jay had everyone's undivided attention.

Look how many people showed up to hear Jay speak!

Jay talking about fabric and life.

Closeup on the fabulous chair.

Closeup on the fabrics and quilts.

Jay with some new friends.

Me and Jay.  We were starting to get silly - it was at the very end of the night.

Aria's Baby Quilt

One of my best friends in the whole world, who I've known since my first year of high school in Japan, is having a baby next month!  I'm super excited about it, and of course, I had to make her a quilt for the little one.  Because I know that she and her husband are into nature and hiking and things like that, I thought that the Nature Walk fabric line from Cloud9 was perfect - plus, it is organic, so it is very safe for the baby!  On the back, I really wanted to piece in a couple panels from the blue Lily & Will line because my friend has always had pet rabbits.  Aria's husband also had a pet rabbit when they moved in together, so I wanted the two panels on the back to represent the two of them and how they would always be watching over their little one.  All-in-all, I think it turned out really well.  I was a little worried about my choice of a light green polka dot fabric for the binding, but I think it works. 

I apologize for the low-quality of the photos.  Once I finish a quilt, I am always so anxious to send it out to the recipient, that I never take the time to photograph it nicely.  This is something I'll have to work on ...

Nature Walk front of quilt.

Brown flannel backing with Lily & Will panels.

Closeup of Nature Walk fabric on front of quilt.

Closeup of Lily & Will panel.

Circa60 Beach Mod Table Runner

I'm really excited to share this project with you!  I think it was the quickest quilt I ever made and I think it turned out really well.  I found out about this fabric called Circa60 Beach Mod by Birch Organic Fabrics earlier this year and I thought it would be perfect for Adina and Steph.  I bought a fat quarter bundle of 9 fabric patterns and then wondered what to do with it.  Adina recently had some pretty nasty surgery, so Chad and I went down to visit over Memorial Day weekend.  I decided on the weekend before that it would be fun to make them a table runner out of the fabric.

On Saturday (the week before going down) I cut all the fat quarters into strips ranging from 1 inch to 3.5 inches wide by the length of the fabric (about 22") and then just randomly sewed them all together into one long quilt top.  The final length was 21 inches by 106 inches.  I sandwiched this with bamboo/cotton batting and a solid orange fabric on the back and then quilted straight lines one per inch.  I attached the binding (I chose a solid aqua fabric that matches the color on the top).  I had the binding attached by Thursday night (we were driving down Friday morning) but didn't have time to do the hand sticthing.  So Chad helped by starting the hand stitching in the car on the way down and we gave it to them not quite finished.  I completed the stitching while we were there and then it immediately went into use!  Check out the photos below to see the quilt.

Me finishing the hand-stitching of the binding.  Photo taken by Adina.

The finished runner on Adina and Steph's awesome table.

A closeup of the quilt front.

Another closeup.

Another closeup.

As you can see below, we put the runner to good use right away.  On the night that I finished the quilt and put it through the washer and dryer, we put the wonderful dinner spread on it.  Doesn't it look great?

Dinner laid out on the runner.