The Neapolitan Quilt + Half Square Triangles

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while. It was such a simple quilt to make for such a special little girl. My cousins and I are all incredibly close, so when my older cousin's wife found out she was pregnant with a little girl, I knew I'd be making her a quilt (and buying lots of cute clothes). She requested solid pinks and browns, which resulted in this:

Quilted by Kathy Koch of Thread Bear Quilting

Everyone who saw it said it reminded them of Neapolitan ice cream. They're lots of yummy Kona solids--but this was the last time I'm working with Kona. I went to buy extra of the darker brown color, and the dye lots were completely off. I had the same problem with Kona Coal last year, so I've switched to RJR Solids. I have a huge post about this in July though.

I used the half square triangle method my grandma taught me, which I just drew a pretty juvenile demonstration of.

Basically, you just need a whole bunch of these (for a baby quilt, I used 80 total squares--so you start with 40 of your lighter, white-ish color then 40 of the rest of the colors mixed up). The squares were 6" to begin with, so finished, they were around 5.5". This quilt was finished before I realized how amazing trimming HSTs is, so it was a little bit wonky. Oops.

Then lay them out and make sure there aren't two of the same color too close to each other, and make sure you pick a "center" for the white square to be in. You can rearrange them however you want though, that's the beauty of HSTs. They're my favorite. I could make 800 different quilts with HSTs.

(I am desperately in need of a design wall, but for now, it's the design floor to the rescue)

I basted it before deciding that I was going to send it off to a quilter, and the quilting design made it look fabulous.

Then it took me about two weeks to motivate myself to bind it. Do you see how cute that backing fabric is?! Super cheap at Joann's. I usually hate buying fabric from Joann's but it matched the solids so well.

Now, it's being enjoyed by miss Charlotte, my cousin's precious little girl.

Quote Canvas

Want to make a quote canvas for less than $10? Here's what you'll need:

• Canvas in whichever size you prefer, the ones from any craft store will work.
• Vinyl lettering in the font of your choice (usually located in an aisle near the canvas)
• Acrylic paint
• Toothpicks

First step: (not pictured) Tirelessly search through lyrics and quotes to find something you like enough to put on a canvas. Make sure it's also short enough to fit on a canvas.

Second step: Using vinyl letter stickers, design layout of the quote you prefer.

 Third step: pick out an acrylic paint.

 Fourth step: Paint. I wanted mine to look less sharp, so I finger-painted. This allowed me to get under every letter and let paint go wherever there was a bubble in the edge.

 Fifth step: Allow paint to dry.

 Sixth step: Begin to peel letters off. I used a toothpick and was careful not to puncture the canvas.

In the end, I got a canvas that looked clean but had rough edges. For more clean edges, I would recommend spray painting or using a wide paint brush.