Two Quilts: Done and Done!

Happy Fourth of July! Before I talk about quilts, let me share my holiday plans: My boyfriend and I are celebrating by brewing beer and making cheese. Yess! The feta is already draining, and the brewing will begin as soon as I finish this. [Must hurry!!] Here is the wad of feta draining in cheesecloth.

I finally finished two quilts that had been put on a back burner. They are a baby quilt and big sister quilt for the two kiddos of my friends, Jeff and Sonya. I had both of the tops finished a good while back, but was held up on the quilting because I couldn't find true white batting that I was happy with for the girl quilt. I could have used cream, but there is just so much white and it seemed better this way. I finally found some. Then I ran out of spray basting and no one in town stocked the kind I like. That was a huge ordeal.

But this week I found myself with everything needed to finish the quilts. So I finished them! Let's start with Ray's baby quilt. It is just a whole bunch of HSTs used to make a chevron/leaf sort of pattern. I usually try to make baby quilts bigger than normal baby quilts so they can be used for longer. This one is 49 by 56 inches. I love the way it came out. The picture doesn't show it, but those are not solids. I showed the fabric closer way back in this post.

I normally don't show off the backs of quilts, but I'm proud of these because the fabric for the backs came from my stash! I'm really trying to use up a lot of that. The colors look really off in this picture, because that incredibly dark stripe is actually a chocolatey brown, not black. Feel free to use your imagination.

Next we move on to Reese's (Theresa's) big sister quilt. I decided to make her a big sister quilt since she has been an only child for 5 years until Ray came along, and is doing a wonderful job of adjusting. Plus, I didn't know them when she was born, so she never got a baby quilt. Only my boyfriend and cousin (who introduced me to the happy family years ago) knew about this one! I used the Apple Crate pattern from Moda Bakeshop for this one, but used fewer block to made it smaller. The finished size is 56 by 64 inches.

Here is a photo of the back of her quilt. All of the fabric came out of my stash!

Since her favorite colors are pink and purple, I decided to use purple for the binding. Oh! Oh! The fabric for the binding for both of these quilts also came out of my stash! Woo! Stash busting!

Mmm, the colors in these two quilts really compliment each other. I just love the way they look all folded and stacked together.

I dropped off the quilts this morning. Baby Ray was asleep, but Sonya seems to think he will like it.  Reese loved her quilt and was already using it as a tent.

Am I the only one who makes quilts with the hope that they will be used as tents and blanket forts? I think the biggest compliment on a quilt is when you go to someone's house and the quilt that you gave them is showing signs of wear. I don't make quilts to sit unused and in perfect condition; I make them to get used!

Anyways, it is time for me to stop typing and to start brewing. In case you are wondering, we are making a clone of Jester King's Farmhouse Black Metal Imperial Stout. Here is a picture of the grain that was just added to the water to boil [in technical terms, this is call a mash].

I made the voile bag that the grain is in and it has held up through 3 batches of beer brewing, so far. If you are interested, I wrote about the bag itself over here.

EDIT: Just for funsies, I am going to include a picture of the beer, now that it is brewed and ready to ferment. In about two weeks, it will be ready to drink! Spweee!