Custom Chevron Quilt

My friend V, contacted me about a custom quilt for her daughter. We combined forces and created a one of kind masterpiece. Her meticulous tastes and my handy work is a match made in heaven. V picked out the pattern (both top and bottom) and hand selected all the fabrics. I'm not going to lie, it took a lot of work, but the finished product is jaw-dropping-gorgeous. I'm in love with it. If it was just a little longer, I'd have a harder time parting with it.

What I love even more than the finished product, is being able to bring V's vision to life. Her joy and excitement totally made my week. I'm sure going to miss our fabric shopping sessions complete with donut breaks. OK, there was just one donut break and it was delicious.

Custom Chevron Toddler Quilt

45" x 53.5"(pre-wash size)

Made with a mix of cotton, cotton twill, and cotton voile designer fabrics (listed below) purchased from Gather Here and Hawthorn Threads.

Filled with 100% cotton batting.

Machine sewn with 100% cotton thread (Aurifil and vintage Coats and Clark mercerized).

Machine washable (delicate cold wash, air dry preferred).

These photos do not do the quilt justice. But it'll give you a pretty good idea. (Sorry for the muddy images, the lighting in my house was funky.)

Front: Modified Zig Zag Frenzy pattern; 2 rows and 2 columns were added to make the quilt bigger.
Top (background): Tomotake for Kokka, Daisy Chain in Ash.

Back: My interpretation of this quilt. 
The diagonal lines were sewn on top of the background due to the difference in material type (cotton voile vs cotton). 
Backing (main):  Free Spirit, Voile Solid in Sky. If only you could feel this fabric. It's silky smooth, like buttah.
Backing (stripes): Moda, Half Moon Modern Big Dots in Aqua. 

Check out the sparkly flowers in this print. I didn't even see it until after I had started cutting the fabric!
Nani Iro, Little Letter in Soft Grey.

Meow. Kokka, Double Gauze Little Black Kitties.

Amy Butler, Alchemy Voile Fairy Tale in Vanilla.

Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller, Bitty Buds in Aqua.

BAMBI!! Lecien Old New 30's, Little Deer (name is questionable).

Aneela Hoey for Moda, Ditsy in Geranium.

Diagonal stripes: Moda, Half Moon Modern Big Dots in Aqua.

Check out that perfectly mitered corner! I hand sewed them shut to avoid any potential points of snagging. 
Binding: Amy Butler, Soul Blossoms Voile Buttercup in Spearmint. Just like the backing fabric, this stuff feels like buttah.

Pretty proud of this machined on binding. I may or may not have ripped out the seams a few times.

Gah, love that binding!

New skills I learned from this project:
 - Applique.
 - Hand sewig mitered corners shut.
 - Quilting chevron lines and how I only have the attention span to do 1-2 lines per sitting. 

Home Improvement: Laundry Closet

Our laundry closet, without shelving: 

It's your standard second floor laundry closet, with the exception of it being 8 feet wide! The 18" on either side of our appliances is wasted floor space. But on the flip side, it makes for 36" of additional shelving space along the wall.

I'm not sure if our builder never planned to put shelving in this space or if he got my note to skip the builder grade shelving (aka crap wire shit). Either way, I'm glad we got to work with a blank slate. I had very specific requirements, namely a closet rod for hanging my laundry (I like to air fluff and then hang dry the delicate pieces of my wardrobe). 

Now check it out:

BOOM, Elfa shelving! If you are eyeing anything Elfa, RUN to The Container Store, like NOW! The annual Elfa sale is currently underway. Um, hello 30% off!! I was a little hesitant about the shelving at first. I didn't like the idea of being able to see the vertical hanging bars. But know that it's in my home, I freaken LOVE it. Just seeing the completed laundry closet as I come up the stairs makes me giddy. Seriously, I clap and giggle every time, granted we've only had it for less than 48 hours. 

We chose to hire installers. It was installed in like 45 minutes. I'm sure I could have done it, but it would have taken me WAAAAAAAAAY longer. And I would have had to purchase/borrow a drill, get a taller ladder, and needed an extra set of hands. Our installer looked like Nicholas Cage; he was a really nice guy. It was interesting to see that he cut a couple of pieces on site. If you install yourself, they will cut pieces in the store for you.

Our setup:

36" easy hang standards (vertical pieces)
16" x 93" vented shelving (top shelf), 2 pieces - 48" and custom cut 45"

45" closet rod, custom cut

16" x 48" vented shelving, 2 pieces - 24" each

16" x 50" solid melamine shelving, 2 pieces - 25" each

24" mesh drawer 

Not sure if we really need the drawer or the solid shelves, but they could be useful. We'll give it a go for a few weeks and see what happens. We are excited to upgrade the bedroom closets, but we will probably wait until next year. You know, spread out the hit to the bank account.