DIY Chevron Monogram Canvas

Do you have the chevron fever?  I think I must. It's everywhere and it's so fabulous!  I see it in my favorite colors and I get elated inside and want to buy everything that has it on it.  I go crazy when I see it on my favorite fabric websites and start daydreaming of the sweet sweet little girls clothes I can make with it.  I will be very sad when it goes out of style.  My wishful hope is that it won't and that it will become as classic as polka-dots...but I digress.  

On to the tutorial!

Some friends and I recently got together and made these super fun chevron monogram canvases.  I made the 8x10 Navy ones later on to coordinate with the Aqua 11x14 I made with my friends.  

They were so easy, I wanted to create a tutorial with the smaller ones.  

What you'll need:

8x10 or 11x14 Canvas

4 bottles of paint (you pick the colors, but it looks best if one is white - I chose Navy, White, Coral (melon), and Aqua)

3/4" - 1" wide paint brush

Small round paint brush

Paper or styrofoam plate (for your paints)

Ruler

Pencil (with a good eraser)

Circular object about 4"-5" (to make the circle for the monogram)

Time to create!

1. Take your canvas and with your ruler and pencil, draw a straight line, vertically down the center.  Then do the same horizontally.  From those lines, make a 1-1/2" - 2" grid.  The 1-1/2" is what I did on my 8x10's.  I did a 2" grid on my 11x14. 

2.  Beginning anywhere on the canvas, draw a diagonal line in one of the squares.  Then repeat that same diagonal line all the way up and down that particular column. 

3.  On the next column over, create opposite diagonal lines down that one.  

4.  Then continue the pattern until your canvas looks like this...

*Note: the edges may get tricky on ya, but just eye them, getting them pretty close to the rest of the pattern

5.  Erase the horizontal and vertical lines, taking care not to erase the chevron (diagonal) lines that you just made. 

Now your canvas should look like this...

6. Take your round object (I used a bowl), place it in the center of your canvas and trace around it with your pencil.  

7.  Then erase all of the lines INSIDE of the circle.  

Now you should have something that looks similar to this...

8. Now we start painting!  Begin with your white and paint every other chevron stripe.  Give it two coats. 

9. Then go back and paint your color stripes.  The darker the color, the more coats of paint you'll need, it seems.  My navy needed 4 coats of paint...

*coat one*

*coat two*

*coat three*

*coat four* - finally!  You can see my pictures progressively getting darker.  Haha.  I did two of these at the same time so it took me a little while to finish...as the sun set.  

10.  Get your circle color and paint the inside of your circle.  

11.  Get your monogram color and frame out the circle with your small round paint brush.  Then add your initial/monogram.  I free-handed my monograms, but you can use a stencil, or pencil it before you use paint to get it just right.  

I added some highlights to the top of my peaks and a shading to the bottom of my valleys to "chic" it up a bit.  You can too with just a bit of white and black paint (respectively) mixed with your chevron color and using the small round brush.  

Aaaand...your done!  

Fun, huh?  

Chevron Quilt

A few months ago, I had all these adorable flannel receiving blankets from Baby G's swaddling days that I didn't want to get rid of, mainly because of their cuteness factor.  But I had no idea what I wanted to do with them...until I saw a fabulous chevron quilt on Etsy!  Then my wheels began a'turnin...

So, I got out a notebook and pencil and sketched out my design and coded all the fabrics so that I knew exactly what fabric went where.  

Then I cut those cute little blankets into 5" blocks, cut them in half diagonally, and arranged them in the order I needed to sew them. 

Since I took my sweet time and only worked on it on lazy Sunday afternoons (hey, talent-building is considered a wholesome Sunday activity, right??) it took me a few months to get the top layer done.

After I sewed all the blocks into strips and the strips into the top layer, I laid out my backing fabric, then two layers of quilt batting, then the top quilt layer and cut everything to size.  (One reason I'm not big fan of quilts is that they're always so thin.  I like a big, snugly, chunky blanket...hence the two layers of quilt batting.)
So, next I pinned it and sewed up the edges to keep it all in place.

 Then I ditch-stitched chevron seams, slapped on a satin blanket binding, and that baby was DONE!

 Really, the last few steps, after putting all the blocks together, only took me a few hours (days, considering this was done in my spare time).

So, now Baby G has her own Toddler Bed Size Quilt!  :D

A neighbor friend and I are currently starting her own Upcycled Receiving Blanket Chevron Quilt for her daughter.  I'll try to make a tutorial in the process of it all then post it on here.  :D