Dolly and Baby Quilts

My lovelyniece is having her second child in October, so for a baby shower I created a baby quilt for mom and a dolly quilt for big sister.

I’m enjoying the half squares in solids.  Then I found this perfect back with animals in every color.  It’s a legacy from my wonderful friend S who passed in June. Her fabric will live on.

One more photo of the front . . .

And the doll quilt - just squares that I have been prepping from scraps. Hooray for scraps and for cutting them into usable sizes!

Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday

Linking up with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday (on Sunday!)

Grannie’s Garden

Handwork is fun while on vacation.  Time in Hawai’i with my daughter’s family gave me time to finish the appliqué of these hexagon flowers to background squares.

Here are the girls in the pool with Koko Head in the background.

Blue, blue sky . . .

Now all 35 of the appliqués are complete.  I’ll sew them together to make a quilt for one of those swimmers.  I’m using a pattern from my latest American Patchwork and Quilting magazine designed by Sherri McConnell. 

J and G’s Wedding Quilt

My lovely niece J is getting married this August.  I got a real head start on the quilt for her and her husband to be, G.

I found the instruction for the quilt in a book from the library, Working With Solids.  I used the pattern for “Greater Than” but I added a length of white at the bottom. This is a tall couple!

J is a swimmer, grew up in California, so I knew I wanted to use turquoise’s and the orange/red added just the right pop of brightness.  It has wool batting and a very soft Moda wide backing which was difficult to quilt . . .there are a few tucks in the back . . Eek!

All it needs is the label.

It measures 59.5 x 79.5 before washing.  I’ll put it away now for that special August date:

8/18/18!

Linking up with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday 

Peonies!

Peonies  are one of my favorite flowers.  They are so full of themselves!

Enjoy this beauty from my garden.

A New Blog

Have a look at one of my favorite girl’s new blog, Conversing With Cats.

Here’s a link

Conversing With Cats

Now after smiling at the wonderful cat photos, I must return to my latest quilt, a wedding gift for my niece.

One a Day

I have been enjoying English Paper Piecing.  Simple English Paper Piecing!

I started making these little flowers, and now I have decided to make one every day.

I am using scraps, so you will find shades of pinks, blues and turquoise.

I have lots of the yellow for the centers.

The hexagons are one inch.

This piece is from a roll of Kaffe that I won at a Kaffe Fasset lecture.

The project bag that I made to hold all the little bits for EPP works nicely for corralling all the pieces.

I may pass on the red that you see waiting for the next rosette.  I’m leaning towards pinks.

Handwork is so portable!

Prague via Marsden

Fall 2015 I took a workshop with Gwen Marsden and created this little quilt.  The center is based upon a design from a building in Prague, Czech Republic.  I had just returned from a visit there.

It has been waiting in my UFO drawer for 2 + years.  I periodically take it out and look at it.

Well now it is a finished quilt for my son to hang on his wall. I.changed a few things . . . 

Can you find the differences?

I thought I would do matchstick quilting, but the horizontal 1/2 inch lines did the trick.

Happy Birthday!

Linking up to Finish It Up Friday at Crazymomquilts.

Square in a Square for a Baby Girl

This design seems to be my typical baby quilt lately.  It’s the third one based on this design, square in a Square with the inner square being an eye-spy block.

I love the phone, but this baby will probably never see a phone like this!

This baby’s two grandmothers live near the water, so the sea gulls seemed like a perfect backing.

It’s the last piece from a sheet I ordered from The Company Store (a while ago.)

Finished at 36” x 42”

Warm and White batting, straight line quilting

Linking up with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday 

Crazymomquilts

Baby A Quilt

All those assorted half square triangle squares finished this quilt for Baby A.

The quilting is simple straight lines done with my walking foot.

The back is blue flannel. 

Stats:  40” x 40” unwashed, 38” x 38” after washing

Wool batting for a soft squishy feel

My own design

Linking up with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday.

For a Baby Boy

This is a record for me: a Finish on Friday, two weeks running!

This little baby quilt is for a boy born on Tuesday.  His mom is a dear one to me, his big brother has one of my quilts, so this one is for you, little Mr A.

The half square triangle squares finish at 4”, 10 rows both directions, so the flimsy is 40” x 40”.

I started with 5” squares, folded half the squares on the diagonal with my iron, then paired each one randomly with another color.  ( I did try for a few more blues than anything else.)  

I trimmed them to 4.5”.  All the solids are from my stash.

I’ll quilt this right away so a sweet new baby boy and his mom can cuddle.

Linking this finish with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Pluses For Macail

I finished the quilt for Macail today.  Binding stitched, check; threads buried, check; label stitched down, check; photos taken, check. 

I really like this one. Flannel on the back.

K

It would be great on this chair in my family room!

Stitched and Quilted by me.  Wool batting.

Measures 64” x 88”

I’m linking up to Finish It Up Friday on Crazymomquilts.

Quilt for Macail

I have been commissioned to make a quilt for Macail who just turned 12.  He is getting a new room, and a new bed cover is in order. He loves math, is studying Japanese, so this dictated fabric selection, and the colors came from paint samples.

I had created a Pinterest board with ideas, and he liked the nested pluses.

Basting on the floor.

I was happy to find Japanese fabrics and fabrics with kanji.

The quilting has begun!

This is my first commissioned piece. 

I’m having a hard time coming up with an amount to charge for my time and expertise. . .

Eighteen Stars and a Pillow

Eighteen Stars is for a baby boy born to one of my daughter’s co-workers.  Here’s the story . . . .

I was playing with the solid triangle corners from a house quilt I had made last year and they wanted to be the stars.  Then I decided they would make a baby quilt, but I knew of no babies in the pipeline, but you can always be prepared, so I went ahead. I added the sashing to bring it up to a decent size.  Then Mrs T came home from work and told me about her co workers baby boy who had just come home. He was a premie born at 2 pounds, three months early, and we decided if anyone deserved a star quilt, he did.  So this is for you, Mr E with LOVE.

Quilt Stats:  47” x 36”

Pieced and Quilted by me

Improv Stars 

Cotton batting, flannel backing

My +x Quilt has moved to my bed, and it needed a pillow.

I just finished it.  Can you have too much of a good thing?  

According to Mae West the answer is NO!

Linking these two finishes with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday. . . 

Thomas Fire Relief Quilts

Thanks to fellow quilt bloggers, I discovered today an effort by the Ventura Modern Quilt Guild to make quilts for the California citizens who lost so much in the recent fires there.  Here is my beginning:

I am hoping to do a full quilt.  The blocks come together quickly.

On other news, I did my 110th one mile swim of 2017 yesterday. The first one mile felt like a real accomplishment, and now it’s just what I do - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Linking up to Crazymomquilts for this important little beginning!

If you would like to contribute blocks, click here for VenturaModernQuiltGuid

http://www.venturamodernquiltguild.com/2017/12/11/thomas-fire-blocks/

Teacher Gifts

Noodlehead ‘s wide open zipper bags are my go to little gifts. 

Miss E, my granddaughter has two teachers for kindergarten.  These are the bags for them. 

Her teacher who heads up reading has a text print inside..

Merry Christmas!  

I hope I’m finished sewing til after Christmas.  My machine is being serviced, 

so it’s just a little English paper piecing for me.

Linking up this little finish with Crazymomquilts for Finish It Up Friday.

Luggage Tags

 Here’s my old luggage tag . . . That I made about 8 years ago.  It has flown lots of miles, been handled roughly as luggage is, and there is a tear in the plastic.  I have transferred it to alternate suitcases depending on the trip.

Here’s the new version.  I used some techniques from Elm Street Quilt’s project bag tutorial so that the plastic is bound at the top.  That should keep the plastic from tearing.

Then I couldn’t stop, and made a basketful for little holiday gifts.

Linking up this little finish to Finish it Up Friday on Crazymomquilts.

Crazymomquilts

Plus X is Finished

I finished stitching the binding yesterday, and we had a little brightmpness for photos this morning. 

Lots and lots of memories are sewn into this one with hundreds of scraps. Each block has 19 pieces, 121 squares, 2299 pieces of fabric!

Percy wanted to get a closer look!

The only way to get a photo of the whole thing was hanging off the deck. My daughter is holding the top edge. 

When I first sewed the blocks together, it was a rectangle, but after staring at it for a while, I took one row off the bottom and added the blocks to the side making a square.  

I spend much time staring and pondering . . . .

Statistics:  85” x 85”

Pieced back with flannel 

Pieced and quilted by me on my DSM

Wool batting.

Linking up with Crazymomquilts for Finish it Up Friday.

Spiral Quilting the big + X

This is big, and I’m doing it!

My machine is dwarfed by all this fabric . . .

And I’m loving it. I’m keeping track of how much time I’m spending on this quilting. (People always ask how long it takes to make a quilt.  Well, as long as it takes!)

Does it really matter?  I’m enjoying every minute, I’m happy with the finished quilt, 

that’s all that matters.