artsy-crafty babe

dotty quilt for the boy

Alex's quilt is finally finished! I won't be winning any awards on speediness with this one - I started it over 3 years ago. The first mention of it I could find was in July 2009, but I made reference to mentioning it before. I'm not sure where it sat for 2 years after that, but about a year ago I started working on it again.

Big and pregnant with an impending baby deadline looming over me, I decided to tackle unfinished projects. I guess this one didn't make it. I got the the point of making the quilt sandwich, but that's it. It sat there pin basted and folded up for almost a year.  I had no more excuses, it was time to finish that thing!

While still on my quilt high from the star quilt, I took a few hours to quilt this thing.  At this point, I wasn't sure if Alex would even like it any more. He was okay with polka dots as a 5 yr old boy, and now he was 8. Tastes change.

Thankfully, he still liked it. Actually, he had no recollection that it ever existed in the first place.

With Isaac on the way and the impending probability of losing power, hand stitching a quilt binding seemed like a good activity to occupy my time. After our yard was all picked up in hurricane preparedness, I made and sewed on the binding.  Orange, one of his favorite colors.

The final step of hand sewing the binding is my favorite part. I thought about waiting until the power went out before starting it, but I couldn't wait. Good thing because we never lost power! And I imagine it would have been pretty warm doing so anyway. The only thing I wasn't able to do right away was throw it in the washer & dryer, which is funny because that's the first Alex asked about. He loves a quilt fresh from the dryer!

And now it's done, freshly washed and dried, and residing on his bed. Now he needs a matching pillow sham. Oh yes, the projects never end! (and I'm perfectly fine with that :))

star quilt - done

I'm not gonna lie - finishing a quilt is an awesome feeling.  It's one that I never tire of.  This weekend I felt that feeling again.

Y'all, I love it.  This quilt turned out better than I imagined. The navy, the bits of red and green, the mix of whites, I love it all.

I used every bit of fabric that I initially cut for it.  Look at the back - those are the leftover star points. I couldn't not find a place for them.

My binding is from the Denyse Schmidt line at JoAnn's.  Yes, it's gold, but I felt like it went just fine.

I worried about my quilting.  Gosh, I am such an imperfect quilter.  There was a moment where I wanted to do twice as much quilting as I did, but then I decided that would rather it done.  I'm glad I didn't go for more quilting.  Done is better than perfect.

And now I've got the quilting fever.  I found the time to quilt another unfinished quilt from my pile of WIP's.  It's ready for the binding.  More to come soon.  I promise.

 

making progress

When I started my star quilt I thought that it would be a summer-long project.  Back in the day (ha ha), I'd whip a quilt out in no time, but considering the amount of sewing I get these days with little miss get-into-everything I knew that wasn't going to happen.  Much to my surprise, I'm making pretty good progress!

Over the weekend I managed to finish my quilt top, make the back (pieced), get the quilt pin basted, AND start quilting.  Are you impressd?  I sure am!!

The best part was that it wasn't a monumental feat.  I kept my machine out and sewed a little here and there when I got the chance.  There was lots of cooking, baby wrangling, and crochet too, but I'll save that for another post.  I did make a few conscious decisions to ingnore the laundry and some dust bunnies, but you've got to make sacrifices every now and then, right?

I think I'm most impressed with the back.  I used every single bit of the extra front pieces that I cut in error.  I love the look.  Here she is, a little bit unrolled for ya.  I'm only barely into the quilting, and now I remember why I don't quilt on this machine.  It's a pain in the a$$!!  I need to spend some time upstairs with Richelle (while she's still up there) because she knows how to quilt.  I miss her speed!

And while I was in the grove, I worked on a little something new.  I'm in the very beginning stages now, but I like where it's going. It's weekends like this that keep me going through the week:)

red, white, and blue...and green

A few weeks ago (or maybe months), I was looking through House Beautiful and came across a room that really caught my eye.  I immediately wanted to turn that room into a quilt.  It was basically a white room, but there was something about all that white with dashes of color that spoke to me.

Like the room, the quilt needed to be mostly white, and honestly, mostly white quilts are my favorite.  Other than the white, what stuck out to me was the collection of navy blue books, the green distressed chairs, and pops of red.

Okay, that seems easy enough.  I went through my stash and pulled my fabrics that fit the bill. While digging through my fabrics I got the idea in my head that using multilpe shades of white might look good, which turned out to be a great stash buster for all those odds and end pieces of kona "whites" left over from previous projects.

I wanted to make a quilt that was fairly easy, no paper piecing or anything, so I decided on a wonky star.  I love a wonky star!

With no plan other than to make wonky star blocks mostly blue with a triangle of red or green in each block, I went to town.  I cut and cut and sewed and sewed and came up short.  Okay, so I cut and cut and sewed and sewed some more.  Still short.  At this point, I had an idea of how many blocks I needed, so the last cutting session had a plan.  I ended up with enough colored triangles, but still over-cut the white.  Oops.

And now I have 20 blocks.  I didn't see the americana patriotic flavor of these blocks until I started sewing them together, which generally isn't my style, but the more blocks I made the more I liked them.

My next step is to build my blocks up by bordering them all in more whites.  I'm not sure where I'll go after that.  Definitely more white, possibly some more green or red thrown in - or not.  I'll see how I like it after all the bordering.

No definite plan, just a general idea, that's how I like to approach quilting (and most things in life).  The beauty in the process is watching it unfold along the way.

sew to swap blog tour + giveaway

Hi there, it's sure has been a while, hasn't it? I'm taking  a little break from my maternity leave (okay, non-stop feeding and baby holding) to tell you about a beautiful new quilt book that I had the opportunity to be a part of,  Sew to Swap. (and if this review makes no sense, I'm blaming sleep deprivation!!!)

If you've done any blog hopping around sewing/quilting blogs in the past few year I'm sure you're familiar with the various quilting bees and sewing swaps out there.  If this is a new concept to you or you'd like some ideas on how to be a part of one or start one of your own, then this is the book for you!

Not only is the book gorgeous - beautiful photos and fabulous illustrations, but it is filled with information about various types of swaps - on-line, local, swap ideas, and swap guidelines.

There's something special about sewing a quilt block that mixes and mingles with a bunch of other blocks made by friends. I think it's kind of magical how beautiful the end result turns out.

I had the pleasure of contributing to 3 quilts in the book, Vintage Meets Modern, Curvy Block Swap, and the Wonky Siggy Swap.

Though there are quite a few quilt block patterns in the book and a thorough section on quilt basics, it isn't only about traditional quilts.  There is a section on doll quilts and decor as well.

As you can see from the blog tour schedule below, there are quite a few talented bloggers included in the book.  I feel honored to have been a part of it. 

Be sure to check out the rest of the tour:

November 7 In His Grace
November 8 Stitches & Scissors
November 9 Cluck Cluck Sew
November 10 My Three Sons
November 11 Twin Fibers
November 12 Stitchy Quilt Stuff
November 14 Texas Freckles
November 15 Quilt Dad
November 16 Artsy-Crafty Babe
November 17 Little Miss Shabby
November 18 A Cuppa and a Catch Up
November 19 A Quilt is Nice
November 21 House of A La Mode
November 22 I’m Just a Guy Who Quilts
November 23 Little Bit Funky 

As part of the blog tour, here is an offer from the publisher:

Get Sew to Swap now for just $14.99 ($10 off the retail price!).  Visit the Martha Pullen Online Store  and use promo code SEW2SWAP to get your exclusive discount.

{Offer expires Nov 30, 2011 at 11:59pm EST. Special Price in US Dollars, for items that are “in stock” only. Martha Pullen Company reserves the right to correct pricing errors.}

AND, just leave a comment on this post to enter a drawing for a FREE COPY. I'll leave comments open through the end of the month. Be sure to leave your email so that I can get in touch with you if you win. Open to US residents only.  Good luck!

**All photos courtesy of F+W Media. 

 

soggy, restful, and productive

Yep, that pretty much sums up my long weekend.  Thanks to Tropical Storm Lee, our 3 day weekend was a total wash-out.  Rain, rain, and more rain.  Truthfully, I didn't mind.  All that rain is perfect for hibernating!

By Sunday I was ready to do something productive, so I pulled out Alex's quilt fabrics, which were gathered, oh, 2 or so years ago (I think).  I don't remember what my original plan was, but I do know that I wanted lots of horizontal stripes.  After cutting many many strips and assembling them into piles, I started sewing.  

I ended up with 4 long sections of of stripes.  After playing with the placement, I decided that I only needed 3 of those sections.  This is by far the largest quilt I've ever made. As you can see, there are lots and lots of dots!

I used a solid gray stripe every so often in my sections, so I decided to border the quilt with that as well.  By Monday morning I had a completed quilt top!  I was feeling quite ambitious, so I took a trip to the fabric store for some backing fabric.  Unfortunately, I left empty handed.  That place was a madhouse with the Labor Day sales going on.  All those people made me nervous.  Hate that.  Oh well, that nap I took instead of sewing a quilt back was probably a better use of my time :)

done and done

Two much too long unfinished projects can be crossed off the list!  Gosh, what a good feeling that is!  Last night I finished sewing the binding on quilt #2 and gave them both a quick wash & dry.  I love how crinkley and wrinkley quilts get after a pass through the washer & dryer.

Here it is, quilt #1, started way back here.  This quilt was started as a baby gift, but that little girl is now a toddler.  I thought about scrapping it all together, but I made all the blocks with a specific person in mind, so I just had to finish it for that person.  Using the blocks for anything else just didn't feel right. 

I do love this quilt.  The pinks, reds, and greens are so soft and girly.  I couldn't help but think about my own baby girl as I was finishing it up.

I tend to choose more modern prints when I pick out fabrics, but most of these are based on vintage feed sacks.  At the time, all these were pulled for my stash.  This quilt makes me want to add a few more feed sack prints to my collection.

And here's quilt #2 (another long ago project), started as a wedding gift for a friend who will celebrate her second anniversary this fall.  Looking back, 2009 seems to be the year of quilts for me. 

Most of my UFO quilts are from then.  I had all the gusto to start them, but little steam to finish it appears. 

With my friend in mind, I started all these blocks from my scrap basket, my favorite way to start a quilt.  Once I got the middle scrappy part pieced, I added to each block fabrics from my stash that seemed to pull it all together.  I really love how this turned out.  Even Matt commented on it, which is a rare thing.  I sure hope she likes it.

With both these quilt I did simple straight line quilting.  I am such an imperfect quilter, and that's quite alright with me.  It's the freedom of piecing from scraps, the putting together of colors and patterns, and the evolution of an idea that l love about quilting - not perfectly straight lines and matching corners.  I'm not sure that I'll ever be able to follow a proper quilt pattern, I'd much rather wing it and see what comes about.

Now that I am officially done with my "gift" quilts, I want to start all over again :)

 

progress

Today is  my lucky day!  After supper I sat down with a stack of blocks (made 2+ years ago) and now I have a quilt top (it's a bonus when your blocks match your sewing machine :-)).  It's been a while since I tackled anything quilt-y...I made a trip to the store today for more off-white fabric to finish off the top, but it never occurred to me to think about batting or a back.  Oops.

Once I finished the top there was still daylight out.  Did it really ONLY take me an hour to  get that done??  I decided to search my stash for some backing  fabrics and managed to find a few that would work nicely, but then my brain began to work and I remembered that I saved the scraps from the blocks in a box for the purpose of making a back.  Bingo!  Too bad I don't have any batting on hand.

Wait, what am I doing blogging?  While I'm in the mood, I had better start working on that back...wahoo for progress!!

 

a quilt for kyle

Last week Alex came home from school with a note from his teacher saying that one of his classmates lost everything in a house fire.  Alex was quick to tell me, "mom, he doesn't even have a book sack!".  As a first grader, all this info is a bit difficult to process.

The note went on to say that the school was having a donation drive, but if we had any ideas for the class to do something special for their classmate, that would also be appreciated.

Well you know me, my mind immediately turned to what can I make for this boy?  What can I do with the kids for this boy?  A quilt seemed like an obvious answer.  A quilt that every kid in the class could contribute to.  As soon as I could, I emailed Alex's teacher with my idea and thankfully she loved it.

The next day I sent to school with Alex some fabric squares that had been ironed onto freezer paper (much easier for little ones to draw on that way) and some fabric markers.  My only instructions were for the kids to draw Kyle a happy picture and sign their name.

Oh my goodness, the pictures I got back were so sweet!  I can't help but smile when I look at them.

This weekend I got busy on the quilt.  My original plan was to border each drawing with a colorful print and back the quilt with a solid gray, but after making block, I decided that was a bit much.  I didn't want to detract from the drawings at all, so I alternated a solid gray border with a print one, then I threw in some white to make it all pop.

Using gray on the front meant that I didn't have enough for a solid back, so that got pieced.  I personally like a pieced back better anyway, so that all worked out.  

I'm so happy with how this turned out!  My quilting is wonky and I machine stitched the binding on entirely, but in this case, done is better than perfect.  Tomorrow I'm sending this quilt to school with Alex to give to Kyle.  I sure hope he likes it!

for mallory

My weekend 'make time' involved whipping up a little something for our friends' the latest addition.  I took inspiration from miss pink picket fence and went with a baby blanket, made with my vintage sheets, of course.

Oh gosh, I had forgotten how much I love to make baby things!  The last time I made a blanket like this was in preparation for Ava...almost 5(!!?) years ago.  Back then, I didn't know that she was a she, so there no pink lovliness to indulge in.  After she was born, I didn't have the time to go back to make her anything like this (I'm pretty sure I bought that flannel I used on the back for her back then).  I have to say, this is much more fun!

I simply pieced the front by sewing strips of sheeting & dots, then backed with flannel by placing them right sides together, sewing around the sides leaving an opening for turning, flipping the blanket right side out, then top stitching around all 4 sides.  Easy peasy.

Oh, I embroidered the name first, before attaching the backing.  I also did some top stitching along the seams of the strips, though that step isn't necessary because there is no batting.

With that striped flannel as my inspiration (could it be any more perfect?), it was pretty easy to pull my prints together.  I couldn't believe how well those sheets went with the flannel stripe.

Much to my delight, the blanket was well received - love that!