Quilty Update

I finished the quilt kit for my niece in time for my mom to take it to her. I haven't heard if she liked it but it was fun to make. It was challenging to think about all the steps and photograph them along the way. I ended up with 8 pages of instructions that I printed in color and bound with a simple binding. I included the strips for the rail posts and the batting, backing, and pillow backing. I am pretty pleased with it. I hope she likes it.

Our office had our baby shower for my colleague. I made her daughter a quilt (previous post) so she would feel special as the big sister. I know my colleague liked it. She told me today that her daughter loved and it hasn't left her side. She made a fort out of it, took it to dinner and to bed. It made me so happy that she liked it. I put a label on it that said "Romie, Big Sister."

I made two aprons recently for a friend from my Twins Club. The apron was for her and her daughter. I used a vintag-ey apple print with red bias tape. The mother-daughter aprons were a big hit with my friend.

I read on another blog about how pictures use up "allowable" free space on these blogs, then you have to pay for more space. She had all sorts of great instructions for minimizing the size but now I'm all freaked out about space and size! So, no pictures today. I need to learn more about this.

Kid Quilt Kit - Pillow Top

My niece expressed great interest in quilting so for her birthday I am making her a quilt kit. She's 9, has a kid sewing machine, and has made a purse or something like that. I originally thought of making up a star pattern from AmandaJean's tutorial but triangles can be difficult. I don't want to frustrate my niece, she'll turn 9. So I decided on a rail post pattern. So far, this project is all in my head but I've been thinking about how to provide instructions and if I should create the project and photograph the steps (ala AmandaJean). I think I should. The next steps are to find fabric from my stash that I can use for both the gift kit and the how to portion. I am hoping that fat quarters will work nicely. Has anyone ever made up a kit for a young person? Any tips to pass along?

Bandana Quilt

1. Bandanas shrink a lot.

2. Bandanas shrink differently in different directions.

Those are my two items of wisdom. If I do this type of quilt again, I will prewash the bandanas before I sew them together. I didn't do that this time because I was excited to see how it came together and couldn't wait for the wash. As you can see in the picture, the edges are not real even.

I have started quilting using a simple checkerboard style. I am starting from the middle and will work my way out. I am using dark purple thread. I looks nice so far.

For the binding, I bought solid purple bandanas that I will cut into strips and fashion into a binding. I did prewash them.

Time Flies

I have been busy with aprons, house guests, soccer games, little big girls, and some quilts. I went from a one-project-at-a-time-gal to multiple projects at a time. I am liking having something going on both floors of my house. I continue to hand piece the red stars I blogged about earlier. This is on the main floor where I can also be with my family. Down stairs in my sewing room, I have started to quilt the brown and teal I blogged about earlier with a simple fan pattern. Cloth management is going ok. Cat management is more challenging.

My colleague is expecting a little boy in December! She looks so cute but is likely getting to the uncomfortable stage. I decided to make a quilt for her 4 year old daughter whose favorite color is purple. I read about quick bandana quilts in a magazine and decided to try one. It was fun and easy! The back was also fun and I found some cute purples in my stash and went for it.

My husband's college friend was in town for an overnight visit. We had a great time and the girls really took to him. I think it was his beard and gentle nature. He had been on a 6 week trip and took some beautiful pictures. Here is one. I hope he doesn't mind. If he does I will remove it. I think it was taken in New Mexico.

New Kitty & Apron

On Friday 8-8-08 I went to the Denver Dumb Friends League to adopt a new kitty. I miss my cat Bruce so much and I miss the energy of a cat even more. I took my girls, my mom and my friend Kate. The girls were thrilled by all the kitties and doggies. The facility is really nice, clean and well staffed. They were having an adopt-a-thon weekend so there were lots of staff and volunteers, games for the girls, and lots of pets being interviewed. My DH later pointed out that Grayson was really Dick Grason, Bruce Wayne’s ward. My cat Bruce was originally called Batman at the foster family’s home where he was adopted. I renamed him Bruce, so Grayson is fitting in very well at our house. He is kind and gentle. He likes to eat and sleep. He purrs like a large motor. He's helping draw fan lines on a new top, ready to be quilted.

My sister asked me to make an apron for her friend's birthday. I was very flattered! I found some really cute Amy Butler fabric and a flirty pattern from the Great American Quilt Factory. It came together very easily. I used bias tape around the edges and even that was ok.

Star QAL

It’s done!!! Well, the top is anyway. I like how it came out and many thanks to Amanda Jean for the quilt along!! I am thinking of donating the top to an organization that helps wounded soldiers. If they can find a match, a longarm quilter will donate the quilting. I am donating the quilt top through Quilt of Valor. I hope they think it is good enough. I enjoyed making the top and found the pace of one star per week just about right for me. I was excited to get to Monday to find out what the next star would be but didn't feel behind.

I found 5.5 yards of cloth at the Thrift Store for a perfect backing – good quality, blue and white, star with another design, smallish print. Score!

New Quilt - Starlight

Lots going on here. Vacations! Concerts! Lots of work at odd hours. So, I have not posted in a while but am feeling caught up so here's my news: quilting and other.

I needed a new project to take on our family trip to Washington. I had some fabric I bought at the quilt show in Denver in March. I met the greatest gals at this booth called Grandma’s Quilts . Bonnie and Gloria helped me plow through all of their bins of cloth looking for coordinating and interesting cloth. They had tons of fat quarters! I went away with a bag full.

After looking at the other vendors, I returned to buy more! They were so great to talk with. They asked me what I was going to do with the cloth and I had a vague idea of making a fence post type quilt. Bonnie in particular encouraged me to think smaller. She showed me some of her work with 1 inch squares – it was impressive. I had not done really small work before and was kind of hesitant to commit – they were very persuasive. We agreed that I would email them in the future to tell them about my proposed design. The email clue would be “ok, you win” meaning that I had seen it their way. Well, for this new project, I needed something that I could hand sew during my daughters’ naps, in the car (maybe), on the plane (next to a 2 year old???), was easy to transport, could be done with cloth on hand and could be hand-sewn.

Quiltmania came through again with a beautiful design that met the criteria. I’m using mostly reds with some rusts, purples, and a few greens and blues. I need to make 184 of the hexagonal star shapes. I think this project will take me several years but so far, it is fun. The seam allowance is only 3/8” because of the convergence of so many seams at the center of the star. The first start took me about an hour but now I’m down to about 20 minutes. I find hand sewing incredibly relaxing. I like being able to sit and watch the Olympics now and generally being with my family in the evening.