On the Design Wall Today: an Unexpected Project

In my family my siblings and I are on a rotating system for Christmas Gifts.  This year I have my oldest sister, K.  Now, like all sisters, K is pretty special, but in my book she's a little extra special.  After not being able to have their own children, my parents adopted her, and then had four children of their own afterward.  I'm the youngest of the five.  When K was about a year old, she was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

As she has grown up, she has been a complete joy to all around her.  She loves puzzles, lemon pie, dolls (her babies), children, dancing, and playing bingo.

Here she is dancing at my wedding several years ago:

 For years I've been making simple aprons for her to wear when she eats, as she isn't the most tidy eater.  I end up with 18"x14"-ish scraps of fabric left over from these large bibs, and have been saving them for years too, with the plan to make a quilt for her bed with them.  I was planning to make her some new aprons as well as sending her something else for Christmas this year, but I got an email from my Mom last night telling me what she really needs--a quilt.  She loves to get a blankie and lie down on the couch, but the blankie she has been using is tiny and doesn't cover her feet.  When my Mom suggested this there wasn't any question.  Yes, Christmas is in two weeks and I'm working on two other projects right now, but this can be done.  I pulled out my drawer of apron scraps and cut seven inch squares all from different fabrics.  There are plenty of scraps left that I'll be able to make a bed-size quilt sometime in the near future.  I'm really glad my Mom suggested this--my family is in Ohio and I'm in Utah, so I didn't even think of this as a possible need.  I think it's a great idea.

 So this is what I have so far, the top half and the bottom half.  Looks like a yellow square fell off near the bottom right corner, oops!

K loves bright colors, so I think she will love it.  There is so much variation in these fabrics that it is going to look scrappy, but I can't decide if I like this random layout or if  I want to plan things a little more, maybe setting similar colors on diagonals.  Any thoughts?

When I make her a larger quilt for her bed I'm planning to use a puzzle-piece layout.  I think she'll love that one too, whenever it happens.  It's been a plan for a LONG time.

I'm glad I got a good start on it, but now it's going to hang out on the design wall while I work on quilting a quilt for Brooke over the next couple of days.

Some Quilting Finishes

I've been keeping quite busy, although you wouldn't know it looking at the blog lately.  A bit quiet.

I've machine quilted 3 quilts for customers in the last few weeks.  Britney made this adorable pinwheel baby quilt for her friend.  She wanted basic loopy quilting that would make the quilt all nice and snuggly after washing.

 I loved the colors in this quilt.  I don't remember the name of the fabric, unfortunately.  She did a really  nice job with her piecing, it was very accurate and square.

This is Julie's quilt, another pinwheel variation.  I LOVE this pattern.  The twisted pinwheels broken up by the lattice are just so cute!

 This was the one from the last post that I had to unpick a lot on, but it turned out really well in the end.

Swirls close-up:

You can see the quilting even better on the back.  I match my bobbin thread to my top thread to avoid "pokies," so it shows up really well.

This last one was made by Andrea and will be going to a burn unit victim at one of our local hospitals.  Sorry the pics are blurry.

I quilted this one with loops and stars.

I think it turned out well!

Last year I started teaching the quilting classes at my local JoAnn's.  I enjoyed it, but I had to purchase supplies to make class samples for all of the projects, and not many people signed up for the classes, so I actually lost money doing it some months.  After about 6 months I stopped teaching all of the classes, and instead switched to teaching a "trend" class, which means I get to choose the project.  I decided that for January and February I'd like to teach a class on basic free-motion quilting.  It felt so liberating for me to be able to finish my own quilts, rather than paying a longarmer to do them for me.  I'll admit I find FMQ on a domestic sewing machine VERY difficult, and haven't done it very much.  In fact I only did two FMQ quilts on my DSM before buying my frame.  Ha.  Still, it's liberating.

So this picture shows why I prefer FMQ with a machine mounted on a frame, whether a longarm or shortarm like mine.  This is my sample for my Jan/Feb class.  I used a darker thread so it would show better, but I'm thinking a matching thread may have been a much better idea. =)

Maybe I should have cheated and made my sample on my frame--it certainly would have looked better!  I have SUCH a hard time moving my machine smoothly when I FMQ.  I have untold respect for people who can quilt well on a DSM.  I know it gets better with practice, and I didn't really give myself a chance to practice, but I'm so glad I have my little quilting machine now.  I love it.

Yeah, this quilting is pretty dismal.  DISMAL!  If by any small miracle anyone even signs up for my class, I hope they find FMQ liberating as well, even if it's tricky to do well.

I just have to laugh at myself about this one.  Oh well.  I'm pretty sure I'm not really qualified to teach this stuff.  That's why it's "basics," right?

Work In Progress: Unquilting

Ugh.  I don't usually mind using my seam ripper, but when it comes to unpicking quilting, that just isn't true.

 I'm working on this quilt for my cute friend Julie, and figured that between last night and tonight, I should be able to get the quilting done.  Well, I rolled it for the second time to find this huge, nasty tuck in the flannel backing about a foot from the side.  YUCK!  I think I know what made it happen, and how to avoid it in the future, but this equals maybe 1 1/2 square feet of quilting to unpick.

Luckily I have my favorite "seam ripper" to help me--the Famore 4.5" EZ Stitch Snip with Hook.  I wouldn't use this as a regular seam ripper, but it's perfect for removing little quilting stitches.  The hook is small enough to fit into small stitches, but it doesn't have a blade on that part, so it's safe and won't cut the quilt.  The spring action is great.  I just love these snips.  I also just wish I didn't have to use them so much....

I think I've got about half of the offending area taken out now.  It is slowing down the process, but I'm glad I caught it when I did.  I can't send this darling quilt back to Julie with an ugly tuck like that.

Here's a little of the quilting on the front.  More pics to come!

On another note, I bought my first full 30-yard roll of batting this week.  Here's my daughter rolling around on it in the kitchen.  In the past I've purchased my batting 5, 10, or 15 yards at a time.  This is also 120" wide, so there is a lot of it!

Linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.

A Sneaky Peak

Oh, Art Gallery, Where have you been all my life?  

These beauties came in the mail from Art Gallery Fabrics this week, and they are positively LOVELY.  I haven't used AGF before, so I was very excited to try them out.  I've heard great things about this company and the quality and great hand of the fabric, and it's all true!

 The colors I'm using are Pure Elements in Tile Blue, Cozumel Blue, Mirage Blue, Fresh Water, Moonstone, Ash, Mystic Grey, and Light Grey, along with Nature Elements in Charcoal.  I'm really excited for this project!  It's going to be a secret for a while, but I'm making a new pattern that looks pretty amazing in my head. With this gorgeous fabric, hopefully it will translate into a finished quilt the way I see it!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the US, and I am really looking forward to spending time with family and eating the peanut butter pie/cheesecake my husband is currently making.  Yum.  I'll be making 5 dozen rolls in the morning before we head to my sister-in-law's house.  Do we need that many rolls?  No, but we need enough for everyone to take leftovers home.

I've finished quilting several quilts that I really need to post pictures of.  Hopefully I will do that soon.

I'm linking up today to Work In Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced.  Thanks for visiting!

Want to help Hurricane Sandy Victims?

There are some great efforts going on right now to collect quilts for Hurricane Sandy victims.  Do you want to help donate quilts, but maybe have too much going on?  Well, you're in luck.  Phoenix Quilts has about 200 quilts left over from the 2012 fire season that are READY TO GO NOW.  Where could you help?  Shipping.  This is a lot of quilts.  Julie is asking for donations via PayPal to help pay for shipping these quilts so lovingly made to help give some warmth to families in need.  For what it's worth, I trust Julie 100% that any money donated actually will go to shipping quilts to those in need.  Every little bit helps.

See her post about this here:
http://phoenixquilts.blogspot.com/2012/11/hurricane-sandy-victims-need-our-help.html


Thanks for your consideration.  It feels good to help others, and this is one way that we can make a difference.

She likes it!

When I brought home this dress after the State Fair, my daughter said she didn't like it.  Whenever I put it on her she would immediately ask to take it off.  I was a bit crushed, and blogged about that, and thinking of selling it, here.  Well, I am happy to say that she has changed her mind, and I will not be selling this dress after all.  This was actually a couple of weeks ago, but I got busy and forgot to post these pictures then.

Front view:

Back:  I love the peek-a-boo bustle/ruffles in the back.  I LOVE ruffles, maybe more than she does.

It passes the twirling test!

I'm so glad she decided she likes it.  I may or may not temporarily shorten the underskirt until she grows a little (like next month) so it isn't quite so long.  I haven't really decided yet.

 
I just started a new quilting project that I should link up to WiP Wednesday, but I don't have any pictures yet.  I keep leaving my camera upstairs when I go work on it.

Blogger's Quilt Festival, Fall 2012

I'm excited to take part in the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.  This is my first time participating!  The quilt I decided to share is my Dresden Wave throw quilt.  I made this quilt for the EZ Dresden Challenge hosted by the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild in September.

 I used Heirloom by Joel Dewberry in the Sapphire colorway.  This design starts with strips of various widths all sewn together, then cut into wedges and parallelograms using the EZ Dresden Ruler designed by Darlene Zimmerman.  It was a bit time consuming, but much easier than it looks!  I love that this technique creates curves with only straight seams.  It was really fun to do.  I have a tutorial posted here about how to create the blocks.

 For the back I used the ends that I had left over from my strip sets put together like alternating tumblers with white sashing between, as well as a little strip of color going across.

 I quilted it with an allover leaf pattern inspired by Angela Walters' book.

 This is my favorite quilt that I've made so far.  I love how it turned out.

Quilt Stats:
Finished quilt measures 52x70
Quilted by me on my Brother pq1500s mounted on a Grace frame
Category: Throw Quilt

Thanks for stopping by!  Go see what other amazing quilts have been made at The Blogger's Quilt Festival!