Paperdolls and postcards

One is finished, the other one not just yet.
I came across this tutorial a while ago and thought that quilt would be perfect for my little granddaughter, maybe not just yet (she's 16 months old right now), but eventually. And we all know that if you don't buy a certain fabric when you see it, when you actually want to buy it, it'll be gone.
After overcoming my dislike of drawing, I actually had a lot of fun digging fabrics out of my scrap baskets and making the little clothes.

Doesn't look like much like this, does it?
But, add the clothes and it's a totally different story. Of course, the clothes aren't attached permanently, it's sort of like paper dolls made from fabric and fusible fleece.

And here is my favorite little photo bomber getting into the act:

He looks a little grumpy, must be the weather, it's completely overcast and very muggy today. Makes for crummy pictures.

And here is something else I've been working on:

Postcards from Kaffe.

I came across the tutorial here and had to try it. I made the number of blocks shown in the tutorial and wanted it just a little bigger. Well, just a little bigger didn't look right, so I added two more rows on the bottom and now it's the right size for a baby quilt.
I knew immediately that I wanted to use Kaffe Fassett fabrics for the front of the postcards and I had several text fabrics, but not enough. With several of the quilt stores within easy driving distance closed, it wasn't all that easy to find more. But I think I have a pretty good selection by now.
And I also have enough blocks made for another one in the size described in the original tutorial.
I am linking up with Randi from i have to say for Show 'n Tell.

Quilts

I took my first quilting class over 30 years ago. I was pregnant with my first child at the time. Hoping for a girl, but not knowing (ultrasounds and amnios were rare in those days), I did not have a single pink thing when the baby was born. Yes, it was a girl.
Two weeks after her birth, I got a phone call from the wonderful elderly woman who had taught me how to quilt: she knew I didn't have anything pink and she'd heard I had a little girl, so she had made a pink baby blocks (or tumbling blocks) quilt for me. By hand. And by this I mean completely by hand. Rotary cutters didn't exist just yet, we marked our pieces with pencil, cut out with scissors and while some of us used the machine, she sewed by hand and quilted by hand.

This is the beautiful quilt she made. And here are some close-ups:

The last picture shows the pattern perfectly.

I had started my own (unisex) quilt a few weeks before, but didn't finish it for a few more years. For one thing, my daughter was a preemie, for another I had bitten off far more than I could handle. She was five when I finally finished her quilt and it is plenty big for a five-year old, she slept under it for a few more years.

I remember quite a bit about how this quilt came together. The pattern came out of a German women's magazine, Brigitte, probably one of the Christmas issues, those always contained crafty things. I am sure there were full-size templates for all the appliques. And the original quilt was in reds, whites and blues. The magazine quilt used a lot of plaid, but there was no plaid to be had where I lived. So, I settled for polka dots and florals, calicos, because that was all there was at the time. I machine appliqued, and I have no idea how I figured that out because that wasn't something covered in our class. Looking at it earlier, I realized that I obviously had a lot to learn back then. I should have made the quilt one row narrower and one row longer because then it would have flowed better (always end with the same kind of block as the first block in a row).

Still, I am kind of proud of my very first quilt. It definitely was a labor of love and even though I didn't really know what I was doing, it turned out quite well. I am getting ready to pass it along to my little grand daughter and figured I'd better take pictures and write about it while I can.





I am linking up with Randi from i have to say for Show 'n Tell Tuesday.

The other disappearing Nine Patch

As I mentioned in my last post, I liked the process of making a disappearing nine patch so much that, as soon as I'd finished the first one, I pulled out fabrics for another one. From my stash this time.

While sitting on the floor, playing with batiks, my husband came along and said he liked the colors. So, this is his quilt, blues, greens, aquas. It, too, went together easily, laying out the blocks took almost more time than the actual sewing. And no matter how hard I tried, there still were a couple of places where the same fabrics ended up touching. Oh well ..............

I started with lots of these:

Made a few of these:

And a few of those:

Which were cut into this:

And were then sewn into this:

As usual, the colors aren't true (even with lots of fiddling), but they are in this picture:

Too bad, I promised it to my husband, I kind of like it myself.

And on a totally unrelated note, my grandbaby was born this morning. Mom and  little daughter are fine, but pretty tired.

I am linking up with Randi of i have to say for Show and Tell Tuesday.

Quilt therapy

When life throws obstacles in my way, I tend to go for occupational therapy. Usually, I go and hit metal with a hammer, but this time around I opted for quilt therapy. I pulled out a bunch of fabric and got to work, cutting and sewing.

I sewed a lot of memories into this heart:

The inspiration came from here: Pixelated.

It's not quite done yet, I still need to add a sleeve for hanging it and finish off the binding by hand. I know it's possible to machine sew binding, but I'm not very good at it. And, besides, hand sewing is quite therapeutic, isn't it?

Next, I wanted to try something that's been on my Pinterest board for a while: a disappearing nine-patch. I've always been a big fan of nine-patches (there's a big quilt top upstairs that's affectionately knows as "The Quilt from Hell" (if I remember correctly, it was 2 or 3 days of mindless and very enjoyable sewing and several days of laying it out on the floor to try and arrange the blocks to my liking.) Once the top was done, I folded it up and put it away.

Anyway, getting back to the disappearing nine-patch: I had several charm packs and wanted to use those rather than having to pick out and cut up fabrics from my stash. So, I picked two (Giggly and Punctuation, I believe) that contained similar colors and sewed and cut and sewed again. The whole top was done in one day, it just needs to be quilted.

That was so much fun that I dug into my stash for another one but that'll be another post later in the week.

I am linking up with Randi of I have to say.

And now for something completely different

I am quite reluctant to share these pictures, they are .......... well, pretty bad. I was getting ready to put what I'm going to show into a box to mail it off and, almost as an afterthought, decided to snap a few pictures. And that's exactly what they look like, an afterthought. Unfortunately, the little quilt has made its way to its new owner. I'll try to do better with the next project.

 There is a reference to the same little quilt here:

 http://henrysmumsotherblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/oh-no.html

Playing ................

.............. with both a new quilt block, the Disappearing Nine Patch, and PicMonkey collages (instead of doing what I really should be doing):

 

Oh no .............

The dog went to the groomer this morning which gave me about 3 uninterupted hours to get something done. I had ordered charm packs and matching fabric a while ago and was going to make a little quilt.
Things went well, I sewed blocks into rows, rows into a whole quilt top and went to iron the backing ............... oh, no: there was a hole in the fabric. Not quite in the middle of the panel but near enough. I wanted to get this done today, not contact the etsy seller and get a replacement who knows when. What to do? How about a little heart applique right over the hole? Yup, that worked. I'm sure the recipient won't mind.

And while I'm writing, I might as well add my thoughts on quilt basting spray. I used to have a kitchen with an old linoleum floor and plenty of space to lay out a full-size quilt. Not any longer. While there's still adequate space here and there, there's no more linoleum. So, no more crawling around for hours either thread-basting or safety pin basting.
I discovered quilt basting spray a couple years ago and I admit to a love/hate relationship with it. It works beautifully, but, if used indoors, it's like a glue sniffer's paradise (okay, I exaggerate, but only a little). Even with the backdoor open, there's still a whiff of that stuff in the house and it migrates. I cover the floor all around the quilt with towels and the glue still ends up on the floor. Frustrating!