Anna's Quilt

Pinwheel quilts are fun to make.  I just sent this one to Anna, my niece who's almost two years old now.  For some mysterious reason I already had all of these feminine girly pastel fabrics in my stash.  I really have an aversion to pastel colors, especially pink.  But, I'm pretty much in love with this quilt, especially when I imagine Anna dragging it around the house with her.  I hope that when it's all tattered with love, I can take it back and convert it into a stuffed animal or something.  That goes for all of the other baby quilts that I've sent out recently.

I took a 'Hail Mary' shot outside on my deck.  My toes are in all the shots and I decided to leave them.  So why is it that beat up chippy furniture looks cool and trendy, but beat up chippy decks just look old and beat up?

Ever since I made this quilt, I have felt compelled to name and label every quilt.  I should've made the pinwheel the darker color and the border the light green color.  I actually considered taking the label off and redoing it, after having sewn it onto the quilt.  But I didn't.  I'm kind of glad that my perfectionist tendencies are lessening as the years go by.  It's a relief actually. 

Floral Applique

It seems like I've had this book forever.  I've had it so long that there's now a new and improved version available, although I prefer the cover of my older version.  I'm in love with everything about the quilt on the cover - the color choices, the curvy design, the use of many reds for the background, and the folk art style.

So, why haven't I made it yet, you ask?  And on a related note, hubby keeps wondering why I'm making all these cool blocks and sending them away.

I've known for a long time that I'm much more productive when there are deadlines.  When I make something for myself there are no deadlines, which results in lots of UFO's.  Being a part of the Long Distance Quilting Bee (LDQB) has given me deadlines.

So, one of the gals from the LDQB requested a block with flowers.  I seized the opportunity and finally made a block from this quilt.  It was difficult to part with when it was done, but I'm now inspired to make the quilt for myself.

I modified it a bit because I didn't want to hand applique all those little berries, leaves seemed a lot easier.  I'm happy to say that I stuck with my goal to use fabrics I already owned.  The flowers and leaves were made with Kaffe Fassett fabrics, leftovers from a quilt that I made for me - that I actually finished long ago!  It probably would've been better to use a different stem color but I ran out of greenish Kaffe fabrics.  Anyway, I love how it turned out and am excited to get started on mine!

Nighty Night

This young lady was dying to learn how to sew.  She came over one afternoon and we made a pillowcase.  I let her pick fabrics from my stash, which aren't the most teen friendly fabrics.  She's an amazing anime artist but I've got absolutely no anime fabric.  It does exist though, but I think she should design her own and submit it to Spoonflower.  Anyway, she also likes music and was able to find some sheet music.  Ha!

Making a pillowcase is a great beginner project.  She learned how to used a rotary cutter, how to pin, how to sew a straight line, how to stop before the pins and not sew over them, and how to keep a steady speed.  She did a great job for her first time ever.  She's a natural!  I was really happy that she didn't slice an artery or sew through a finger.  Phew!

There are lots of beautiful blog tutorials and free pillowcase patterns out there, but for me, this one was the most informational.

Sew, to all my nieces out there who want to learn to sew.  I'm thinking about teaching you online.  What do you think?  Is that something you're interested in?  I know that GG already knows how to make a pillowcase and has moved on to more advanced things, but what about the rest of you?

Corn on the Cob

I can't wait to try this - cooking corn on the cob without having to mess with the husk and the silk.

More Boy Quilts

In a year's time, three nephews were added to Hubby's side of the family.  I made three quilts from the same stash of fabric.  I love that each quilt has denim from Hubby's old Levis, scraps from a dress that I made for their grandma a while ago, and scraps from one of my favorite denim dresses from back when denim dresses were 'all the rage'.  I also included scraps from one of my mom's old denim dresses.

None of the plaids are from clothes that we wore.  Some of the plaids came from an era when I would buy plaid shirts from the thrift store and cut them up for fabric.  Most of them were just collected from fabric stores in different states over time.  These quilts are multi-generational, multi-familial, and multi-statal.  How do you like all those big fancy words?   

The first nephew got this quilt.  The second nephew got the one that I've been calling Plaid Pinwheels.  I really like making pinwheels.  They're super easy and accurate if you use the half square triangle method of piecing. 

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Many quilters suggest starting your free motion quilting in the center of the quilt and working towards the edge.  On the pinwheel quilt, I followed the diagram above and found that it worked really well.  I'll definitely use that technique again.

The third nephew got the one below, which was inspired by this quilt that a friend made.  It's weird how the same pattern can look completely different depending on the fabric choices.

I ran out of Levi pockets for labels, but am in love with this label also.  I've been calling this quilt 'Words with Sun'.  Sun is nephew number three's mom and we're addicted to playing a certain game.

A member of my quilt guild asked me what it's like to use denim for binding.  I wouldn't recommend it.  The edges aren't too bad if you have a good thimble, but the mitered corners are a nightmare.

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Speaking of thimbles, I discovered this awesome thimble at Joann's right before I started sewing on the binding.  I love it because...

• It doesn't continually slip off of my finger like a metal thimble does.
• I can push the needle through the fabric by sitting the end of the needle in the metal indentations.
• I can pull the needle out of the fabric by gripping it with the rubber.
• There's a handy dandy size guide (a hole in the packaging) to help you pick the right size for your finger.

Happy quilting!