Aunt Kathy Went to Eagle

Last week I sent a package to my nieces and nephews.  I got to visit them in December.  I took a few pictures like I always do, but this time I decided to do something with them.  I had such a great time with them and wanted them to know all the fun memories that I made with them.  So, instead of making myself a few scrapbook pages stuffing the photos in a box, I made them a book.

I know, I should've used a Cheerios cereal box but this one was so fun and colorful.  Don't panic all you acid-free archiving scrappers.  I'm a bit OCD about that too, but it's only the cover.

It always makes me laugh to have a long list of things done by the same person.  I did that in a tortilla making video once upon a time.  I even included 'stunt hands' in the list, which were mine of course!  But, I digress.

Hubs gave me a bookbinding kit for Christmas.  I used the instructions and tools from the kit to create this single sheet Coptic binding on this book.  This binding is useful when you have single sheets and you want them to lay flat when the book is open.

Here's a close up of the exposed braided Coptic binding stitch.  Cool, right?

Here's what the stitching looks like on each page.  I glued a strip of cereal box onto each page for extra durability and for the fun factor.  I was considering making each page out of cereal box, but that would've made it just a tad too busy and would've messed up the acid 'freeness' of the book.  See, I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to that!

Whilst in Eagle, we spent way too much time playing around with Photo Booth on my laptop.  It was hilarious!

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!