Graduation Quilt #3

I was so excited when I was able to renew contact recently with my oldest granddaughter, Eloise, after 16 years of only sporadic and often difficult visits (she was fine; it was due to an unpleasant divorce).  I asked if she would be interested in having me make a quilt for her high school graduation.  She said yes!  

My husband and I were headed for our annual 6-week stay with his sister in Florida, and graduation was only a few weeks away.  This time we were flying, so I couldn't take my cutting board and some other usual tools. 

 I needed to choose a quilt pattern that used almost entirely pre-cuts, and I wanted something quick.  I finally decided on an old (2015) Moda Bake Shop pattern, Sunny Trips, which has multiple blocks that are each a small Trip Around the World.  It uses entirely 2-1/2" strips and the colors in the pattern were exactly what I already wanted:  pink and white (Eloise's favorite colors) and teal (my favorite color).  Eloise has traveled to many places in Europe and Asia, so I thought it would be a great pattern.

I took two identical pink Island Batiks jelly rolls and 2 non-batik white ones to Florida, so all I needed was the teal.  I went to my "local" quilt shop in North Ft. Myers (a 45 minute drive from where I was staying), and discovered that they had very limited precuts.  I did find the perfect teal batik, but how would I cut it?  Fortunately, a lovely shop employee named. Susie agreed to let me cut the fabric in the store (but shh, don't let the owner know).

I was surprised to discover that the pre-cut strips varied in length, even among strips from the same roll.

The pattern follows what is now a pretty standard way of making a Trip Around the World, sewing the strips in order and cutting them horizontally into different sizes.

Keeping the strips sets organized is key to getting this pattern right!

Kellie at my LQS did the quilting.  It came out great (of course).  Then I had to figure out how to finish it.  I wanted the binding itself to be pink, but I wanted some teal to "close" the blocks.  And I didn't want a border.  So I made a flange binding that worked out perfectly.  I'd never done one before, and it was really easy.  I was very happy with that choice!

I love the secondary pattern that emerges.

The pieced back breaks up the vastness of the pink.

 

Passing Along my Love of Sewing

The youngest of my 3 granddaughters, June (age 8), has always enjoyed crafts.  She has learned to hand sew with some felt-and-yarn projects for kids, but she really, really wanted to learn to sew on a machine.  She got her own machine for her birthday in March, but no one in her family sews.  So when we visited my son's family in California in July, I had the privilege of starting her on way. 

It was a lot of fun for both of us.  She learned to thread her machine and wind a bobbin.  The dining room table wasn't the ideal location -- she could reach the foot pedal, but had trouble controlling the speed.  The machine wouldn't get going at first, then would take off like a jackrabbit.  Next time we'll look into a better setup.  However, June, like the rest of her siblings, is tall for her age (her mom is 6 ft. tall and her dad about 6'3"), so in another year she probably won't have any problem anyway.

We started out practicing stitching on paper without thread.  I printed up some pages with straight lines, squares, and wavy lines to sew on.  I think she's a natural!  She stayed right on the straight lines and learned to let the machine to the work so she didn't need to "steer."  She mastered pivoting at the corners of the squares right away.  The curves were a little harder, especially when the machine took off, racing along before she could slow it down.  But she persisted.

Her brother was quite interested, but ultimately decided that he'd rather work on cars with his Dad.

As a first project, she made a heart-shaped pincushion.  Not a great idea on my part, since it was entirely curves, but she did great.  She learned how to measure around a shape and connect the dots to make the shape bigger.  She pinned in the shape to the fabric, right sides together.  After sewing it, she stuffed the pincushion with lots of fluff and I did the final hand-sewing to close it all up.  Next time I think she can make an apron.  We might even be able to do it on FaceTime.  Seeing how well she did on her first try, I think she'll be able to make aprons for everyone in the family for Christmas! (Well, maybe not for Wally, their 100-lb. hound).