Petey's Quilt

I 💔  Baby Quilts!

I've been wanting to share this quilt with you for a while.  The quilt was done in record time, but I shipped it off before I remembered to take photos.  

My grandson Peter was born last September, my son's first son, so of course I wanted his quilt to be special.  But I also wanted it to be quick -- his two big sisters both had to wait a year for their quilts.  😬  Of course, you can guess how that went...
























I started with a charm pack featuring garbage trucks and other "things that go" (blue and orange, yay!) and jumped right into my go-to baby quilt, a disappearing 9-patch in a traditional layout.  I fiddled with the squares to maximize the variation in both color and pattern in each block.

Have I showed you my "design wall" before?  My husband didn't want anything permanent on the wall, so I rigged up this beauty -- squares of Velcro sewed along the edge of a piece of flannel, and the matching counterparts stuck to the top of the moulding on the closet doors.  It's not nice and flat, (hence, "wall" in quotes) and using it usually requires some pinning, but in general it does the trick.

Once it was sewn and cut up, I took it in to my Thursday morning quilt group (and the LQS's sturdy design wall) to fiddle some more.  As always, I wanted to line the blocks up so that there would be no seam-matching until the final rows were sewn together.   (Note to self: it probably would be just as easy and maybe faster just to ignore this compulsion and match the seams). 

Next step:  the backing.  You know how I feel about that (remember this post?).  I found this perfect fabric at my LQS (Riverhead Vac and Sew).  Sorry, the lighting was the best...

My daughter-in-law lived for a decade in Brooklyn, so the New York City vibe fit right in.  Plus, I'm a geographer, so the whole map thing made me happy.  Unfortunately, I realized after I started working with the fabric that it was limited to Manhattan only.  Well, that's OK.  We have family in New Jersey, and we're on Long Island; a few signs should do the trick.

I see Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels in this baby's future!

I did a diamond pattern with my walking foot in the border, but decided to "walk" around the streets of NYC for the rest of the quilting.  This required a LOT of twisting and turning of the quilt, but I (kind of) enjoyed the challenge of figuring out what route to take in each section and how to start and end at a bridge so that I didn't need to break thread.  I'm pretty happy with the way the quilting looks on the front of the quilt, entirely random from that perspective.

At 7 months, Petey isn't exactly into his quilt yet, but I'm sure the time will come.  

Some Fun for Your Weekend!

This was a holiday weekend for many people, with time away from chores (too rainy for yard work, anyway, at least around here) and time with family.  All generations of my family live far away, so I've had time for some quilting, but nothing ready to show you just yet.  So I've concocted a little quiz for you!  It isn't about quilts or quilting; no specialized knowledge is required.  (Although quilters, who have a reputation of looking for their mistakes from the Brooklyn Bridge, may have a leg up).

(Note:  this post was supposed to go on line over Easter/Passover weekend.  But it was delayed when our internet connection went belly-up.  After going through two routers and two modems, the cause remains a mystery, but at least we're back!)

Quiz time!

These wonderful pictures are from an alphabet fabric panel.  Your task is to identify as many items as you can in each picture that start with the letter in that picture.  There are at least four items in each picture.

Be aware that some of the pictures have two or three letters in them, but there are still usually four "hidden" items.  Watch for subtle elements in the picture -- not everything is a "thing." Also, the fabric comes from England, so be aware that some of the items may refer to an English, rather than an American, word.  And some things may refer to old-fashioned names that younger people may not recognize.  So this is a family affair!

Send me your answers along with your email address in the Comments section at the bottom of the post.  In a couple of weeks I'll post my list as well as anything you found that I missed.  A winner will be chosen by drawing from a hat one name among all those who found everything in my list.  There will even be a prize!   Enjoy!

Aren't these drawings wonderful?!  Just enchanting.

Keep an eye on the wallpaper!

Hmm. what kind of house are these animals living in?

You did it!  I'll look forward to hearing from you with your answers!

In For the Long Hall

No, that isn't a typo!  Ha ha ha!

Almost done with the Otsego Lake twin bed quilts!  The journey started here and has continued on and off for eight years.  With the tops done and the backing purchased, I got some wonderful bamboo/cotton blend batting.  Now it's time to take everything to Clemencia for the quilting.

The backing (which I showed you here) was about 10-1/2 yards long -- not wide enough for the quilts, so four lengths to have enough for a vertical seam.  No way I could actually measure this, so I folded in half lengthwise to fit in the upstairs hall,  then unfurled it along the hall so that that I could fold it in half and then in half again..  Voila!  Four pieces of fabric long enough for the quilts and two widths each for the pieced back.

It worked out just fine.  Plenty of extra fabric on each side for the longarmer, and I'd calculated the length pretty well, I think.

In the photo, I'm standing in front of the spare bedroom where I keep the ironing board (steps between my sewing space and ironing space to keep my Fitbit happy).  To your left is my sewing space, to the right the master bedroom.  Fortunately, the fabric didn't have to extend into the bathroom at the end (yuk!).

I'll be so happy to have these quilts DONE and shipped off to my brother to schlep up to our cabin. 

New Finish, New Start

Easy Street is on the Bed

As some of you know, I am a fan of Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog.  I started Easy Street, one of her annual mystery quilts, several (!) years ago, right around the time my son got engaged.  Since then, he's gotten married and they now have three wonderful kids.   If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I've made my son and daughter-in-law a wedding quilt, quilts for each of the kids, plus quilts for several nieces and nephews, a Quiltville leader-and-ender project (more on which another time), and other miscellany.  But at last, Easy Street is done!!

I dropped this project several times, not just because of other priorities, but also because I because discouraged.  Nevertheless, I persisted.  Once the blocks were done, I was so excited to finish it.  Adding the first border was a challenge -- the quilt wasn't particularly square, and all of the edges -- **ALL** -- were the bias edges of triangles.    The quilt was too big to even try to do on my DSM.  The quilting was done by Clemencia Ramos in teal.   I am thrilled with the result.

 

Not having a clue about what I was getting myself into, I decided to make this quilt because of the colors.  For me, it wasn't "easy street," but I sure learned a lot!  The backing is a pretty print of violets in the same colors as the top, more modern than traditional, but a perfect complement

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On Ringo Lake

With Easy Street done, it was time to start a second Quiltville mystery.  Once again, I fell in love with the colors, never mind the pattern.  This time I got a little smarter and waited until the reveal to go ahead with selecting fabrics and diving in.  So far I've finished Clue #1 - 50 nine-patches in teal, brown, and white-to-beige neutrals.

 Some of the teals and neutrals are left over from Easy Street.  Sweet.   I'm looking forward to the next clue, in corals and peaches.  Yum!

Music and Love

Happy National Quilting Month!

... and National Quilting Day, too.  It was yesterday, but I didn't celebrate because I was away (enjoying the last day of a lovely, warm week in Florida).   But I do have a recent finish to share with you.

Music and Love

Music and Love was intended to be a housewarming gift for our dear friends Gordon and Diane, who moved last summer from Delaware to North Carolina.  I'd had the fabric for a long time, but now was time for it to see the light of day.

The fabric had a music theme, and the pattern was "Xs and Os" from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Gordon and Diane were both musicians and teachers, and the kisses (Xs) and hugs (Os) were for their upcoming 54th wedding anniversary.

The pattern was quick and easy (as usual from MSQ).  Two charm packs of a print and one of a light neutral (I used a dotted cream).  The print I used was Perfect Pitch from RJR.  Check out the colors on that selvedge!

Snowball the 5" print squares by sewing 2-1/2" neutral squares to each corner.  

Press the neutrals out and trim back to a 5" square.   Voila!

Except that I decided to have a little extra fun!  I sewed a second seam 1/4" away from the main seam before trimming off the triangles.  

Please ignore the line to the left of the seam.  I put the square down backwards!  The second line of stitching will be to the outside of the first seam.

Voila again!  Handfuls of tiny half-square triangles.  Two charm packs = about 80 squares = 320 HSTs!  I was thinking of using them in a border, but decided against it in the interest of time.  I wonder what they will become?

Put 4 snowballed squares together and there's your block.

Sew up the rows and columns and you're done.  I fiddled with the layout to try to get the colors more-or-less evenly distributed.  And I pressed the seams open, since pressing them to the dark side posed nesting issues.

For the quilting, I sewed down the middle of each line of Xs, then a line around the inside of the neutral squares and one between the first two lines.  So three lines in the Xs and one in the middle of each block.  I used my walking foot, and turning the quilt in circles under my small-throated machine was a bit of a pain.  But I like the result.

The binding is made up of short (12" - 16") strips of one print in several different shades.

Sadly, Diane passed away last fall.  But her name on the quilt, as he requested, will be a sweet reminder for Gordon.

Back(s) to Quilting!

Hi, all!  Happy National Quilting Month!

I'm baaack!

It's been a long time.  I've been so busy quilting and just haven't made the time to post anything.  But this blog is really my Quilting Journal, the one place where I keep photos of my quilts and the process I went through to make them.  March is National Quilting Month, the perfect time to get back in the saddle and share the journey along A Quilter's Path.  This post is a composite of several unfinished posts from 2018...

What is your favorite part of quilting?

There are those who love the beginning -- discovering an inspiring view or idea or even a captivating pattern, or finding a beautiful fabric that cries, "Take me home!"  Some find relaxation in cutting and piecing.  For others is the quilting process itself, making lovely designs that please the eye in themselves and that add depth and movement to the quilt.  There are even people who enjoy just sitting in front of the TV, sewing on the binding, and feeling the satisfaction of a quilt COMPLETED!

I guess for most of us, it's the whole process.  Otherwise we'd probably never finish our quilts!  I don't much enjoy the actual quilting, probably because I still haven't become skilled at the kinds of quilt designs that I want to make.  Otherwise, I love it all.  But one of my favorite parts is rarely mentioned -- finding the perfect backing.

The back is part of the quilt, too!

We're all familiar with the photos of gorgeous quilts, draped over the corner of a door, over a fence or railing, wrapped around a young child.  Sometimes you get a peek at the back in these photos, or perhaps the quilter has folded back a corner for you to see it.  But think about it -- when you turn down the bed or toss a lap quilt over your knees, you always see the back!

I love finding the perfect backing for my quilts.  I made one quilt -- one very important to me, the one for my son and daughter-in-law for their wedding -- where I used a plain muslin backing.  Lots of people use muslin for the quilt back -- it never detracts from the top, shows the quilting, and is inexpensive.  But in the end I was disappointed.  If the top was so important, why didn't I bother to find a nice fabric for the back?

To me, the right backing material complements the top.  If the back has to be pieced, that's even more opportunity to have what is effectively a two-sided quilt.  Here are some of my favorites.

I made this panel quilt for a niece's baby boy in Ireland.  The African theme suggested warmth, something often lacking in Ireland!  

So I made the backing with a warm flannel in the same colors as the top.  It showed off the quilting nicely, too.  Aligning the back with the top so that the quilting aligned correctly on both the top and the back was something of an effort, but in the end, I was quite happy.

This lap quilt was for my best friend and her husband -- and their dogs!  The photo was taken before the quilting was done.  I stitched the names of all their dogs over the years in the horizontal sashings.

Of course, there was no shortage of dog-themed fabrics that could be used for the back.  The one I chose added a little pop of color that was missing in the brown and dark red top.

Sifting through old posts, you can find my *very* gradual progress on my Otsego quilts -- a pair of twin-sized quilts that in my earliest quilting days I optimistically designed, poorly cut, and struggled to sew.  Over the years I would pick one up to work on, usually during a retreat, when I forced myself to push on by taking only that project along.  But once I got home, back it went in the UFO bin.

This summer I finally finished both tops.  It took a while to find a backing fabric that I loved -- found it at Hobby Lobby in Gaylord, Michigan.  Perfect.

The last back I'll show you today was for another baby quilt.  I've made this one before -- just a couple of charm packs and some yardage.  

I wanted flannel for the backing, but when I saw these little guys, the deal was done.  So sweet!

That's it for now.  We'll be baaaack!