Wild & Free Pillows {a finished project}

My oldest daughter was lucky enough to have a student teacher for the first part of the school year.  What better way to say thank you than matching pillows for her teachers?

I used the new line of fabric Wild & Free by Maureen Cracknell (+ a few scraps).  I always thought the arrows would be my favorite print from the line, but once I saw it in person, Sun Tracks was clearly my fave!  I bought extra after getting my preordered fat quarter bundle, and used it for the backs of these pillows.

I also quilted each pillow differently.  For one I did cross-hatching, simply for the reason that the spool of thread on my machine was nearly out and I thought maybe I could eke out an entire quilted pillow from it (I couldn’t). 

There is just something about straight lines that makes my heart swoon when I see them on pillows! 

Quilting always seems to show up better on the back.

Then I quilted the other with a free motion pattern so they were the same but still different.  Also I was a bit tired from all the straight lines.  FMQ is so fast!

The quilting pattern blends in a lot of with all the different fabrics on the front.

The teachers liked the pillows and I got a message from one later that night informing me her 16 year old daughter already claimed it for her bedroom. 

I promised that this would be the end of pillows for a while, but I was wrong.  I already started another with the leftovers from this project and some scraps that have already overtaken my sewing room and are threatening to take over my house…

Have a wonderful weekend!  Linking up with Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Crazy Mom Quilts.

Gee’s Bend Experiment

Earlier this year I listened to the MQG webinar about modern quilting.  Heather provided a list of books and resources for further information about the origins and practices of modern art, quilting, and graphic design.

Have you ever heard of Josef Albers?  Please don’t laugh, but I never had.  I didn’t know that those square in a square in a square paintings at museums were actually color studies—how colors interact when different shades are placed next to each other.  I think one of the reasons I was never able to see that is normally there are one or two of those pictures on display.  It takes seeing several together to be able to discern the color play at work (at least for me).

Although I picked the colors for my next quilt from a computer screen, the way the navy and the fuchsia interact is better than I could have ever hoped…the blue starts to look almost purple with the fuchsia next to it.

So why is this a Gee’s Bend Experiment?  The quilt design is a popular variation of a Gee’s Bend quilt, called the bricklayer.

And then I decided to approach the quilt construction from a Gee’s Bend perspective too.  The quiltmakers didn’t use rotary cutters or rulers for most of their designs, they ripped strips from whatever fabric they had on hand.  No measuring, just ripping.  The first rip was a little scary, but after a few strips, I wasn’t afraid of ruining the fabric anymore.

I used a little bigger than normal seam allowance, 3/8”, to make the piecing more stable.  And I just trimmed each strip with scissors, no rulers or rotary cutter.

I’m not sure exactly how this quilt will develop after I finish the bricklayer section, but I’m using this photo of a Gwen Marston quilt, on the left, as my other piece of inspiration.  The quilt on the right is the Gee’s Bend quilt I studied.

Have a great week!

A New Lunch Bag

When school started back up in August I saw some cute home-sewn lunch totes all over the web.  Of course I didn’t sew a new one by the start of school (I’m always a day late and a dollar short), but last month I did finally make my oldest daughter a one-of-a-kind lunch bag and I think the wait was worth it!

The front was made with a fabric block of Bea’s original artwork that I ordered through a fundraiser at her school last spring.  Then I log-cabined around the block and stripped the sides and back with scraps from my stash.  I used the quilt-as-you-go method with insulating batting.

Bea picked the purple polka dot fabric for the handles.  I added lightweight interfacing to make them sturdy and stand up on their own.  There’s also a strap on the interior to hold her water bottle upright. 

I had wanted to make Bea a lunch bag for quite a while, but inspiration didn’t strike until I had returned home from the Riley Blake Fabric Fest with a “make-and-take” pack of fabrics that included about a 1/2 yard of the laminated green chevron fabric.  It sat around by my sewing machine for a week until this project popped into my head.

And this adorable flower button was also from Riley Blake.  I added an elastic to the back of the lunch pack and slipping it over the flower button effectively closes up the top of the bag.

Now don’t look too closely at the stitching around the top edge of the bag.  Let’s just say I stayed up really, really late (and I stay up till midnight normally) and still didn’t finish this bag in one night.  Let’s just leave it at I had to rush to finish this thing before biking to school at 8:30 the next morning!

Here’s a pic of all the supplies I used to make the bag.  I used insulating batting around the sides of the bag and really thick Pellon interfacing for the base of the bag.  It stands up very sturdily on it’s own.  The finished size is kind of big—about 9 x 12 inches, but I made it tall because the water bottle is 11 inches high.  After making a slew of fabric baskets, putting together this lunch bag was pretty simple.

Enjoy your day!

Another log cabin quilt!

It seems that lots of people are having baby boys this December or January, so I’ve been working on some quilts for gifts and just finished this one up last night.

Now you may have noticed that this quilt looks a lot like my past few baby quilts.  I really have a thing for log cabin and am a serious creature of habit.  I didn’t use Kharma Baby for the fussy cuts this time—this fabric is Alexander Henry with an assortment of jungle type animals.

The log cabin fabrics are all from my stash (which surprised me that I had enough blue and green) but I relied heavily on DS Prints and used the coolest dark blue with egg shaped dots for the binding.  It frames the quilt nicely.

Esther enjoyed being the quilt holder!  The finished size is 41.5” square which was a tad large for her to hold up.  The sashing is Kona ash.

I used up the rest of the dog and frog fabric in my stash to piece the back.  The colors go perfectly with the front and this quilt is going to a little boy who has two older sisters, so he needs as much blue and green as possible to balance out all the pink!

I free motion quilted squiggles with contrasting green thread from Connecting Threads.  I made a set of  flannel bibs to give with the quilt. 

My stash bee block for November was sewn and mailed in the nick of time.  The points lined up perfectly.  Last time I made this block there was a little hiccup at one of the intersections.  Making all the different bee blocks this year has helped my piecing skills immensely.   I’ve tried some things I never would have tried without being in the bees and every new experience has helped me figure out a new skill.

A package from Connecting Threads coming in the mail today or tomorrow.  I’ve been stalking the tracking info.  I ordered a tool called the Angler 2 for sewing hsts and can’t wait to try it out!  Hope you have a great Thursday!

Quilts at the Table

A few days ago my daughter and I whipped up a set of pretty placemats to go with some dishes we got for one of our relatives for Christmas.

Most of the charms are from Connecting Threads and a few are from my stash.  They were so easy to put together, just 3 x 4 charms.

The plates are not actually Christmas designs.  They are more Mediterranean looking and can be used all seasons, but look great with the Christmas fabric.

The mats consist of the top, batting and backing.  So to keep it all together, after turning the layers inside out, I sewed 3 evenly spaced lines around it to hold everything together, which is an idea I got from Svetlana (thanks!).

The fabrics are pretty.  I love that cute deer!

Here are the placemats all tied with a ribbon and ready to be put in a gift bag with her new dishes.

And I finished up my November Beejeebers block last night.

This block is called Cherie’s Carpenter Star and it’s made of a jillion hsts.  A few months ago this block would have reduced me to tears, but I’m happy to say that this one turned out A-okay and is exactly the right size, a first for me!  The bee mama asked for bright colors, so I hope orange and teal fit the bill.

I’m also getting ready to bind another baby quilt. This has got to be my fifth log cabin jungle animal-themed quilt.  I guess I will never tire of making log cabin quilts.  I just love picking the fabrics and chain sewing the blocks together.  It’s so easy, fast, and fun!

Hope everyone had a relaxing and fun Thanksgiving.  I’m officially done all my Christmas shopping (a few days before Thanksgiving even) and now I’m ready to sit back and enjoy the next couple weeks, hopefully making a few things from the book Pretty in Patchwork Holidays.  Come back on December 3rd—I’m giving away a copy of the book and a fat quarter bundle of Christmas fabric!

Linking up to Tuesday at the Table.

July Bee Blocks & Polaroids Update

First up is this log cabin in bright colors.  The center is a Hello Pilgrim butterfly.  So much fun to make and choose all the fabrics!

Next up is a stained glass block using Kona medium gray and also bright colors.  This was fun to make, too.

A few weekends ago I made about 120 polaroid blocks for a swap.  Somehow, I misplaced about 60 of them and looked high and low and everywhere in between and couldn’t find them.  I finally got over it and made 60 new ones.

Well, yesterday I smelled burning in our bedroom.  I quickly ran all over the house looking to see what it could be.  Finding nothing, I took the kids out of the house and called 911.  The fire truck and hoses and everything arrived a few minutes later.  Turns out a lamp had malfunctioned and the bulb was brown and smoking.   I was just thrilled that my house wasn’t going to burn down!

When the firemen moved our nightstand to unplug the cord from the outlet, someone must have pulled on a knob that opens an extension table that I rarely use…and in there were all the missing Polaroids!!!  God works in funny ways sometimes! 

Today is the last day to mail them to meet the deadline. I never would have found them otherwise!

Linking up to Freshly Pieced.

Scrappy Log Cabin Trivets

What is your favorite quilt block?  For certain mine is the log cabin.  Stars are a close second.

I made these trivets for our dining room table.  They are so bright and cheerful and a perfect accompaniment to summertime dishes like Caprese salad.

They were first inspired by a fat quarter bundle of veggie fabric I bought on Etsy.  I love fresh produce and the way the veggies are so modern yet classic.

I also experimented a little with these small quilting projects.  First, I tried spray basting for the first time.  The trivet on the left, which is significantly larger and less wonky was spray basted.  I just pin basted the one on the right.  You can see the spray basted one shifted around a whole lot less, so when I squared it up, it finished at 8 1/2” square instead of 8” like the pin basted one, which needed a lot trimmed off to make it square again.

I also tried some free motion curves on the trivet on the far right.  I left the feed dogs up and I think my quilting was a little better.  Maybe.  Maybe not!

Linking up to Fabric Tuesday and Quilting by the River.

Newest Blocks…

I haven’t been able to sew much lately because I had a breast infection (from breastfeeding) that was a real bear.  It is my third one in the 5+ years I’ve been breastfeeding, and definitely the worst of them.  In times like this, I am so thankful for the miracle of antibiotics.  And eye doctors.  When I got my first pair of glasses, I walked out of the office and saw the leaves on the trees in the parking lot.  I had forgotten that trees even had leaves and weren’t just some fuzzy blob on a trunk.  If I had lived in prehistoric times, I would have already been eaten by a saber-toothed tiger that I couldn’t see hiding in the bush. 

So, the good news is that I am on the mend and got some sewing done today.  Sunni, from Love Affair With My Brother, is running the Stash Bee (one of the 2 bees I am participating in this year) and is making a quilt called the Tree of Life.  I got busy this morning.  The first I made was just a log cabin tree with a fussy cut bird in the middle.

Most of the fabrics are Riley Blake Summer Song and Rainy Days & Mondays, but the cute flower/bee print is one called “Girl Friday.”  I love it of course for the bees.

The second tree I used some of the leaves I have made for my Little Leaves quilt (a pattern from Elizabeth Hartman’s Practical Guide to Patchwork).  The fabric is mostly Domestic Bliss with a few others thrown in for a good mix.

I did a zig zag stitch around all the applique, and I am digging this block, too.  I freehanded the trunk onto the Heat n Bond in the spirit of this tree I saw on Needle Little Balance. 

Hope Sunni likes both of these!

The dreaded stomach bug has struck our house.  At first it was just the kids, which gave me way too much time to surf the internet while they watched movies (God bless Disney!) and took it easy.  I found myself back at Quilttaffy looking for some Kona solid aqua and I, of course, found plenty more that I really needed.  Waiting for it to come in the mail is no problem because now I am sick and can barely muster the energy to get off the couch to move let alone sew anything.

Before I got sick I started fooling around with these Alexander Henry Farmdale prints I had to have.  My mom has 4 laying hens and my sister, who lives in Maine, has around 40 chickens.  Anytime I see a cute chicken print I can't resist.  The plan was to make potholders and a coordinating tablerunner for each household.   First I started by cutting 3 inch strips, then I played with them for a while trying to figure out the best way to display the directional prints, and so I decided on log cabin blocks.  I experimented even though my Kona aqua and ash hadn't arrived yet, and I plan to make that block the front of a pillow for my sister's couch.