Twisted Nine Patch Baby Quilt

I had a bunch of leftover bright squares from another project. They were already cut so what could I do but use them. You understand, right? I know my goal is to complete all our backlogged projects, but a quilter can barely stand seeing a stack of coordinated blocks and not do something with them. Besides, I had enough absolutely adorable lime and orange giraffe print for a back. It was begging for a front...

My First Quilt

This is the story of my first quilt project. Yes, the first quilt I ever finished.

I started it in high school as a home ec project(incidentently it got a bad grade because I never finished the quilt). I started out planning a baby quilt because it would be faster. Then I thought, "Bigger is better." The finished size ended up a small queen but it took a lot longer than the couple months in home ec.

It spent months on my Grams T's dinning room floor. The great uncles all offered color advice during the long process of cutting squares. Much to the surprise of everyone I finished the quilt in just five short years (well maybe six and with tons of help from the other S's).

Do you remember your first quilt?  Small? Big? Had real issues piecing it? Happy memories of the first quilt or did you just want to toss it in the trash?

I ended up loving it. And promised never to do a pattern with triangles again. Ten years later, it still graces my bed in all its aging beauty.




One of the porpoise blocks


A fishy border

Bunnies for Baby

A grand baby quilt! In my mind, I've made this quilt a hundred times or more, but now none of the patterns seem quite right. What would do for an October baby? A wee baby boy?

I've got it! Bunnies! Not in baskets, but hopping along, peeking up over the border or standing up staring. Our pattern began with Easter bunnies in "Our Best Seasonal Quilts by Fons and Porter. Then we made a few changes. They'd be made of felted wool with whiskers and tails to pull. We pieced tiny split, modified 9-patches in pastels and beige between the bunnies. How did that work out? Judge for yourself. Here it is fresh off the long arm. If you look closely you'll see that R quilted machined pow's behind the bunnies and added carrots in the borders and in a few beige squares. I believe a butterfly and buzzy bee might be flying around there somewhere as well.

We brought it home and added a border. You can also see the back, an old-fashioned bunny print on navy. A pair of booties sneaked in the photo. I don't know how that happened. ;)

Whiskers and tails joined the quilt at long last. The whiskers are a bamboo, silk yarn; the tails snipped wool circles.



Such happy bunnies. Great job on the faces, S!

That Awkward Moment

When you open a box with a half full quilt and wonder. What is all this? What was the plan here? Sure you remember some vague idea of what it should look like but you have 4-5 uncut pieces of fabric. Of course you left yourself no plans, patterns, or even post-its. Now, you must puzzle it out. You are sure you had it all figured out. Otherwise, why would you put it in the box like that? Now all I have to do is figure out which one of these extra fabrics I was going to use for the border/binding. Did I have a back? Thank goodness it's almost done.