Ham and Eggs

Last year, while searching for the perfect finishing fabric for a baby quilt at Country Carriage Quilts, the cutest wool applique kit jumped into my arms.

What wouldn't I love about this? Cute pigs and chickens! Even the same color eggs as my hens lay.
And don't you appreciate the puzzled look on the piglet?

Rachel's Of Greenfield Ham and Eggs Quilt Kit makes a 13" x 15" wall hanging. Pigs and chickens share a space surrounded with checkerboards.

After each step, the quilt seemed more destined to live on my kitchen wall. First I made the background, then cut out and appliqued the animals and finally added buttons, embroidery and beads. 

The close-ups below show some in process work --  the lazy daisy and bead grain, the outline and filler quilting. It was a very enjoyable take-along project.

If I Ran the Circus...

A fabric-inspired baby quilt

and their matching blocks:

Shop Hop 2011 -- Here It Is

We saw a lot of the state following the maps from shop to shop in Western Washington. From the north end of the state to the south and out on the peninsula and the islands. It's a beautiful trip and we got to see new fabric lines and unique quilt, bag and garment patterns.

[Finished picture coming soon we hope]

Part of the 2011 quilt shop hop fabric this year has cartoons. How cool is that?

(Work in progress -- add a picture of the fabric line including the cartoons.)

Although the three S's weren't all that impressed with the 2011 hop shop fabric, the fourth of our group loved it at first sight. Years later, she still loves it. The rest of us are planning to put it together, quilt it and give it to her as a surprise. So far she has no clue although I don't know how she can not, especially since we designed a block with her initial.

"We made such good progress on it this summer but sadly now its locked in a plastic storage bin waiting for time. We are falling slowly more and more behind on the quilt shop hops. However I feel that 2012 will be the year we catch up," S said hopefully in the fall of 2011. I opened that box a few weeks ago and decided that it was time to finish it up. A majority of the blocks -- 39 of them -- were ready to trim and several more we partial completed.Due to busy work schedules, we haven't been quilting much this fall but that's all going to change. Every January we, the three S's, swear this is the year we finish all the the half-finished projects and this year we will. Woot!

Individual Blocks

The Sailboat Block from Harbor Quilts is partially paper pieced and partially traditionally pieced.

Dresden Block variations
This quilt has a lot of Dresden plate blocks. Some of them like this one below is a mini Dresden. Look at how small the individual pieces are. Next photo op we will have to picture the mini Dresden with a coin to give some perspective.

Pointed Dresden Plate
Material Girls Quilt Shop

We would have had fewer of the cute little blue dresdens had I not miscalculated while cutting. Oh well, they fit the style and are cute.

Each year one of the quilt shops in Tacoma designs a block featuring a wonky pine tree. I look forward to seeing how different the current block will be from past ones. The 2011 block features a single simple tree with a border really sets off the block and ties it into the rest of the quilt.

I thought of adding gentle snow drifts with gray running stitches across the white. We may still add that embellishment.

Wonky Pine Tree from Evergreen Quilting

Whirly Gigs
As part of the quilt shop hop the whirly gigs enter the finished block pile. That's right we have enough finished blocks to call it a pile. Go us. These are a little wonky right now but trim them iron them and they will be a perfect addition to the quilt. We are still debating on how to set all the squares. The last quilt shop hop we set with stripes in between the squares.

A Train Blog complements of Trains Fabric, Etc in Tacoma.

If you're a beginning paper piecer, this is a wonderful starter block. I enjoyed putting it together as well as ideas for wheels -- buttons, yoyos... We're thinking of embellishing with a bit of smoke streaming out of the smoke stack. An alternative would be have the label flowing out of the stack, "Western WA Shop Hop 2011."

Spool of Thread from Wiole Rose Quilt Shop in Orting and Two Spools from Quilted Strait. Spools? Woot! One of the S's really likes spools. She made this block as a test to see if she wanted it into make a whole quilt. I think she decided to add it to the "maybe" list. Will we see a whole quilt made out of this pattern here soon? Maybe. Wait and see. In the meantime here is another addition to the 2011 shop hop quilt.We are making progress slowly. But hey; the turtle won the race, right?

Sewing Machine Block from Fabric-Etc
It only seems right to add a sewing machine to the quilt when you have spools of thread.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the "thread" is the same as one of the spool blocks and we're sewing up a triangle of this year's theme fabric.

A variation on Cathedral Windows, from the Paisley Duck Quilt Shop

Circles, from the Aunt Mary's Quilt Shop. Technically, the top two are blocks made using the pattern. The last block is comprised of trimmings from one of those circles. I hate throwing away quilt stuff that might work into a new block...

Embroidered Lady from Heirloom Quilts

An intricate block from Country Carriage Quilts -- both the embroidery and the border. Check out those tiny half triangle squares! Included as part of the shop's kit was an iron-on and wash out pattern. It was certainly easier than tracing.

After that block, we thought we deserved a couple quick and easy ones so we did the mouse cushion and the clothes line with a tiny blue bird.

Clotheline created by Gathering Fabric and an adorable mouse pin cushion block from Keepsake Cottage.

Strawberries and Blossoms from Creative Quilter
At first this block simply didn't do it for me and I put it in the probably won't make pile. My brain couldn't wrap around blue strawberry blossoms.

Then inspiration struck and I only tossed the theme fabric. Engaging a bit of creative liberty, I replaced it with the white backgrounds with black chicken scratches and tiny red blowers. The block turned out adorable.

This block from The Quilt Nest may be my favorite. How can you go wrong with an old board barn and a couple chickens?

I wasn't sure about a wing on the hen since she was so cute but once the rooster had been all dressed up, she looked naked without one. We're tempted to add a little straw peeking out the barn's window and some blades of grass; however, other block beckon.

Lucky Cat (get real name) from Shibaro Dragon. This block's a lot of work but perfect for someone who enjoys anime.

An Asymmetrical Block from Rachel's Fine Fabrics
We found this block appealing so made two, using slightly different fabrics and the opposite twist.

Choosing a Setting

Amanda's Quilt -- A Beatiful and Simple Way to Use Up Those Scraps

Combine a snazzy border technique, some creative applique and oodles of already cut block and you can have a lovely quilt almost like this.

S has been making quilts for each person in her husband's family. This jewel is for a sister. She loves blues and deep, rich colors so we began by choosing a color pallet and then hitting the 3 1/2" square stash.

We started with a 16 x 16 block center. It was edged with a white and dark brown sawtooth strip. Each of the four corners start with 14 block and 2 triangles decreasing one block on each side per row. It is also edged with the sawtooth strip on its long side. S created the quilt's showpiece by designing a flowing, flowering vine that twists on and off the work. It even incorporates an initial.

Getting there. How about adding a bit more length and choosing borders?

To make the quilt a little longer, we added a strip of matching fabric. A small, dark colored border popped the center a bright outer border finished the quilt top. Since the back featured an oriental print (see below), we decided to also use one for the border and the length extention.

Things had gone alone quite smoothly, to this point but we were soon to face quite the challenge. S had planned to gift it at Christmas. We had an appointment to use the long arm the December 19th. Plenty of time! Or so a person would think. Something bad happened the evening before to the bobbin assembly and the other machine was taken. I took the offer of a later date and the suggestion that we prepare the binding in advance.

R and I returned on Christmas Eve and got busy. She quilted this one first, using a ferny leaves and flowers pattern. We thought it needed some curves to balance the square blocks.

The minute it came off the long arm, I sewed the binding in place and sat down to hand stitch the second side down while R and S quilted two other quilts, the firefly baby quilt and a Halloween lap quilt.

It was ready by morning. Merry Christmas, A!

Yo, Beach Babe!

A surprise quilt for a surprise baby!

The nursery is done in a Hawaiian beach (think Lilo and Stitch) theme so we made this quilt to match. The baby's name has been blurred to protect the her privacy.

Putting It All Together

We started with this sketch, done by one of the S's who also helped create the artwork in the nursery. Once we had an idea, we hit the fabric stash and pulled out colors that would complement the walls. We needed blues for the ocean, greens for the trees and bushes, something bright for a surboard, a few brilliant colors for the tropical flowers, white for the fluffy clouds and a shiny yellow for the sun.

Challenge accepted!

The ocean looks lovely doesn't it? We paper pieced the sea together in a fit of insanity. Do not do this the way we did! It was a bad plan. The curves were too long and too tight for the fabric to lay smoothly. I'd suggest needle turn or your favorite applique instead.

The sand was created using a stack and whack technique from Browsing the Web, found in "New Cuts for New Quilts," by Karla Alexander. After the blocks were stitched into a long strip, we top stitched the ocean to the sand and hid the seam with blanket stitching. If you look closely you can see blanket stitching on some of the waves.

Another lesson learned this quilt. Letter are difficult. I'd tried to applique cut out letters in italicized cursive writing -- also a bad plan. We ended up embroidering it in bullion knot which turned out great.

The flowers were a lot easier than they look.

R quilted to match the area. The trees are filled with a meander. The ocean has waves and the sky looks as if someone drew in the wind. She left the tree stems and flowers empty for extra dimension but quilting in close to them.

Those extra inches of palm fronds? We'll get a look at them later.

Here's a close up of the sky and trees. You can almost see the wind lifting the branches.

You can see the blanket stitch holding them down. We chose a variegated green floss and used two strands.

Remember the dangling palm fronts. Look below. We continued them onto the back.

All in all we're very happy with the way this little quilt turned out.