Rainbows and Dinosaurs

Here's a scrappy quilt; a perfect way to use up tons of those squares you cut from scraps in a moment or hour or week of craziness. My grandson and I began this quilt with a dig through those squares. He was three. He'd helped finish the quilt for his bunk. This one would be for his baby brother's bed in a couple years. His mom and I decided to make a could more rows, but arrange them in groups of two just so the two would be a bit different.

Quilting with small children poses its own set of problems and its own opportunities for joyful giggles. Attention span might be shorter and your little one may exhibit the "oh shiny!" syndrome. If your partner in sewing lives on the other side of the world, it can be even more of a challenge.

We began by sorting out colors from the 2 1/2 inch square bin and sending pictures of the target color back and forth via email. Rowan would makes suggestion as to which block should come next and which had to sit next to each other. Over a few weeks, we put together rows for most of the colors in the rainbow. These rows were sewn together and just waiting for me to find a good sash fabric. Turns out it was a good thing that it sat on the shelf a couple months.

The first sign of a problem sailed in with a shipping company's ship.  The companion quilt, also a rainbow quilt arrived in Sweden. It was made of 3 1/2 inch strips...so instead of a mere 27 blocks per row, we now needed 39. Sigh. It's a good thing that my seam ripper and I are buddies. Adding more blocks often meant taking bits and pieces apart to improve balance between prints and shades.

The quilt also needed a bit of  redesign to expand the width. As it was, the sash strips were about the same width as the rainbow strips. It lacked interest visually. After brainstorming, we decided to border each set of blocks with a matching border. That added enough with to use a 2-inch sash.

Falling Leaves

Was it an excuse to buy tons of colorful batiks? Maybe.
Was it an opportunity to experiment with colors? Sure.
Is it time to finish her high school graduation quilt? Definitely!

Follow along as we piece it together

The journey begins at the Evergreen Quilt Guild Annual Book Sale. I picked up a copy of Fons and Porter's Our Best Seasonal Quilts. The bunny quilt is really cute, the bee and flower garden quilt is on my someday list, but the Impressions of Fall wall hanging leaped off the page and directly into my imagination.

(Image coming as soon as it's quilted!)

Could we use this design, but make it into a queen sized quilt? L took on the task. She used her graphic design software to increase the block size, add more leaves twirl them into place and finally printed up a both colored and an unfilled patterns. Next step was to take out our stashed batiks.

The quilt has three main types of blocks: square, half-triangle square and stem block -- and a few more complex blocks where two colors of leaves overlap. [Add half-triangle square tutorial] The empty two spaces will be two colors leaf edges. Once arranged, I would carefully sew that section of quilt top into strips. It didn't take long to discover that this is not the perfect pattern for a person who can't easily determine rotations.

In addition to traditionally pieced, the points on the large leaves was paper pieces. You can see the three blocks at the point of this red leaf. Confession time...not all of these turned out quite so well. I published one that matched lines fairly well. Some were a bit less than perfect. We reminded ourselves that leaves so have serrations.

What colors shall we use for these leaves? We scattered fabrics across S's living room. The kitty was so excited but not a ton of help. We folded and arranged fabric piles into leaves. So we'd remember our design, we colored and labeled the pattern and the fabrics. Time to sew! The picture to the right shows a bit of quilt that hadn't been planned yet. I sent out this photo the the S's for input.

Eventually all 30 strips of 26 blocks were pieced together and the strips sewn into the inner quilt top.

The quilt was a bit small so we wanted the border to increase size as well as complement the pattern. For the inner border, we choose a narrow strip of gold print. We finished it with a leafy, 4 1/2" wide outer border

Oops!

I don't understand how we could have missed this mistake. While ironing the inner border, it leaped out at me. I sent out an emergency messages to the three S's, "Fix or leave?" The vote came back quickly:

✓ "I vote fix."
✓ "Fix it. That's terrible."
✓ "I think that might drive you bonkers if you leave it."

Four "rip it out and fix it" (that was my vote, too); zero "pretend you didn't notice." I fixed it. The fabric's pattern isn't all pointing the same direction now but that it definitely not such a blatant error.

The next stop is Trains in Tacoma where we'll put it on the long arm and do some quilting. We plan to use a washable wool batt. Watch for an update with our finished quilt. I'd estimate we'll schedule before mid April. How do you think we should quilt it?

Order Up! Fireflies with a Side of Scrap

My First Panel Quilt

In 2011, we hit the East Tennesee Quilt Shop Hop. As long as we were in the general area, I stopped by to visit a dear friend in Kentucky. It was June and the fireflies came out as the sun went down. I'd never been in the South during the summer and that particular insect isn't common in Washington state. One of the girls, in a very polite southern way, gently made fun of me and then caught a blinking, glowing bug for me to hold.

Fast forward to the 2014 Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. Although not a theme fabric, I spotted a baby quilt made with a panel from Wee Wander fabric collection. The pattern is available as a free download from Sarah Jane Studios. It reminded me of our pleasant time hanging out in the holler and I was wishing I had a baby who needed a special quilt.

What a coincidence! My friend from Kentucky announced a few weeks later that she was expecting her first grandbaby. As soon as I knew if we were creating a baby boy or baby girl gift, we got right on it.

We invite you to follow along:

We started with this panel -- the one I fell in love with when I saw it at The Quilting Loft in Ballard. I didn't buy it then because, well you quilters know how a stash can accumulate... When I wanted to get it, it was gone. Although this fabric line had completely sold out in the greater Seattle area, we found it online. Whew!

I've already added a pink feathered border. Now it's time to come up with matching fabrics to complete the scrappy borders and the friendship blocks. Wish us luck!

In a scrap quilt, half the fun might be looking through those hoarded and already-cut-to-size squares for the perfect color path. This year, the process was even more interesting because we had a small and enthusiastic helper. These are his choices from the bin. I may have added and subtracted a few blocks of my own.

Next came sewing the half-triangle squares for the friendship blocks.Since the squares needed to be 2 1/2", I started with slightly larger than 3" squares, marked the diagonals and sewed a scant 1/4" seam each side of the mark. I cut on the mark and pressed each set open. Finally I trimmed each square to size. Quite the scrap pile for such a small pile of finished pieces, isn't it?

Because this precious grandbaby is a girl (and yes, I sometimes fall victim to gender stereotyping), we choose to use more pink and coral and less blue and green. A little arranging, a bit of sewing, a touch of the iron and we have a finished block. This batch of friendship squares is enough to make more than one firefly quilt. Wonder if another baby might need one...

Arranging and piecing the border

And finally, a look at the quilting. This was S's first time on the long arm. With a bit of encouragement and lots of shared laughter, I think she did a great job.

Mailed off to Miss Sweetness the first part of January accompanied by Eric Carle's "The Very Lonely Firefly."

Curvaceous Cabins - Bendable Quilts

A few years ago I attended a Peggy Barkleys workshop, Curvaceous Cabins. It was based on her book, Bendable Quilts. Workshop allow you to learn new techniques while chatting and laughing with friends. Certainly that's a win/win situation. This one was more -- I came home with a fail-proof technique to use up those leftover 1/4 yards and less hunks.

First step was to pick out a light and dark color pallet. The blocks began as typical log cabins, but were trimmed asymetrically after each round. Sounds a bit absurd but results in a sliced block with no overlapping seams. I laid my cutting guide over a block so you could see how some strips are 1" and others are 1 1/2".



I ended up with six dark blocks and six light ones. Now for the fun! Stack a dark block on a light one and free hand cut from diagonally from corner to corner. I tried to miss the center blocks to reduce bulk when I sewed the pieces back together. Now I have 12 blocks to arrange into a lap quilt. We put together 4 layouts and invite you to help me decide which to use (or suggest one of your own).

Cheese and Crackers, Anyone?

I've had a soft spot for 30's fabrics since I was a kid. They populated my Gram's fabric stash. Only difference between those and the ones you find in the stores now -- hers were the originals.

Fast forward a couple decades and to a quilt guild rummage sale. I found a "Cheese and Crackers" pattern featuring 30s fabrics. I kept my eyes open and collected enough for a quilt. Every now and then I would open the box, cut a few strips, sew a few seams. Last month I decided that I had enough for a nice sized quilt. Actually I had enough for a nice sized quilt and a twin.

The pattern has a single primary block separated by white spaces. In one row, it sets horizontally; the next it's aligned vertically.

Using the 30s fabric and a unbleached background resulted in a relaxing quilt. I imagine you could take another style of fabrics and a dynamic background and the quilt would jump up and down, attracting attention.

(I'll be updating with finished pictures of both the queen and the twin sized versions.)

Quick and Easy Baby Quilt

Are you looking for an easy, almost fail proof quilt you can make up in an afternoon? I stumbled onto one in the back room of a small town quilt shop. During the East Tennessee shop hop, I was introduced to an intriguing cutting guide. It made pinwheel patterns from 9 patches. Although it wastes a bit of fabric, it significantly cuts down on matching seams. The end product looks more complicated than the actual process.



I chose a variety pack of dotted batiks, using a leftover muted background. An abstract butterfly pattern hooks the blocks together. It's machine quilted on my sewing machine. Overall, it's a quick and easy baby quilt.

Crazy Patch Quilt for a Baby Girl

S loves crazy patchwork so what better choice for a baby quilt for a friend. Instead of an overall patchwork pattern, we chose to make and piece together blocks. As a child, this friend loved strawberry shortcake. We happened to have a piece in our stash and it became the back.

Gram's Pinwheel Quilt

Gram never was particularly tall and as she got older, she became even shorter. Most quilts were too long and bunglesome for comfort. Her eyesight was also going so I put together a bright, pinwheel pattern, lap quilt so it would be easier to pull up or kick off.

I tied it for extra texture.

Here it is at the design stage, laid out on the floor. If you look closely you'll notice my dyslexia. Some of the blocks spiral clockwise and others counter clockwise.

When Gram passed away, the quilt came to one of the younger girls. Here's how it looks today after many more years of love.