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.

Hands and More Hands

Your little boy is now 6'6" and his hands can palm a basketball. Remember back when those tiny hands were dwarfed by yours? This quilt remembers as well.

Almost done -- just needs the binding stitched down

A friend had a stack of 49-8" hand blocks from an online mommies' club. She asked if I could make them into a quilt.

"What size?"
"Not too big."

It could have been 7 x 7, but square quilts and rectangular beds aren't always a great fit. If I made it 6 x 8, I've have to leave a block out so opted to add some filler blocks. The filler blocks and the mommies' group blocks were arranged 7 x 8 grid, stripped with a dark blue batik.

Then I visited. My friend pointed to a blank spot on the wall as the future home for the quilt. It didn't take much spatial ability to see that my definition of not too big and that spot on the wall were dramatically different. Even a 7 x 7 grid pieced directly together would overwhelm the area.

So I thought a while, took the first quilt apart, bagged the squares and thought some more...and more. About 12 year later (yes, that little guy from the mommy group is off to college), I had a brain storm. How about a 5 x 5 reversible wall hanging. I could do that. Here's how it looks:

Quilt front (and fuzzy dotted jammie pants)

Quilt back