Hashtag Quilt

I got the patterns for a few simple quilts done by Camille Roskelly and decided that this one would be a great place to start. The design uses 2.5 inch "jelly roll" from any line and I chose a cute little old fashioned line by Moda called Chloe's Closet.  Reminds me of my Grandma Kelly, or her kitchen, or something there about.

I had some white on white floralesque fabric that I thought would set it off well and so "a cutting we went." A lot of 2.5 inch strips (which a jelly roll comes prepped for) and 7 - 9.5 inch lengths cut then it was all ready to sew.

All sewn together with 2.5 inch white borders and then a 5 inch floral all the way around.

 A little machine embroidery for the inscription on the back of the quilt with a little information sets it off well.

 I took the quilt into my standard long arm quilter Jenny at Finally Finished Quilts. We decided with the playful geometrics and 1930's style floral fabrics, a nice little flower quilted all over the quilt would compliment it well.  Turned out just right.

Keeping me warm while watching a little television in our outdoor living room. This is the best place to be.

Independence Day Quilt

 I started this quilt last year a month or so before the 4th of July. I quit working on it after I didn't get it finished, in leu (is that how I should spell it?) lieu (thanks to my niece Megan for helping me be a little more literate) of finishing the next projects on my so called table.

Then this year there was a big wedding in our lives, and life got in the way of getting back to the quilt in time to finish it for the celebration of our Country.

I bought the pattern at a cute quilt store in Livermore, CA and it is by Verna Mosquera at "The Vintage Spool." Called Faded Glory if you want to look at her things.

 The pattern calls for hand stitching all the appliqués on by hand, and I had completed a few of them last year, but I decided I didn't need to take the time and effort to do them this way now.  I used iron-on backing on each individual piece and then machine stitched each design with a blind hem stitch or a satin stitch when I thought it would look best. This quilt is not going to be going through wash even once per year, so it'll hold up just fine with the iron on. There are 12 main designs and I think they are so cute that I'll probably make a few pillows or table runners out of some of the patterns eventually.

 The design above is Uncle Sam's hat with a bouquet of flowers in it. A few of the flowers are just cut outs of fabric flowers in a particular piece of fabric. This method of piecing is called Broderie Perse and is basically just fussy cutting a section of fabric that you want to place onto another fabric for a pretty addition to the quilt. You can see the red/pink flowers above are not pieced with stamens and petals, but  cut all in one already printed flower. Apparently they used to do this with Persian or English chintz fabrics for a specific look.

 The firecracker above had bugle beads hand sewn on for the burst of fire on the end. Very cute, if I do say so.

 Same on this wagon full of firecrackers. The blue and red sparklers are beaded.

Another technique I've used on the quilt is my own idea of using my cool embroidery machine to make a couple of sectioned flowers, cutting them out and then sewing them together. Nice new type of embroidery I've never tried before.

The whole thing turned out very well, even if it is the middle of August.

Better luck on my Thanksgiving quilt?

Another Charlotte

The Hubby took me on a ride last year and we stopped by a cool quilt shop in Livermore. (CA)
While there he said that I should make a small quilt for each holiday and hang it in our family room on the tall wall adjacent to the shorter kitchen ceiling.
I thought, "Sure, now you are adding to my to do list that is already a couple miles long." But I didn't think it was a bad idea, so I stashed it in the back of my mind. My home isn't the type that would lend itself to hanging quilts on walls, but I do make my share of different kinds of quilts, and although I don't want a country or farm house decor, the small quilt off by itself will probably work.
So this October I finished my first small holiday quilt.

*I already have one that my sis made me for Christmas, so now I've got 2.

Here is a picture of the quilt in the making. I first made a stop sign shaped black center and then started adding strips or a different black fabric all the way around. Choosing several patterns of black fabric I continued more rows outward until the desired octagonal size was achieved.  I used silver thread to quilt it to a backing and batting creating the web.

Now time to make spiders. A bunch of bright halloweeny colored circles were cut and I made yo-yo's of various sizes out of them. I used
2 circles that were 7 inches in diameter,
2 - 10 inches and
1 - 15 inch yoyo.
These fold gather to approximately half of the original size of circle.

The legs were made from narrow ⅜ inch ribbon. Take a 8 - 14 inch piece of ribbon and fold it in half, then fold one side over the other at the fold. Now take the ribbon on the bottom and fold it crosswise over the top, fairly tight to the first ribbon. Now that 1st ribbon is on the bottom so you fold it over to the top. Holding the ribbon so the top is the center and newly folded ribbon, continue folding the ribbons alternating them back and forth over the center. Pin together the two ends when they are too short to go on further.  Continue, making 8 legs for each spider.

Then I glued these legs onto the fabric under where the spiders would be sewn.
I put googly eyes on each spider. (don't look close, this was a sloppy glue affair) Large and medium eyes make for some interest.
The small spiders are just small yoyo's with colored cotton string for legs.

 Walla! My Halloween quilt. Up high on the wall that stops where the kitchen ceiling begins.
Not too scary, but still October 31ish.

"I Love You - You Love Me"

No, I haven't reverted to watching reruns of the big purple dinosaur, but Barney just popped into my head. Sometimes the 80's does that.

This is totally off subject for what I am intending to write about, but I always say "I missed the 80's."

This because I was making babies, and cleaning up after them, and training them to clean up after themselves, and singing children's songs with them, and reading nursery rhymes, and mending broken toys, as well as skinned up knees, etc., etc. I was also working as a nurse at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, OR several days a week, and fixing up a new home, learning mothering skills from my awesome neighbors, and sometimes The Hubby and I each had 3 church callings at once. You know the drill.

Although I was too busy to follow fashion very closely. I do remember trends such as John's seminary student Rod Mc??? (McKenzie - just found him on FB)  wearing skinny ties to high school and poofy hair on Melanie Allen and Marjorie Jensen(and me too I guess) to boot. I was too busy listening to children's music to become real familiar with the "Village People" or any other pop culture.
When an invitation for a wedding in the early 90's came and I did not have a clue about the motions to the "YMCA" song. I thought, "Where have I been."  It is pretty funny looking back on it now, but my interests and time were being spent where they should be, so I didn't worry about it much.
I don't think my Young Women at church thought I was out of touch at all. In fact I think they would be surprised that I had no clue about the songs they were listening too or the movies they were seeing. They just related to me anyway, because I was a young cool mom and it really didn't matter. Life was a bit slower because of technology, so I wonder if I would have taken time for Facebook or Pinterest if I could have back then. Maybe, but then again maybe not. It wouldn't have allowed time to wallpaper bathrooms, make bedspreads and curtains for my children's rooms, take long walks with children riding on their "Big Wheels" and cook nutritious dinners. So who will ever know?

Now …. Off rant about the 80's.

What this post is supposed to be about is how supportive The Hubby is of me.

Yesterday I told him I had wanted to go to a Quilt show in Livermore that occurs each September. Last year I couldn't go and I think I just found out about it the year before, but it is held at a long established plant nursery which is located in a beautiful grove of native huge Live Oak trees called Alden Lane Nursery.

Yesterday wasn't an ideal day for us to attend, because I was doing RS visits in the late morning after a Stake choir practice, and The Hubby was supposed to attend a Priesthood meeting in the afternoon (that had been changed the previous week to include him and all men.) Well I gave him an excuse to come with me because I didn't want to go alone and he obliged.

I suppose I go to some things most wives don't want to go to. I attend guy movies, games, etc. But I really do enjoy those things and I'm not sure I should expect him to enjoy "my" things the same way.

(I USE TOO MANY QUOTATION MARKS IN MY WRITING) ( ALSO TOO MANY PARENTHESIS)

But, he doesn't complain and I appreciate having him along for these jaunts. What a good Hubby I have!
He even confided that it was honestly quite a pretty site all these colorful quilts hung up high into the trees.
Inspiring!?! Yes He is!

BeDazzled Hearts

When I was in GJC in February, I was fabric shopping (imaging that if you can) with my li'l sis and we found these cute heart panels to make into a quick wall decor quilt.

Mine is for Valentines Day and hers matches a bedroom in her home that needs a little something on a wall.
The fun part of this project was that we bought a heat tool for applying jewels to fabric and such. I never thought I'd have much use for such a hokey purchase,

 but it really does add a little needed sparkle to certain projects, and was pretty simple to use once I realized that all glued jewels are not created equal. Some 4mm jewels fit the metal heated tool designed for them and some 4mm's did not.

So I used a pin inserted into the provided slot on the tool to disengage the non fitters and went on my merry way.
I also tried out a new feature and attachment on my sewing machine (BSR - Bernina Stitch Regulator) to quilt free hand around all the flowers and hearts in the fabric. I was not so good at the movement of the fabric in the machine at first, but I got the hang of it by the end. No one is going to look that closely at the stitching anyway, right?
Hearts, Hearts, Hearts. (Can you tell I'm stalling on finishing up my Easter Sewing projects, in favor of non urgent posts.)

Last T-shirt Quilt?

In dropping off MM at college a couple weeks ago, I wondered if I had done a post about his dorm bed quilt.
.... can't see it so...
I made MM a t-shirt quilt, patterned after the ones that I had made for his 2 sisters. He can use it on his twin beds the next few years, and then afterwards I suppose it can be used for a lawn/picnic quilt or whatever he wants.
I take t-shirts that he has worn over the years and it makes up into a sort of memory quilt.

I first cut a rough 12 square of fabric from each t-shirt and then iron on fusible web for stability. That way the stretch associated with cotton knit is kept in check.
I like the look of setting the squares "on point" because there then is a "top" and "bottom" to the quilt. The writing on the t-shirt squares then is easy to read without standing on your head.
On point means that you place the 12" quilt square in a diamond type position so that the whole quilt is diagonal instead of perpendicular/parallel.
I also have to make 1/2 squares to go all around the edges of the quilt.

I picked out some fairly masculine cotton fabrics to sew between all the squares. They are 2 inch strips and squares and I sewed them in lines as I figured out where each square should be on the quilt.

Then I made a border all the way around the quilt as well as a slightly larger cotton back.

I gave this to MM when he graduated in June. I sent it to my long arm quilting lady "Finally Finished" in Saratoga for her to finish.

And here he is sitting on his new dorm bed that hopefully reminds him of a great childhood and a mother who loves him.
Sleep tight!!

Quilt for Ells

I received my camera by Fed Ex from Colorado. The parents are still organized and on top of everything. Thanks!
I've had more than one camera problem in the past little while.  A couple of days before I left on my trip I inadvertently erased all the photos from the camera as I was trying to load them onto my computer. There were only 20 or 25 pictures, but a couple of blogs worth, that I'll have to either not do, or else I'll have to go back and take more pictures.

For now I'll just have to show a finished quilt that I made for Katz. All the pictures in progress are gone. This quilt is for her first babe as she transitions into a toddler bed and as her li'l sister takes over the crib in a few months.

Lots of 2.5 inch strips of black and white, separated by a ribbon of yellow. Easy and fun to do.

The back of the quilt has all three colors, using that word loosely, in little comma shapes.
After getting the top finished and cutting out the back, I took it to a long arm quilter in my area.
Finally Finished has done several quilts for me and I've always been happy with their work.

She even embroidered the granddaughters name on it, so perfectly.
I like it.