Noah's Ark Medallion - finished!

A quilt of my own design - finished for a very special baby boy!

I've had this fabric for 16 years, ever since our only craft store closed. It is a line by Debbie Mumm, called "All Aboard the Ark". I never found a pattern I liked to use the fabric. Finally, two years ago, when my niece first announced she was pregnant after several years of trying, I pulled out the fabric and got started.

It got put aside when the baby was born, and it was a little girl, Eloise. I made this instead, from scraps of fabric and lace used to make her mother clothes by my mother.

Then, surprise!  Just 9 months later, my niece was pregnant again (that seems to happen often).  Lachlin was born just 16 months after his sister.

I made the backing using scraps, with a label bordered by tiny "waves"! (sorry it's sideways, but my photoediting software is kaput)

I quilted with wavy lines, and a scallop stitch on my machine (again, to replicate waves). I just love the texture!

I got stumped on how to fill the corners, but when this design was issued as part of "The Splendid Sampler" series, it didn't take me long to finish it.

I finished it off with a flanged binding, my favourite way to finish a baby quilt!

Welcome to the world, Lachlin - you are very much loved and wanted!

Linking up with "Let's Make Baby Quilts" at Michelle's Romantic Triangle

Finally back at the machine! Sunday Stash Report, Week 15!

Wow, it's been 10 weeks since I've been able to post a report!  The move is mostly done, still some totes to go through but I've been able to make a path in my new sewing room and do some sewing.  

My brother and his wife are finally grandparents, so I had to make a quilt for my grand-niece!  Little Eloise is finally here, and this weekend my daughter flew to Calgary to meet her so I had to finish off this quilt for her!

(I wish the picture was better, but it was late at night.)  The quilt police will have a field day but it is made with a mix of poly-cottons and laces and trim from my mother's sewing room, and these are scraps from the dresses and clothes my mom made all her granddaughters.  I backed it with minkee, which is another synthetic material, so it probably be quite durable and hardy for a baby.  I don't care what the "pros" say, the sentimental value of this little quilt is all that matters.

We great-aunties and gramma-friends are all referred to as Gramma ____ (name), so of course I had to use that name when signing the label, with a homage to my mom.  My daughter will explain it to my niece when she gets it to her.

(Still too yellow of a picture, but shows the laces and trim better)

I practiced my barely-adequate free-motion quilting skills and did a meander with a flower loop-de-loop.  Some of them looked like butterflies!

This quilt is my own design and I think I'm going to make a larger version as a summer quilt (maybe for me).

On to the stash report, still no purchases!

Added: 0 metres

Added Year to Date: 0 metres  

 

Used/Given away: 3.25 metres

 Used/Given away Year to Date: 15.25 metres

 

Added for 2015: -15.25 metres

Tomorrow, more work in the new Quilt Cave! Here's some gratuitous kidlet pictures! 

Mya, (5 1/2 months) on her first Easter, 

Zoey, (4 in June) and Alex (6 1/2) enjoying the first marshmallows of the year!

Linking with Judy's Stash Report at www.patchworktimes.com and Michelle's Let's Make Baby Quilts. 

I'm back! Sunday Stash Report, Week 40

I took an unplanned blogging break - after vowing to post for 30 days straight.  I have been struggling with my depression again, and I thought by setting a goal would help motivate me - instead it seemed to "freeze" me.  

 

I have been doing a small amount of sewing - primarily to get some much-needed baby projects done for my niece and my daughter.  And now, another niece has announced her much-wanted first pregnancy.  That's the third niece this year!

 

The only fabric added since my last report almost three months ago was project-specific, bought by my sister and right back out so I haven't counted it. 

 

Added since my last report: 0 metres

Added Year to Date: 64.1 metres 

 

Destashed since my last report: 3.35 metres

 Destashed year to Date: 27 metres

 Added for 2014: 35.75 metres

 

Total spent  YTD $294.20 = $4.59/metre

 

First up, I finished this quilt for my niece's baby due in November.  It's my own design, I call it "Modern Rail Fence". Once things simmer down around here, I want to develop a pattern/tutorial for it.  I first wrote about it here.

 

 

I quilted it with alternating organic straight lines in pink and wavy lines in purple, which really didn't show up much but that's okay!

 

 

She also asked me to make a car seat cover - I made it rag quilt style and backed with the leftover minkee from the quilt.

 

 

I made a burp cloth with the leftovers so that I didn't add to the ever-growing scraps.

 

 

And while I was at it, I made a new car seat cover for my daughter - her baby girl is due in just a few days!

 

 

I'm almost finished her quilt top, then on to quilting it so hopefully next week, I'll have a big finish!

Linking to Judy's Stash Report and Michelle's Let Make Baby Quilts

A experiment in low volume

My kids came over Saturday for dinner and to celebrate my and my daughter's birthdays.  The little ones had fun playing with the boxes and wrapping.

 

It was fun to see them dressed almost alike - unintentionally since my two daughters didn't check with each other.  What a sassy look on Zoey's face!

 

 

 

This is a much more typical look!  It's hard to believe she'll be two in June.

 

The next afternoon I spent cutting out some spring and summer outfits her.  I mostly used poly/cottons, some which dated back to when her mother was a baby!  Pink rosebuds, gingham and eyelet are timeless.

 

 

I dug through a bin of fabrics to find these - they had been put aside because they weren't quilting cottons.  I also found scraps from some of the clothes I sewed for my girls when they were little.  I decided it was time to bust those scraps!

 

 

I cut them into strips and squares of 2 1/2", 2" and 1 1/2".  Then I just started sewing them together in pairs, regardless of width of the strip.

 

 

Then I cut the paired strips cross-wise at 2 1/2", 4 1/2" and 6 1/2".  I did end up with a few at 3 1/2"  so I've thrown them in the mix too. Even though there were some purples and a bit of pale green in the stash, I only pulled the pink, blue and white fabrics for now, to attempt to have a bit of cohesiveness.

 

 

At first I was going to piece them into 6 1/2" blocks, but I changed the plan part-way through.

 

 

I've pieced the various pieces together to a consistent width of 6 1/2" and I plan to sew them together in 6 panels of about 45" long. 

 

 

That should get me a cute baby girl quilt measuring 36" x 45", perfect for a stroller or playmat. Since it is made of poly/cottons, it will probably wash up easily and doesn't have to be treated as an heirloom.   I think I have enough strips to make two or three of these! 

 

If it works, I hope to make a more detailed tutorial.  And hopefully get better pictures that aren't taken late at night, on a really gross ironing board cover ;o)

 

 

 

 

Making Baby Quilts

You'll notice on my sidebar I have a section called "Quilt-alongs - My Best Motivator".  For the most part, this works for me to stay on track with a project.  I have either finished or am very close to finish every one of those shown - but until today, I have never participated in Michelle's "Let's Make Baby Quilts"!

 

Lucky for me, her 'rules' are pretty relaxed - all I have to do is write a post (or share an old one) about something related to baby quilts.  Since my daughters and their friends are currently in the baby-making stage and my friends are becoming grammas, it doesn't hurt for me to have stash of finished quilts on hand.  I'm going to start by sharing one I made last summer,

 

 

for this little cutie! 

 

Brayden is the grandson of one of my best friends, with a wonderful story of how he came to be in her life.  His mother was given up for adoption by my friend (in the days of closed adoptions), and after several years of searching they reconnected, in time for my friend to be at her daughter's wedding and ultimately become Gramma! 

 

The design is my own, made from the leftovers of this:

 

 

and this:

 

 

 

Made from fat 1/8's, charm squares and a layer cake.  Baby quilts are a great way to use up the scraps.

 

 

 

Because of the way this quilt is constructed (pattern at the bottom of Melissa's Happy Quilting page here), I was left with a bunch of half-triangles that I could make into half-square triangles (HST) that were 5". 

 

 

 

I had enough to make 4 pinwheel blocks, measuring 9 1/2" square.  I cut my remaining layer cake pieces in half, so I had a rectangle that measured 5" x 10".  I started my design by placing the large pinwheels on my design wall, then filling in the spaces with the rectangles, and finally finishing with leftover charm squares, a couple of HSTs, and finally the smaller rectangles.

 

 

I quilted it with stitch-in-the-ditch quilting because I only had two days to make this from start to finish.  I backed it with Minkee, and turned it to the front for a simple binding.  It is plenty warm and about 40" square, perfect for a little boy who is living in the North-West Territories (akin to living in central Alaska!).

 

One more gratuitous baby shot:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UFO/WIP Review #1 and another Linky Party

In order to determine what I'm going to work on this year, I decided I need to do a thorough review of everything I have.  I actually started this project in August, but got tied up my Christmas sewing and it fell by the wayside.  So each day this month, I'm going to pull out one project, make a decision, document the next step and file it in the project box.

I also found another Linky Party that I'm going to join (I must stop surfing...)



Let's Make Baby Quilts!

hosted by Michelle of http://mychellem.blogspot.ca/, she has a lofty goal of finishing 50+ baby quilts this year.  Every Friday, we share our progress, or a tutorial or even a finished project.  Since I have at least 6 baby quilts in progress or planned this year, count me in!

In the spirit of the Linky Party, my first UFO/WIP review is one of my favourites that has been on hold since last summer. 
 

 Pastel Twister

 

I've added one more row since this picture was taken.  I'm loving how it is turning out.

 

 

It started out as a pre-sewn Moda fabric panel (Lilac Hill I think) made up of cottons and wovens.  I bought it about 3-4 years ago but never got around to doing anything with it.  Once I saw the Twister tools, I knew exactly how to finish it...cut it up! 

 

 

 

One of the things I don't like about these pre-sewn fabric panels is how the seams are done.  They are serged, topstitched and the seams don't match.  At the time I bought it, I thought I would just tie-quilt it and be done.  But it was just too pretty so I set it aside.

 

 

I bought the small twister tool, which was too large for these weird-sized squares, so with a little tape, cardboard with new lines drawn on it and some practice cuts, I made a smaller one that would work. 

 

 

To keep my blocks organized, I marked my Fons & Porter pins with numbers and marked each block as I cut it.

 

I sew the row together before I cut the next row, and add the rows together as I sew as well.

 

 

I have 3 rows sewn together, only 10-11 to go for a crib-size quilt! (Pardon the colours, most of my pictures get taken late at night!)  This one is slated to get completed in February, unless I get my January projects finished early. It will start my pile of quilts to have on hand for gifting.