It's an Honorable Quilt

I knew my hand appliqued, hand quilted quilt probably didn't stand a chance amongst the "real" quilters...the ones very heavily and gorgeously machine quilted. I also figured that my quilt of little sentimental dresses had a limitted appeal - new mothers and grandmothers, little girls, etc. I still love it. Made from scraps from the nursery bedding, curtains and all of the many dresses and outfits I have made my daughter, Sophie, this is sentimental to me, and nothing looks better than a purple ribbon on it, even if that does not denote First Place. Many of the judged quilts didn't get anything. It was a great learning experience seeing what other good quilters did, and what was better or worse received by the judges. I expect to get their comments by mail later this week.
Here's the only full (or mostly full) picture I have. The lighting inside the Civic Center was, as expected, harsh. Now that the show is over though, I can take it outside for more pictures and not fear getting it dirty in the grass.

The show was absolutely wonderful for me. I tested every long arm machine that was there, including two APQS's, two MQ's, a Gammill (which was my favorite), and the Bernina820 on a frame. The Bernina is a totally kick ass sewing machine with a price tag to follow. That option just had NO quilting distance. The APQS's were jerkier, with the Lenni being slightly better. The MQ's were not bad. But I could have taken home the Gammill. Now I must look into finances here, and conjure up my best proposition to my husband for how I can make this a lucritive purchase long term. Might be a tough sale, but he knows I wear the pants in this house :-) If not for the fact that I have been begging for a kitchen/downstairs remodel for ages, and he needs a new car...

I picked up these small pieces yesterday too...Sophie's been on an orange kick so they may be used to do somethig for her.

Here is a slideshow of some of my favorites from the Quilt Show...

View slideshow

And come August 1, when Flickr will allow me to upload again, I'll show a set of detailed pictures of this finished quilt.

Progress on the little things

1. Row Robin Swap - Here's my row for Lori. She sent me this as her first row. It has flappy 3D geese and pinwheels. I'm not really sure how she's going to quilt it, but that's not my problem to figure out. She wants rows that are blue, yellow and white, with a clean feeling and/or some movement. I used mostly all batiks, since she had also used batiks. I designed this ebb-flow ocean wave design using EQ6. I hope she likes it because the paper piecing took about 5-6 hours for this 48" row!

2. Here's one of my April birthday block swap offerings. Cheryl wants this diamond pattern with Asian prints - I had quite a few on hand to play with!

I still have another April block to do for the bday swap, and it is a vacation themed block. I have this one in the planning stages, but no further. It will be about my favorite place on earth (Paris!).

3. Progress on those pesky little bows...12 of 16 are hand sewn on. They are very cute. And then I must go back and confirm that I have in fact completed the quilting in all areas.

4. SFRR3 - a sneek peek at my 1st border...a little hand work and a little curved piecing.

Now, I am nearly free to start on something new (once that PP mess is cleaned up downstairs).

Week Ending Update

Aside from buying 20 fat quarters and nearly 6 yards of fabric at 50% off, this week has been mostly about work. Yuk! My college class was of a demanding nature this week - too much prep for it, nearly 1-2 hours daily, which was eating into my sewing time. Fortunately, the next 5 weeks ought to be smooth sailing until those little cherubs take their final.

I have been kind of saying that I did not want to make more flimsies until I quilt & finish the ones I have made. This is largely because i have a couple quilts in mind to make, but refust to start one in good conscience while many are unfinished. As we all know I have the attention span of a flea or a gnat, and a couple days in the last 2 weeks, I decided I wanted to slim down my strip box & my stash of ridiculous novelties (most of which was passed on to me at Linus functions). So, I pulled some outlandish Japanese novelties (look closely!) and my all-width strips and went to town.

The next day I decided I wanted to do the same thing. I kind of failed that task since I pulled stash fabrics and actually cut the strips for my "Nothing Runs Like a Deere" quilt. OK, it's good at using novelty stash tractor FQ's that I had, and a few other materials that were not my favorite. But my strip box is an overflowing MESS still! I'm sure some little boy will love this (assuming I can get it out of the clenches of my kids long enough to quilt it!)

Finished quilts...

This one is finished, but pictures are over here onthe SFRR3 blog...

I also finished off this top, which I just love in red & purple. I didn't photograph it. I found a piece of lofty poly-bat that I am very happy to get rid of. Since the polybat is a pain to MQ, I just tied this one and added a scrappy red binding. It will work just fine for a Linus donation.

Here are three more that have been finished up (machine quilted & bound) within the last few weeks. The right one is the broken heart blocks from the birthday block swap, while the others were shown as flimsies a few weeks ago.

My 2009 count for Project Linus quilts to donate is up to 17 finished!

In the evenings, most days I find a little hand quilting time. I am trying desperately to finish Sophie's quilt before it's too warm to have it on my lap. The quilting is sooooo close to being done.

I have made 16 little bows that I will hand stitch onto the tops of the swags. This is the region of the quilt that hangs down the bed so it shouldn't get abused too much if she's on the quilt. They are out of the striped (& slightly irridescent) Lakehouse Dry goods fabric I had hoped to use on the binding. Since the binding will have to be bias cut (I am scalloping the edge, despite swearing to never do this again!!), I decided I didn't have quite enough. I have sadly been unable to find the print anywhere! So, on Tuesday's mega sale, I got 3/4 yard of a Kauffman Fusions that appears to match well. I'll know for sure when it arrives next week.

...a little intertwined rope quilting at the top of her name (very top of quilt)

...the corners with spiral stars

The last bit of hand quilting I am doing is outlining all of the yellow ribbons. It's about half done now, and I hope to finish this during the next week. I'm ready to bind!!

Lastly, I have been mulling over what I may do for my 1st border on my SFRR3 center. I can't tell you which block I have, but I can say I have been considering doing a traditional pickles & rings border (like you'd see on a wedding-ring quilt).

Have a great & productive weekend-

Friday!!

It is Friday, and unlike most who long for Friday, I am feeling a little bittersweet. My boys have been at their Nana's the last 2 days, which has made my life shear bliss! They are returning tomorrow, and so is my chaos and noise. It should return to normal on Monday, as my older son's winter vacation is over, and he and I go back to school/work.

Here's a monthly update on the hand quilting of Sophie's quilt. At just about 5 weeks from starting, I am now working the quilt's borders. I am doing a somewhat wavy floral pattern in that green stripe. In retrospect, it might not have been the best choice, as because of the fabric's print, the quilting is not overly obvious. I have done 11 of the 15 sections with this quilt pattern. It takes about an hour, so I rarely do more than one section in an evening.
The corners have little flowers. I also tested a quilt pattern yesterday for which I made a few templates - for the inner area of these swags. It's overlapping 'leaves", intended to look somewhat like a half of a dahlia. And of course, both sides of that hot pink stripe are stitched as well.

Enough on that...

Here's my 9th Linus blanket for the year. I had a bunch of half pieced strips and squares leftover from a baby quilt I didn't actually make a few years ago. I pieced them into a number of blocks, and then added some other coordinating fabrics. It's kind of a piece-meal quilt. Has a couple rows of piano keys, a row of this, a row of that, etc.

The backing fabric was given to me a couple years ago, and I thought it coordinated nicely. I quilted diagonal rows of hearts and flowers into the solid squares, and stippled most everywhere else.

My sweetest little one really wanted it for her beloved naked baby (darndest girl just doesn't want that baby to be clothed!!). She did finally settle for holding the quilt for a picture.

I have a long awaited Valentine's date tomorrow. Can't remember when I last had a date. Romance is hard to come by when you live with my wild and time-demanding brewd. Hubby is taking me to a nice Italian restaurant in the Big City (AKA Portland), and if times coordinate we'll see a matinee movie beforehand (I can't stay awake for a movie after!!). Little does he know, since the movie is using some free passes he has, I plan to just have a nice 2-hour nap!!

I was busy the latter part of this week, despite having a cold. I have another Linus top quilted, learned a ton about needles (thanks, ya'll!), and thread breakage, learned a few new dirty words too that I like to use when this happens. I pieced the top for a spring table runner for myself. It's simple, and is a good example of when perception and reality don't entirely match up. More about this at another date. I made my label for my 4SQS5 piece, and hope to mail this in the near future. I also (phew, as if that's not enough for a sickly gal) cut out the upper part of an Easter dress for Sophie, and partly pieced it together. I didn't have the zipper until today so I couldn't get too far.

Have a great weekend-

Short for Things to post on

...But not for a shortage of sewing actually accomplished.

Last weekend I sandwiched and basted this quilt top. It took about 6 hours just to baste it. I ought to show you the raw fingers I have. One actually has a hole in it! Anyhow, I have been hand quilting away for a week solid. Ond day last week I just had to have a break, and I went to my sewing hole to use the machine. I cannot show those blocks until February though.
So, in a week's time I have done much of the quilting of this "top" (the part on the bed...39" x 72") - 14 of the 15 dress blocks to be exact. I am ditch stitching each dress, and then again 3 more times to border the block borders. Then there is a floral pattern quilted into the ivory part of the dress blocks and the sashings. I need to find a better way to photograph them, because flat on my hallway floor is clearly not working.

I am planning on avoiding quilting the bows becasue they are all seam, and putting a small rose colored button in the center.

Soon enough I will be determining the quilting scheme for the borders. Not to rush though...

Here's a peek at the back of the quilt. OK, darn blogger just put my pictures out of order, so poo! This text is pieced into the back. Ha... had to have a little fun :-)

and here is the back. Not to boring, not too interesting.

Happy Little Dresses!

After about 20 hours of cutting, piecing (picking out), designing and sewing, Sophie's quilt flimsy is nearly complete. I am toying with adding applique flowers along the top of the swag (in the sage green area), but I am not sold on this just yet. The area with her name is designed to go over the pillow when the bed is made (at what age will a kid actually make the bed??).

I changed my plan and added that bright pink border before the swag. It coordinates wonderfully with the Lakehouse stripe border around the dress blocks (which I am tentatively planning for the binding too). Plus, there is a rug in Sophie's bedroom that has sage and pink stripes and looks very similar to how I did the quilt. I hope to get a couple pictures tomorrow of it in the room - It looks absolutely fantastic!!

Still in the quilting trenches

Within a matter of a couple days, my nearly completed (I say "nearly" because it still has some finishing applique to do) Little Dresses quilt should be finished. It needs the last 2 borders, but I discovered that one of the fabrics (a pink) had not been washed yet. Rather than chance that the hot pink would bleed all over the ivory Egyptian cotton, I decided to halt production for the day.

So what has 48 3"x2.375" blocks, 96 2.375"x2.375" squares, 64 2.75" squares, 64 2.375" x 3" rectangles, and 32 rather odd shaped trapezoids??

The last border going on my quilt. There are easier ways to make scrappy swagged border, but that was my approach. Hold on a day or two and I will post completed pictures! And oddly, making the last 10 paper pieced little bows went off well (and I have about a postage stamp of that green and yellow left!).

Happy Turkey Day!

3 of 5 rows added on. You get the idea, now go eat some turkey!

Little Dresses Update

This picture looks cruddy, I know. I had to have taken 30 yesterday in my hallway, under not the greatest lighting. That obnoctious alphabet mat needs to go for sure! Once I get it together, I can pin it to my board and get better pics without my shadows in the way! Or better yet...show it in the bedroom where it will eventually live.


Things have progressed well in the last week. My order of more stripey fabric came yesterday. All of the squares but the one remaining are bordered, and I have enough should I use it for the binding.

(double click for a better look)

Fourteen of Fifteen done, mostly. One needs to have the paper removed and possibly change the velvet sash to a smaller width (below).

Here's another of my recently done dresses. This pink fabric is in some of the stuff in the room already. Lisa sent me some great fabrics this week. one of the soft aquas will be used for the last dress block. IT's just the color I was hunting too!

I have gone nuts over these silly little bows, nearly ditching them altogether. If you remember, I started out with pink bows, and had done 4 or 5 when I discovered the pink stripe fabric (and that I did not like the bows with the stripes!). They are a wasteful pain in the butt to make. It takes about 45 minutes to make 2 bows. Paper piecing...(UGGH!)
Then, with the aid of Photoshop, I manipulated the colors of the bows a bit, and discovered that green ones were more attractive. I also realized I had done the central fabric incorrectly, and it needed to be the floral of the ribbon, rather than the ivory. I had that green floral (Moda Blackbird) material to do a skirt or dress for Sophie and had not gotten around to making it yet. It matches the quilt nicely. It will appear again in the borders somehow too!

Only, I found one more error in my PP planning (curses!!...fortunately I decided to just make ONE green bow to see if I liked it first). I made a modification to the PP pattern so that the floral "ribbon" will mate up properly, and now have 9 of these made. I need a minimum of 10. Ideally, if I could locate another half yard of the yellow floral (ribbon fabric), I'd do 20 of the bows. I have this material in Sophie's crib bumpers, but cannot bring myself as of yet to cut them up. The last go-around on the bows is definitely my favorite - they appear larger (fuller?).

So, the top is just about ready to be assembled. One block and one bow left, and a bit of manipulation of the sashings to make them have ribbon points (wait and see here)....not to mention rearranging the blocks a dozen times before sewing!

So, in 2 week's time, I have gone from this ...
to this...
Good improvements!

Stripes!!

OK, so I listened to you all, some of you that is. I have to admit, when I went to bed Wednesday night, I was pretty convinced that the green was best. It matched a rug that is in Sophie's room very well, and it was, well, calming.

In morning's light, I did another mockup of the green and the stripes, and was pretty sure that the stripes were best (even before I got positive reinforcement from readers). Sophie even picked the stripes. She's not to be trusted alone though as she is only two. My husband jokes that when I get this quilt completed, Sophie will be begging for Star Wars bedding just like her brothers do!

So, I had a half yard of this stripe material. I knew I needed more if I went the stripe route. It's actually a bit hard to find, although I do have another yard of it on order right now from equilter. I may use if on the binding and other room accents.

This closeup shows the glorious sheen of the material. It is truly lovely. And girly! I am waffling on using the paper-pieced bows at the cornerstones though. I don't like the rose material that the bows are done in with the stripes (plus they are just a PIA to make). I'm weighing some other ideas while I complete the last 3-4 of these dress blocks, and await the Lakehouse fabric to arrive. Maybe they need to be done in different material, or maybe they ought to just be ivory (easy) squares! Don't know yet. Oh, and there is a border still to design :-)...this is just what is on the top of the bed!

Need advice

I just love my dress blocks, and I even like the bow-n-ribbon sashing. But what I am floundering on is whether I ought to do another narrower border (0.5") around every block to help unify them more. I think the answer is definitely yes. My quandry is which material to use.

I have some of this Lakehouse Dry Goods Hydrangae Garden ticking. It is a lovely stripe, with a bit of almost metallic/sheen in the pinks. I will do the stripes around all 4 sides of the blocks the same (probably even miter the corners), but for the sake of this mock-up, I just layed the dresses and sashings on the fabric.

My other fabric candidate is this sage print. It has a fine flower pattern on it. It too looks great in the bedroom, but brings a more subtle look. I cannot decide which to use!!!

I think I know which one I am leaning towards, but I want other opinions.

Also, are the bow colors OK if I did use the stripe?