Favorite Quilt for Online Quilt Show

Perhaps you have heard about this online quilt festival being hosted by ParkCityGirl...go have a look!

As my readers and fellow swappers know, I am both a rabid quilter and a huge advocate for the children's charity Project Linus. I make generally over 20 quilts per year for this organization. These mostly utilise whatever scraps I have accumulated from my other quilting, swapping or sewing projects. Each year, however, the chapter in my area hosts a quilt show entitled the "Book-Blanket Challenge". Participants must select a children's book, and design a quilt around the story or a character in the story. The books & the quilts are given to children that stay in Barbara Bush Children's Hospital between Thanksgiving & New Years. It is a tremendous gesture, and I warm inside to think how the child who receives one of these must feel afterwards.

Generally, the non-Project Linus quilts I make are more design intensive, more intricately quilted, bettern coordinated colorwise, and more pleasing to me. But, this quilt's colors and simplicity make it a personal favorite. I had under a quarter of a yard of my polar bear feature fabric leftover from making a quilt for one of my sons. In a thrift store, I saw the book, "Big Bear, Little Bear", and I knew this was destined for my donation (the book was in pristine condition!).

The book is in the most gorgeous shades of turquoises & blues, and white. I tried to match these colors carefully since they evoked the essence of the Arctic ideally. My design is simple: framed fussy-cut bear blocks, alternated with nine-patches, some straight set and some on point.

The crispness of this quilt is next to impossible to capture on photograph, especially after it was quilted, but it is both sweet & frosty at the same time. The fussy-cut bears are so totally adorable with a momma bear and a baby bear together. The blues selected remind me of ice, and ocean and sky.

The quilting is done in white and aqua rayon threads which add a light shimmer. The white rayon makes the white Kona resemble ice. Done on my home Singer machine, the quilting was terribly cumbersome for a quilt this size (never again I say!). Plus I figured I used three-quarters of a MILE of thread in the quilting alone.

My quilt did win this Book-Blanket challenge (2nd year in a row for me), and the kind ladies at the local quilt shop still remind me how much they loved it. I hope I am as in love with my craft in 25 years as they are!

I wish I knew which child received this, if only so that they could know how very much I loved making it for them. It has a part of my heart sewn into it.

Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

Probably this girl's best friend. I am on the fense about when she will get her dress quilt, as I am learning more about how destructive a 4 year old can be. I have whipped up a second quilt in pink and green prints, all very fun and modern. When she gets a twin bed, she will use this. After that, it can be used as a lap quilt or as a secondary blanket on her bed.

The diamonds were mildly challenging to get well matched each time (more so that squares), but I think the effect is great. I am adding a yellow border around the entire quilt of soft butter-colored Fairy Frost, and will have this machine quilted somewhere. It is made from many of the new prints I have acquired recently. It also has a dozen or so mixed color Fairy Frosts mixed in for nice textural changes.

Stacked Coins & Dilectible Cottons...

Looking for a great quilty giveaway and a very funny (albeit occasionally off-color which is great by me!) read...check this out.

Or (and I realize my posting this decreases my odds of actually winning it...) if you prefer gorgeous fabrics, Amy is offering an awesome 2-yr blogiversary giveaway here.

Two More Project Linus Quilts

My Spring Fling Round Robin quilters sent the 12 blocks below that were used for this quilt. They actually sent a total of about 70 12" squares, but I am down to assembling the last 2 of 7 quilts from these blocks! This one is done from a dozen blue and green boyish squares. Tami sent a piece of sweet blue along with her 4 blocks (and another piece of backing I'll likely use for another quilt) that I was able to use for the backing and most of the binding. I actually love the look of a binding scrapped from different pieces of fabric, especially when the quilt itself is somewhat scrappy. It's lovely - has all things boy from John Deere tractors, to boats, frogs, dogs and balls. It's such a great combination of fun boyish things.
The next one I called "Nothing Runs Like a Deere". I had acquired a few John Deere fat quarters last year. In my quest to rid my stash of novelties, I put together some half-Bento box blocks using the novelties. The back of the quilt is the very bright spring green. It reminds me of a field. I quilted it in a large meander using a variagated yellow-green thread.

Here's a little bit more closer in shot.

My two and a half year old couldn't NOT model these quilts for me. She's such a ham! And, she loves to see what I am sewing and handle the fabrics (probably dangerous traits!)

...and the other quilt too.

I am down to having blocks from the SFRR3 for 2 more donation quilts. I am in the process of assembling one set of these. It may get finished later this week. The last set of blocks lacks 3 in order to make the quilt. I'll have to get busy and create these. Other items on my agenda include...

• add a border to "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" - I'll show this one later this week
• Finalize plans on what I am making for my oldest son and start cutting
• make my 4"x4" starter square for the round robin I'm in (due May 15)
• Finish Debbie's Paris "vacation" block for the birthday block swap (& mail these blocks)
• Mail the row robin swap row
• Sandwich a couple of flimsies that I have laying around, and begin quilting
• finish quilting on a mini I'm doing for a 2nd cousins wedding.

Sounds busy enough!

Happy Easter / Birthday

Saturday afternoon we died a few eggs. Yea, I know, that is supposed to be "dyed", bit if felt more like the other. With my 3 kids in those moods of theirs (ages 2.5, almost 5 and just 7), they made it like having a tooth worked on. One just wanted to go out and ride his bike. "Mine's dark enough, I'm done", he'd repeat. He should have just had a few brown eggs and he'd have been content. Middle man just wanted to slosh the colors around and make a mess, as usual. My daughter was the only one truly interested. Once again this year I say, "maybe next year will be more fun!!" The eggs are now hidden and awaiting the awaking (and hopefully not vomiting) children. My oldest surprised us at 11pm last night puking his guts up in bed. JOY!

I have held off showing this since it is a birthday present for someone who I think snoops this blog. The birthday is next week, while she's away in France. So, pending the puking offspring of mine, I will deliver it later today. With my son born on Good Friday, and her bday very close to Easter, it's somewhat fitting. It's hard to give up; I really like it!

Last month, I received some great squares from Amy in a spring fat quarter swap. Many were Easter-ish. I never showed a picture on my blog because I stitched half of them into this within days of receiving. Hopefully she can forgive this! Then I added small accents of the Fairy Frosts that Emma sent me to make my Easter egg shimmer.

It was so easy - just a bunch of half-square triangles. I drafted a template of an egg, cut to shape and quilted it. The binding is fantastic bias-cut material and sewed on like a dream.

I did a springy leaf meander in the solid zig-zags, and a tight meander everywhere else. Here's a peek at the back, where more of the quilting is obvious.

Hope you have a happy Easter with your family!

End of my Naughty Streak

The last of what I ordered while my husband was away 2 weeks ago has arrived. If www.artquiltsonline.com had not gone under, and they had actually sent BOTH of my orders (at a whopping 50% discount), I might not have gone quite so far over the edge with purchases. It is dilectable, however, to be sewing with some new and fairly hip fabrics. The pinks above are going into a project O am sewing right now. The Eiffel tower print is for a birthday block, and the Fairy Frosts are mostly because I just LOVE them. I am using a few in a diamond quilt currently on the table, the turquoise is on my last row robin row, and who knows with the rest.

Yummy!

I don't have a total plan for this last set, but I always use black & whites, and never have enough, and will probably make another ruffly, layered skirt for Sophie from the bold pinks.

Playing with Patterns

I think I am honing in on a pattern I may use, but I'm considering some of the comments, especially the one from Emma about paring down the # of fabrics. I'm not yet committed to this, but thinking about it. I am also playing with a couple of patterns that mostly use 2" strips as the smallest size so that the patterns of the Kaffe Fassett's will show.

Here's a version of a plaid that I really like. It's done with 12" blocks that will probably be a nightmare to keep all colors straight, but I do like it. I pulled the red from the colors to see it it helped to settle down the chaos a little (only kept the red for a narrow border or the binding). Afterall, my brown prints have a good bit of red in them. I like all the blues and greens for the cross members. I just wonder how the few soft blue/greens KF's that I have (and really want to incorporate) will look interspersed with the browns as the background?? Should the background be random, or done in diagonals? So many thoughts!...
This next one is actually one of my favorites. I set the above 12" blocks on point, and stuck just a few red strips in.
I also played a bit with the bento box design, as that is my other forerunning choice. What I haven't decided on is how to do the squares. Here's some options...

(1) each square and it's opposed diagonal have the same solid fabrics (also has red)

(2) same as (1) but with red pulled out - a little calmer look

(3) Opposed diagonal squares are the same, but each block contains more than one solid color (no red)

(4) same as (3) but red is included(5) total randomness of bento box coloring (opposed diagonal blocks are different) and no red

(6) same as (5) but with red

Any thoughts now that you'd like to share??

The Ideas & the Fabrics

Many thanks for those ideas that have been submitted for the quilt I want to make for my son. Keep them coming. I won't cut fabric yet as I am still very much undecided. I thought I'd share a few of the designs rambling through my head thus far.

Let me share the fabrics and then some of the pattern ideas. Maybe seeing the materials will help those of you giving me suggestions.

This was my "feature fabric". I have only 1 yard of it, but love the color gradations and graphic-ness of it. It was the piece that all other fabrics were selected to coordinate with. My biggest problem is that I don't really know how to incorporate it, and it's only enough for about a 4" border around the entire quilt.
I have half yard pieces of these 8 Kona solids, as well as the 2 aboriginal dots in 2 red shades on the right end. The colors are washed out - it's a forest green, 2 shades of teal, 2 shades of bright green, royal and turquiose blues, then red.

Here's my brown set of Kaffe Fassets. Except for the two on the upper left, they are only fat quarters.

These are the blue-greens, and are only fat quarters.

And here's the entire pile of madness together. The patch of wedgewood blue needs to get worked on somehow as this is what the curtains in the room are in, and the dust ruffle. I'm not changing those anytime soon. That color coordinates with the KF's well so that does not worry me.

And onto my Madness of Pattern Thoughts...

1. Tesselation - just a random mix of all fabrics (see end of post)

2. something that uses the solids as small stones - randomly placed, the browns randomly mixed around the stars and diamonds, and the blue-greens which I have fewest as the points on the stars.

3. This pattern is called Next-Door Neighbor. I envision the stars from the solids, blue-greens as the centers and the browns randomly as the others.

4. Jacob's ladder. I love this pattern done up, and it does lend itself well to randomness of color and many colors/patterns. I'd probably aim for the stones and diagonals to be the solids, the few blue-greens as the triangles and again, random browns everywhere else.

5. A woven disaster - Oh, pattern I meant to say. I like the idea of doing a pattern like this, but am not sure I want the Kaffe Fasset's cut into such narrow strips. We might lose the effect of their graphic qualities - another of my big stumbling blocks with selecting a pattern.
5. Some kind of triangle-zig-zag pattern. Obviously, this idea was never finished, but you get the idea.
I have also considered a random disappearing 9-patch. It seems kind of boring, and the easy way out, but is easy for lots of fabrics. I also drafted up a card-trick block which is on the short list of ideas too. I prefer to do a geometric and somewhat orderly pattern. My kid is a math genius (chip off the old block you could say), so I think he may get a kick out of that someday. Or maybe he'll just want to kick me. Who knows!?

I love the Bento Box concept, and am currently thinking about how I'd do that.

Now, do you have any more ideas to share???

Suggestions please!

I want to make my oldest son (age 7) a bed quilt that will last him through age 18 (so nothing novelty-ish or overly childish). I have chosen 8 Kona solids and about a dozen coordinating Kaffe Fasset fat quarters. I've wasted a ton of time brainstorming patterns. Can anyone make me some sugggestions??!...FYI - no paper piecing please.

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).

Looking for a Cute Giveaway?...

Go check out Darci's blog. The deer fabric is darling!
http://www.stitchesandscissors.com/2009/03/spreading-love-giveaway.html

No Will Power, whatsoever

New Year's resolutions are just pointless. I am incapable of keeping them. I lasted until about February on mine, and blew it big time a week or two ago. I was supposed to go until April 1st with no new fabric. Here's some of what has come recently. I just LOVE these birds!
These Kona solids are to do something with this Alexander Henry print I found recently (yes, while on my "diet"). I also ordered a dozen fat quarters or so of various Kaffe Fasset prints that coordinate with these. My thought is that my oldest son might be ready for a more mature quilt in the next year or so. I actually thought I ordered these from www.quiltartsonline 2 weeks ago when I saw that they had a killer 50% off sale. After my 1st order with them arrived last weekend, I hoped the remainder would be along soon. I checked their site yesterday to find my order was canceled and they'd gone out of business! Sucks - it was all on sale then :-)

These were also found last week on a 30% off sale. There's just something about that mustardy-yellow-green and loden and pink that I am so attracted to right now. With Sophie's quilt nearly finished, and my desire to keep her from ruining it before she can appreciate it, I am contemplating doing a simpler and smaller quilt for her to use until she is a little older - maybe not a full twin size, but a large lap quilt. I'd like to do a simple diamond pattern in all of these bright and fresh prints. I have more than enough of them right now.

So, I have been quite naughty. I rationalise this on account of a healthy tax return due in to my bank account in a few days, and my hubby getting a more than health company bonus in April. I have another 10 yards or so somewhere enroute to me - including half a dozen colors of this Fairy Frost that I adore so much! Now once I complete a couple of chores I have in the works (SFRR3 border and row robin row, and 2 birthday blocks) I can hunker down and focus on another large quilt. Simple, but large. I want the fabrics to speak, not the pattern.

My 4SQS5 Monochromatic Quilt

I have been waiting to show pictures of this table runner I made my partner for the Four Seasons Quilt Swap Mono-5 for ages. I mailed it 3+ weeks ago and am presently in a panic since it has not yet arrived. My partner is on vacation until the end of next week so I have decided to share the pictures (and everyone cross their fingers it arrives before then!).

This is the back...I actually already showed this picture as a teaser a week or two ago, but I just LOVE that Alexander Henry black & white print. When my partner said she wanted black as her color, I was taken a back because I was not sure what season I could portray in black, and I was already committed to this particular partner. As hostess, I have the luxury of selecting my own partner. I chose winter and I chose green as my accent color. Despite a great number of swappers actually interpreting the directions of the monochromatic swap wrong and using more than one color, the intention was to use one color family and a black OR white accent unless your selected color was black, then you could use a different accent color.
Here is the front. I made the feathered star in December 07. It's about 14" square, so those little triangles are VERY tiny (and it is not paper pieced either). I used a swirling batik around the star/snowflake because it reminded me of a winter storm at night. The other fabrics in the background of the runner and the star are grey and black Fairy Frosts - so lucious. I LOVE how they shimmer.

I needle-turn appliqued whimsical green trees around the edges of the runner. It was fun designing these, and using all different green fabrics for them. The tree trunks are in striped and polka-dots - a little more whimsy. The snow at the bottom of the trees has a shimmer in the fabric - not a Fairy Frost, but slightly sparkly and snowlike.

Here's some closer shots of the trees and the machine quilting. I was a bit nervous quilting this one, as my partner is an accomplished quilter. I think it came out pretty good though. It was hard to send away. I have had many comments about the nice binding. It's just a bias-cut binding, which I agree, went on flawlessly.

Now, just cross your fingers that this makes it across the ocean to it's destination soon. I am out of Fairy Frost. I am out of time. And I tossed this pattern!!