Peace, Love, Joy & A Crappy Quilt

For all of my good intentions, I did manage to do 2 of my many ideas for Christmas projects this year. The pillows were all made from toweling from the French General Lumiere de Noel line by Moda. I embroidered the words on with my Janome embroidery skills.

What was not so skillful is the quilt. It was fun designing it and making the Christmas Tree squares, but if you look closely there are all kinds of mistakes. We cuddled underneath it with a cup of coco anyway. :)

Aviary Quilt

Here are a few more photos so that you can see the details, if you like.

Her back side looks pretty nice, too, don't you think?!

Aviary Quilt

I FIANLLY finished my Aviary Quilt and I must say that I am very pleased with it. It is not perfect. The corners do not all match up properly. Its a little bumpy in a few places. And the notes from my quilter after she finished were not words of encouragement telling me how amazed she was at my finery and skill with a sewing machine, or how perfectly each individual block was placed - that there was not a finer layout; each piece was placed in precisely the very spot that would put it in harmony with all the other tones and colors it would be conjoined with (a matter I put a LOT of time into). But it is mine. It is my little creation, and I wanted to share it with all of you. Including a few of the methods, which were all obtained through various blogs, books, and better sewers than myself.

Here we go -

First of all, I must make a special note of the inspiration for this quilt. This beautiful, sweet fabric I found with Jen that one day we went to that glorious candy-store-of-a quilt shop. I loved the little eggs with the little speckles and their names. I bought a yard, having no idea what I was going to do with it. (ever done that before?? Yeah - I do it all the time, too.)

I started with 2 bundles of layer cakes (each piece was about 10" x 10"). And I used just about all of them. I separated them into stacks of lights and darks, first. This is important so that there are rather distinct rows or darks and lights in the finished product. Then, I made pairs of squares from each stack in attractive groupings. I took the two squares, placed one on top of the other and I cut them twice, from one corner to its opposite diamond corner. I had 8 triangles cut from the 2 layer cake squares. I paired two triangles of one pattern with two from the other, sewed them together, and ended up with 2 full squares again.
After I made all of the squares, I placed each piece in the meticulous manner mentioned above. Then I took note of all of the egg patterned material pieces I would need to fill in the border and cut and placed them with the rest. I began sewing, one diagonal strip at a time, then connecting them to each other as I went along. In the picture you can see the rows I had already sewn in strips then attached together in the bottom left corner. In the middle is the diagonal row I just finished which I am about to attach to the rest. And then the top right corner are all the individual squares ready to be connected to one another.
That's the basic body of the quilt. I then did a couple of borders to make it the size I wanted, and to get the look I wanted as well. I did a small border made from the strips of a jelly roll. And I did a much wider border with the pink toile I love so much. There will be a pillow made from the fabric . . . someday.

To show you how I did the binding I have a few self-explanatory photos. First, I stumbled upon this nifty little tool that I have since fallen in love with. Seriously, I am trying to think up projects to do, just so I can use this little thingy. I think it is called, oddly enough, a binding maker. Not sure, but that's what I call it. This is a 1/2" binding maker, which means you need 2" strips of the fabric. You put it through one end and when it comes out the other, it is all folder in this perfect little bi-fold piece of heaven. And you just iron it as it comes through. Makes life much easier. Although, as I gather from my readings, this is not the most sturdy of binding methods, so keep that in mind if you are making something that will get a lot of washing and you want it to last a long time.

My mother-in-law introduced me to these quilter's clips. They were very helpful in having a strong hold on the pieces while they waited to be sewn together. But, I did find that I rather liked the glass head pins much better when it came to actually sewing. Just my preference from my meager experience as a novice quilter. I am sure I must not have been using them exactly right because, as I sewed, the binding would get pushed and bunched up and I'd have to re-clip over and over again. Maybe it was a tension problem?? Not sure. But the pins elevated the problem, so I went with them instead.

After the binding was complete, I put it right-sides facing each other, against the front of the quilt. Make sure to place it about 1/4" - 1/2" from the raw edge. I sewed along the top edge of the binding, the edge closest to the raw edge of the quilt, as close as possible to the edge of the binding. Then, you just flip it over to the back and hand sew it together with a bind stitch.

Panel Napkins

Have you ever noticed those cute book panel fabric prints? I have seen a few and wondered what else I could do with them. My mother's birthday was approaching and I walked the aisles of the quilter's shop looking for inspiration when I noticed a bunch of lovely Beatrix Potter fabrics. My mother loves her stories and artwork. Well, I thought about a few different things I could make, but I needed something that wouldn't take too long because her birthday was just a few days away. These are what I came up with.

I made her these Beatrix Potter napkins. I bought one yard of fabric which completed the panel, there were 12 different scenes from the Beatrix Potter books measuring about 11 x 11. I also bought 1 yard of coordinating Beatrix Potter fabric for the back of the napkins. I layered the 2 fabrics on top of each other, wrong sides together, and cut out each scene with my rotary cutter and set them aside. I also bought 1/2 yard of tiny floral printed fabric for a decorative binding. I cut them into 2" wide strips and made the bias tape. I then proceeded to frame each napkin with the binding. Easy as pie!

What do you do with these adorable and unique prints?

More handmade gifts

Now that Christmas is over and presents have been delivered and opened, I can disclose the items I made this year for my sister, Stacy (co-author here) and her family. She has an adorable son who is almost a year and a half and she is expecting another baby in February.

For my nephew:





A plush alphabet. Originally, I was going to put little magnets inside these. Until the project template said to never, under any circumstances put magnets in a toy for a child under 3 years old. The instructions were so emphatic, I was too scared to do it anyway. So, I left them out. I had a charm pack of baby-ish fabrics so I used all the boy appropriate ones and backed the letters with yellow flannel. I fringed the edges of the letters. Sorry, the photographs of the letters is a crappy one. The bag was an afterthought. I had all these letters, and was so excited to have them completed. I laid them all out and then wondered how on earth I would send them and how on earth my sweet nephew would keep them all in the same place. So, I grabbed a white scrap out of my basket, some stray blue ribbon, and some green fabric scraps (from another handmade gift I had made for this nephew), and set to work. It didn't take long. I had appliqued the letters on - and not very neatly or precisely, but it did the trick. I was pretty proud of the little bag. It's nothing great, but I did it without a pattern and it only took me an hour or two.

For nephew #2 after he joins us later this year:



A flannel rag quilt. It took 12 flannel fat quarters and 2-ish yards of plan flannel. Each fat quarter was cut into 3 rectangles, 2 small squares, and 1 large square. The 2 yards of plain flannel were cut into as many shapes. You make a 3-layer stack: patterned square, right side out, plain flannel in the middle, and then another patterned square, right side out. Sew an x across the stack. Make a similar stack for each shape, then piece them together (I suppose you'd have to buy the pattern at this point), making sure all seams are on the outside. Snip all the seams every 1/4 inch or so, then wash to get it nice and frayed. This was a really fun and pretty simple little blanket to make...and so cute for a baby gift.

For Stacy and her hubby:



Crocheted dishrags. Great for cleaning off dishes. Can be thrown in the wash to avoid stinkiness and used over and over again.

I had all kinds of other ideas swimming around my head for Christmas things I wanted to make, but time got away from me. Maybe next year...I honestly feel like I'll have to start in June to get all the decorations and things I want by Christmas next year.

Easy Unicorn Quilt

Hi everyone! I made this quilt from the book that Jen suggested, Patchwork & Quilted Gifts.
The quilt is called "Super Quick and Easy Baby Quilt," (I made mine a throw size) under the 2-4-hour gifts. The idea is that you take your front fabric, back fabric, and batting, layer then in this order, from top to bottom: front fabric, right side up; back fabric wrong side up; batting. Pin and sew all the way around leaving a 6" opening for turning. Turn and lay flat. To quilt all you do is make a mark every 4" (check your batting and see the limit for how far the quilting can be spaced apart) and use one of the fun and tight stitches on your sewing machine and do one on every mark. I used orange: you can see them on the princess and the pea side, but what is nice is that on the unicorn side it blends in sew ;) well with the print that you do not notice the quilting. It was a cinch!

It is the same idea as tying, just a hip, new twist. And you feel pretty cool that you just made a quilt in only a few hours.

This is one I just liked the technique of using a bunch of small squares to create value.

Obviously I really liked the tree quilts.

This one is really neat. It is a Lord of the Rings quilt. The longer you look the more references you see. These picture are of the center, but there was a huge blue border filled with pieces of the book.

I know it is hard to tell from this pic (i took these with my phone) but Gollum is in the right hand corner crawling on some rocks and the men on horses are the Dúnedain.

International Quilt Festival 2009

Hi all! I haven't heard from many of you in a while. I hope that we are all still enjoying the blog. I really am.
Last week was the International Quilt Festival held every year here in Houston, TX. It was my first time going and I had no idea how much I would love it. I thought going one day would suffice, but I went EVERYDAY it was open except one. I had a blast! The festival consists of 5 days of lectures, quilting classes that range anywhere from basic skills to very complex design and specialized techniques I did not even know existed, and each class ranged from 3 hours to the whole 5 days, booths where you could learn, teach, buy, sell, and a massive area where the most beautiful quilts, ancient and modern, were on display. Above are a few of our favorites, the top being my personal favorite. The detail and obvious labor involved was truly breathtaking. I hope that we can all attend next year. It was truly an inspiring experience.
I have a few more pictures I will share later. I just wanted to share these with you all - thought you might enjoy it.

Question

So - am curious about quilting with my sewing machine. What if I take 2 pieces of fabric and make the quilt sandwich with them. Do a binding around the edge. Could that be a blanket? Or, do you have to "quilt" it so that the layers are attached securely? Any help you can offer me will be greatly appreciated.

WHAT

are charm squares, jelly rolls, layer cakes??