Thinning the pile of quilts here

My parents were just here for a visit and I ended up sending four quilts home with them.

One for my dad:

One for my aunt:

And two baby quilts for a charity auction:

But, before I sent them, they all needed labels.  I love the look of hand embroidered labels, but that was not going to happen.  So I tried stamped labels.

I ordered the fabric ink online and I got the letters and the clear acrylic press at Joann's.  It feels good to get quilts labeled with more than scribbling with a Micron pen. 

I didn't get a picture of the stack of four folded quilts that my parents had to haul home.  We had to loan them a piece of our luggage for the plane ride.  But now I have more room to make more for the stack of quilts to stay here.

Happy Little Finish

My friends in the May Moms Bee made me tiny house blocks ages and ages ago.  I have another 17 of these blocks that I'm working into a quilt top, but it was getting unwieldy.  So these 4 houses get their own special place on this mini quilt. 

I used this mini as an opportunity to try a colored border and try quilting with 12 wt thread.  I know many people choose to use very thin thread so it disappears into the quilt but this one definitely doesn't.  You may also notice that the texture of the quilt is different.  I used a fleece interfacing because I originally was going to make this into a pillow.  Once I changed my mind to a mini quilt, I couldn't use my usual 100% cotton batting any more.  The combination of the fleece and the 12 wt thread gives this a different texture than I would normally choose.  I'll admit I didn't like it at first.  It took a day to get used to it, but now I'm very happy with this finish.  I'm so pleased, in fact, that I'm sending it out to a very special friend.  I think it will bring a smile to her face.

Picnic Blanket

I finally have my first finished quilt for 2012!  (Yes, the end of July seems a bit late to brag about a first finish.)

This has vintage sheets, Moda solids, DS Quilts fabrics, Canning Day from Connecting Threads, Amy Butler Full Moon Dot, and some Pezzy prints.

I've wanted to dig out some vintage fabrics and make one ever since my last picnic quilt.  For this version I used 72 ten inch squares of fabric for the top, a white thrifted sheet for the middle layer and a dark sheet from IKEA for the back.  The three layers of fabric give it a good solid weight and the sheets wash up really well in the laundry.

This quilt is for a good friend who is getting married to her sweetheart this weekend.  Those two go on more picnics than anyone else I know (two to three times more than anyone I know).  They also go to the beach pretty often and picnic blanket is the perfect place to lay out on the beach.

In the process of making the quilt, I trimmed about 4 inches of fabric from around the perimeter of the quilt.  Let's just say that there was an incident involving a basting pin and blood from my thumb which turned into a second incident of hydrogen peroxide to remove the blood making the purple dye from the backing bleed through to the front fabrics.  Grrr...

I am pleased about the purple back.  It doesn't exactly match the front, but it doesn't clash.  It seemed like a nice dark color that wouldn't look muddy right after it was used for one picnic. 

Of course, Henry thinks it belongs to him.  He tried to sit on it while Ben was trying to hold it up for pictures.  In fact, getting him to sit here and not roll around in the middle of it was quite a feat.

 
I'm really happy with the binding and ties.  I was shopping for binding with Flaun and she talked me into the Flea Market Fancy green seeds instead of a solid that was kind of "eh".  But this green was just perfect with the green stitching I was using to quilt it.

If you've never made a picnic quilt I encourage you to try it.  I like to spread mine out in the shade on a hot summer day and then enjoy the feel of the cool, smooth sheet on my skin when I need a break from the sunshine.   The three layers are perfect for soaking up some of the moisture of a wet swimsuit without getting sand everywhere, too.  We put ours out for little babies at parties, we put toys and books on it for Henry to use when we are camping, and we use it for music nights at the park downtown.  I've even used it on the couch in summer for napping under and it was great for making a table fort for Henry.  If you have any other good ideas for uses for a picnic quilt, let me know.  I can pass on suggestions this weekend to the newlyweds.

Done!

This project comes from Rashida Coleman-Hale's book, i love patchwork. It is a ball made entirely by English Paper Piecing. I did the hand stitching on it last year--before I knew better. Now I know that 8-10 stitches per inch is enough. At the time, I was constantly worried that it would fall apart, so I did more like 25-35 stitches per inch. This thing is never coming apart. Which is good. I'm sending it to a friend to welcome her second baby. I reclaimed a rattle from another thrifted toy and placed that rattle inside this ball. So baby will play with it, and older sibling might get in on the fun and test those stitches, too. 

Finally!

The drawback of giving crafted goods as gifts is that you can't show pictures (or shout from the rooftops) when the gift is done.  I'm not known as a patient person.  But this time I was very good and waited for the giftee to open her quilt before showing pics.  And, she opened the mail today, so I open my blogger account :)

Here it is, the Mommy Love quilt:

You will note that the quilt has no binding in that photo.  There is a good reason for that and it all starts more than two and a half years ago.  When I was pregnant with Henry, I joined the Knocked Up Knitters forum on ravelry.

(If you knit and you haven't joined ravelry, you must.  Now.  Seriously, don't read the rest of this post.  shoo.)  

(If you don't knit, go ask someone patient to teach you.  Knitters love converting non-knitters.)   

On that group I met a bunch of wonderful women that were due the same month.  Once the little ones were born, we started a moms group on ravelry.  Since then, we've shared the frustrations and delights of newborns, babies and now toddlers.  I love these women and their children as much as any close friend that I've met in person.  Last year I talked some of them into joining a quilting bee with me and I've converted a few of them into becoming some great sewists, too.  And, when we heard that one mom was having baby #2, we had to plan something.

The blocks of this quilt were made by seven women and sent to my friend, R.  She pieced the top and border and sent it to me.  I pieced the back and quilted it and sent it to J.  J bound the quilt and sent it to our giftee.  (That's why my photos have no binding.)

My favorite part about this quilt is the all of the love tucked in every stitch.  So, when I took it to use the longarm machine, I put our names in.  This is the first time I tried to write words in my quilting, but I think I'll be doing it again. 

Who needs a printed label?  

The rest of the quilting is just a swirly loop-di-loop that I like. 

I think the curves balance the square-ness of the quilt design.

Oh! The quilt design is from a Moda Bakeshop pattern, here.

And, now I feel better.  I have so many old projects that never end, so I have to take the 

finishes and holler out--"See? I can finish something!"

Now just imagine the brown binding around the edges, okay? 

And cultivate your friendships wherever you find them.  :)

Modern Vintage Quilt

I made this quilt top in July of last year.  I designed it as a baby quilt, but I liked the colors and the fabric combination SO much that I was afraid to finish it.

(A quilt this pretty might make a girl want to have a second baby before she's ready!)

So, I left it as a lonely little quilt top for a l-o-n-g time.  Then in February, I practiced using a long arm quilting machine.  (By the way, I do not recommend a long arm machine for doing straight line quilting.  The axis locks do not coincide as closely as you want them to.  Trust me.
I should have asked for advice before attempting.)

Anyway, I chose to quilt lines on either side of the horizontal seams
and then diagonal quilt lines on every other row.

I pieced my binding from leftovers of the blues and aqua and turquoise.   

This quilt gets its name from the mix of fabrics used.  I adore the vintage sheets featured in this quilt.   I collected some of them for this picnic blanket, then I received one through the Vintage Swap (that print on the back) and lastly, I added some scraps given by a friend.  

The modern fabrics I chose are also some of my very favorites--solids, shot cotton, polka dots, stripes, a 30's reproduction and one print from Wild Thyme. 

Mixing the modern and the vintage blended the very best of both worlds to me. 

Not long ago, Ben and I decided that our family was just the right size as it is.  Almost immediately after that, I heard that a close friend was pregnant with her second.  I've been so excited to pass this quilt on to their new addition.  I didn't know if their baby would be a boy or a girl, but I knew that this quilt fit the personality of the baby's parents.  They are a special couple that I admire especially for how they live with old fashioned intentions in a modern world.

So, Grace Eliza, welcome to the world.  You are a lucky girl surrounded by much, much love.