Kiddo Quilts for Alabama

Bama Bound Quilts has asked for baby/children's quilts for tornado relief in Alabama. (Can you pass the link along on your blog?)

My brain was on overload, anyway, so I put my books down and went to my long-term UFO pile, where I saw a promising cheerful piece peeking out. . .

Pulled it out and found that it's almost queen-sized, but just a boring 12" checkerboard (albeit with a really cute purple floral fabric). 

Hmm, but these scraps of brights coordinate well (although the colors are all off thru the camara's eye). . . 

Frogged it and rearranged a couple pieces to yield two baby quilts and a cuddle blankie size.

Got my daughter to trace out flowers on fusible web, while I cut and fused. . . And now she's very sweetly pin-basting all three for me:

I'm going to do the quilting simultaneously with stitching the flowers down. Due to time, I'm just going to do a simple straight stitching about a 1/8th inch in since the edges are fused on. Think I'll use white shiny thread and do spirals in the big centers. Will do a meander on the rest of the quilt. 

Not sure if I'll have issues at the machine. I didn't have backing fabrics to go with this, no time to go to JoAnn's (an hour away), but I did have pretty purple fleece (which I think kids would find comforting, anyway) and a piece of pre-quilted pink flannel. I've never worked with these with quilting before, so I'm hoping the machine doesn't care.  :D   Wish me luck!

P.S. This camera really has issues these days  :/     It just can't read colors properly anymore.

Children's and Baby quilts needed for Tornado-devastated Alabama (pass it on)

Have you seen the massive destruction in Alabama from this week's spate of killer tornadoes?

The number of homes that have been literally blown to smithereens breaks my heart and makes me cry still. Not to mention the hundreds of lives that were lost.

Families are in desperate need of comfort, and this is something quilters can help with. A Tuscaloosa-area quilter is coordinating a drive for children's and baby quilts. 

Here is her plea and a link to the emerging blog. I'll be watching for delivery specifics, but in the meantime I've got some really fun Puss in Boots fabrics from who-knows-how-long-ago that needs to become a quilt or two! (p.s. - if you're a U.S. quilter, can you pass the world along on your own blog? Thanks, friends!)

Bama Bound Quilts

I am setting up a quilt charity for Tuscaloosa and Jefferson County. In particular need are children's and baby quilts. Please pack in a child/medium size tote. Please include a small stuffed animal. Entire neighborhoods were wiped off the map. Hundreds of families and children are displaced. They have NOTHING. Thanks.

My WIP Wednesday #6, and a Machine Appliqué tip

Charming Love is still on the table, but it's oh-so-close to being finished. Should be able to snug it up this week despite the heavy push of the last 8 days of my semester!

This is learning piece #2 for my machine quilting aspirations, but I'll write about that when I have more time. All that's left is stitching the binding, burying my tails, and giving it a label!

What a Hoot, Devon! - owl bodies are stitched on. This week I need to glue-baste the wings and hearts on, hopefully even get them stitched. (Got a term paper to do, though!) 


There are 20 owls for her graduation quilt. They're mostly scrappy style, with no two alike. 


Gotta keep things organized. 






So each owl's pieces lay on numbered sheets of paper in a stack. . . 

. . .and each block has the number penciled in the corner where it'll get sliced off when the blocks are finally sized. 




Eye and beak pieces are all uniform, so they sit happily in a sandwich baggy, patiently waiting their turn. 

If I were able to stitch all day instead of in fitful bursts around studies, I would baste on everything per layer (which right now would be wings, heart, and eye base). But I can only snatch bits and pieces of sewing time, so I only baste the next focus pieces - avoiding fraying issues. My favorite basting technique for these is using glue dots. Works awesomely.

Speaking of process matters: What do you use as stabilizer for your machine appliqué? I am using satin stitching on these guys, which needs a good support.


 I use this REALLY CHEAP children's newsprint-style drawing paper that I picked up in one of those Dollar Generals - something like 40 sheets for a buck. Tears just about as easily as tissue, but has support - no puckers at all. Sweetness. 



You only need a few pins to hold it in place. I left the ones in the bodies in because satin stitching tears the paper enough to really loosen the paper and I still need it for the belly hearts after I do the wings.




This week's stats:
New Projects - 0 (Good Girl!)
Completed Projects This Week - 0 
        (oh, so close on Charming Love)
In Active Progress - 3 
        (Charming Love, Devon's Owls, Sailing's at Patty's studio)
UFO Firing Range - 33.667 (+2 - How did I miss those two projects in The Great Round-Up?  - not counting untouched kits!)
Finishes for 2011 - 7  

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Two charity wheelchair quilts
Katie Loves Christopher
Dreamy Unicorns
Trip Around the World with Mr. Hernandez (Mr. Hernandez's)
Trip Around the World with Mr. Hernandez (Heather's)
Be Attitudes
We Love Kelly
Sailing with the Flying Needles
Wagon Wheels West #2
Poor Forgotten Orphan from 15 years ago
Devon's Silk Spinners
Marissa's Minky Squares
Kelly's Thirties Hand Quilter
Kelly's Calico
Leap Frog Lily Pond 

Just Made It!

Whew! ::wiping forehead::

Over at Valor Quilt Bee, BamaBee issued a Lent challenge to make four different blocks during Lent.

(Sure would love it if you'd stop by the Bee - see that cool picture-link over there on the right, where Tom is getting a Quilt of Valor? Perhaps you might even be able to mention it on your blog?)

I don't do Lent - it's not part of my religion - but I respect what folks around me do for it, and Michelle's challenge was a worthy one. Little did I know how very challenging it would be! I mean, I regularly do quilt work, so how hard could it be to make 4 blocks instead of 1 in 6 weeks' time?

Well, Life exploded for our family, and I do have my master's coursework, so finding the time for even just three extra blocks really has been a bear. 

This first one is a 12-incher. The design would be a lot more apparent if one of my fabrics had been less busy, but we'll find a place for it in a grouping that has more subtle, water-colory, gardenish blocks.

There weren't enough blocks in the collection yet to put together a top, so to take the place of March's Fourth Week, I whipped up these 6" cuties using a fun rooster fabric and a light blue houndstooth print.

Love those roosters with their little hearts.  :) 

That left me still short two "different" blocks. All my sewing time the past two weeks has been hijacked to finish Dad's quilt to send out and to do my long-ago scheduled long-arm lesson.

I really considered asking to be excused from the challenge - almost all my other BOMs got shelved for April - but I set the books down this morning and whipped these two beauties up.  :)  Feels good!

My WIP Wednesday #5

Busy WIP weeks  :)    Taking Charming Love to the long-arm studio tomorrow for my learning time. I pieced this top in February 2009 (Really???)

It's not a priority UFO finish at all, but it's being used as a training piece to gain skill for one of my current top priorities.  I just loved the charm pack - brought it home and combed through my stash for some friends to put them with. Love how it turned out. :D

Was awake more than an hour in the middle of the night, thinking of what I wanted to do with the borders. . .  


::Go Back To Sleep, Already!::




Adding a Label to a quilt my cousin made for me about 20 years ago before taking my little pile to meet up with an appraiser at the public library. (Fun!)







I don't think it shows in the photo, but she used pastel green thread on the checkerboard sections, pink on the hearts, yellow on the tulips, and white for all her stitch-in-the-ditch. 

Will be satin-stitching 20 owl bodies for Devon's graduation quilt this week: 










And here are the charity quilt finishes from this past week:

Wheelchair Quilt

Baby quilt from my long-arm lesson (top made by someone in our local guild)
My roses are out!!

Used a meandering loopy star freehand to go with some of the star prints.

This week's stats:
New Projects - 1 (out of my control - this was the charity quilt at long-arm class)
Completed Projects This Week - 3! 
        (Dad's Wagon Wheels West!!!!, Charity Quilt 1,  Charity Quilt 2)
In Active Progress - 3 
        (Devon's Owls, Charming Love for longarm "lesson", Sailing's up at Patty's studio!)
UFO Firing Range - 31.667 (not counting untouched kits!)
Finishes for 2011 - 7 

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Two charity wheelchair quilts
Katie Loves Christopher
Charming Love
Trip Around the World with Mr. Hernandez (Mr. Hernandez's)
Trip Around the World with Mr. Hernandez (Heather's)
Be Attitudes
We Love Kelly
Sailing with the Flying Needles
Wagon Wheels West #2
Poor Forgotten Orphan from 15 years ago
Devon's Silk Spinners
Marissa's Minky Squares
Kelly's Thirties Hand Quilter
Kelly's Calico
Leap Frog Lily Pond 

Label's On!! Wagon Wheels West is **Finished**

Wagon Wheels West is out of the wash, labeled, and off the UFO list!!

Wow, how good it feels to finish this - three years in the making.  It's a special quilt, going to Dad.

I like substantial labels that tell the quilt's story as well as its "demographics," and after my local quilt guild's last meeting, I don't think my labels will ever be the same. Just had to make a wagon silhouette to top this heirloom off!

The story of this one is that it's a family heirloom tribute to a straight line-up on our family tree of remarkable people who made the Western trek across the United States in wagon trains and handcart companies. The reproduction fabrics cover the range of those migrations, from 1846 to the 1890s. The flag fabric is easy to pin-point, as the US flag had 30 stars from 1848-1851. 

The top is an execution of Charlotte O'Leary's "Wagon Wheels" in the same fabrics she used. (Queen size at 78 x 98) 

Many shopping hours were spent online back in 2008 to track them down from shops all over the country!  

Finished the top in November

Those corners gave me fits. My OCD demanded perfectly matched stripes in the mitering, but the border's stripe interval didn't fit the math of both sides. So. . . I actually fussy-cut the floral stripe, mitered that onto the ends, then turned under the allowance I'd left and hand-stitched them onto the first tan portion of the other side. I was a lot happier with a skinnier tan part than with a mismatched corner miter. I oh-so-carefully centered the stripes, so all 4 corners match.  

The quilting was a bit problematic. I had very specific themes in mind, but the rich colors and busy pattern of the scrappy Broken Wagon Wheel blocks and sashing didn't lend themselves well to displaying fancy quilting. I decided I wanted to keep the motifs and let it be a fun Hide-and-Seek quilt that gives delightful secrets up to those who take the time to look closely. Patty (my local long-armer) did a fantastic job putting my covered wagon and handcart designs into wagon wheel motifs on all the blocks. As I mentioned earlier in the week, I then free-motion quilted family names into the triple inner border with my table-top. The result is, admittedly, mighty subtle, but it's a lot of fun to look closely and find the components. 

The lucky ones had a wagon and stock to pull it.

But many of them had to settle for handcarts. Can you *imagine* walking more than 1000 miles while pulling one of these over rough roads, open prairie, gullies, deserts, rivers without bridges, and mountains?

In hindsight, I would have used a heavier thread for the names. But those who know what they are will find them.  :)

Can't believe it's finally, completely finished!!

Not to worry, though - I'll get to play with the whole idea a bit more later on, as the top has a twin!

P.S. Somebody left me a really nice Anonymous comment on my last WIP post. I can't reply like I would like to do, so I want to tell you "Thank you" here both for the compliment and for following my little blog.

WIP Wednesday #4 for me

Back to routine after 2 weeks off. Feels boring and good at the same time. Spring breaks are all over, and Scott's back to full-time days at work. We're feeling pretty thankful for the blessing of returned health. The neurologist labeled his stroke as a Reparable something something, and Scott's already had full recovery of his arm sensation. Just waiting for the official medical board review for the Air Force to close the chapter as far as "job security" goes. The fact that they've put him back to work full time at the clinic means they're not going to let him go. I think that's a good thing. ;D



Quilting mile marker for this week: I did my first free-form free-motion quilting on this charity wheelchair quilt. Ummm. . .  I took pictures ONLY so I could laugh at them later on when I have gained this skill. Let me say I have a whole new respect for the work of folks such as Leah Day! Bobbin tension was fine except for one tiny area, that's where there good news ends. Back-tracing was usually nasty by my standards; stitch size was  all over the place. Design execution failed - the eyes of the peacock feathers were supposed to be 2 or 3 times bigger than they turned out. I'll get better!

Charity quilt #2 is pinned and ready to go as my next guinea pig. These are lap quilts for wheelchair-bound folks, with the bottom corners lopped off so they don't get caught in the wheels.  Both quilts need binding this coming week.

Actually, Devon pinned this, not me. Wanted to do some community service.  :D  

Finished binding Dad's Wagonwheels West and ready to stitch the names into the border. Just need to make more table space between the machine and the wall.


I really like these Pinmoors! Purchased one bag (yes, they are very expensive) and cut them in half like someone mentioned doing several months ago. Work like a charm - More bags of these would make EXCELLENT gifts on special days ::hint-hint::


And, of course, primary focus has been on my coursework, which currently prioritizes this critical review.






Other active projects for the next few days:
BOM for quilt guild tomorrow
Week 13 discussion and Rakove Critical Review
Stitching Devon's owl bodies and prepping the wings and belly hearts.
Tail work on Marissa's Moment
Catch up Valor Bee blocks
Lori's Butterflies


This week's stats:
New Projects - None (Good Girl!!)
Completed Projects This Week - 0
In Active Progress - 3 (Dad's Wagon Wheels; Charity Quilt 1; Charity Quilt 2)
UFO Firing Range - 33 (not counting untouched kits!)
Finishes for 2011 - 4

Completed tops awaiting quilting:
Two charity wheelchair quilts
Katie Loves Christopher
Trip Around the World with Mr. Hernandez (Mr. Hernandez's)
Trip Around the World with Mr. Hernandez (Heather's)
Be Attitudes
We Love Kelly
Sailing with the Flying Needles
Wagon Wheels West #2
Poor Forgotten Orphan from 15 years ago
Devon's Silk Spinners

Really? We have to snuggle now??

Almost always, Koko's snuggliness is the coolest thing in the world. Every once in a while, though, his insistence is a bit inconvenient. . .   You should have seen him determinedly ignoring the movement of my wrist under his little head.

 - - Finished Dad's binding. Now for the name-quilting!

The Dress :)

The kids are at prom, looking beautiful as can be, and here is what we did with that purple satin shell, sparkly organza, trim, and a centerpiece:

(camera's not capturing the true purples)

It looks even better on.  :)

Tomorrow it is back to work on dad's quilt!

WIP Wednesday

So. . . Back in town after a wonderful mother-daughter trip to NYC. (I saw the Red and White Quilts at the Armory!!!!!) Scott's back to half-days at work after his stroke, and I'm back to furiously catching up my history coursework. No quilting happening yet, but my needle's not idle! Didn't want to miss a second WIP Wednesday in a row, though.

I won't link this one up since all quilting activity has come to a screeching halt until Sunday.  That is because Saturday night is Prom night in our little town, and we're taking this pretty satin gown. . .

($30 at Ross)

. . .and adding yards of scrumptious purple sparkly organza to get a smashing sensation for under $80.  I've never been able to get perfectly flat seams on the machine with organza (no matter what method or sewing aids I've tried), so all of this is being done by hand. Lots of evening movie time!  Can't wait to see my girl all ritzed up for Prom.  :)