Finish Report :D Baby English 1.0 w/Book Set

Another finish that I'm so in love with.  :D

Baby English 1.0
40" x 40"

This quilt is for my youngest sister, who's about to have her first baby. It's one of this year's rare not-UFO/NETY projects. I knew I wanted to do a mix-and-white chevron or diamond HST layout so I could play with some cool Free-Motion Quilting in the white bands.I also needed to stick to stash during this UFO/stash-busting year. Plus, there is ZERO fabric budget for at least another 4 months of wallet tightness. Moving and then unexpected attorney costs will do that!

So, in my stash I found yards and yards of this fun Owl and the Pussycat fabric. Grabbed some blues to play with it, grabbed that shrinking Kona-snow bolt I'd bought on a super-sale a couple years ago, and went to work.

My inspiration was this chevron quilt made by Kathy at Tamarack Shack, who was totally cool with me mimicking the quilting.

But then I wanted to make my fmq coordinate with the novelty print, which has these bead-looking strands and the sailboat-on-the-sea thing going. (Mastering the spirals fill will have to wait.)  So I did rows of pearls against the blue bands to make those pop out more and put wave-evoking spirals down the centers. I free-hand marked those somewhat, because I couldn't stitch them out with consistent spacing otherwise. I did use cotton thread (that's the 50wt Aurifil there), which pulls minky fluff through from the back. You can see the blue pops in the stitches. But in this particular case, it had an enhancing effect, so I didn't use poly thread to get away from that. (I don't want this effect on the current FMQ work, which also has a minky back, so I'm using a poly thread there. More on that in a couple weeks.)

I just love the dimensionality created by the simple single-line quilting down the blues. You can kind of see here how they pop out so well:

The batting is a thin poly, but it's coupled with a minky back, which adds to the puff. It's about the same as the puff you'd get with a thick poly and a normal quilter's cotton back. I am always completely enchanted with the quilting on a minky back!

I had enough of the blue plaid left to use that for the binding. Turned out great!

As I was cutting the blues, I thought "I really need to try to use more of this print!" (There's this *crazy* yardage of it - something like 8 altogether. No clue what I was thinking. I must have picked it up at a yard sale or something.)  So I decided to make a tote to go with the quilt.  

And then, of course, I needed to get the book to go *in* the tote to go with the quilt. And I found a hard copy with cover art that goes with the fabric so perfectly!  

I used Poppyseed Fabric's tutorial here. Tweaked it a little to incorporate some of the left-over HST's, which I'd made using the 8-at-once method that Lynn describes here. So fast!!!

Now I'm just waiting for a name to do the label, and then this set will sail off to Texas.  :D

(Selma says: "Hi! Whatcha doin'?!"

~*~*~*~

Linking up at

Michelle's "Let's Make Baby Quilts!"

Thearica's "It's a Saturday Sharing Day!"

TGIFF

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

Link-a-Finish Friday

"Mom, Can I Have a Hanging Bed?" & My Second Quilt

I have an unusual, but very fun finish to share! And it's my husband's, not mine, but I'm just so amazed at what he accomplished. :D

We are a very tall family, and the girls are all teens and young adults now. So when we moved, we traded their beds out from twins and bunks to queens and a full. Our 15yo has an eye for uniqueness and asked me: "Mom, can I have a hanging bed?"

The idea intrigued me, so I surfed the Internet looking at several hanging beds, then trying to find a source to buy one. The only source I found was a man in New England who makes them in his barn. Several thousand dollars. Unimaginable shipping costs (recycled architectural wood and mining cart braces). Very cool. Waaaay out of our wallet's league.

But Scott was just as intrigued as I, and we did have good wood available in the old bunk frames. So he got creative and went to work.


Designing.

Cutting.

Painting.

Building.

Supporting.  (Doubled-up 2x4's with steel angle reinforcers straddle the trusses at each of the four corners, through which a long eye-bolt thingamob is bolted.)

Crawling.

      

Did you catch that flashlight/facemask combo?  ;D

Lights your way while keeping your face from freezing when it's 9 degrees outside - and blocks the insulation fluff when you want to breathe. . . 

Whipping.

Installing.

Voila!!

By the way: That quilt is the second one I made, back in 1990. It was a quilt-in-a-day project that several wives did together in the lunch hall at USUHS (the military medical school). All but one of the blacks has faded to gray. My color scheme was all black and white with only the varying print levels to distinguish. It turned out really awesome that way. It has extra-thick poly batting, as it was intended to be our winter quilt. She has it on her bed right now because she loves tons of blankets. But the real topper is her luscious, pure black, fake-fur coverlet:

Bama Bound 1, 2, and 3 are Ready to Go!

Yay!  6 finishes to add to 2011 - all unexpected projects, but everything came out of my stash (except the little stuffed friends) and one item came off my insane UFO list that would have undoubtedly been there until 2012. 

I sure wish I hadn't had occasion to drop my other projects and do this one, but too many families due north of us lost their homes to the Alabama tornadoes. I was more than happy to help Bama Bound Quilts.  (Please check them out, and pass the word along if you can.)

You know, the trouble with getting the camera to read colors correctly just drives me nuts. I have to admit, it's rather interesting, because it's different in different lightings, as well as from fabric to fabric. For example, this may be the only photo in which the purple fleece on the back of that center quilt actually looks the way it does. The purple in the flannel, though - in reality, it's the same as the darker purple in the floral pocket accents, which look pretty close to true life in this picture. Weird.

The totes turned out so cute, I'm going to have to make one for our house, too. The outer shell is flannel, lined completely with a black twill. Pretty sure there's enough of both fabrics left to do one up.

 

These 3 quilts all came from a UFO that was at least 15 years old. I'd found it - lost and forgotten - in a plastic bag in an obscure closet corner when I made my Clean Sweep Round-Up in January. 

Two are baby/toddler size, and while the last one is too small as far as a bed cover or play mat go, it's the perfect size for a toddler/preschooler to carry around and snuggle with. So I'm sending it as well. They all have either fleece or flannel backs, for maximum coziness and tactile delight. 

I'm pretty certain that the UFO happily underwent the pains of the seam ripper, now that it gets to go snuggle with not just one person, but three little girls who will hopefully get a little comfort out of an unknown friend's efforts. 

Oh - and I love labels so much - found this free label graphic somewhere online and thought it worked PERFECTLY with these quilts. Thank you to everyone who shares such files - they make the world a better place.  :) 

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.  :)