Sweet Baby!

Oh my goodness, I just had to post this picture as soon as I saw it. This is an updated picture of Leah, my friend Miranda's baby. I'm in process of making quilts for Leah and big sis Jacqueline.

Isn't she the sweetest baby, in her cute lil Pooh outfit?? She's laying on the 4th quilt I ever made (and technically, it was my first finished quilt), given to Jacqueline for Christmas 2007. We had used Miranda's house in Denver as a hotel for a night, as we drove home for Christmas that year. So I had to bring something with me as a thank you. Now I do have to confess...I didn't actually piece the top. It was a remnant of a cheater cloth I found @ my local fabric store for $1. Yep, $1...coupled with some yardage from Joann's bought on sale, I think I spent less than $10 to provide protection for babies laying on the carpet!

Now the first quilt I ever made is still sitting in a box, waiting for the quilting to be completed on it. I should finish it, because I'm proud of my effort...but the thing is, it's sort of ugly (at least in my head). I bought some interesting fat quarters @ Joann's (because I had NO IDEA what I was doing at that point, including fabric buying), and took a beginner quilting class.

My 2nd quilt is the purple quilt you see if you look @ my Blogger profile. It went to my mom for Christmas...she loves purple (her garage door on her house is purple), and it's my favorite that I've made so far. I curl up under it every time I'm there to visit. :) That quilt was hard work, triangles attached to 1" strips...lots and lots of ironing and trimming. I spent one whole quilt class @ Joann's just figuring out my layout for those squares.

Ah, memories!

Flurry of Finishes

So after not completing ANY projects in the month of January, I'm finally on my way to getting some of these things off my plate.


First up, the B&W couch quillow. This is how it looks all pillowed-up; it's very small (11x12, I think), which makes sense, since the quilt is only a yard of fabric (approx. 36"x44"). Next time I do one of these, I think I need to attach the quillow part so that it's not perfectly flat, and allow some wiggle room to convert it into pillow. Seriously, I love the cheater cloth print - looks like I did so much work, when I really did nothing at all!

Second... I finished up the sling bags for friends Miranda & Carrie, using some of the Cotton Blossoms charms, along with some extra CB fabric I bought to coordinate. These suckers are pretty big, so they'll function quite nicely I think. Miranda's straps seem long, but she is a bit taller than me, and maybe her torso is longer than mine. I'll send Mir's with the baby quilts (more below), hopefully it works for her. I'll see Carrie in a couple of weeks; she's flying down to San Diego from Seattle for the weekend right before my birthday, so we'll head down to spend Sunday with her & boyfriend Dave (zoo or Sea World, not sure yet).

Third... I pieced most of the top for Steve's rocket scientist whirly giggles quilt. I don't know what it is, but these whirly giggles mess with my head. I used Michelle's post as a guideline, but things fell apart in my brain. First, she says that the blocks finish to 9"...so I knew I needed 4 to get the size I wanted for the wall-hanging. Except my brain forgot to factor in that I was working with 5" squares, so I wouldn't actually need very many to complete one of the blocks. I think I ended up cutting enough to make 16 blocks - plus I cut double the amount required for the lime green solid. So I have a ton of extra pieces. These pieces came in handy, because then I thought I would be OK cutting a ton of fabric @ once, with the fabric folded up, so the pieces weren't all going the same direction. So I had too many pieces, some with the whirlys going the wrong way.

Any guesses as to what's wrong with the blocks above? If so, you did better than I did when looking @ it for the first time. I didn't even realize until I came back later that I still managed to get the wrong pieces in the quilt - the bottom right corner is all messed up. But I'm not going to take that mess apart, and try to put it back together again. It will stay how it is. You know how they say the Amish intentionally put an error in each quilt to demonstrate humility and how God alone is perfect? Yep, I'm definitely humble, without even trying! I don't why this has been such a brain teaser, but it has been. I think I'll use some of the extra blocks in a pieced back. I did iron everything, so it's all ready to go.

And now for the good stuff... A quilt for Baby Leah:

Most of the pieces are Tula's full-moon forest cut into 5" squares. I mixed some things up, and there are 2 four-patch squares in there, along with 2 5" squares from the Flutterby line. I'm totally in love with this quilt top, the colors in that line play so well with each other. I know I could have done better with the layout, but I just sewed a bunch of squares together, then a bunch more to form 4-block strips before I laid them out to figure out placement. 120 squares is a lot to work with!

Steve thinks the random owl (which is from the same line) is sort of scary-looking...do you agree? I personally love it (but I'm obsessed with owls, so what do I know?)...

And finally...it's Katie's month for Pieced Together, and here are the fabrics she sent. Basically, she wants something ala-Denyse Schmidt / Project Improv. The white is not to be used in the outside of the block. The red & blue are also incorporated to make the quilt cohesive. A lot of people already have their blocks done, so I'm feeling some pressure to work on this. I think I may make a sample block from some of my scraps, just to get the feel for what I'm doing, since I've never done improvisational piecing before.

On the homefront, 2 days without cable & counting. It's been mostly OK; the rain in LA has caused the HD signal to come in a bit fuzzy at points. And I'm going to miss watching Big Love on HBO. But some oldies-but-goodies (at least, to me) got me thru my crafting weekend: Notting Hill & Moulin Rouge. Thank goodness for the portable DVD player, which I can set on the dresser in from of my sewing machine (and that little thing can pump out the sound).

Ok, Mir...time for your opinion...

So I decided to venture over to Santa Monica's Sewing Arts Center because I needed thread during Thursday's lunch break. While there, I had a chat with a lady about the disaster quilt, and she seemed pretty convinced the thrifted sheet was a BAD idea for the backing.

dimensions approximately 37" x 44"

Since I don't think I can rip out my stitches, I'm going to have to start all over again. Fortunately, I bought the quilt kit on sale, so dollars-wise, I'm not out very much at all.

So there are several options for you Mir.

I can salvage most of the blocks from the original quilt (all except 3)...

So...
1) I can rework the original blocks into a smaller, more squarish quilt (more like 37" x 37")

OR, I can completely start over and make something new. I happen to have the perfect fabrics to use...but they shall remain a surprise ;) Although, I will tell you that they are more subdued than the ones above!

So...

2) I can re-do the original quilt in new fabrics

OR - we can do a new pattern - below are some ideas...

3) Disappearing Nine-Patch (this is way easier than it looks, BTW):From Krom Mama

4) Happy Hour quilt:

from CrazyMomQuilts

5) Patchwork Charm squares:

Also CrazyMomQuilts

6) Finn's Quilt:

So those are some choices - none of which is at all complicated, and totally doable.

Mir, your assignment is to pick 2 of the above (or 2 of your own idea, as long as it's relatively simple - squares & rectangles are good for me)...and let me know...

Then I'll pick what I want to do! ;)

Kyle's Batism

No...that's not a typo in the title... Kyle and his mom Elizabeth were baptized this morning...but according to their cake, they were batized:

So I'm mildly concerned about the degeneration of society...if they failed to properly read Elizabeth's perfect "kindergarten" handwriting, I'm much more concerned about other things...

The baptism itself was also entertaining... prior to that part of the service, the little kids @ church portrayed various saints in commemoration of All Saints Day. Pretty cute...but not as cute as little Kyle. He splashed his little paws into the baptism water, which turned out to be a good thing. Some random church helper decided it was a good idea to let the 18-month old be close to the candle he received to mark the occassion. Because, as I'm sure any good mother will tell me, it shouldn't be hard to guess that Kyle's next move was a quick grab around the candle flame. According to Steve, who was at ground zero performing his godfather duties, you just heard a sizzle noise (wet hands, remember). It wasn't until he heard the collective gasp of the congregation that Kyle realized something wasn't quite right about the situation (though he wasn't hurt), and went a little balistic. The little tyke was completely fine, and the rest of the service way more boring after Kyle-the-fire-killer has his moment in the spotlight! :)

Baby Bib - Never Again!

I followed the tutorial at Crazy Mom Quilts very loosely for this bib. By loosely, I mean that I didn't realize I should have just stippled the pieces in recentangle format, then cut out of the pattern. I, of course, did it the hard way - cut the pieces of the pattern, then stippled. And I decided not to make a snap for the neck - I just wanted a tie back.

Then came the binding...using 1/4" premade binding (too lazy to attempt to make some, plus not sure what fabric I would have used). See "Death by Pins" below...

Then came time to put on the binding around the inner neck - what a disaster! This is the reason I won't be doing this again - at least, not in this manner. I couldn't get it to go on straight, I kept missing the fabric w/my stitches, etc. etc. WAY TOO much work for such a little bib. I think I like the idea of turning the fabrics, and just using a snap/velcro to keep the ends together. You could still stipple after turning the fabric...

Final result - pretty decent stipple (but it is really small, so that's why I think it works). Two sided - notice the yucky dimply curved inner binding, contrasting nicely with the pretty outside binding.

*sigh* I just love that airplane fabric though :)

Crafty Update

I've been busy with these:Stuff for Baby Girl Rademacher (clockwise from top left):
1) shaggy quilt (which I didn't really have fun making, I may not do this again);
2) girly tote w/helicopters, airplanes, rockets (Branden is getting his PhD in Aerospace engineering, and complains its hard to find girly things w/airplanes on them - so I think I succeeded in meeting his challenge with fabric from Purl);
3) gift package - tote, blanket, and the requisite copy of Fox in Socks; and
4) inside fabric of tote (red w/cream stars) and shaggy quilt.

Hopefully I will also get a bib made with the fun fabric the tote is made of.

I'm also trying to free-motion quilt Miranda's Baby #2 quilt...

...with limited success... I can't get the needle to stop breaking - or its skipping too much. Hmmm... I think I need to take a class...

And this was pretty fun to make (about an hour) - now I just need to find some more cute dish towels:The pattern was in the August 2008 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

I'm a winner!

So I don't quite remember how I stumbled upon it, but I entered a contest for a baby gift set from the Whimsical Stork. But anywho, I won a gift set! Which is awesome, because its nice to have something to give that I don't have to make... I make for those whom I know will appreciate my little clumsy creations!

A side note - I think I'll actually really enjoy reading the Accidental Mommies when I actually become one myself - for now, I just like to win contests!