More Gifts...

More gifts for other occasions besides Christmas.

 

Soon-to-be-born niece, Vivienne will receive this flannel quilt, which I made yesterday and today using my own tutorial.

A rice bag, a cover for the rice bag and a handkerchief (for me). I used one of my sewing machine's decorative stitches on the hankie, although you can't really see it. 

StashBusting:
 

Approximately 3 yards flannel
1 yard leftover batting from another project
5" by 18" piece of fabric leftover from another project
10 inches of handkerchief fabric given to me by Grandma

Sewing For Christmas...

I am sewing some things for Christmas gifts, in addition to giving out my home-canned jars of jellies, pie fillings, vanilla extract and other goodies.

Today I made 2 potholders, 2 oven mitts, 1 flannel scarf, and one flannel/fleece blanket.  Not a quilt, I simply sewed flannel to fleece for a light car blanket for a special someone. :) I won't show pictures just yet, as the person will know, by the colors, who the gifts are for!

I bought the flannel at a garage sale - $5 for 6 yards!

Stashbusting:

5 yards of flannel

2 1/2 yards of fleece, leftover from another project

1 yard of muslin, leftover from another project

1 yard of batting, leftover from another project

1 yard of insulating batt, also leftover from another project

1/2 spool of thread

An Autumn Quilt...

My daughter wanted an Autumn quilt made of batiks.  She chose five batiks and sent the fabric to me, to do with as I wished. (Oh, goody! :))

I perused my books and the Internet and finally found a block I liked.  http://www.quilterscache.com/N/NoName2Block.html.  However, when I put the test blocks together, I felt they blended too well. 

Well, this won't work...although the photo is clear, the colors close up were simply too much alike.  The block is dull and has no zing.

 

Wow, the black made it pop!  I sent it to her and she approved.  This is still the No Name Block, just separated by 2 1/2 inch black sashings. 

 

 I had cut the center of the block orange fabric into 4 1/2 inch squares, anticipating many blocks.  However, the other fabrics only made a total of 9 blocks, each 20 inches square.  What to do with the orange blocks??? Why, make them into prairie points!  And put them somewhere on the quilt...like down the sides of each middle block!  A "quilt inspector" cat approved my choice and acted as a weight while I was trying to sew...so I turned off the machine and let her have the quilt for the evening. 
 

 

The finished quilt.  I had to add the dark gold fabric sashings, too.  My daughter wanted a twin size and I wanted it to match, without taking away from the blocks.   

As I was putting the back together, I realized I didn't have enough fabric.  So, the piecing began...I used nearly every scrap of leftover fabric, and still had to add 2 fat quarters, which were not batiks, from my stash. They had every color of the quilt in them, though, so it worked out.  

 

A closeup of one of the center blocks - I bought leaf buttons and sewed them to the prairie points, and then sewed the points down, too.  I domestic machine pieced and domestic machine quilted - Xs in the blocks, and stitch-in-the-ditch for the rest of it. 

The label still needs to be attached, but essentially, this quilt is done!

Stashbusting (not including the 5 batiks my daughter sent as they weren't part of my stash):

5 partly used spools of gold thread

1 yard of gold fabric

2 fat quarters

Yes, it's been a while.  However, I did make a quilt in the past few months. 

 

My niece and grand-niece came to visit, so I bought a used toddler bed for the grand-niece, who is 2 years old.  I then made a quilt for her.  She likes Hello Kitty! so I bought some fabric with the famous kitty on it. 

 

I wanted it to be a row quilt, so it's sort of improvised. All the rows are 5 inches wide.  I made two rows of pinwheels, 2 rows of 5 inch blocks, 2 rows of stripped blocks, 2 rows of Hello Kitty! fabric, and then WOW fabrics between each row.  On the row at the top (Hello Kitty) I put a pink and white lace ruffle between the HK fabric and the WOW fabric. 

 

The matching pillow case was WOW fabric measured to fit a travel pillow, with a Hello Kitty! border and more lace. 

 

 

 

And then, I went to my computer and into Microsoft Word, chose the Edwardian Script font, spelled out her name, blew it up to 300 (it came out on 2 pages it was so large), stuck it under the SECOND row of WOW fabric and lightly sketched her name with a #2 pencil onto the top of the fabric.  Then I hand-embroidered her name in a light blue, thin crochet thread, using a straightline stitch.

 

 

I used batting, and backed it with a pretty flannel print. The binding is more of the HK fabric. About a foot of the quilt is tucked under so you can't see the other rows. 

 

 

She knew the bed was for her...here is Cheyenne, sleeping under her new quilt.

 

 

 

StashBusting: 

About 1 yard of various fabrics

A piece of batting left over from another project

1/2 spool of white thread

 

New fabrics:

1 fat quarter bundle of 5 fabrics (the pinks)

1 yard HK fabric

1 yard flannel 

1 spool of new thread

This is the quilt I messed up by washing it after it was sewn together, but before it was quilted.  I had to take it completely apart, and put new batting a new back on it.  It is for my grand-niece for her 9th birthday.  She loves butterflies and the color green, so the quilt reflects that - a basic 4 patch with wide butterfly fabric borders. The back was folded over to make the binding.

 

 

 

Machine pieced, machine quilted. 1 spool of white thread, 1 twin sheet for backing and about 3 yards of fabric for the front.

Long Absence Is Over...

After holidays, visitors, remodeling, and then sickness, I am finally back to quilting and blogging about my quilts. 

I started a quilt many moons ago, experimenting with a fabric I liked.  Had no idea who to give it to, but I figured it'd find a home eventually. 

So, I put a back, some batting and the quilt top together, and then "birthed" it.  Sewed all around the edges while it was wrong sides together, left a small hole and turned it right side out.  Then I set it aside.  Unfortunately, I set it on the bed...and the dog loved it.  He came in and laid on it with muddy paws after he'd been for a swim in the neighbor's pond. 

Well, I washed it.  And because it wasn't quilted, the batting shredded, and the quilt back, which was 100% cotton muslin, shrank.  Even though I washed both it and the quilt fabrics BEFORE i made the quilt. 

I put it aside for a while, knowing I'd have to remove every stitch. A special birthday is coming up, and I realized this quilt would be perfect for the birthday girl!

So, I took every stitch out...and today, I will be putting it back together as a quilt with a new back.  I'll post photos when I am done.