Past and Present

Goals for 2014 - Review

• 3 twin quilts for 2 more nieces and a nephew.  These were due in February, March & April for birthdays, rather than Christmas.  DONE! But the nephew's quilt wasn't completed until Christmas. And I also made a 4th for another niece and a queen-sized quilt for my cousin.

• I want to make some of the fabric baskets from Sunday Morning Quilts. First, I need to organize my scraps.  Wish I had some of those baskets completed already to put them in. :) One slab created, but need another to make a basket.

• Make a couple of charity quilts for little ones. No progress on this yet :(
• Learn how to make a zippered pouch.  I've bookmarked some great-looking ones I've seen on other blogs. Made several Noodlehead Open Wide pouches and a boxy one, too!

• I read in someone's blog that they always cut a couple of 5" charms and 2.5" mini charms from most or all of their fabric as they go.  That's a great idea in order to build up stock for scrappy quilts, so Im going to try to get into that habit, too. This may have been more ambitious than I can realistically keep up with.

Goals for 2015

• Birthday crowns for the twins' 4th birthday in April.
• Complete some charity quilts.
• Complete the fabric basket that's already in-progress.
• Make something for me! Maybe a slab quilt from Sunday Morning Quilts.
• Try some new techniques on smaller-scale projects.
• Non-sewing related - purge my house of things I don't need anymore. Besides fabric, there's not a lot of stuff I want or really need.  This will be a long-term project.

What projects do you have planned for this year?

Linked to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Two Additional Christmas Finishes

I completed quilts for another niece and nephew just in time for Christmas.  Roxi and Aidan are siblings and I wanted to do their quilts at the same time.

Aidan is nearly 10, so I didn't want to use any cartoon-y fabric that he would outgrow.  It took months to accumulate multiple prints that would work.  I just did simple 6 1/2" strips of varying lengths (6.5, 13 and 26").

I used excel to plot my layout of the seven different fabrics.

I found a great Day of the Dead skulls print, as well as a flame print. I also bought several yards at an end-of-bolt sale of Black Cross Hatch from the Stella Blvd. Puppy Park collection. That fabric made up the majority of the back.

The right edge was off in some places after I pieced the top. I may have cut one of the long strips shorter than I meant to.  After I quilted it together, I measured 72" from the left in multiple spots and connected those marks so I could trim it even before binding.

Here's a closer look at the fabrics:

Here's the back:

I just stitched in the ditch for this one and used the Cross Hatch fabric for the binding.  

My nephew was shocked to find out this was handmade just for him.

Roxi's quilt was my third Yellow Brick Road. She likes pink, purple and blue, so I collected new fabrics as to not repeat from the other two I made last year.  I did re-use one purple print, as it was also used in Roxi's birthday crown and I wanted that connection.

This one went together more quickly now that I'm familiar with the pattern.

A closer look at some of the fabric:

I also did pretty well with the machine binding on this one. The purple batik looked great and I loved that Hello Kitty chevron!

Always something to be learned from a project, but mostly I get so much enjoyment from making something the kids in our family will cherish for years to come!

Linked to Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Big Christmas Finish

I haven't posted since July as I've been working on three quilts for Christmas presents. One was a surprise for my cousin and her husband. Usually when working on the kids' quilts, I'd be sending her fabric selection and progress shots.  This time I had to work extra-hard to not slip and say anything.

The pattern is Hip 2 Be Square.  I saw it in my LQS a couple of years ago and bought it, vowing I would make it some time.  What I didn't realize at the time was this was written for a full-size quilt and had no other size options.  I needed to MacGyver this pattern into a queen.  I consulted the helpful ladies at Gina's Bernina on how I might be able to accomplish this.  We decided on expanding the number of fabrics utilized instead of just increasing the amount of fabric for the original number of prints on the pattern.

The feature fabric is a Robert Kaufman Totally Tropical sea turtle print I found online.  My cousin loves sea turtles and we got to see them during a trip to Mexico in 2013.

I used excel to draw out columns & rows to make it the desired size.  The original size is outlined in bold.  I also color-coded the five blocks and did a dry run at their order.

In laying out the 12 1/2-inch squares, I realized some of them were wonky.  Off so much in some places that I wouldn't have 1/4" or close to that for a seam allowance.  

It took some time and there wasn't much help on the internet, so I'm talking about this in the hopes it may help someone else in a similar situation.  I did multiple searches and finally found someone who admitted she trimmed down squares to make it work.  The easiest way I could think to accomplish this was to go to a glass shop and get a 12-inch square piece of plexiglass.  I drew diagonal lines and horizontal and vertical mid-point lines so I could center the various styles of squares. It worked!

First I went with seven columns and eight rows of the trimmed squares.  I placed it on my guest bed to see how it looked.  I wasn't quite happy with the drop on the sides, as I remembered she had a taller mattress.  I stewed on that for a couple of weeks while working on another project, and ultimately added an eighth column before piecing the back and taking it to the long arm quilter. There was a 4 1/2-inch border of smaller squares, but I opted not to add them.

I think it turned out well, considering it was my first queen and the wonky block problem.   It was the only non-rainy day before Christmas and it was very cold, so these pics were taken very quickly.

Here's a closer look at the different blocks and fabrics:

Debbie at Smoky Mountain Quilts performed magic with her long arm and also did the binding.  I believe the pattern is called Calm Water or it's something close to it.  Debbie used a variegated blue-green thread that worked very well on the quilt.

My cousin was very surprised when she opened up her present.  I know this quilt has a great home!

Linking up to Finish It Fridays at Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?