Tag Archives: quilt

of water heaters and the royal wedding

2 May

I don’t know if this happens to other sewists, but often when I look back at a project I remember what was going on while I was working on it.

While piecing together my desserts quilt…

I was watching the first season of Jamie Oliver’s food revolution.

It took forever to baste my graphic bricks quilt…

because I was caught up in “Vincent and the Doctor” and “the Lodger” from Doctor Who.

I just finished this quilt.  It’s for the kids to curl up in during movie night.  Lulu chose all the fabric, kindly keeping in mind that she loves monkeys and cj loves owls.

I was having a new water heater installed while I was piecing the blocks.  I tried to distract myself with the cutting of the triangles, in an effort to ignore the pounding that was going on in the basement.  (who knew moving some pipes around could be so noisy?)

By the time I was ready to finish the binding, it was the royal wedding day.  I was able to stitch my way through the ceremony and ended up with a perfect quilt for the kids’ movie night.

broken fence quilt

10 Apr

I just love this Freebird line from MoMo.  I also used it for the spots quilt that now lives with my mom.  The colors are rich, the patterns are bold, and what’s not to love about all of those different polka dots?

I based the block design on a traditional rail fence pattern, although those are usually more unified in color and made of staight lines.  That’s why I decided this is more of a “broken” fence for me.

The back has some more of the pieced blocks along the right side.  These block are next to a band of print that is one of my favorite pieces of fabric around.  I just love those big blue trees.

Inspired by the some the sashiko embroidery that’s been popping up around the interweb, I quilted it with chocolate brown thread in a ripple pattern, wider ripples at the top that get closer together as they spread out across the quilt.  I’m really pleased with the how well the wave effect turned out.

It’s listed at etsy and big cartel.

If you would like it to come live with you, just let me know.

 

where i’ve been hiding

31 Mar

A yarn shop opened about 3 blocks from my house.  Honestly if my little town would get a quilt shop I would never have to leave the city limits again.

At my first stop, I found the yarn.  Then came home to start knitting and realized I didn’t have a size 2 needle.  No problem.  All I had to do was walk back up the hill.  At this point, I knew I had to switch to a size 6 for the crown, but did I check to see if I had a 6 – of course not.  A couple of days later the brim was done, I was digging for 6 but only came up with 8 and 9.  No problem.  I really like having a yarn shop in town.

The pattern is “aloof” from hattitude, a book of knitted hats that a friend gave me for the birthday.

I’ve also been working on a quilt.

I’ve have definitely been eating far too many of these.

I’ve been patching jeans.

I’ve also discovered that iLs takes a serious commitment.  I didn’t really think an hour a day, 5 times a week would really bite into a schedule, but it does.

The other thing I didn’t expect was to see a such change in him, but that’s a story for another day.

There has also been play dough.  This time it’s blue.

play dough

1 cup flour

1/3 cup salt

1 Tablespoon cream of tartar

1 cup of water

1 Tablespoon oil

liquid food coloring

Mix flour, salt, cream of tartar, water, and oil.  Place over low heat.  Stirring constantly until it is the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Remove from heat.  Add food coloring.  Stir until color is blended.  Knead dough until smooth.

blue cross quilt

14 Mar

I didn’t plan to make a postage stamp quilt, but it seems that’s what I ended up doing.

I knew I wanted to do a black and white quilt.  I already had a great mix of black & white and black & off white geometrics.

I knew I wanted to bind it in a bright color and this blue jumped out at me from the shelf.

I started out by cutting 4 1/2″ squares, but they were too big for what I had in mind.  I ended up cutting each of them into quarters.  I loved the look until I started to stitch them up – all those little corners to match up.  I randomly stitched blue corners on some of the blocks just to add a little color.  I was afraid I was going to run out of blocks so I decided to add the blue cross to use up some space.  I’m so glad I did.  I think it makes the quilt top much more interesting.

I didn’t have a plan for the back until I was wondering around the shop with the blue under my arm and spotted Kate Spain’s Central Park line.

It’s machine quilted with an old gold thread.

I didn’t want it to be too  structured since the blocks were already arranged in a strong grid.  I decided to go with a wandering diagonal.  I didn’t use guides so that the stitching lines would have a bit of flow to them.

It’s listed for sale over at etsy and big cartel.

snowy tuesday

11 Jan

cj was to start a new OT program today, but the weather got in the way.

I was up and ready for the day so I sent the kids off to school and caught up on some things in the kitchen.

The spouse drank his way through another batch of cocoa mix, so I stirred up yet another batch.  Our milk was getting a little close to the edge so I made some rice pudding.

I have had a box of chocolate chex on the shelf since Christmas and finally mixed up some puppy chow.  I also bit the bullet yesterday and started cutting up the echino helicopters for cj’s quilt.  I have been stitching on those today too.

When cj saw the first few block he announced they were “perfect!”

 

the quilt is in the mail

10 Jan

It seems my brother hasn’t picked up his mail in a while.  Either that, or he did pick up his mail and doesn’t like his Christmas present.  Of course, the third possibility is the postman decided he was getting a bit chilled with all the snow and decided to cozy up with it himself.  However having known my brother all my life, I’m going with the first option.

The front has Civil War battle scenes along with portraits of Lee and Grant and confederate and union money.  I based the pattern loosely (very loosely) on the idea of a flag, blue and white on the left red and white stripes on the right.

The border is a repeat of the Gettysburg address in Lincoln’s handwriting.

The back has a bit of piecing with the battle scene panels in bands of blue and ivory stars and stripes.  It’s channel quilted every inch or so and bound with a burgundy and khaki floral.

If it turns out it was the postman, I’m hoping the postman is as much of a history buff as my brother.

lulu’s ladder

6 Jan

Lulu is in first grade and it seems they do a lot of fun work with different patterns.  She was playing around with blocks at home and came up with this.

We thought it would be a great pattern for a quilt.

I decided to go with Hunky Dory by Chez Moi for Moda.  Along with some solid ivory squares from a charm pack.

 

I love the way it turned out.

I did outline quilting to accentuate the blocks.

 

I’m especially pleased with the back.  I love those deep blues and bright pinks together.

It will be posted in shop by the end of the day.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →