The Froggy-Girl Quilt is Complete!

One of my cousins, actually one of my cousins' granddaughters, loves frogs. She's 40 years old and legally blind. She has very limited vision; she started losing her vision at 3 years old. She's a trained chef and loves photography. She works as a nanny. And she's one of my favorite people.  

When I cut out the frogs from the Tula Pink fabric, I didn't have enough, so I threw in some owls! The quilt top measures 48 inches square.  

A close-up of the Dragonflies panto.

 

May your bobbins always be full,

What time is it?

It's binding time!  These six quilts need binding!  Two are queen-size and the others are lap quilts.  I better get busy because my LAQ has six more; three will be ready at the end of June and three will be ready at the end of July.  

This pandemic has really kept me busy making quilts.  I'd rather be creating than binding, but, "Oh, Well"!

 

May your bobbins always be full,

The Froggy-Girl Quilt Top

When I was working on the two Best Friends QAL quilt tops, one of my favorite people reminded me that she LOVES frogs!  She is my cousin's granddaughter.  She's 40 years old and legally blind.  She has limited vision; she started losing her vision at 3 years old.  She's a trained chef and loves photography.  She works as a nanny.

When I cut out the frogs from the Tula Pink fabric, I didn't have enough, so I threw in some owls!  The quilt top measures 48 inches square.

 

May your bobbins always be full,

Doll Quilts

I finished the doll quilts for my cousin.  They are small - 19" square and 21" square.  I'm really happy with how they turned out.  You can read about the process here if you're interested.  I did the quilting on these; doll quilts are the only items that get quilted on my small machine.

My cousin doesn't need them until December, so I'll get them in the mail to her after the September guild meeting.  I want to be able to show that I've actually finished something!  I've been traveling a lot and that really cuts into the stitching time.

May your bobbins always be full,

Doll Quilt Tops

One of my favorite people, Cousin B, is legally blind.  She has very limited vision, so she can't drive or sew.  She works as a nanny for a couple that she met in culinary school before her sight worsened.  B asked me to make two doll quilts for the two little girls she takes care of.  They're having a baby brother or sister in December and B wants to give them a quilt for their dolls.

For the first quilt top, I used leftover HSTs from the last Autumn Leaf quilt I made 3 years ago.  You can see a lot of the same fabrics in the original quilt.

I don't know about you, but I find this chain-piecing method an easy way to assemble a quilt top.

For the 2nd quilt top, I decided to use some of the leftover 3.5-inch scraps from the same Autumn Leaf quilt.  I played around with the squares for a couple of days, see below, before deciding that I needed to do more with them.  I snowballed opposite corners on each square and put them together for the completed top.  Much better.  It was far too windy for an outdoor photo, so the front door works well.

I have to take a break from sewing, I'm leaving for Iceland next week, so I need to pack and get things organized.  These two doll quilts will be sandwiched and quilted upon my return.

May your bobbins always be full,

Mail Sack Bags

Six Mail Sack bags finished!

A couple of weeks ago I did a fabric pull of canvas.  My cousin Brooke is legally blind, she can see about 10% of what she should, so she really can't sew.  She sent me a photo of a bucket bag, nothing special, and asked if I could make one.  I told her, Sure, but wouldn.t you rather have something like this:

I'd made these two for Sharon and myself.  So I made Brooke a Mail Sack bag, and when it was finished, I thought, "That was fun, I think I'll make some more!  In the last two weeks, I've made a total of six mail sack bags.

I've worn glasses since I was 8 years old, for 64 years.  This bag is for me!

All the bags have the same aqua and white polka-dot lining and mixed up pockets.  I think those have become my signature.  Now, I ready to get back to the Lawn Diamond quilt that I took a much needed break from.

May your bobbins always be full,

Mail Sack Cross Body Bag, #1

This is the Mail Sack Bag I made for my cousin Brooke.  I used the lovely Melody Miller fabrics, love them.  The bags go together pretty quickly.

Multi-color pockets were the one change I made for this version.  I like this variation so much that I think I'll do any future Mail Sack bags this way.  My initial thought was that the different fabric will help "inside-the-bag organization, but the idea is more for me than Brooke!

Lots of photos!

The pockets are huge, each about 8.5 x 6.5 inches.  Huge!

The last shot, in the guest bathroom!

May your bobbins always be full,

Pale Geese Heading North, quilt is finished

This quilt was made entirely of scraps; mainly the scraps from another quilt.  I made it with someone special in mind, as a surprise.  The recipient is a wonderful young woman, my cousins' granddaughter.  No one who would leak the secret reads the blog, so it's just between us bloggers, for now.

I love all the quilts I make, and this one is no exception.  Janiel and I decided on Dyed Natural for the thread and Simple Feathers for the quilting.  I think it's perfect.  I used pale yellow (Kona) for the binding.

This is the super scrappy back!  The quilt measures 63" x 63".

May your bobbins always be full,

Pale Geese, Heading North.

I've been busy, I just haven't been posting.  When I finished Carrie's quilt I had lots of leftover 4" squares and some HSTs, too.  I decided to make a different design with these, and I set about designing a layout.  I ended up needing more 4" squares, so I cut those and started stitching.  I used the same methodology as last time, stitching one 6 x 6 square at a time.  Man is that easier, with this type of design.

The quilt top measures 62" x 62".

A couple of close-ups, to show the "geese".

And a view from the back, so you can see some of our California sunshine.  Next, I'll be piecing the quilt back.

May your bobbins always be full,

Keeping it simple

I had a quilt block and a half, leftover from the blocks I made for the quilt top,  I used those to make an interest point for the quilt back.  I turned it side-ways and centered the bottom of the block half-way down the quilt back.  I'm going to hold this and any new quilts I make, to be quilted after the first of the year.  I'm not in a hurry, and I think my long arm quilter appreciates me not loading her down during the Holiday rush.

May your bobbins always be full,

Dolce Quilt Top is finished.

I'm completely in love with how this quilt top came out.  The quilt top measures 49" x 56.5".  I used all 24 prints in the Dolce collection.  The finished quilt will be for one of my cousins.  These are absolutely her colors.  Now, I've got to think about the quilt back.

This is Max.  He's our new neighbors' cat.  He visits our backyard on a regular basis.  This is the first time he hasn't dashed off when one of us came outside.  He comes and munches grass, they don't have grass, and watches the birds at the birdfeeders.  I'm deathly allergic to cats, but I like all animals and am always happy to see him.

May your bobbins always be full,

Making progress

I've slowly but surely been making progress on the Dolce quilt top I'm working on.  First, I cut the FQs into two sets of rectangles, 24 - 4.5" x 14.5" and 48 - 4.5" x 7.5".  Then I cut my accent fabric.

My next step was attaching an accent piece to one side of each piece, top and bottom of the longer pieces.  After pressing the seam to the print side, I attached an accent piece to the opposing side.  Repeat the pressing, and I have this:

Tomorrow, I'll stitch two smaller pieces together, accent edge in the middle, then join that piece with a larger piece.  That will be my basic block.  I have my work cut out for myself.

In other news, I've been contacted by two different women, who both live in Florida; each of them wants me to make her a custom quilt.  Amy wants a queen size modified Plus Quilt and Betty wants a king size Autumn Maple Leaf Quilt, in reds and white.  I'm just waiting for the deposit(s), before I order fabric!

May your bobbins always be full,

I have a stack of fabric!

Specifically 24 fat quarters of Dolce by Tanya Whelan.  I bought these FQs over 4 years ago, when I first started quilting.  I've decided it's time to use them in a quilt, something like this:

pin, source

I also like the looks for the "Upstream" quilt by Cozy Quilt Designs; but I don't like the pattern instructions or methods.

I'll be doing my own thing, combining ideas into a new quilt.

May your bobbins always be full,