For Special Little People

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My latest quilts are for two special little people. The first is a “big boy” quilt for the boy who’s going to be a big brother. The second is for the baby, who isn’t here yet!

First, here’s the Big Boy quilt. His Mother says he likes Mickey Mouse, but when I looked at those fabrics it seemed like he’d outgrow them too fast. However, he’s playing with a ball whenever we see him, and his Dad coaches football, so his quilt has a team sports theme, with basketballs, footballs, and baseballs.

That blue baseball pennant may or may not be hiding a little boo-boo…

The baby’s room has a Sesame Street theme! I guess that’s coming back around, because I found the fabric with no difficulty.

Both quilts are backed with light-weight poly fleece so they feel yummy. There’s no batting, so they’re light enough to be dragged around and made into tents. And the designs of the tops are simple, allowing the fabrics to shine.

So, after 10 years of making children’s’ quilts for a number of young friends, here are my recommendations:

  1. Choose a fabric that is likely to interest the child for the next 5 years.
  2. Use a simple pattern. Nobody’s looking at your piecing; they’re looking at the cute fabric. Ask me how I know.
  3. Also, use a simple pattern because who EVER starts these things with time to spare?
  4. Back with poly fleece and don’t add batting. Feedback from my grandkids tells me this is the most practical, kid-friendly way to do it.

Anybody have anything to add?

I Took Another Class

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I love taking classes, even though, after 40 years of quilting, I often know most of what’s being taught. Most teachers have a technique or perspective that adds something to my skills, and sometimes a class is an opportunity to make a quilt I wouldn’t make otherwise.

Therefore, I signed up for David Sirota‘s Zoom class on paper piecing, in which we made the storm at sea quilt. Or rather, I made some blocks and perhaps others made the whole quilt. Whatever.

That being said, I DID make a whole Storm at Sea quilt back in 2019. I used Deb Tucker’s tools and it came out just fine with no hassle.

Love at Sea was made in 2019 using Deb Tucker’s tools.

The heart design in the quilt is a modification of Storm at Sea done by Marti Michel years and years ago; I just copied it. Eventually I gave the quilt to a friend for her new baby.

Anyway, David Sirota’s class. I took it because he’s a master paper piecer, and I’ve been doing a lot of New York Beauty blocks, which surely require paper piecing. I thought I might learn something, and I did!

David has some excellent advice on “the paper” for paper piecing and some nice techniques for accomplishing the piecing as well. Much of it is available as videos through his website. (Are they even called videos these days, or are they now called YouTubes?)

The class was well run and David is an interesting teacher. His techniques worked quite well.

So why did I make only one block? I simply lost interest in the project after I’d learned what I could from it. The block joins a number of other “orphan blocks” set aside for future projects.

The good news is that one of my guilds recently set out a call for orphan blocks. I’m going to look that up and see how many I have that meet their requirements!

Class With Cindy Grisdela

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When attending the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival this spring I took a class with Cindy Grisdela and attended her lecture about color. Both were worthwhile.

Cindy’s class was based on her Full Wild quilt, which she entered in QuiltCon. Here’s a picture of her with the quilt, taken from her blog:

When I got home I wanted to let most of the blocks I made in class rest for a while, but I did make a small wall hanging with one of them. It’s called Drip, and I’m not crazy about it but I just had to do something with one of those blocks!

The rest of the blocks I put away because I want to consider what other colors to add. My usual problem is using TOO MANY colors, so I tried to restrain myself. Now I want to add more colors. Here’s a picture of some of the blocks just before the blocks were put away–they aren’t joined yet.

To be continued.

In her color lecture, Cindy suggested making a color wheel, saying it would be interesting to see what you had in your stash. Here’s my snapshot of her color wheel.

When I recovered from the recent quilt show (Heart of the Triad, blog is here), I decided to make a more elaborate color wheel. I drew it in EQ8 and printed templates from my drawing.

This was a fun project, AND I had all of those fabrics right here in my stash! I couldn’t resist using the light grey Tula Pink fabric with all the fun colors as background. The color wheel finished about 18″ square.

Anyway, I enjoyed Cindy’s lecture and her class, and I recommend both if you have the opportunity to attend.

 

Some Scrappy Fun

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When you’ve been quilting as long as I have, you own an endless supply of scraps (and sometimes not much yardage). Therefore, here are a few more recent scrap quilts, all for donation to various places.

This first one was made from blocks I used as leaders and enders. I took a bag of single-color scraps and joined them randomly, sometimes inserting a spark of another color just for fun. The background is a navy fabric with fun gold swirls that I’ve had for some time and needed to use!

Happy Scrappy, 61″ x 69″; this one will go to Flying Horse Farm

This next quilt was made from a free pattern called Wickedly Easy Quilts, available at byannie.com. However, be aware that the format on the site has changed since I got the pattern. It used to be just a free pattern; now it’s part of a free course. Whatever.

As I’ve mentioned before, I cut my scraps into standard widths and store them that way. This quilt was made by pulling blues, greens, and orange accent strips from those storage drawers.

Wickedly Easy quilt, 49″ x 49″; this is a lap quilt for the senior center

Finally, here is another Circle of Nine quilt using improvisational blocks made from a combination of orphan blocks and scraps.

Circle of 9 quilt, 54″ x 54″, a lap quilt for the senior center

Do you have a favorite scrap quilt pattern or method?

Heart of the Triad Quilt Show

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One of the guilds to which I belong (Heart of the Triad) recently had a quilt show. Most of the members seem to be traditional quilters, but I was impressed with many of the quilts even if they weren’t my style. That said, here are some of my favorites, which may not be typical of the show as a whole!

Best of show was this beautiful, detailed, applique quilt. I can’t imagine how long it took!

Flower Garden, made by Micol Parsons and quilted by Wendy Hughes

There were several graphic designs that caught my eye.

Wonky Squares is an improv quilt made and quilted by Teri Craven

Every Which Way was pieced and quilted by Teri Craven as well–I think I’ve found someone who shares my taste!

Here are a couple of unusual ones that I especially enjoyed.

Got Bored in Physics Class, pieced and quilted by Bette Brownlow, was notable for its unusual techniques and fun title

Periodic Table of Quilting & Embroidery by Lori Peterson included applique, piecing, and machine embroidery. This picture shows only part of it so you can see some detail. It was very impressive.

The guild challenge was to make an original quilt that included at least one heart and some plant(s).

Down at the Barn, by Ellen Hart, won first place in the guild challenge.

Scrappy by Linda Fishel

Big Billz by Sharon Dorminy

Where the Bears Are by Ellen Hart

Elaine’s Quilt, made and quilted by Gerry Lou Wray from a Quiltworx pattern

Of course there were many more wonderful quilts; it was hard to choose which to include in this post. I hope you belong to a guild with equally good quilters!

 

Two Interesting Discoveries

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I just found a couple of interesting things online that I thought I’d pass on.

First, Rebecca Bryan published another blog on how to choose colors for a quilt. Mind you, it’s about only one of many possible color “recipes” but I thought her explanation was unusually well done. I personally choose my colors intuitively, but I know many people agonize over fabric choice, so I thought some of you might want to see her article. The link is here, and she has additional articles on choosing colors if you’re interested.

Rebecca designs wonderful quilts, too. Here’s one I made years ago from her book Modern Triangle Quilts. The color choices are mine, and I added a few blocks that weren’t in the book, but the pattern is basically hers. (Modern Triangle Quilts was published in 2017, so you probably can get it for less now through AbeBooks. And no, this is not an affiliate link.)

“Triangle Variations” did not get to go to a quilt show due to COVID

Back of “Triangle Variations”

The other thing that caught my eye is a class, via Creative Spark, on using African fabrics in “quilts, crafts, and more”. I recently bought some African wax cloth, thinking it would liven up some of the solids I often use, so I’ll probably take this class.

The same ideas probably would apply to use of these aboriginal designs.

The presenters for this class, Carole Lyles Shaw and Lisa Shepard Stewart, discuss the distinction between appreciation and appropriation. (I’ve been interested in THAT topic since a prominent designer was accused of cultural appropriation a few years ago.)

I’ll let you know if I take the class. It will be a minute because I have a couple of other class-related projects to finish at the moment (I’m a sucker for anywhere I might learn something).

Have you used ethnic designs in your work? Any thoughts?

 

Flying Horse Farm Quilts

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Please note if you live in Central North Carolina: One of the guilds I belong to is having a quilt show soon!2024 card.JPEG

One of my other quilt groups makes quilts for Flying Horse Farm, a camp for children with serious illnesses. Here are my contributions for this spring.

This quilt was inspired by Maryline Collioud-Robert’s Carnival Quilt, in which she mixed many striped fabrics with her scraps. I didn’t use her pattern, just her idea of including lots of striped fabric. However, here’s the link to her pattern if you’re interested.

Quilt Stats

Name: Strips with Stripes

Finished size: 60″ x 72″

Designed by: me, with inspiration from Maryline Collioud-Robert

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

Here is the second Flying Horse Farm quilt:

This quilt is inspired by the Bento Box pattern I had years ago and made several quilts from. The pattern has been re-issued and I bought it, but I do not like the new instructions at all! Therefore I completely re-designed the construction process and made this my way.

And here’s a peek at the back of the quilt–more scraps used!

Quilt Stats

Name: Bento Box Revised

Finished size: 60″ x 72″

Designed by: me, with inspiration from the original Bento Box pattern

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

These were both fun, easy (as revised by me) quilts. I used the scrappy one at the top as leaders-and-enders and it came together quickly.

 

Finally, here is a scrap quilt called “Blue Sky and Sunshine”–my husband says the name is corny but I like it 😀

Quilt Stats

Name: Blue Sky and Sunshine

Finished size: 61″ x 73″

Designed by: me, using up orphan blocks

Made by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

 

Happy quilting!

Little Pincushions

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A friend and I went to a new class last week to learn to make little pincushions. Of course, I’ve made pincushions before, as I think most quilters have, We went to the class because we are interested in having the presenter come to our guild.

This is the pincushion I made in class

The class was held at Sew Much Fun in Lowell, near Charlotte, NC. My friend had told me it was a wonderful shop, and indeed it was.

Lesley Storts was the teacher. I’ve known of her for some time, but she used to be in Ohio and I only recently learned she had moved to North Carolina.

Lesley Storts

It looks like Lesley’s interest started with vintage glass and then she and her daughter got to making little pincushions in the vessels she collected.

Some of Lesley’s pincushions

Lesley did a great job of teaching to students with variable levels of experience. The class included someone who literally needed assistance threading a needle and others who had been sewing for years. Best of all, Lesley’s pincushion technique is totally different from mine, so I learned a lot!

And Lesley is really into this pincushion thing. In addition to her vintage vessels she has a potter make little bases especially for her pincushions. We enjoyed seeing her collection.

OK, Lesley is REALLY into little pincushions!

You can go to Lesley’s blog and see a number of YouTubes of her techniques. Or, if you live near Charlotte, go take a class with her. My friend and I both enjoyed it!

 

Contrasting Quilt from Zen Chic

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I saw a version of this quilt in a show a while back and liked it, so when I learned it was a Zen Chic design I bought the pattern. And to be honest, it’s been finished for a while; I’m behind on binding again!

The blue and white main fabrics came from an informal shop hop in Amish country, Ohio, a year ago. I’ve been looking for he perfect pattern for using them! The pattern was well written and I enjoyed making it. And just FYI, it’s not paper pieced. It’s available here.

Quilt Stats

Name: Contrasting

Finished size: 56″ x 55″

Designer: Brigitte Heitland

Maker: me

Quilter: Lewis Schafer

 

A Retreat, A Road Trip, and A Little Quilt Show

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Last week I went with friends to spend a few days in Northern Virginia. We rented a little house with a living room/dining room combo large enough for us all to set up and do some quilting, we went to a local quilt show, and we tried to visit some quilt shops.

Here are some of my favorite quilts from the Northern Shenandoah Valley Quilt Show, presented by multiple guilds from the area.

The theme of the show was “My Favorite Color is Plaid”. Members of the local Modern  Guild challenged themselves to make small modern quilts using fabric from plaid shirts.

“Curved Plaids” by Heidi Haynes was made for the plaid challenge in the traditional category

Springtime in Plaid Land, made by Susan Adams, was an interesting entry in the plaid challenge

Intersections, made by Melissa Mattice, was another interesting entry in the plaid challenge

Mexican Star Dance, made by Elaine Breiner

The quilt above was one of many well made, beautiful quilts in the show. I was especially interested in it because the pattern is by Annette Ornelas, who will be speaking at one of my guilds soon.

As for the shopping, we did some at the show but found that most local shops were closed in order to vend at the show. Of course, we really didn’t need anything so we went happily back to our rented house and sewed for a few more days! I didn’t finish anything, so further show-and-tell will have to wait 😀