More Baby Quilts

I need to stop & write more frequently. I begin and end a project and need to document it but, I don’t take the time.

Just last week I began another baby quilt for my best friend’s first grandchild. And I’m thinking about what to make for a niece that’s expecting later this year. So, I need to document my latest finishes.

My granddaughter Brinlee’s baby quilt.

I documented in December the piecing of tops and quilt backs for three Dresden Plate baby quilts at a quilt retreat. Two of the three are complete including a quilt label documenting the baby’s birth. I only need to bind & label the third quilt by the great-niece’s first birthday in April.

Meanwhile, I am in haste to finish a baby quilt by March and have set daily goals to accomplish the project. So far I have stitched, cut, pressed, and trimmed 165 HST.

Kissing Fish baby quilt pattern by Lee Heinrich of freshly pieced.

This weekend I pieced the 4-patch blocks. Most of the blocks are pressed and ready to be stitched into larger blocks.

Rainbow colored 4-patch blocks.

My mind is set on finishing this quilt in time for the upcoming baby shower. With this mindset, I’m sure to accomplish my goal.

Enjoy!

Dresden Plate Baby Quilt

Another granddaughter arrived last April, giving me reason to make a baby quilt. I selected fabric and a pattern months earlier. I turned to Scrap Quilts magazine, Summer 2012. My sisters and I created tangerine zoo designed by Brandi Frey one other time to commemorate the birth of a great-niece. See previous quilt here.

I selected the fabrics for my granddaughter’s baby quilt on a retreat shopping trip. ABC XYZ by Moda with animals to fussy-cut for the plate centers was perfect. I purchased the entire fat quarter bundle along with enough coordinating fabric for background blocks and borders. I added Bella Solids in blue, green, and yellow to match.

ABC XYZ fat quarter bundle by Moda Fabrics

I began by tracing a circle template onto the backing of fusible interfacing. These pieces were placed over the animals on the front of the fabric, stitched on the traced line, and cut out with a seam allowance. Notches around the circle’s edge and slits in the interfacing allowed the circles to be easily turned right side out. The circles will fuse to the block center.

Fussy-cut animals for center of Dresden plate

I cut the wedges using freezer paper templates, a ruler, and rotary cutter. Following the instructions, the wedges are stitched across the top and turned right side out to create a point. Ten wedges sewn together form the plate with a finished top edge ready for stitching to the background with a blanket stitch.

Dresden plate wedges

Wedge layout

This weekend, I finally had time to stitch the wedges together. I’ve stitched together 22 plates and have 5 to finish. Yes, that sounds like a lot of blocks for a baby quilt. I am actually making three. I have a great-nephew and a great-niece born in the last year. They each will receive a baby quilt at Christmas. Rather than making three different quilts, I decided to make all of them the same with different colored centers – green, blue, or yellow.

Wedges waiting to be pressed

Block with plate center

I just need to make time to appliqué the Dresden’s to the background squares. As noted earlier, I plan to use a blanket stitch. Still plenty of time to complete the baby quilts before Christmas.

Happy Stitching!

Ziggity Zaggity Baby Quilt

I started another baby quilt. I love when new babies are born because it gives me a chance to make another baby quilt. One of my nieces, I have several, had a baby in July. I plan to gift a baby quilt at Christmas. I’m using a pattern from a 2008 baby Quilts magazine by Fons & Porter. The pattern is Ziggity Zaggity by Sharon Smith. I previously made this quilt.

This quilt pattern is fairly simple to make. It consists of 60 degree parallelograms stitched into strips. Half the parallelograms are reversed to make the zigzag design when stitched into side-by-side rows. I went searching for a cute kid’s design in a jellyroll pack and found Animal Crackers by Moda.

Jellyroll pack of Animal Crackers fabric by Moda.

I used my new Quilter’s Select mat and rulers to cut the strips into the 60-degree parallelograms. These rulers are wonderful, gripping the fabric so it doesn’t move. If the ruler slides, the fabric slides along with the ruler. I’m loving using this new ruler and mat set.

The nice thing about cutting the shapes for this pattern is getting one parallelogram and one reversed parallelogram when cutting the folded strip. With all the parallelograms cut, I am ready to begin stitching the rows together.

Sets of parallelogram ready for sewing

This pattern is a scrappy quilt. I love scrappy quilts. I purchased 3-yards of the green on white print with all the animals (top fabric in the jellyroll pack) to use for the backing. I plan to use the leftover 2-1/2 inch strips from the jellyroll pack to piece the binding strips. Progress reports to follow.

Happy Stitching…

Lengthy Hiatus

I haven’t posted for ages. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration; more like years. My last post was published four years ago in May. My goal isn’t to update you on all that’s happened since then, although things that happened will likely show up in my writings and photos. My hope is to create a regular post at frequent intervals.

So, today I begin to reestablish, restore, and remake this journaling of my stitching life. This month is prep month for the 100 day summer sew along sponsored by Sew Fine Thread Gloss. I plan to make 100 needle-turn appliqué blocks using a rainbow of colors. My inspiration is the cover quilt on American Country Folk Crafts by Carol Endler Sterbenz (1987).

The original is a doll quilt made of 30 blocks with Remember Me inked below each heart (finished size 22-1/4″ X 26-1/2″). The suggested fabrics are small cotton prints, pin-dots, and baby ginghams on unbleached muslin background, all common fabrics during that time period. I have many of these fabrics as scraps, but plan to use modern, bright-colored cottons with Kona Snow as the background in an updated version. Here are my selected heart fabrics.

I have always wanted to make this quilt. Don’t you just love hearts! These bright colors will be so cheerful. Next steps are to cut the background squares and prepare the hearts for appliqué.

Life is more than just Quilting…gasp

The weather has been nice, so I’ve spent time outdoors working in my flowerbeds.  I cleaned up the dried stems & leaves from last year’s perennials and raked out the leftover leaves.  I split up some hostas that have overgrown and transplanted iris rhizomes that were being crowded by black-eyed susans in the same bed.  The heavy rains over the last three days should set the plants well.  My tulips have bloomed and the peony plants are growing.  What started as two lily of the valley plants some 15 years ago has spread through the back bed.  May’s birth month flower will soon bloom.  I transplanted a trumpet vine last fall and hope it takes root and sprouts leaves this spring. The rose bushes are sending out vines and needed trellises to control them.

Flower gardens give much inspiration for quilters.  The simple shapes & lovely colors offer a myriad of designs for applique.  I continue to work on my Craftsy class project. I finished stitching the petals on an applique flower block and the butterfly block.  Though my progress is slow, it continues weekly.

Friday, my sister & I set out on a quilt Shop Hop.  We travelled over 300 miles to visit four shops in mid-Michigan.  We also checked out a new quilt shop that wasn’t on the hop.  It turned out to be my favorite – Park Bench quilt shop in Midland, Michigan.  I think the shop was well aware of the 3-day shop hop at their competitor down the street.  They offered the same 20% discount on purchases.  The fabrics are beautiful and the selection more the style that interests me.  I picked up Joan Ford’s latest Scraptherapy book, The Versatile Nine Patch, along with several fat quarters to use in my elephant baby quilt I have yet to begin.

Shop Hop fabric purchases

I always take along a list of notions I would like to try.  One in particular I looked for and found is the Kwik Klip. I have heard many rave about how well it helps with closing safety pins when pin basting.   Got one and hope it lives up to the hype.

The dreary weather kept me inside most of yesterday, so I also completed a bit of FMQ. I’ll have to share photos next time.  Tomorrow, I am going on a field trip with my granddaughter to Woldumar Nature Center.  All the rain has likely made the trails muddy and I’m praying the rain will hold off until the trip is over.

That recaps some of the activities over the last two weeks.  I’ve been busy with a lot more that keeps me away from needle & thread.  But life is more than just quilting.

Hoping to share more progress next week.  Until then…happy stitching!

 

Blotto Block

Thursday was guild night for the Capital City Quilt Guild.  I took the opportunity to sign up for the guild sponsored National Quilt Day event on Saturday, March 18th. Received a square of fabric for the blotto block with a theme of Out of This World and decided to work on a block today.

I found a pattern called  sky rocket in my Carrie Hall Blocks book by Bettina Havig – page 129.  Selected some coordinating fabrics and planned out the block.  The pattern uses templates and the sizes are not conventional block dimensions.  I managed to finish the central nine patch, but my corner sections do not fit correctly. I am not a math whiz – that’s my older sister.  So, I still have to figure out how to make the pattern work to finish my block.  I think the idea is that the yellow sections look like rockets.

I also took hand applique along to the guild meeting and completed some applique on one of the heart blocks, but that’s all the stitching I accomplished this week. How about you?  Accomplish anything more than I did; or struggling to find time to quilt?  Hopefully next week I can show some real progress on my WIPs.

Until then…Happy Stitching!

Just Checking In

As Monday rolled around this week, I realized that I wouldn’t have much to say about my quilting progress.  At first, I wanted to rush into my sewing room and complete something, anything, so that I could say something about it.  Then, I realized that part of this process is being real about what I have been able to accomplish.

Just as in life, there are times that our hobbies take a back seat to more important things: God, family, yoga, career, day-to-day tasks.  Really, only those that make a career of quilting should get into their sewing studios every day.  As much as I would like to, I know that there are more important things in life than quilting.  Gasp!  How dare I suggest that we could spend too much time in our sewing rooms.  I do not find true fulfillment in doing just quilting.  In my not so distant past, I’ve immersed myself into my quilting to the detriment of my marriage, family, finances, and friendships.  I find myself much more satisfied with my quilting, when the rest of my life is balanced.

So, checking in today, I completed very little.  I appliqued some stems on my Craftsy class project on Friday night.  Sunday, I hand-quilted two rows of stitching around one of the center blocks of the liberated solids quilt.  Although this isn’t much, it is progress.  I will take it.

Just so I don’t leave you without some eye candy, I’ll share some pictures of my sewing room.  I could call it a studio, but it really is just a bedroom overflowing with sewing and quilting paraphernalia.

Whether your space is at the dining room table, like early in my marriage; a corner space or a well lit studio; your sewing space and mine is a haven, a place to retreat from everyday cares and create.  I hope you find time to relax and sew something this week.  Meet me back next time when I check in with more of my weekly progress on finishing up WIPs and UFOs.

Disclaimer: These photos were taken a few years ago after reorganizing my sewing & quilting space.  The room has overflowed out the door and into the next room.  It will probably never look this organized again.

Until next time…

 

And the Hearts Have It

Here we are in week four of the new year and I continue to document my quilting activities.  Over the last week, I basted several hearts for my Craftsy Hand Applique class.  And, that wraps up another blog post.  Wait, here’s a view of all the hearts that I have basted.

Actually, I could say a bit more.  I basted most of these while listening to the business part of the guild meeting last Thursday night.  Although it doesn’t look like much, I did accomplish what I set out to do for the week.  I applaud anyone that keeps moving forward with a project.  Each stitch leads to the final stitch.

As for the guild meeting, I am a member of the Capitol City Quilt Guild in Lansing, Michigan.  This month’s program featured quilter Debbie Grifka, of Esch House Quilts, who spoke about her modern quilt style.  She had lots of great quilts to show.  Debbie designs her own quilts, making many into published patterns.

As I was thinking about what project I would work on this week, I recalled a WIP from just over a year ago.  It’s a block of the month that I finished putting together with the exception of the borders.  My plan is to cut and stitch the borders and get the quilt top ready for machine quilting.  Check out the border fabrics.

I love the dot fabric, and the whimsical bird fabric is a South Seas Imports designed by Debbie Mumm.  It’s been in my stash since the late 90’s, picked up off the clearance rack on a guild bus trip.  I finally found a quilt to use the colors and design in.  The cream muslin is for an inside border to offset the blocks, while the gold will be used for the binding.

Hope all of you are finding something fun to stitch on this week.  Next time I will reveal the quilt these fabrics will border.  See you all then.

Happy Stitching!

Hand Applique Class with Craftsy

Progress on quilting projects has been slow this week.  But, I have a great excuse for putting my needle & thread aside: my fifth grandchild was born.  I spent three days and two nights caring for my 4 1/2 year old grandson, while Mom & Dad were at the hospital.  Then, I had to catch up on everything at home.

This week, I am sharing a new project from a Craftsy class that I purchased.  I love to applique and have taken several classes, even started a club at a local quilt guild.  I love the Craftsy platform and finally signed up for a class.  I can work at my own pace, review the information as much & as often as I need to, and the materials are excellent.  This particular class is called Hand Applique Made Easy by Mimi Dietrich.  I chose the class because I wanted to learn applique from this teacher.  This is a basic class for all levels of stitchers.

I began by selecting fabrics, mostly from my stash, but I did search out a theme fabric to use for the borders, then pulled colors from my stash to blend in.  Here is my color palette.

I started the lessons after the new year began.  I decided to allot time each week-end to work on this project.  Here is my progress so far.

I began by tracing all the applique designs onto my starched, white muslin.  I really like the hand feel of Legacy Studio muslin at JoAnn Fabrics.  I completed the first lesson on how to make stems, which also includes the basket & teacup handles.  Then, I moved into the lesson on freezer paper applique.  I really like appliqueing with freezer paper, but this class has provided additional tips that have already improved the shape of my heart.

Here is a large heart already basted and ready to applique.  I have prepared several more smaller hearts for different blocks.  I cannot wait to get to the applique process, but preparing the shapes correctly makes a world of difference.  Basting is also a great take-along project.

So, I am continuing to meet my goal of stitching a little each week, and sharing it with you all.  Hopefully, you are finding time to quilt, as well.  See you back here next week.  Until then…

Happy Stitching!

 

Quilting or Blogging

Quilting is a passion of mine.  I like to share what I do with others.  But I have found blogging to be time consuming and takes away from the time I get to make quilts.  So, you will see only a few posts when I have more time in my life to visit this site and input another quilt story.

Today’s story will be short and contain few pictures.  Sorry!  Many of my quilts are for gifts.  And, in the process of finishing a gift, I often forget to take a picture before wrapping it up.  I recently made another Charm Squares Baby Quilt as a gift to my niece’s son born in October.  I also made a flannel baby blanket with that bumpy, plush fabric on the back as a gift for my nephew’s son born in November.  Now, my attention is on making a baby quilt for my soon-to-be-born grandson.  I know, I had a grandson born in July with my previous post about that quilt finish.  Now you can see why I don’t have time to blog about my quilts.

I have a great pattern picked out for this grandson’s quilt.  It has rows of elephants, which is the theme of the baby’s room.  Check out the pattern here.  I have fabrics selected with an emphasis on grays and teals.

Focus print for border on left; row sashing & charm bundles from Moda.

Fabrics for Elephant Walk quilt.

I cannot wait to get started on this quilt, but I have another Christmas project to finish first.  I am making bedroom curtains for my two granddaughters.  Mom made a special request to have them as Christmas gifts.  So, I must end this post and get to work on these curtains.  I have an entire week free of regular work to sew on them.  How great is that!

Happy Quilting!