A Splash of Color

This quilt was never meant to be a quilt.  I got the fabric to make grocery sacks, and though they are the same fabric print in two different colors, I had not intended to put them together.  It's a little bit on the holy-cow bright side for my taste, but I would be willing to bet that someone will find it to be their cup of tea.

This fabric posed an interesting challenge.  All four pieces were variegated, but the way it was printed would cause the variation to show up from strip to strip rather than in a single strip if I cut it the way quilters typically do.  Basically, I had to cut the strips with the grain rather than across the grain.  This meant that the border has a lot of piecing to it, as I only had about half a yard of each fabric.  Fortunately, the fabric design hides all the extra piecing.

TESSA is the group I donate my quilts to now, and their drive ends tomorrow.  I had hoped to finish all of these quilts last month, but a bad cold kept me from quilting until yesterday.  I had them mostly done, but it was a scramble to finish all 5 quilts in 2 days.  I truly hope that the families who receive these quilts and the other crafts I am sending have a happy holiday season.

(Stripe Block, approximately 32 x 54, Dec. 8, 2011)

Sleeping Lambs

I got the lamb fabric to make a quilt for a baby a friend was having.  I moved and lost touch with her in all the craziness of starting my new job, and it is amazing how quickly ten years pass.  Even if I were to find her again, somehow I don't think her son would want little sleeping lambs on a quilt.

I did manage to make this quilt from scraps, but it was a lot harder.  The blue and teal both are lovely, soft colors, but are not at all the typical baby colors, and therefore had to be matched with regular calicoes.  Fortunately, periwinkle is one of my favorite colors, so I did have a fair number of scraps to choose from.  You may also recognize the brown "baby" fabric from Landon's Monkey Quilt. 

I made a chenille teddy bear a few years ago, and I had a few scraps left as well.  I happened to stumble on them while digging through the recesses of my fabric dresser.  The color was right, and I love adding in textured fabrics to make baby quilts a little more interesting. 

Again, a ribbon adds a finishing touch before it goes to TESSA.

(Block in Block, approximately 34 x 52, Dec. 8 2011)

Ballet and Princesses and Fairies, Oh My!

So, the fabric from this quilt has a little of everything girls like.  About all it's missing is a white pony.  This is another stash quilt.  I am fairly sure that these two fabrics were a set, but finding anything else to go with them proved to be an issue.  The border, pink roses, ended up being a fairly good match from my stash.

I had enough fabric to partially fussy-cut the girls.  I wasn't able to position them vertically, but I was able to center them horizontally.  I took turns putting the girls either high or low in the block, creating a little of a pattern, though it seems a little random too.

I also have a fairly large collection of lace and ribbon that I was looking to reduce.  This eyelet seemed like a nice match and helped add a little interest because I use so few fabrics.  The ribbon is simply to help package it as a gift.

(Long Blocks, approximately 30 x 50, Dec. 8, 2011)

New Look, Part 2 Bonus: Sand & Seaglass

I dug through my photos, took some new ones and played even more with the style of the page.  Now the background is actually a quilt I made.  I also decided to stop being so shy and post my picture rather than the sewing machine.  I think I am done tinkering with the blog look for now, but who knows what will happen if I make a new favorite quilt.

 I was going to link the quilt I used and came to the shocking realization that I never blogged about it.  I love miniature quilts and this one is one of my all-time favorites.  I picked the colors based on the theme "Sand and Seaglass."  The block is "Amish Shadows" though I greatly reduced it.  The strips of color are just under 1/4" giving the over-all quilt a 6 1/2 x 8 inch size.

I knew that I would frame this quilt as I was designing it.  I consider quilts of this size to be artwork rather than functional, so I chose the shadowbox as I picked the fabric so everything would match.  I used variegated brown and gold lamé thread for the quilting.  The cream fabric and striped also had some metallic gold highlights, thus tying everything together.  This is one of the quilts I donated to Joyful Heart Foundation, and I believe they chose to hang it in their cooperate office.

Dishwasher Doggie

So this isn't sewn, at all.  I tend to do the loading of the dishwasher, and other family members tend to unload.  Since we don't need to run it every day, this leads to confusion at times.  I wanted a magnet that said "clean"/"dirty" but magnets don't stick to the dishwasher.  I had this unfinished wooden cut out of a dog, so I decided to paint him as a solution to the problem.

I was originally going to have the dog with a "clean"/"dirty" sign, but my brother suggested just making the dog clean or dirty.  I thought it was a cute idea and went with it.  I like it, and thought you may too.

Pooh Baby Quilt

I don't know how long I've had this Pooh fabric.  I think it's been at least 10 years.  I was always going to do "something" with it, but it just sat on my shelf.  For a while, I was reading about and talking with quilters who had a "stash" of fabric and I was convinced that I needed to collect fabric too.  I worked in a fabric store, so I saw both the newest, hottest fabrics and the best sales (as well as my employee discount).  Needless to say, I started my own stash.  Lately, it is annoying me.  I have a few pieces that I bought large quantities, but most of my stash is in 1-2 yard pieces.  At the time, I thought that would be plenty, but I have found that to have the flexibility to place the fabric in the position in needs to be within the block is paramount, and these little pieces are often too small.  My other problem is that I am very, very, very careful about patterns and colors when I design a quilt.  Far too often, my stash is the wrong color, the wrong pattern, the wrong size of pattern, etc.  My other problem is that to get it in a quilt, I either need a way bigger stash so I have more choice (not gonna happen, too much $ and space) or I need to take all of it with me when I shop for a specific quilt.  I don't mind taking swatches into a store, but the level of playing and finagling involved when I have a quilt idea would require the whole piece.  I just don't like bringing strange fabric into a store and dealing with the employees who want to charge me for it or look mad for daring to match another store's fabric to their own (to be fair, not all shops are bad, but enough are that I just don't).

So, back to Pooh.  Both of these fabrics were in my stash.  I resolved to make quilts from my stash and press my creative luck.  I managed to make four so far, and the rest will be showing up here soon, as I finish them.

I kept the block design and quilting rather simple.  Given that I had limited amounts of each fabric and that I wanted to use it up, I felt that a nice chunky block would be fun with the wiggly woven print of the Pooh fabric.

Oh, another random rant, if you'll read it.  Lots of fabrics are copyrighted.  As a composer and a member of ASCAP, I truly believe in following copyright law.  The Pooh fabric actually has printed "for home use only, not for resale."  When I see that on fabric, I truly try to abide it.  I would not sell this quilt for that reason.  I make my money selling quilts because of the artistry and work I put into my quilts, not by the fact that they have a logo that someone will buy.  I will do special orders with this type of fabric, but only because then the client is buying and choosing the materials, and I am simply a seamstress finishing it for their own home use.  I've seen lots of people on Etsy and at craft shows who do not adhere to copyright laws, but I do hope that word will spread and people will stop buying the copyrighted items.

(Pooh Blocks approximately 36 x 48, Dec. 6, 2011)

Ballet Bear

This was another "quilt" kit.  I use the quotes because it is not pieced or appliqued, but rather two pieces of fabric quilted together with batting between.  In my mind, which I can't say is standard, I don't think of something as a "Quilt" unless the top has several pieces of fabric.  To me, this is a "quilted blanket" much like the comforters they sell in stores.

The design was rather fun, so I chose to simply bring out the details in the stitching.  I used clear thread because there were too many colors to be practical and a lot of the colors were not standard thread colors.

 
 I mostly stitched around the outlines, but there were a few details I stitched as well such as the lines on the butterfly wings and the stippling in the ballet slippers.  Both places helped add a little more 3D to this flat design.

Several times, I almost sewed on lace, ribbon roses, ribbons and flower-shaped buttons.  I think it would have made the quilt more interesting, but I decided against it in the end because they are all choking hazards, and the quality of the print was not mount-on-the-wall artistic.

(Quilted Blanket, approximately 30 x 42, Dec. 6, 2011)

New Look

I made this stamp logo for Sew Honeybee before I ever did anything on this blog, then I never used it.  I always thought it was rather cute, and I've been meaning to use it on my computer.  I have a bunch of crafts that I am getting ready to post on, so I thought I may as well do the updating before I blog about my new projects.  I've actually been doing a lot of sewing since my last post, but my camera has been super flaky and has uncharged batteries at an astounding rate, even while not on.  So, hopefully I can get enough AA batteries to take pictures of all the projects from the last few months.

Oh, by the way, for the record the background image is not a quilt I made.  I'm going to try to take a picture for the background, once of course, the camera is cooperating!