Gwee Fleece Blanket Part 3

The Gwee blanket is all done. I left his arms, wings, horns, feet and tail free to move.

Most of his embroidery is by machine, but I did his eyes with a stem stitch and added in a couple nose slits.

Close up of the cute little feet.

The blanket itself is rather large... 36x60. I had a hard time deciding where to put the little guy on the blanket and which way to face him. I finally settled on this because I thought it would wourk best for the many ways a person can swaddle or fold.

The baby shower is next Sunday, so hopefully mom and dad love it.

Gwee Part 2

I wasn't feeling well today, so I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. I lightly stuffed and sewed the parts then hand embroidered the eyes and nose. I will likely finish soon. I am having a hard time deciding how to place it... in the corner, the center, facing up or down... too many options, I think!

Gwee Fleece Blanket, Part 1

So, I'll admit that I really don't know what a Gwee is beyond a super cute baby dragon. When I was talking about needing to make something gender neutral for an upcoming baby shower for an Amtgard friend, my cousin suggested a dragon blanket with arms, legs and wings that were free to move. She also suggested that I use a Gwee for the pattern, and after showing a picture to me, I was sold.

I still have a bunch of details to stitch on, and I need to quilt him into place, but I am super happy with houw he is looking so far. I am debating whether or not to add just a bit of stuffing to the parts that are sewn down, but I haven't decided. Likely I will test to see how it looks and then decide.

Anyway, cute little break while I wait for the other special orders to return my messages.

Puppy Fun

My cousin, Nathan, was born when I was in the middle of going back to school and then dealing with breast cancer, so I never made him a baby quilt. This weekend is his 4th birthday, so I asked him to tell me about the things he liked, and I made him a more kid-like quilt.

The colors match his adult-like bedspread, and the puppies sort of look like his dog, Isabeaux. I tried a new quilt pattern, and it was pretty fun. I think it would have worked better with more colors, but I am not unhappy with it.

I really love this green dot fabric. I've been wanting to use it in something for a while. The puppies are super cute too.

Hipster Baby

My cousins are hipsters, so when they had a baby, I knew I needed something more than just a normal baby quilt. I had thought something with pin up girls and cars would be fun, but I couldn't find the right fabric. When I stumbled on the mustache fabric, I knew I found the right one.

The quilting is in black and aqua, with the thread going opposite of what the block color was.

The watercolor fabric was a happy accident. I didn't buy enough fabric by a lot. So, I went digging through my scrap bin looking to supplement. I think I licked out with all the colors. I just sewed strips in order until I ran out of fabric, rotating every time so I was one step down the color wheel each block. I took the remaining scraps and added a strip to the border to help lengthen the quilt.

 

This picture is a bit on the pink side. I didn't realize that the sun was shining through, so the pink backing give all the blocks a pinkish tint. Mom and Dad loved it, and hopefully Baby Scarlett will hold onto it as a sign that she was born in 2014, when mustaches were the coolest thing ever.

How Many?

I am often asked how many quilts have I made, and to be honest, I have no idea. So today, I am going to attempt to count them all. I may have to update the list as I think of more I forgot about, and once the list is made, I may add to it to help keep track. I'm going to guess that I have made more than 90. we'll see if I am right at the end of this post. Only ones that are completely finished count. I may add the partials at the end of the list so I can keep track of them and add them to the list later. This will likely be the only post I regularly edit to add more, but I will clearly mark when I start adding.

To make things easier size wise I'll stick to this: S = tree skirts, table runners and other oddities, M = mini (12"x12" or smaller), W = wall hanging (13" x 13" - 44" x 59"), B = baby/lap, T = twin, F = full, Q = queen, and K = king.

Roughly Chronological Order by Finish Date:

Blue Log Cabin  for me - T 98
Green Forest Pinwheel for Dad - T 98
Star for Mom - Q 98
Star for Ming - W 98
Happy Trails for Deb - W (also M) 99
Double Irish Chain for Micah - T 99
Fan for Josh and Rayna - Q 00
Fan for Mom S 00
Kimono Applique for me -W 00
Pokemon Dog Bone for Jacob - B 01
Veggie Tales Triangle in Square for Luke - B 01
Musical Log Cabin for Dr. Hardy - W 01
Taz Double Irish Chain for Marty - F 01
Double Irish Chain for Garfield - W 01
Lavender and Blue for Anna - B 02
Crazy Teacher for Sara - F 02
Pinwheel Sun and Stars for Merlin - W 02
Kimono Applique for Haiku - W 02
Green and Blue Log Cabin for Connie - W 02
Fancy Pinwheel for Mulan - S 02
Cat Outline for Siam - W 02
Double Irish for Sakura - W 02
Ballet Boxes for Neeva - B 03
Blue Willow Log Cabin for Jeff - W 03
Blue Willow Log Cabin for Jeff - K 03
Blue Willow Log Cabin for me - M 03
Pink Log Cabin for Sofina - T 03
Stars and Bars for Hermione - W 03
Stripes for Gandalf - W 03
1/2 Log Cabin for Dandelion
Blue and Green Log Cabin for me Q/K 03
Christmas Pinwheel for The Popejoys B 04

*this is where it gets murkier and poorly documented*

Star Sun Flowers for Deb B 05
Joyful Kaleidoscope for Joyful Heart - M 06
Trellis for the Brookses - B 06
Cream and Sun Flower Pinwheel for unknown - W or B unsure 06?

*back to decent documentation, though I may have missed photographing some in my forgetful excitement to wrap and give*

Star Quilt for Maria - Q/K 07
Boyd's Bears for coworker's daughter - B 07
Quilted Sewing Machine Cover for me - S 07
Rose Lap Quilt for Rose  - B 07
Strawberry Shortcake for unknown baby - B 07
Hot Air Balloons for Abdiel - B 08
Pinwheel Log Cabin for KariJo - Q 09
Care Bears for Joyful Heart - B 09
Bunny Table Runner for Deb - S 09
Squares for Nandock - K 09
Calico Cats for unknown - B 09
Sea Glass for Joyful Heart - M 10
Mending Hearts for Joyful Heart - Q 10
Camping Quilt for Rick - T 10
Music Table Runner for Teresa - T 10
Watercolor for donated - B 10
Four Seasons for Rhonda - W 10
Ballet Bear for donation - B 10
Fairy for donation - B 10
Blue Cat for donation - B 10
Pink Cat for donation - B 10
Windsor Star for Deb - W/M 10
Fruit Punch for donation - B 10
Flannel Kitty for donation - B 10
Brown Lamb for donation - B 10
Pooh for donation - B 10
Bears and Bubbles for commission - B 10
Monkey Pinwheels for Landon - B 11
Autumn Leaves for me - W 11
Mountain Log Cabin for Dad - W 11
Log Cabin for Deb - W 11
HS T-shirt Quilt for commission - T 12
School District T-shirt Quilt for commission - K 12
My Little Pony for Nova B 13
Lavender and Lace for commission - B 13
Spring Applique for Grandma Kary - Q 13
Watership Down Landscape for me - W 13
Lamb Quilt for commission - B 14
Horse Quilt for commission - B 14
Lamb Quilt for Ragnar - B 14
Chinese Quilt for Matzes - B 15
Mustache Quilt for Scarlett - B 15


*So, at this point I have 78 listed. I'll have to see if I magically remember 12 more to make my guess right. I am sure I missed one or two, but I doubt I missed 12*

Little Cabin in the Woods for Dad - K 15
Puppy Fun for Nathan - B 15
Baby Animals for Amanda - B 15
Dragon for Elania - B 16
Elephant Zendoodle - B 17
Fox in Hearts - B 17
Fox in Hearts Wall Hanging - B 17
Deer - B 17
Sea Turtle - B 18
Log Cabin for Chris - Q 19

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the Queue

Watercolor Stripes for Micah Q/K - blocks done, needs borders, backing, binding, and quilting
Garden Trellis for me or Etsy F - have fabric
- have most of the fabric
Happy Birthday for Dad - K
Breast Cancer Set for me W - tops sewn, needs backing, quilting and binding
Star for Zach F - have fabric and some cutting

100 Posts

This is post 100, so it just feels like I should do something different. I was going to do a top 10 list, but I couldn't pick only 10 and doing many categories was clunky, so I've decided that I am going to post a random selection of my favorite projects.

This was my first and only scrap quilt. It is queen sized, and I really enjoyed making it. I have plenty of scraps and really should make another. I donated it to the Joyful Heart Foundation.

This quilt (which I use for my background) is a mini quilt and is only 6" by 8". I loved the fabric and loved how it turned out framed. This one was also for the Joyful Heart Foundation.

This was a baby quilt for a first time mom who wanted to have something in gray and lavender that was somewhat inspired by India. I loved that it was such a non-traditional baby blanket, and I went overboard on making it perfect. This may be my all-time favorite thing I've made.

Like the mini quilt, I just love this color combo. I thought this purse turned out really nice with all the extra embroidered details.

I've been meaning to post this, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Landscape quilting is rather different from normal applique, and I always wanted to try it. I really love doing it, and this may also be one of my all time favorite things.

This was the first time I tried doing applique on a tunic. It was in an auction for Darkmoon, and I still need to give a post for it.

Stained glass quilting is super cool, and I love the look. I am also a huge fan of Celtic knotwork.

 I loved that these wings used so many different skills. It isn't often that basket weaving, crocheting, beading, wood carving and floral all go together. It was a fun and imaginative project.

I haven't posted these yet either. They are spell balls made by using the Temari hand embroidered method. It has become a new favorite craft for me.

During chemo, I spent a fair amount of time doing zentangles. It was about the only thing I had the energy to do because even holding a needle and cross stitching was too hard and took too much brain power to count. I have a book full of tangles, and this was my favorite.

This was my very first super mini quilt. I wasn't even sure it would work. I love the colors and how they blend, so I ended up making this quilt 3 times... once as a tester wall hanging, once as a king sized bed quilt and finally as this super mini sample.

This was not my first wedding dress, but it was the first time I set out to make a wedding dress. The other wedding dress I made surprised me. I made the dress and found out later that she liked it so much she got married in it. This wedding dress was really fun. It isn't too often that a bride is so interested in having that much color. I really love how it turned out, and she was thrilled.


It is so hard to just stop there, but there are just too many things that are cool.

Pony Tales

This barnyard quilt was intended for a little boy from the beginning. The mom was very into horses, so my aunt wanted a quilt that had a horse theme. I found the pattern, Pony Tales on the internet and suggested that she look at it. She loved it, so I got to work.

I picked fabrics that were a bit more horse-like  than the ones in the pattern. I actually took the time to look up horse coloring so that I wasn't making a horse of a color that didn't exist.

I combined machine and hand embroidery in the applique. I did the machine embroidery around the outside edges and did the smile, nose and eye by hand.

The original pattern was a bit on the small size for a crib quilt, so I added black sashing between the blocks to bring it up to a more standard size.

I used the same cream fabric for all three horses and used it again for the star in the corner. I was looking for bandanna fabric for both the blue and red, but only found it in red. Rather than just doing a denim-colored fabric, I found a light-weight denim  that was a nice shade of blue.

For the plaid, I used a homespun cotton.

Overall, it turned out super cute and durable for the next little rodeo star.

Lemon-Lime Lamb Quilt

Baby time in my aunt's office. Two quilts, both with a barn-yard theme. The first didn't want to know what they were having, so my aunt asked me to make a quilt with yellow, lime green, and light orange. I showed her the pattern for this quilt, and she fell in love with it.

I was super happy when I found a green that had flowers that were the right shade of orange and also had yellow. I also had fun with the fluffy lamb fabric. The pattern had suggested felt, but I used novelty fleece instead. I also used a plushy fabric for the face and legs. This picture was taken before all the hand embroidery. 

I don't like using buttons and ribbons on baby quilts because of the choking hazard, but that's what this pattern suggested, so I went along with it. I sewed them down very well and super tight, so with proper supervision, all should be fine. (I should mention that this is the third child for the mom).

The original design called for a rose in the center block, but since the baby might have been a boy, I opted for these cute little iron-on lambs instead. I was glad to hear that the baby was a girl, and the mom loved the quilt.

Amanda's Baby Quilt

 

I think I will always be working on a baby quilt. And I have to say, I love it. This one was a self-imposed challenge. I don't have much extra cash, and I wanted to make a nice quilt for my cousin's new baby, who was just born and needs a name. Anyway, my challenge was to make a new quilt unlike any I have done using only scraps.

I love this lamb fabric for a boy, and I had a fair bit left from this quilt, so I was looking for fabric to match. The green was an accident. I happened to have some fabric from a bear quilt out as well and was seeing if I could make a match, when I noticed that the blue, aqua and green were all the same fabric print and looked rather nice together. On the down side, I had less than a quarter yard of each, so I needed something else to go with it. I found the fluffy white material left over from a lamb quilt I made a few months ago, and it seemed to be perfect. I like making quilts that have some texture for a baby. It gives them something interesting to touch while they play or sleep on the quilt.

My biggest challenge was the backing. I dug and dug thinking I would never find a fabric that both worked and that I had enough of, but then I found this one. It isn't quite the same as the other vine print, but it was close enough in color and design that I thought it was perfect. I just finished with some green DMC thread, and I think it turned out great!

(30 x 40 Squares and Stripes, Finished 7-17-14)

Megan Grace's Quilt

I love teaching others how to sew. I've had the chance now to teach two little girls how to make a quilt. Megan Grace was 10 when we worked on this quilt together. I did the rotary cutting, but she did all the sewing on the top.  She also picked out the fabric herself.

This was one of the projects affected by my illness though, so I ended up doing the finishing work for her (sewing the top to the bottom and doing the ties, etc.). I really think she did a wonderful job. This was her first time using a sewing machine. She told me that the quilt would be for her doll, Magic.

Bamboo Batting

There are plenty of batting options available to quilters. My personal favorite is bamboo. It is not actually 100% bamboo but rather a blend of cotton and rayon made from bamboo fibers. It is extremely soft- much like rayon velvet- it is environmentally friendly, and it is naturally anti-microbial. It is also much more expensive than cotton or polyester batting. It is very low loft, but fluffier than a needled cotton batting. When I can, I will use bamboo batting in baby blankets. It also comes in slightly different sizes than a typical batting. They advertize it as "generous baby" which is a 60 x 60 inch piece rather than 45 x 60. I like the "generous" size better than typical batting because I seem to always end up with baby quilts larger than 45 x 60. Here are some quilts I have made with bamboo batting:

Hot air balloons for Abdiel,

Teddy bears for baby girl,

Pinwheels for Landon,

 And Lady in the Lake for baby girl.

I really like working with bamboo batting. It lays out nicely, rarely wrinkling. When machine quilting, I don't have any trouble with the layers getting too think or the needle getting hung up on the fibers. I have not tried hand quilting with bamboo batting, but I have heard from other quilters that it is also very nice.

As for other B-words, batik, bobbin, all types of batting, and bolts of fabric also came to mind. I really could write about any of them, so maybe when the A-Z challenge is up, I'll go back and write about some of the topics I don't cover here.

Lady in the Lake Baby Quilt

This baby quilt was a commission. I was surprised by the color choice: purple and gray. She also said that the theme was middle-eastern. I knew immediately that this would not be a "normal" baby quilt.

I always like trying out "new" blocks or patterns on a baby quilt. After digging through several books, I settled on a block called "Lady in the Lake". The pattern, though not strictly middle-eastern, was reminiscent of some middle-eastern designs I have seen.

I began picking fabric by finding the gray/silver/black swirly fabric. With that as a base, I tried to find fabrics that matched the color while sticking either to flowers, dots or swirls.

The pattern called for three primary fabrics and several secondary colors. Once I found the lavender and pink batik,  I decided to use three purples, three grays and three gray on blacks. I had a hard time picking the third main fabric. Most of the grays in the store were just not a good enough match to the black/silver/gray swirl fabric. I experimented with violet and pink before finding this silver dot on white fabric. It was a nice way to add a little more sparkle in the quilt.

As I worked on the quilt, I started having doubts about how "adult" this quilt was. I went on a search for ribbon and lace to help soften it a bit. I found a black crocheted lace, and I was able to weave a lavender ribbon through the holes. As a final touch, I used more ribbon to place a bow in each corner (sewn down very well to avoid being a choking hazard).

I debated how to quilt it for quite a while. I looked at pictures on the internet, but I didn't see any quilting styles I liked. I finally decided to be bold and used a dark purple thread in the opposite direction from the diagonal block. It truly added another dimension to the quilt.

I truly took my time on this quilt, and it shows. I generally hate triangles because it is very hard to get the points to line up just right. Though I still don't care for doing triangles, I think this quilt was very nice. Nearly all of the triangle turned out perfectly. I have a very small list of quilts that I think were near perfect. I will often regret one of my fabric choices, or I will feel like I could have done a better job assembling or quilting it. This one is one of the rare ones without regrets and may be the best quilt I've made. It certainly makes my top 5 list. I'm eager to hear what both the client and the mom say about this one!


(Lady in the Lake, approx. 45 x 60, Feb. 28, 2013)