An Update and a Little Chef Ensemble

Roscoe's Pa had his surgery yesterday.  The doc seemed satisfied with how it went.  Now the not so fun part...recovery.  My husband is managing his pain fairly well with the meds and is in a good frame of mind.

WhiIe I am trying to reorganize life right now to take care of  Pa, I have to put my quilting on hold.  I will give you a peek at a cute gift I made for Granddaughter #1 earlier in the year.  The free tutorial for making the hat and apron can be found at Making It Fun.  Here is the hat...

The top of the hat shows up too dark in the picture. The fabric looks like this... 

Here is the apron... 

 

And I just made up the oven mitt.  I have to say this kitchen ensemble has gotten a workout from the little chef.

Scatterbrained

Yes, now you know more about me.  I am apt to be forgetful when under stress.  In my rush to maintain my blog, I posted the same pictures twice.  Duh.  Why am I stressed?  Roscoe's Pa was trimming a tree and the ladder gave way to soft ground under one of the legs. The result was a broken ladder, a broken knee cap, and impending surgery. Daughter #1, who is a physician, did a rundown of all the ladder injuries she has seen in the Emergency Room. I think Roscoe's Pa got off easy...in spite of how upset he is about the whole fiasco.  At least it might be fixable.

Yes, I did make the deadline for Colin's quilt.  I wanted to hand deliver it yesterday as we were in his hometown in Indiana for a family reunion.  (As mentioned in a previous post, Colin is our three year old nephew who will have surgery to correct a lymphatic abnormality on July 7th.)  Here's the finished quilt!  It is a combo of an I-Spy quilt and a Matching quilt and I am happy with it.  Here is the front...

And here is the cozy flannel pawprint back...

And a close up after washing and drying...

I hope he enjoys it and it keeps him quietly occupied while healing.  He doesn't know about his upcoming surgery.  No need to worry the little guy just yet.

Still sewing

I haven't posted for a while because it has been such a busy month around here.  I am sewing furiously trying to get my nephew's quilt done before this Friday.  I am now doing the hand sewing on the binding.  I have a busy week ahead and four days with my little granddaughter.  Will I get it the nephew's quilt done?  Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I'll show you another quilt from my past.  This is Carmen's quilt.  She is a really good friend of Daughter #1.  Carmen works a full-time job, is the mom of two cute little guys, and a marathon runner.  She had a nagging knee pain and she persisted with the doctors for relief.  It turned out to be bone cancer.  She is currently approaching 10 months of 'cancer free' status.  Anyway, isn't our quilting obsession a great way to extend our support to someone who is facing a tough time?  It's a relief to be able to do something small to perhaps bring some love and comfort to someone.

Yes it is a variation of same pattern that I have used over and over again.  It's definitely time to branch out to other designs.  But I love the simple block and playing with the fabrics and colors.  I used Lakehouse fabric for this quilt.

A Finish

While I am working on the three QIP's, I will show you something I previously finished for some good friends.  They live in the southwest but were originally from the midwest so I tried to keep that in mind when choosing the fabrics.  The color scheme was orange and aqua and I used a variety of fabrics...mostly Moda.

Here is what I started with.

And here is the finish.

Levi's Pillowcase

Here is another finish for my little Amish neighbors.  It is not one of my stellar sewing projects.

Levi's birthday brought him to age 11.  He is a really cute kiddo with a real different approach to life that is hard to explain.  Let's just say he gives his mom and dad a lot to worry about at times.  He requested a blue and green pillowcase.  I decided to go with a plain fabric that had a little texture to the color without actually being a print.  I struggle with those solid colors.  I am a print girl through and through.

Voila...the ugliest pillowcase I've ever made.  (And yes, a poorly done photograph, as well.)  Sometimes you hit the mark and sometimes you don't!  I think he liked it though.

Another QIP

Yes, I now have three quilts going.  I need to draw the line, don't I?  Naw.

I have quilt #1 for GD#2 which you have seen previously.  The top is done and ready to be made into a sandwich for quilting.  Here is the back...

I have quilt #2 for GD #1.  Most of the cutting is done.  I am now officially at 34 different fabrics for this quilt.  I hope it turns out the way I envision (something I am not real good at.)

And now another quilt for my great nephew who is three.  He must have surgery in early July for a 'lympathic abnormality' that is above his bladder and tied up in blood vessels by his intestine.  I think this is a lot for a little guy to go through.  Plus there are some unknowns associated with this surgery.  Anyway, I am in making him a 'matching' quilt for something to do with his quiet time after surgery.  I am ready to sew the squares together.  Each square in the group on the left has a matching square in the group on the right.

Here is a close up of some of the squares...

                                     

A Quilt Panel

Usually I don't go much for quilt panels.  They just don't interest me.  But I have made an exception.

I saw this panel at a LQS and it depicts some things I see nearly every day (with the exception of the quilt frame...yes, I have seen a quilt frame surrounded by Amish women working their needles... but never outside.) 

 

 

So I caved and bought the panel thinking it might make into a nice throw-sized quilt for watching TV and be a remembrance of where we once lived.

Kelli's Quilt

I made my son's wife, Kelli, a quilt as a surprise for her birthday in May.  It is a flannel 'raggy' quilt with the frayed edges.   I have a 'raggy' quilt at my house and whenever Kelli visits, she claims it.  So I thought she would like one of her own.

                        Here it is on the design wall.

And here it is finished.  This fabric is Frosted Memories and has colors that go well her living room.  I used Warm and Natural batting between the flannel layers so it would be extra warm.  I cut the raw edges at about 1/8" intervals.

A Plan for the Big Girl Bed

Granddaughter #1 is being coaxed out of her crib.  She just turned 3 and  is very attached to her crib.  'I don't want a big girl bed.  I am still little.'  Well, yes, she is still little.  She's precious.  But it's time.  Little sister is going to need that crib in August and throwing big sister out of that crib at the last minute would not be a good idea.  Enter Grandma's idea for a big girl bed quilt.  My daughter wants something more traditional with little flowers and things.  I showed her some 1930 reproduction fabrics and she liked them a lot.  So I have the dreaded job of visiting various quilt shops to look for fabric.  :o)  I am very spoiled as I live within a few miles of several quilt shops in Amishland.  Here is what I have gathered so far...

Blogger's Quilt Festival 2010

This is my first time to enter a quilt in the BQF.  It has been so much fun looking at all the quilts that are entered...so much diversity and some amazing pieces.  I am submitting 'Bill's Quilt' this year.  It is quite different from the other entries I have seen but has a nice story.

 I am not new to quilting but only in the past couple of years have I been seriously trying to improve my skills.  This quilt was completed probably 10 years ago and started about 20 years ago.  (Yes, let's just say I was not very experienced with a few things and spent a lot of time redoing, getting frustrated, and putting it away for months at a time.)

When my son was 14, he was home from school for a couple of weeks with pneumonia.  He was really bored and this was before the multi-channel capabilities we have now with cable and satellite TV.  We were watching a quilting show on PBS...Kaye Wood, I think.  She was making a quilt from old blue jeans.  He said, 'I would like to have a quilt like that.'  (It's probably the first time he had ever uttered the word 'quilt' or acknowledge that I liked to sew!)

So I started collecting his outgrown jeans (designer jeans were all the rage in his school) and his shirts too.  There was a disparity in the weight of the fabrics I was trying to combine and it literally took me years to figure out how to deal with it.  (Again, this was before we used the internet constantly and before quilt blogs and blog friends who I could commiserate with.)  I like how it finally turned out.  It lives on a shelf somewhere in his closet now!  LOL!

QIP

I have been working on Granddaughter #2's baby quilt.  I am really loving this quilt.  I laid it all out, just how I wanted it on my design wall (after a few days of tweaking and such), and began to sew. 

Only I kept making mistakes by forgetting how I had things on the design wall before I took the parts down to sew.  This is the first quilt I have ever designed this way and it's a little bit more complicated than my previous quilts.  Finally, it occurred to me to print out a picture of the layout on regular computer paper and keep it on my ironing board.

 I am probably the last person on the planet to think of doing such a simple thing.  But in case I am not, I will swallow my pride and post about it.  See the seam ripper in the photo?  Let's just say we spent a lot of time together before I printed the picture.  (I have no explanation as to why this last post photo is so awful. I'm a quilter, not a photographer.)

A Lollipop Theme

I decided that Granddaughter #1 should get in on 'the pillowcase from Gma' effort.  She's into lollipops and balloons.  Her mom wanted bright colors.  We are trying to coax her into her big girl bed.

She wasn't impressed and is still in the crib!

Changing It Up a Bit

Granddaughter number 2 is scheduled to arrive at the end of August.  My daughter has requested a happy quilt in reds and yellows but 'not McDonald's colors'.  This threw me back a bit as her all time favorite color is pink and I just assumed...  Well, look what I found!

I can't wait to get started on this.  I have ideas scattered everywhere... on graph paper and on regular paper colored with markers or colored pencils.  My history with baby quilts is mostly simple squares in traditional colors.  I am trying a new approach.  Stay tuned...

My Current Favorite Quilt

After viewing a beautiful quilt made for Anna, my Amish neighbor's daughter, I was inspired to try something new.  Anna's quilt was just amazing...solid colors in green, lavender and grey.  The log cabin blocks were mixed with some plain blocks that had been embroidered with a cross-stitch design.  Anna, her mother, and her grandmother (who passed away after the quilt was finished) all worked on this quilt.  It is a treasure.  I wish I had a picture but asking to take a picture was a bit too English for me to do at the time.

I made my quilt for the master bedroom.  It was a variation on a pattern in Quick Quilts magazine, but I gotta say...there was nothing quick about this quilt.  Gathering the fabric was fun...lots of green and grey and a bit of lavender like Anna's quilt but also some cream, a touch of pastel yellow, and then some pinks which look nice with the Chinese rug we have in the room.

Besides visiting some area quilt shops to find fabric, I added a couple of fabrics from my stash.  (See, if you wait long enough, you'll find a use for that fabric you loved, bought, and hid in a drawer for 20 years!) 

And here is the finished quilt.

It has over a 1000 pieces...a first for me.

I used Dream Wool batting.  It was my first use of wool batting and I am sold on it (except for baby quilts that need repeated washings in warm water.)

The blocks were randomly pieced and then laid out on the floor in an arrangement.  (This quilt was the main reason I finally made a design wall.  I would have done some things differently had I been able to see this quilt laid out on a design wall.)  

The quilt now lives on our bed and I love it...flaws and all!

Super Heroes

My oldest grandson (aged 6)  had a tonsillectomy recently.  I made a Batman (his favorite super hero at the time) pillowcase to surprise him when he arrived back home from the hospital.  He really seemed to appreciate it.  He was a brave little guy and is good as new now...and still sleeping on his Batman pillowcase!

Not to forget his 4 year old brother, I also made a pillowcase with his favorite super hero, Spidey!

It was a hit with him as well!

Libbie's Quilt

I surprised my older daughter with a quilt for her birthday in April.  I bought the fabric (Andalucia by Patty Young) some time ago and was sure it was the perfect fabric for Libbie's bright personality and for her living room...green, a touch of orange and pink, and the brown and black to keep it real.  As I progressed with the quilt, I began to have my doubts about my fabric choices but forged ahead anyway.

 

Here it is on the design wall...the first quilt to be set out on the wall.

 

Here it is completed.  I watched Libbie's reaction when she saw it.  I think she did like it but was mostly happy I had made a quilt for her.

 Next time, I think I will make her something more subdued.

Laura and Marilyn's Pillowcases

Next up for birthday pillowcases for the Amish kids next door is Laura who turned 8.  She told me her favorite color was sky blue so I tried to make something similar in style to Leanna's case, as the girls share a bedroom, but in colors Laura would love.  Also recently was Marilyn's birthday.  She turned 'Sour 17' after having a nice 'Sweet 16' year.  Marilyn's room is blue but her favorite color is green so I tried to incorporate the two colors and come up with something a little different for her.

 Here are the finished cases.

This shows the detail on Marilyn's.

Karen's Quilt

I surprised my younger daughter this year with a quilt for her birthday.  I wanted to use something with blue and orange...two of her favorite colors.  I found most of this fabric when I visited her this summer past January in NYC and got to go to City Quilter twice!  My hubby helped with choosing the fabric although I had the final say!

 

Here are the blocks set out on my design wall.  I love this wall...put up the blocks...walk around it for a few days...make changes...take pictures and look at those on the computer screen a few days...make more changes...and then voila. 

 

You think you have it the way you want it and start sewing.

Here is the final quilt before sending it off to NYC.

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She loved it, by the way, and could totally tell which fabrics were chosen by her dad and which were chosen by me!