Category: sewing

A Dog Quilt for my Great Nephew

So, on Saturday my great nephew was born about 5 weeks early.  He is perfect.  However I had to hurry and finish his dog quilt.  This was fun to make.  The most time consuming part was the cutting out of all the pieces.  I don’t really see it being used as a quilt to cover up with.  More of lay the baby on the quilt kind of thing.  I made it all from flannels so it is very soft.  This was made from Simplicity 4993.  It has a dog, bear and cat patterns.  Since I am the crazy dog lady, this is quilt that would definitely come from me.

My daughter had not ever remembered me making a “rag quilt” before and insisted that the back was the front and I put the face of the dog on the wrong side.

Now to get a couple more items for Ethan and his big sister before mailing the package off.

It always feels good to complete something.

Happy Sewing.

Happy Quilting.

Uncle Donald’s Quilt – Yes, he made it.

My Great Uncle Donald and Aunt Helen lived on a farm in Ohio. My sister Karen and I loved to go there. The county pound was on their property and we would go play with the dogs and beg my Dad to take one home every time. I remember my Dad letting my sister drive. She was about 12. IT was a place you could do things that you normally didn’t get to do at home. We would spend hours walking on their white fence to see how far we could get without falling off. Some of my fondest memories as a child.

Well, Uncle Donald was one of nine children. He was the only boy. As Aunt Helen told me when she gave me this quilt. He didn’t have a choice. All the sisters were quilting, so if he wanted something to do, he had to join in. It is funny I have quilts form my grandmother and it wasn’t until I got Uncle Donald’s quilt that I realized how much they all meant. I now had visions of my grandmother, her sisters and Uncle Donald all sitting around quilting. I am not sure that is how it happened, but I like to think about it that way.

Uncle Donald made a beautiful quilt. I will always treasure it. I miss him, Aunt Helen and Monnie (my grandmother).
Happy Sewing
Happy Quilting
Treasure your family

My Very First Quilt Ever

So, when I was looking for my red/white/blue quilts in the cedar chest, I came across my very first quilt (which I had sort of forgotten about).  It brought back some fond memories.

I think I started making this quilt when I was about 14.  I had no idea how to do it and the Internet didn’t really exist.  So, I just winged it.

Here’s the story:  When I was a kid, my next door neighbors had these jackets.  On the jackets they had patches of all the places that they had visited.  I thought this was awesome and started to collect them myself.  I had a windbreaker full of patches.  Once day I realized that my windbreaker didn’t fit very well anymore and would likely wind up at good will.  So, I carefully took off all the patched.  For some reason I decided to make a quilt because I figured it was something that I would keep for a while.   I guess I was right.

On this quilt are all the places I visited as a kid and some as I got a bit older.  It brought back some very fond memories of family vacations and things I just did as a kid.  I remember when my daughter was born that I sort of wanted to do the same thing for her, but people don’t make many patches these days.  They are a bit hard to come by.

The actual techniques are pretty awful.  I am not sure what I did when it came to binding.  But, it holds so many memories that I will never part with it.

 

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting

Happy July 4th – Celebrate with a quilt

This was the second quilt I ever made.  I actually hand quilted it.  It took forever, but it was great therapy at a difficult time of my life.

I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.

Happy 4th

Happy Sewing

Happy Quilting.

Red, White and Blue from the Quilting Widow

In celebration of the fourth, my star spangled baby quilt. I actually made this 12 years ago. It as made from scraps from a charity quilt I made for a local high school. I had the cutest picture of my daughter at about 4 months old laying on the quilt in a little patriotic outfit. I wish I could find that photo and compare it to her now. I did make her hold the quilt, since it was hers. I put it in the cedar chest for that someday when she has a baby of her own (better be a long time from now).

Happy Sewing.
Happy Quilting.
Happy 4th of July.

I love this Quilting Magazine/Book

If you are anything like me, you have purchased tons of quilting magazines and books.  For me, I will pick up a magazine just to look at how others coordinate colors and just to get ideas.  As a norm they cost form $5.99 to $9.99, which can get quite expensive.  I have a graveyard of quilt magazines.  Recently, I found Block Magazine.  It is quarterly and costs $5.99 each issue.  The thing is, it is as beautiful, or more so, that many quilt books I have purchased for 20-40$.  Block Magazine is published by The Missouri Start Quilt Company.  It has no ads.  Imagine that.  There are at least 10 projects with very complete instructions.  Many use Fabric packs, but we all know that is just a suggestion you can really do anything you want.  Honestly, I have not seen a more beautiful magazine for such a small price.  No, they did not ask me to write this.  I wanted to, just in case fellow quilters/sewers did not know about this magazine.  This one is money well spent.  I am working on collecting past issues also.  As my daughter say “Just sayin”.

Happy Quilting

Happy Sewing

 

Quilting, Quilting, Quilting

So, I struggle with the process of quilting. This quilt is no exception. I attempted to freehand hearts. When I look at the quilting, I can see how it improved somewhat about half way through, but it is still no where near where I would like t to be. I do like the colors in the quilt and I will give it a young lady for her sixteenth birthday. I need to get another one ready to practice on……

Happy Sewing
Happy Quilting

Yes, one of my dogs photo bombed my picture.

Quilting Small pieces seems easier

I found that quilting this piece was easier than others. I think it is because it is small and it made doing things other than meandering easier. While I feel slightly better about my quilting, I am pretty sure as soon as I go to bigger piece I will have the same issues.

I also like Halloween. I have another embroidered Halloween piece that I need to turn into something. I can’t just sit in front of the TV. My hands must always be occupied. So, I wind up embroidering something that I can put in my quilts.

I know, practice, practice, practice the quilting.

I want to get to a point where I can do the quilting with ease……

Happy Sewing.
Happy Quilting.

Practice the quilting, practice the quilting

As i have mentioned in the past, I fear the quilting… Everyone tells me that it is all about practice, so that is what I am doing. I just get frustrated because I want to do all the beautiful stuff I see and I can’t. Jeez I hope I will get there. I don’t really like this piece much, but I really made it to hang on the front door. I have pieced one other that I am finishing and will show it soon after I get the dreaded quilting done. I like it a lot more because it has a few of my embroidered pieces in it. Someday I will get it right.

Happy Sewing. Happy Quilting.

Embroidered Baby Bibs for my future GrandKid?

So, While I was going through boxes of sewing supplies, fabric etc… I came across these baby bibs. I believe I made them over 20 years ago. I had no children and I was not even thinking about getting married.

Ever since my older sisters had kids and I became an Aunt, I loved making things for babies and kids. My sister Karen’s kids had the greatest Halloween costumes. I made my nephew a dinosaur once. The tail was so long and big he had to tie a roller-skate to it so he did not drag a hole in it. I made my niece Minnie mouse and a belly dancer costume. My daughter has also had a butterfly and a witch costume (with a fancy witch gown). I don’t do much costume making these days, but spend lots of time on quilts and other crafty things.

I remember making these bibs. I used Kona cotton and traced the design with a pencil while I had them taped to the sliding glass door of my single girl condo. Oh the memories. I will put these away for that Grandchild I hope to meet one day.

Happy Sewing.