This is absolutely wonderful! My sister, Janet, embroidered this for me and I quilted it. It makes me smile every time I see it. I was going to hang it in my office at work, but I don’t have room in our newly remodeled office space. It’s all open concept now so I don’t have the cubical wall space I once did. So, I’ll be hanging this in my sewing room, Wandalandquilts.
Let me tell you – these are so handy! I made these from the leftovers from a quilt I made for a graduation gift. The stiff batting inside really gives them some shape and they are quite sturdy, too.
Currently I am working on a memory quilt and it’s coming along nicely. I have all the clothing cut into the correct sizes as well as some other special items like the patch from a baseball cap, a “terrible towel” from a sports team, and even worked in a portion of a baby blanket. Next, I’ll be working on the layout. Hope to be able to share some pictures here soon.
Have a great day!
One of my co-workers is expecting twin girls in a few short weeks, so naturally I had to make some baby gifts. The picture below is two small blankets (with the bumpy fleece fabric), two changing pads that are backed with flannel (one is laid out flat and the other is rolled up – makes for easy outtings) and the ties can easily be removed and used as a larger baby blanket, and a pouch to hold a package of baby wipes and a couple diapers. These were so much fun to make and worked up quickly.
The picture above is a small zippered pouch that I made with the left over pieces of fabric. I started with a collection of six fat quarters from Keepsake Quilting. I recently read a magazine article that after you make a quilt or project, make it your goal to use up all the left overs so that you feel comfortable throwing away the scraps. Those few pieces of fabric in front of the pouch is all the fabric that was left over. If you look closely at the pouch you can tell I had to piece the back section because I didn’t have a large enough piece. So, use it up! Although I must confess, I really didn’t throw away those scraps, I put them in a bin with like size pieces to use in making rope bowls – but that’s a future project.
Here are a couple fleece blankets I made for our neighbor who had a baby earlier this spring. This is some double sided fleece I purchased at Quilt’s Plus on the north side of Indy. All that was needed was some binding! How easy is that?
The blocks were created from a book by Tula Pink called 100 Modern Quilt Blocks. Since the book suggests that the quilter name the blocks themselves, I called this Floating Plus Signs because that’s exactly what it looks like to me; however, in the book it’s Block 11.
I had this collection of delightful Oriental fabrics to make the blocks from. I pulled the gray background from my stash. I believe it was leftover from another quilt, but who really knows? I seem to have a lot of leftovers from other quilts so I’m trying to use those up. So, creating the blocks and sewing them together was pretty easy and made a delightful lap size quilt.
The machine quilting is what I was looking forward to the most. I wanted to practice my longarm quilting and this was the perfect piece. I did stitch in the ditch (SID) around the plus signs using a ruler and that went pretty well. SID quilting can be tricky and takes some concentration. The background around the plus signs is a swirl pattern. I was practicing keeping the spacing even and not getting stuck in any of the corners – trust me … there were a lot of corners! The first border, I used a plastic template to trace a border design, so I just quilted on the line. Sounds easy enough, but still takes practice and concentration. The outside border is my own design. This was practicing several things, backtracking, spacing, stitch in the ditch, and making the design while stitching in all directions.
This quilt has been entered in the Quilt Guild of Indianapolis show in October 2015. I also decided to have it judged as well. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a quilt judged so it will be interesting to see what the judges’ comments tell me.
The longarm quilting advice is correct – practice makes perfect! Although this is not ‘perfect’ it sure did give my confidence a boost.
Started: March 2014
Finished: September 2015
Floating Plus Sign – the quilt
Close up of plus signs and background quilting
First and second border quilting
I’m back! Not quilting as much as I would like, but getting something accomplished.
This is my best friends quilt while it was still on the quilting frame. I’ve actually completed it and will deliver it next week. It has some really wonderful t-shirts like Elvis and Pooh. I’m sure she’ll enjoy it for many years to come.
In this picture you can also see what a quilting machine actually looks like. It’s quite large and takes up lots of space. A normal ‘domestic’ machine is where you move the fabric under the machine. With a quilting machine, you move the machine over the fabric. The quilt layers are rolled on bars, similar to the old fashioned typewriters. (probably found in antique stores!) You can also see a portion of my ‘studio’ also known as Wandaland. I need to either organize better or take over the rest of the house!
Hello Everyone!
I’ve been away for a bit – recovering from rotator cuff surgery – no worries!
All is well, or will be if I survive Physical Therapy, no offense to all those wonderful PT’s out there! They work very hard at getting people back to functioning as they were before. When my PT asked me what specific tasks I wanted to be able to get back to – I had to explain what a quilting machine is. Naturally, I got out my phone and showed her some pictures.
However, this whole situation has put a damper on my sewing and quilting activities. With my arm in a sling for 6 – 12 weeks, I’m not much good at anything right now. This has put me behind about 2 months! I’m so sorry but I’m sure with the PT I’m sure to be back to quilting soon. But see – I’m getting better at typing, so I’m making progress.
Please stay tuned.
After making this tote bag, I realized it’s a bit too tall – don’t you think so, too? I’ve decided to cut off the bottom and restitch it to make it a more practical height. It’s nice to be able to adjust a pattern before it’s sewn, but it’s also nice to make adjustments after it’s sewn. I’ll let you know what it looks like when I’m done.
In between working on quilts I like to make fun little projects. Here’s what I’ve been making the past month or so.
Quilted Tote Bag
Gathered Top Purse – love that ‘sewing’ fabric
Pincushion made from a china sugar bowl that I bought on eBay (very cheap!)
Perfect tote bag – and made from great fabric!
Gathered bowls – these are great for travel to catch all those lose things like keys, watch, earrings, change, chap stick, etc, plus they pack well and are machine washable.
Journal cover (shapes cut by my friend, Shelley)
Tissue pack covers – the second one I made a bit larger and it works better
Recycle towel – this was an old towel (my grandmothers I think), it was in the rag bag for awhile, then I read in a quilt magazine that you can use left over binding to finish the edge of frayed towels then use them as a rug or bathmat (it’s double thickness). Works great!
Quilting notebook cover – this is the little book I take with me to quilt shops, it has my favorite patterns and how much fabric is required. And it has all kinds of quilting notes in there. Comes in very handy.
Zippered totes – I made these for Shelley and Janet at the summer quilting retreat. Janet’s quote is from Rocky Horror Picture Show and she requested it be on her tote.
I hope these have inspired you to do some sewing, too!
I’ve been sewing and quilting all summer long, but haven’t had a chance to post anything. Now that sailing season has ended, I’ll catch up on some sewing projects I’ve completed.
Janet’s pink quilt
I quilted this pink quilt for my sister, Janet. It’s a gift for a neighbor girl. I like the flowery open quilting design. I’m sure that little girl will just love it!
Pair of baby quilts
These baby quilts are for some friends of ours. I love the bright colors and it has a soft minky fabric as the backing.
Art Quilts
Once again I’m trying my hand at Art Quilts. They are the size of placemats. The ladders represent challenges in life, they can take you in different directions, some are easier to climb than others. Not sure that comes across clearly, so some day I’ll try it again. I probably won’t use them as placemats but maybe on a dresser or table top.
This quilt was so much fun to make! I just loved it! This was a high school graduation quilt for a beautiful young lady. She saved all her favorite t-shirts and ended up with a very special quilt to take to college. Just take a look at this quilt:
Finished quilt:
Here is a close up of one of the t-shirts – and you can see the multi colored binding on the quilt:
And just take a look at the special label and the family photo transfers – she’ll always have her family with her:
Good luck at college, Caroline!
Get your guild info here
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