WandaLandQuilts
Making Memories Through Quilts
Baby Quilts
During the Indiana State Quilt Guild retreat I made 4 baby quilts. Two of our best friends, Kent and Peggy, each of their adult children had a child – so that made each of them a grandparent. There was a boy and a girl so I got to make boy quilts and girl quilts. For each baby I made a flannel on flannel blanket – just two pieces of flannel sewn together with a decorate stitch around the outside (sorry no pictures). Then I make each a quilt and here are those pictures…
The pinks and purples were so much fun to play with – since we had two boys I didn’t get to do much with pink! (We do have twin nieces so I made pink quilts for them – 3 each!) A few of the blocks and the back were made of a fuzzy fleece – very soft but a huge mess to sew with! It did wash up nicely and is so soft! The baby will love it!
This quilt was made with “I Spy” types of fabric – pictures of cars and bugs and stuff that kids love. The blue is minky fabric and is so soft – again messy to work with but so soft for a baby. The back is white flannel with blue ships. I also practiced making the quilt binding strips with diagonal seams and put on completely by machine. This will hold up much better for baby quilts.
I’m hoping to get pictures of the babies with their quilts so I can post them here.
Curious George
I saw this fabric in JoAnn Fabrics and I knew I had to make my grandson, Aidan, his very own blanket. It’s fleece and so it’s fuzzy and cozy and just perfect to cuddle with. Besides he loves Curious George stories.
I simply put a double rolled hem around the outside – done.
Here’s a picture of Uncle Dustin (our oldest son) and Aidan out shoveling the driveway (a few weeks ago).
Not sure how much snow he actually shoveled but he sure had fun!
Shelley’s Round Robin Quilt
Next up of Shelley’s is her Round Robin quilt. She has referred to this as her “17 year quilt” because she started it 17 years ago. A round robin quilt is made like this: a group of gals gets together and creates the rules, in this case, create 6 – 4″ blocks each round. Each member creates their own center block in the colors and pattern of their choice. They put this block plus any additional fabric into a plastic box which will get passed to the next person in the group. When everyone has added the requird blocks to the quilt, it is returned to the owner. And it’s always a surprise because it’s never what the owner expected – it’s always much better! Well, 17 years ago Shelley was not the experienced quilter she is now, and these blocks had inside corners and other challenges she wasn’t ready to deal with. She set the box aside and that’s how it became a UFO (unfinished object). However, at the Indiana summer state guild quilting retreat she brought along this box and was determined to put the quilt top together and get it done! (I admire that determination!) Well, as you can see, it’s done and it’s gorgeous!
I had so much fun quilting this! I hope you can click on the picture and get a close up look at the blocks as well as the quilting (only to brag a little). I just love the design around and in the center star, the 3D braid, and the fish bubbles.
PS… I made the kite blocks.
Shelley’s Batik Quilt
My dear friend, Shelley, made this beautiful batik quilt as part of a block exchange with some gals from the Indiana State Quilt Guild. I was thrilled when she asked me to quilt it for her. She requested the Double Wave quilt pattern with a variegated thread. Both of those turned out to be the correct choice!
Isn’t it beautiful?
This is Janet (my sister on the left) and Shelley at the retreat. Shelley sewed on the binding and the label that weekend.
Isn’t that a great label?
More Projects Coming Soon
I’ve been quite busy and have lots more to post, but it takes so long to get the pictures from the camera to the computer, edit the pictures, write something about each one, then actually post it. I do plan on doing that on Saturday. I checked the calendar this morning and saw that Saturday was “white space” – that means there’s nothing written in there!
Here’s a list of posts you’ll see in the near future:
Shelley’s batik quilt
Janet’s batik quilt
4 baby quilts
A chenille throw (this may be my first and last attempt at making my own chenille!)
A quilt I call Big Fluffy Flying Geese (it’s got white fluffy fabric similar to chenille and large flying geese blocks – once you see it, it’ll make perfect sense)
Judy’s t-shirt quilt – actually I plan to put it on the quilting frame this weekend, but she’s got some really great t-shirts in there and I thought I’d share a sneak peek with you!
Debbie’s Crazy Patch quilt – now talk about something that takes a long time! I’ll post some pictures of some of the blocks, they are pretty and so much fun!
So…be looking for some more pictures!
Felted Pouch
These were just too much fun to make. I went to the Goodwill store and purchased a 100% wool sweater. At home I washed and dried it in hot water and a hot dryer – naturally it got about 10 sizes smaller, but the threads became very tightly woven so that when it’s cut, it doesn’t ravel. Then I cut it up and made these little pouches.
I have more of the sweater left, but not sure what to make next.
Catching Up
Too busy to blog?! How is that possible? Sometimes life gets in the way.
Here’s a few projects I’ve been working on:
Small Notebook Cover
This is a cute notebook cover for those 3×5 notebooks. The perfect size to tuck into your purse. I made this out of scraps from a lap quilt. You just can’t get rid of those small pieces of fabric so this is just perfect!
closed…
open …
Very handy indeed.
Week 14 – Oct 28, 2012 – Simple Tote Bag
This bag started out as a small practice piece for machine quilting. I haven’t done that much machine quilting on my Pfaff domestic sewing machine so I thought I’d spend time practicing. Even after an hour of practice, I could still use a bit more practice, but this ‘mini quilt’ had all the free space used up – so now what to do with it? Recently, I saw a pattern for a tote bag that had an interesting way of piecing the bottom and boxing the corners, so why not? Use my practice piece! Naturally, I rewrote the directions (which is what I do with most of my patterns anyway), and look what happened? This cute tote bag! It’s not too big, only 9x9x3, but still quite usable. The only thing I don’t care for are the wimpy handles. Just a double fold of fabric, they really need to have some interfacing inside it. The handles and the bottom of tote bags is what will wear out first. So, next time I make this pattern …
Notes on Weekly Challenge
Wow – there just isn’t enough hours in the day or days in the week to get everything done!
I’m pretty far behind in my own challenge, so I’ve come to the following conclusions:
- If I’m going to sew something every week, I need to have my patterns handy.
- I had it in my head that I had to create something new every week instead of just making something, something I’ve made before or try a new pattern. I didn’t have to create a new pattern or technique every week.
- It’s hard to stay on schedule when you move to a new home!
- Since it’s my challenge, I can change the rules any time I like. Ok, more like modify the rules to fit my schedule.
New (modified) rules:
- When I make something I’ll just post it. No point in trying to catch up now.
- Start a new challenge in January 2013. I should have all my patterns unpacked and organized by then. (hey, it could happen!)
- Do not stress over a weekly project.
- Have as much fun with this challenge as possible!
Clint’s graduation quilt
You ever notice how kids keep graduating! This quilt was made for Clint Hodges when he graduated from college. I made a quilt for his younger sister and brother when they graduated from high school, so I couldn’t forget Clint!
WandaLandQuilts 