It took very little time to finish up the whole cloth dinosaur quilt I made for our local Community Service group. It is great to have quilts available for children in crises and I think this one is perfect. Cute dinosaurs on the fronts and snuggly, soft flannel on the back.
A not so artsy photo – complete with ladders and scrap wood in the background!
The binding is a bold red and white stripe, leftover yardage gifted by my sister some time ago.
I quilted around each dinosaur and if needed (to travel to the next creature) I echoed some of the trees or volcanoes. Simple and fun!
It finished at approximately 40″ square, a good size for a toddler needing a quilted hug.
Whole cloth quilts are a lot of fun and provide such easy FMQ practice. Here are a few I made in the past.
Panda Garden Recess Whole Cloth Quilt
I couldn’t bear to cut up this fabric. The little panda bear scenes deserved to stay whole. I had made this as a sample to use in my quilt show vendor booths some years back.
Commissioned baby quilt using Fiesta Fun.
This was a commission done for a customer. It was, again, a great chance to practice FMQ as I quilted around the flowers.
Whole Cloth Quilt using Valori Wells’ Marikech fabric
Some years back, my niece asked me to make a quilt for her best friend’s first baby. She really wanted this boho elephant fabric which was no longer available. But you know how it goes – I put it out there that I needed a piece of this and was able to buy it from someone who had it on her shelf. Just enough to make the quilt.
Sometimes, a fabric is just so pretty as it is, I feel like I don’t need (or want) to cut it up. What do you think? Have you made a whole cloth quilt? If not, I bet you have a perfect large scale fabric in your stash to give it a try! Plus, it is easy to quilt and a nice way to get some practice. Quilting around shapes that are already there helps those shapes to pop a bit and is a great way to improve your FMQ skills.
Sharing with my usual link ups. Please take a look at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Hello!! Just a quick note to check in with you this fine morning. We had a sudden thunderstorm last night which was fun. However when we have a quick change in barometric pressure, that triggers a migraine which was the not-so-fun part. This morning I am moving a bit slow and thought I would post a bit about what I am working on.
This week I made a few more placemats for our local Meals on Wheels chapter. Our guild is collecting them but hasn’t yet hit the number they are hoping for. I made five of them in February and am always happy to make more!I happened to have a stack of strips (2 1/2″ x 5″) leftover from the coin quilt top I just shared. This made it super easy and fun to whip up a small stack of mats.
For each mat, I used a different stitch on my Janome to quilt them. It was nice to try out some of the stitches and see what I preferred.j
Yesterday I shared this on Instagram. I am making a simple whole cloth quilt for our guild’s community service group. They have an abundance of fabric and when I was last there, I picked up this cute print to make something for them. It is an older fabric from Blank Quilting Co. It seemed better to just leave it whole and quilt it as is. I will finish this up today so I can bring it over tomorrow to the work-day. These dinosaurs are so dang cute and will make a child happy some day!
I will close with this cute picture my husband took the other day. He has been working on getting our irrigation water going for the spring and summer. When this sprinkler was running, the geese came right over for a drink. We have not seen them use this as a drinking fountain and found it so funny. Even more so when the geese gave us a stern look after he turned off the sprinkler. Hahaha. Silly goose!
Hope you are all well and happy!! What are you up to this week? Leave me a quick note so I know how you are doing.
Linking up with a few favorite sites. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
I don’t know about you but I am really lazy about getting my sewing machines serviced. I procrastinate, put it off longer and longer with my usual excuse being ‘I clean out the bobbin housing all the time so it must be fine’. But oh my gosh, think about how often I use these machines of mine. The poor things need to be taken care of!
When my smaller Janome refused to stitch more than two inches without giving me grief, I realized it was time. I took it to a woman in town who is a whiz with machine repair and maintenance. She kept it for a few days and worked her magic. Some $80 later, my machine is purring along. What a huge difference!! When I picked the machine up, Debbie had a sandwich size Zip Lok bag filled with lint and gunk. I can’t imagine how she got it all out of there but she did. The machine is like new!
I decided to take advantage of this amazing transformation and practice some free motion quilting. I have not been doing too much quilting at home because the machines were not cooperating (now I know why!) To have a nice big canvas to play with, I chose to do a simple whole cloth quilt. Have you seen Art Gallery’s line of fabric called Pandalicious? Of course it features adorable panda bears. Designed by the very talented Katarina Roccella, these prints are really sweet and just filled with the personality of spunky pandas. I have a few pieces of the line in my shop and decided to play with the feature fabric.
Panda Garden Recess is a large scale print which tells the story of panda families frolicking in a garden of pastel blues and greens. I cut a 40″ piece of this fabric and a 44″ piece of Hidden Panda for the backing. After trimming the top to a 40″ square and quickly pin basting the layers together, I started quilting loops. My machine was entirely cooperative and the tension was perfect. It is much more fun to quilt when my equipment is properly taken care of. 🙂
The quilting took no time at all. After squaring it up, I decided it needed something more than just the binding. I had a large scrap of a jade green solid in my stash and cut some 1 1/2″ strips to make a flange. I am always, always a fan of a flanged binding!
As I mentioned earlier, the adorable backing is called Hidden Panda. It is another of my favorite prints. The loopy quilting I did (which doesn’t really show up in the pictures) works well with the curve of the print. Looking back, it would also have worked to quilt the piece from the back, by quilting along or tracing the curves. Another project for another day!
There you have it. My machine is back to its amazing self and I have a sweet quilt as a result. Next weekend is the quilt show for the Pioneer Quilter’s Guild where I will be a vendor. It is going to be held in Roseville so if you are a local, come out, say hi, and enjoy the show! I will use the quilt to show off this fun fabric in the booth. After that, maybe it is destined for Project Linus or a spot in my Etsy shop. I haven’t yet decided.
We are supposed to have a wet, rainy weekend and I am prepared!! I have two projects currently vying for my time so I am very much looking forward to a quiet weekend in the sewing room. There is also a tiny quilt show scheduled for the weekend and I may hop over there to take a look at the quilts. We shall see! Hope you have something fun planned as well! Enjoy the weekend.
Linking to my usual favorites as well as one new to me; Finished or Not Friday over at Busy Hands Quilts. Check them out at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
I have such a bright, cheerful quilt to share with you! This is the second time I have made a whole cloth baby quilt for a customer. The first time was last fall, when I did the elephant quilt. Check it out here for the details. I very much enjoy making these. This quilt was a simple project because there is no piecing involved. My customer really loved the Mexican Dress fabric from Art Gallery Fabric’s Fiesta Fun line. This is actually the second time I have used this fabric line in a baby quilt. The first time was when I made the Knock Knock quilt while pattern testing for Sarah Goer. The colors in this line are a fantastic mix of brights and pastels against a pure white background. It is a lot of fun for a baby quilt. There is much for baby to look at!
My customer and I emailed back and forth numerous times one night as she selected the backing and binding fabric. After having two boys, she is expecting a girl. She wanted bold and bright colors so she went with a Ta Dot polka dot fabric from Michael Miller. The polka dots were used for both backing and binding. I really think this was an excellent choice.
Rather than put the dots right up against the floral fabric, I suggested using a flange in a solid deep orange (Pure Elements in Tiger Lily from Art Gallery also).
I think it is good to have a break between the bold orange dots and the busy floral fabric.
Quilting this was a lot of fun. For the most part, I outlined bits and pieces of the floral design. As I moved from one part to the next, I would add a loop or two. Having this busy print was like having a stencil for the quilting. I didn’t outline everything though. For a baby quilt, I like to have some space between the quilting to keep the quilt soft.
The quilt finished at 40″ x 40″ and I gave it one trip through the wash before packaging it up to send to Texas. Hopefully Baby Camille will get lots of use out of this quilt for a long time to come!
Just in case you are in need of some gorgeous color in your sewing room, I do have all of these fabrics in stock in the shop. 🙂 I will be linking up this week with a few of my favorites. Check the tab at the top of the page for links!
Also, I want to let everyone know I drew two names for the giveaway of Carrie Bloomston’s book! Congrats to Susan S. and Nancy H. Here are their comments:
Susan S. said: “I would like to design a house that perfectly fits my life style and compliments it’s surroundings.”
Nancy H. said: “Great interview, Bernie. At one time, and not too long ago at that, I would have said that my one wish was owning a cozy, welcoming quilt shop where people felt as though they were home. Now, it’s a tough choice. The simple answer would be to finish my quilt in time for the show in two weeks! But I think it should be more substantial than that. You’ve really stumped me!”
It was so interesting to read the responses to my question, ” what would you try if you were guaranteed success?” There were lots of interesting ideas put forth. Thank you for joining in!
Yesterday I thought it was Wednesday. All day long – I even took the trash can up for pick up (which happens early Thursday morning). Guess what? It was Tuesday. So it is like I gained an extra day this week! I need to organize myself so I use the extra day wisely!!
At the moment, I have three quilts actively in process.
The Sewcial Bee Sampler hosted by Maureen Cracknell and Sharon Holland. It is week 23 for the sew along but I am behind by four blocks. Once I get behind on something, it is hard for me to pick it back up and focus on it. I will try to get some of these blocks done though. I really like the first 18 or so that I have made and I look forward to laying them out and looking at the overall quilt.
The floral and cream quilt (Twisted) that I started in a class at the beginning of June. I am hoping to get together with my friend Sophia and we are going to work on this one together. I have lots of pieces prepped for chain piecing. This one will come together quickly.
My Ring Me quilt hasn’t been touched since I started it last spring. Remember when I shared this as a part of the blog hop for Amanda Jean Nyberg’s recent book? I love it but I haven’t worked on it for a long while. It is going to have to continue to wait. There is too much going on right now!
I also have two new quilts to start. One is a whole cloth baby quilt for an Etsy customer. She wants a bright and cheerful quilt for her baby girl who is due any day now. I am going to start this one today.
The other is a quilt made of football and baseball jerseys for my nephew, Sam. He is off to college in the fall and wants me to make a quilt with his huge collection of jerseys. I am a little bit nervous because these aren’t knit t-shirts (which I have worked with before). These are made of that silky jersey fabric. I am unsure how I will stabilize the fabric. Also, the logos are all over the place as far as size. Hmmm…. If anyone has any suggestions or if you can point me to an article on this, that would be great!
Along with all of this, I am making some changes with my Etsy shop and how things are organized. I decided to separate the pattern sales from the fabric sales. Both are growing a lot and it makes sense to have two different shops. There are only 15 categories a seller can use in their shop. Splitting these between the fabric and patterns in one shop is becoming difficult. So I am slowly moving the patterns over to the new shop. This is a labor intensive task as there is no way to do it automatically within Etsy. I have to re-list each one and I have hundreds. I try and do a few each day. If you have shopped for patterns with me in the past, the new shop is called Needle and Foot Sews, Vintage and Current Patterns. It would be best to favorite both shops if you want to keep track of the patterns. Hopefully it won’t be too long before this is complete.
I better get to work!! I am going to baste the whole cloth quilt and get it started this morning! Later this week I will be posting the fifth interview in my Meet the Designer series. You will get to know Carrie Bloomston and there is a giveaway involved in this one! Don’t miss it.
If you have not yet signed up for my newsletter, please do! Click here for the sign up form. You will receive an email from me about every 4 – 6 weeks with information on what is new in the shop as well as highlighting any upcoming events or promotions.
This week I finished up a baby quilt that I started about a month ago. It was a very simple and fun project but it took a bit to get it going. A while back, my niece called me and asked if I would make a quilt for her to gift to her best friend who is soon to have her first baby. We talked for a while about what she wanted. Greens, lavender and grey were the colors she was looking for and the nursery features elephants as a theme.
My niece then sent me some links to quilts she saw on Pinterest. Back and forth we texted, looking at all sorts of ideas. Finally she decided that she really wanted a quilt made from Valorie Wells’ Marrakech line. This was going to take some searching as this adorable fabric is out of print now. I searched extensively on-line without any luck. I continued the search by reaching out on Instagram and Facebook without any luck. Still determined, I kept looking. My next approach was to look at Etsy sellers that were selling items made with this fabric. Once I found a seller, I emailed the person asking if they had any of the fabric remaining in their collection. Mission accomplished! I found a seller that had the fabric and she sold me a 1.5 yard cut. Bingo! Thank goodness for the internet and for the generosity of that Etsy seller.
When the fabric arrived, I started to think about quilting it. I reached out to Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl because she has done some amazing quilting and I like her style. She gave me several ideas to think about. It was such a tough decision. I kept thinking it was an opportunity to really practice some cool quilting. But take a look at the fabric. It is crazy busy – colorful, lots going on in the print, and those amazing elephants. The fabric is the star of this project. I realized the quilting isn’t even going to show. I finally decided to just keep it very simple.
To select a backing fabric, I took pictures of several fabrics that I thought worked well. My niece chose a basic gray polka dot. Once that decision was made, I got the quilt basted and ready for quilting. Using a pale green Mettler thread, I did a loose meander all around the elephants. It was a breeze and really enjoyable to quilt over those flowers and in between the elephants.
Once that was done, I outlined each elephant with purple. It is quite difficult to see from the front but the quilting does show nicely on the back.
I have never made a quilt using a piece of fabric for the top (as opposed to piecing it) but it works perfectly in this situation. Cutting up a fabric with this scale of print just wouldn’t make sense.
I used this purple print for the binding. I bought it on a sale table and never thought to look and see what it was? But it’s cute and it works.
I hope my niece is pleased and that this quilt is loved and used by sweet Olivia who will be born in a few months. I can happily check this off of my Q4-FAL list for the link up at She Can Quilt.
Hoping you all have a great weekend. We have rain in the forecast which is always nice. I am hoping to do some preparation (aka house cleaning) for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
Linking up with my usual favorites. Find their links at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Yesterday was a busy day so to balance that out, today is not! I am not a fan of jam packed weekends. This morning I was up early and spent quite a while in my sewing room cutting pieces. I cut everything I need for the May blocks for my RSC15 row quilt. The color is dark green and I am hoping to piece those blocks (at least some of them) later today. I also cut the binding strips for the Alison Glass miniquilt that I am trying to finish up. I should easily get that binding taken care of as the quilt is only 24 x 24 inches. Then I cut the pieces for a cute little zippered pouch using the scraps from the AG mini. I will send that along to my swap partner with the quilt.
Yesterday was a little crazy. Julia had a science/math competition that she took part in. She did well, placing 7th (they did a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4 ‘honorable mentions’) She was happy to place within the honorable mentions. The test was really difficult. After that we spent the afternoon at a picnic for the incoming freshman at her new high school. She had a great time meeting her new classmates.
We got home at about 4:00 and I was wandering around the garden, letting the dog run around a bit since she was cooped up all day. So many things are blooming right now. My garden is definitely a spring garden. It really peaks in May. Looking at the peonies and iris, I nearly tripped over this huge snake. It startled the heck out of me. Because of it’s color and the pattern down the length of it, I immediately looked to its tail to be sure it wasn’t a rattler. We have quite a few snakes around here and a somewhat large number of rattlesnakes. (The mascot for Julia’s middle school is the “Rattlers” if that gives you any indication.) The garter snake on my grass was a good four feet long. While snakes don’t scare me too much, it is somewhat disturbing to nearly step on one. I went to get my phone from the car (we’d just gotten home) to text a picture to Ray but by the time I returned the snake was gone.
Deciding it was time to go inside, I called Lady (our dog) to come in. She came bounding over to me and had the head of a rabbit hanging from her mouth. Snakes I can handle, dead animals – not so much.The sight of this made me gag. Honestly, I just didn’t know what to do about it. I yelled for her to drop it and she looks at me like, ‘are you kidding?’ She ran to her crate in the garage and put her treasure in the crate. Yuk. To be honest, living on acreage, we have our share of dead animal tasks to deal with. But that is Ray’s job. I want no part of it. Unfortunately, Ray was up at the house in Downieville. I texted my advisory board, aka my sister’s, for their advice and hmmm…. surprisingly, it wasn’t all that helpful. A lot of ewww, gross, and call the neighbor for help. Gagging all the while I managed to deal with the yuk in La dy’scrate. But the visual of my dog’s trophy piece stuck in my head for a long while (it’s still bouncing around in there, if you must know). I went inside and had a glass of wine which is unusual for me (hypoglycemia = no alcohol). Julia was teasing me; dealing with the horrorific experience with alcohol Mom? Eighth graders think they are so wise.
Enough of that nastiness, I need to move on, get over it, clear my mind! Let’s talk about quilt shows and silent auctions instead. That topic is much more pleasing. Two weeks ago was our guild’s local quilt show and I worked at the silent auction table. We had so many wonderful donations and I bid on quite a few. I wasn’t there at the end of the day to actively try to outbid people on the items I wanted but I did manage to win two items.
Below is a stitchery of bamboo done on dark green batik. Green is my favorite color and I have quite a bit of it in my home. I love the simplicity of this piece. It is hanging in the dining room.
The other piece that I took home is a whole cloth mini quilt. It was made by a friend of mine and I love it. She did a lovely job with the quilting. The fabric has a wonderful shimmer to it. I use a lot of lavender in one of our bathrooms and plan to hang it in there. I need to put a sleeve on it first though.
When I was working the silent auction table it surprised me how little activity there was. I think it wasn’t in the best place as far as traffic goes. Also, I noticed that most of the activity came at the end of the day when people would actively try to win items and out bid other people. It seems like there must be a way to encourage more activity during the day. I would really appreciate hearing how other guilds handle the silent auction at a show. Would it work to have the bidding for certain items end mid-day rather than at the end? Seems like that might encourage that active bidding process to happen at different points throughout the day. Plus people that don’t stay at the show all day long could have the fun of trying to win items before they left. Thoughts? Please leave me some hints on this in the comments section.
I think it is good to have a break between the bold orange dots and the busy floral fabric.
