Grandmother's Flower Garden

Look what my mom made me! There's a big story behind this quilt. She started cutting and piecing all of the flowers in 1975 after my sister and I started Montessori. Over the intervening 35 years she slowly made more flowers out of our baby clothes and 1970's era fabrics and put them together into a top, then little by little she quilted it, finishing this year!


I love those bunnies/carrots!


And these flannel kitties!

And she even signed it. Awwww, thanks mom.

A Little Bit of This...

I haven't blogged much lately because I've been trying to quilt my ginormous wonky square quilt! It's slow going since there are 81 blocks, but steady. I'm outlining the two squares, plus one detail in the center square, like the pear, above and the bird, below.


I have managed to make my squares for Cancer is Sew Done, i'll be sending those off tomorrow. As I expected, they were a nightmare for a hand sewer, as I had to cut off all my knots and re-knot them after cutting out the circles, and now I can't zig zag them raw-edge to the backgrounds, so I'm asking the moderators to do that.


I got paid for the Japanese wonky square commission quilt I finished lately, so I made a trip to Austin's coolest, hippest fabric store, Stitch Lab and picked up these beauties. I "needed" them so I can make some more of the red and aqua gnome homes. Stitch Lab is the coolest because they have Japanese Kei dots (pink and blue below) which are like the Amy Butler full moon dots, but smaller, and because they have Echino in person! I've never seen them in person before, only online. I didn't buy any though, they are too expensive and the repeat is too large for me. I am a scrapper, I'd have to have a project in mind to buy a huge piece.


Oh! And they had this weird fabric, Edgie Veggies by Michael Miller. It's totally not my usual style, but I just couldn't walk out without some! I really like the eggplant and the kale (?) he's talking to. Two questions: why are there apples on a veggie print? And what the heck is in the pear's mouth? ;)

Bye!

I'm in Fabric Heaven!

I'm in fabric heaven!  I went to the mailbox last night and retrieved 10 small squishy packages.  Ten!  It was Christmas in Ju..well ok, Christmas right before Christmas!  First I unwrapped that small bag I won in the SMS giveaways from adelaidelemonade.  Don't forget to hop on over to her site to get the tutorial for the bag so you can make one too!  The bag was sooooo much cuter in person. And even more gorgeous when I stuffed it with fabric.

See that pink and red yard of Folksy flannel from Anna Maria Horner sticking up out of the bag above?  You should get some, the pattern is so subtle and the colors are wonderful. I want to get a ton of it and make this baby quilt, from Anna Maria's website - soooo soft and pretty.

Next I opened a bunch of fabric from a quilt I'm being commissioned to make.  What's not to love about a quilt commission???  You get a bunch of gorgeous fabric sent to you for free, you get to play with it until you're sick of it, you get to keep the scraps, and then you give it away.  Sounds like normal to me.  Except you get free fabric to play with, free scraps and money to boot!  What's not to love?  And all I have to do is put in about 100 hours of hand sewing labor.  Big deal, i'd be doing that anyway.  And having said that, let me also say I love all the trust there is in the quilting world.  She trusts me to send me the fabric, then I trust her to pay at the end.  I love our quilting community, don't you?

Lovely Amber sent these fabrics to coordinate into a copy of Finn's quilt.  She chose some Kokka Japan as her focus fabric:

Then she pulled all the colors out of the focus fabric with these:

So cute!  The organic cloud fabric she sent even came with two tiny swatches to intice you to buy the whole collection, and guess what, it worked.  Now I want the mushrooms and orange dots too.

Enjoy!

A Cat Finish

A kitty cat finish!  This is the comissioned cat quilt for a friend to use as a gift.  It features the actual five cats of the intended recipient, complete with nametags and correct coloring.  You can see the cats more closely here and here and here and here.

I really enjoyed making it, it was lots of fun!

I chose a gorgeous soft flannel for the backing that perfectly matched the green/blue batik.  It has blue stars around the edges and green stars in the middles.

Like this, see?  Merry Xmas everyone!

Star in the Cabin

My mother in law has a lot of great quilts, but this one was my favorite from our visit. What a great pattern! The whole quilt reminds me of Christmas. Not the colors, but the qualities. The star in the log cabin pattern reminds me of the star of Bethlehem and the manger.


It's super heavy and made of all heavy corduroy. Reminds me of cold weather and snuggling around the Christmas fireplace. Must have been hard to piece! By machine, I'm sure. I wouldn't want to try it by hand!


Even the backing is all corduroy! This thing weighs a ton but is very soft and snuggly. Do you like it?

Do You Love American Jane?

While we were up visiting my MIL for Thanksgiving, we stopped in the local quilt store in Paris, Texas. Here's what I got! Love American Jane.


I also got these guys - love the soft colors in the big dots and the gradations of pink in the small.


And guess what? I picked up a straight quarter for you! Above is Peas and Carrots American Jane and it's all for you. All you have to do is subscribe to my feed and leave a comment. If you already are a follower, just leave a comment saying that. That's all! I'll pick a winner on Monday at around 2:00. Good luck!

Double Your Fun

Hi All,
I've got a new internet quilt commission! Lovely Amber, together with her mother, wants to get a quilt made for her sister who is having a baby soon. Awwww!!! So sweet. Check out her blog, she's got a funny article about pants up today.

Amber wants the quilt to be super soft and she loves Japanese prints, so she is picking out some Echino double gauzes! Now everyone knows about the Heather Ross Far Far Away double gauzes but not many know about the Echino ones.

Here's an article about using double gauzes in quilts. Will you try it???

On the Design Wall - MY Bed Quilt!

Today on the design wall I have the quilt i'm making for my husband and my bed! Finally, I'm going to keep a quilt! Here is some fine artwork by my six year old decorating my sewing room.


My design wall, as it turns out, is WAYYYYY too small. This is only HALF our king-sized quilt: the green and blue blocks for Mickey's side. And it falls off the bottom and onto the floor. I need to get a king-sized flannel sheet and tack it up as my design wall. This picnic table cover flannel back is not working for me.


I'm putting the sashing in between the rows right now, it's going pretty quickly. Do you like it sof far?

A Finish! Squares and Frames

A while back I posted about the beginnings of this quilt on my design wall. You haven't seen it since then but it's finished! Not such a big deal for machine quilters, but every finish is a big deal for me, especially a full size quilt!


Wolf picked out the fabrics himself and he's very pleased with it.


Is that munki munki? Why yes it is! A Poolside scrap from my sister Heidi.


The quilting didn't show up very well, but it looks good. I used the top sheet from a queen sized sheet set I had laying around that we don't use. It worked perfectly and is very "sheety" feeling against the skin! Here's the full shot (right). Click to enlarge to get the full effect.

Enjoy!

More Green and Blue Blocks

Which is your favorite? Click to see them larger.

Do you see the little girl in the pool saying "shark!"?

Here Come the Green and Blue Blocks!

Gigi is here in her blue and green dress my mother made her to introduce the green and blue blocks! I showed the pink and red ones the last few days for the quilt I'm making for myself, in case you missed it. Which one is your favorite today???

Sorry for the terrible lighting, its been raining here for days! Click to enlarge for a better look.