A Finish - Starry Starry Night

Yay! A finish! A big deal here in all-by-hand land. I finished this Starry Starry Night quilt for our son Corey and his soon to be born son. I found the inspiration quilt on the internet and saved it for years, then when Corey chose it I had to figure out the measurements and directions. It was easier than I'd thought!


I quilted it in an all over diagonal pattern to give it some movement.


Love the Valori Wells Urban Flannel on the back! I love that entire collection of flannels.



Enjoy!

Starry, Starry Night

So did the title of this post make you think of the famous painting or the famous song by Don McLean? If you click the link to the song, it's actually an analysis of the lyrics compared to Van Gogh's life, very interesting!



But i'm not here today for a fine art lesson, i'm here to introduce the new quilt i'm working on! I keep a bunch of photos of quilts I've found interesting over the years, just in case I want to make them someday. My younger stepson Corey is having a baby now and picked this photo out of my files. I searched the internet for hours trying to figure out who made it or where I got the photo, and no luck, even on flickr, so if you recognize the quilt, speak up and I will give credit!!!

I don't use patterns when making quilts, so it was fun trying to figure out the measurements, considering if you look closely, it's not really pieced in rows. I just used a 5" measurement per unit to get the measurements I wanted, for example I counted the corner small square at 5" and the long piece next to it at 5X10". I'm going to piece it in chunks, starting in the middle.


I'm really loving the cute little stars i'm making! I love the twinkly yellow one...


And the apple dots star...


But I want to know your honest opinion of the star above. What do you really think? Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Click to enlarge and maybe that will help you form an opinion. lol.


Best for last....my favorite. Japanese froggies dancing in a flower circle with Park Slope yellow green goodness. That's Corey, Ashley and the baby dancing. Love it! Which one do you like?

Half Done!

It's half done! The ginormous quilt I'm making for myself and Mr. Babyquilts is halfway there. It's ten 12-inch blocks by nine 12-inch blocks, not counting sashing!

This is "his" half, the blue and green half, all sashed and ready to go. It also includes the 'snuggling' row on the right which are blue/green combined with red/pink. Now all that's left to do is four more rows of red/pink to attach to the right hand side.


Here's a six year old child and a koala for scale. It's huge! Click a photo to see the square themes better.

You know, it looks all innocent and fine and dandy now, but boy was I mad last night. I carefully pinned and sewed one whole sashing the long way, all the way down. Then when I opened it out, guess what, it was sewed onto the wrong side of the block strip, so the seam was on top! I was hopping mad! I had to then hand rip the whole seam, re-pin and re-sew. It took me several hours to get back to where I should have been. Oh well. Days like that really make me want to buy a machine, especially with all of these straight seams. I like piecing the blocks by hand, but sashing and borders by hand are straight up boring!


Wolfie says hi. "Hi!"

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.

On the Design Wall Today

I have a new quilt i'm making for my son, Wolf. He picked out the fabrics, the solids are Bella. He chose the design based on this quilt by Handmade by Alissa, my favorite blog! It's a fast quilt, so i'm zipping right along!

Lydia's Flying Geese Quilt

Today i'm featuring a flying geese quilt I made for my sister Heidi's daughter, Lydia, wayyyyyy back in 2001. These photos (except the one with the girls) were actually taken this week, so it's nice to see that my workmanship held up! Holding up nicely also is the flannel from Hobby Lobby that I used to make it. This was very early on in my love affair with fabric and I hadn't yet met quilt shop fabric. Lol, maybe my love of designer fabric is misplaced if this flannel is such a performer!

This is one of my top five favorite quilts I have ever made and i'm proud to say that Lydia has loved the heck out of it. Heidi reports that over the years it has been with her through thick and thin, in sickness and in health, and she still loves it.

Go ahead and visit heidi's shop to see her cool minkee items for sale!

Wendy

Amy Butler Fabric Giant Heart Quilt

Here is a quilt I just completed for my sister heidi to give to her highschool friend Dale as a wedding present. Heidi bought all the fabric and I hand pieced it. All the fabric is Midwest Modern by Amy Butler. In the photos i've got it all pinned to send to her so she can hand quilt it! Don't judge it by the wrinkliness, it's a monster of a quilt, probably a king size, and I've had to do a lot of work with it on the floor!

I love the words on the 108" wide backing! So appropriate for a new marriage. Click on thumbnails to see all full size.

Enjoy!

Wendy