Starry Heather Ross Quilt Finish!

I really like how this turned out! The cold, rainy weather here is not cooperating for photos, but trust me, it's gorgeous. My sister gave me her whole stash of Heather Ross to make it, and I used almost every scrap. It's a copy of this quilt I made for a baby, I just figured out different measurements. I was pretty proud of myself, considering all I had was a photo to start with!



I quilted every six inches, outlining each star and circling little motifs like I did in this Heather Ross quilt.



I included three selvages too, for fun. Here's my favorite one above.



There are even a few stars using the coveted seagull fabric, that you really can't even buy anymore. I just did a quick search and couldn't find ANY for sale on the internet.

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Here's a cute weiner dog outline. He needs a sweater here in Texas today.



For the back, my sister sent a soft flannel twin size sheet that worked perfectly to bring to the front as binding. Also shown above is my second favorite selvage, including the color dots.



And here's Ty enjoying his quilt. Have a good weekend!

Galaxy - Heather Ross Quilt Continues

Happy New Year! Today I wish you all happiness and love in the coming year, and a little bit of luck too :)

Enjoy the full galaxy of stars. I just threw them up on the design wall, I have yet to lay them out as they will be sewn. Coming next, top completed!

Constellation - Heather Ross Quilt Continues

I've been off work, and will be this whole week, so the constellation of stars is growing! Click to see them better. Check out those seagulls! The big one is 20" but it's not the biggest I've got planned. I've got a couple of 30 inchers coming.

Amazing how quickly the day goes by when I'm supposed to be cleaning the house, but instead I'm quilting. I'd make a terrible stay at home mom!



Merry Xmas and enjoy.

Conception - Heather Ross Quilt Begins

A new quilt comes to life with the completion of the first block. Does anyone else ever feel like they've breathed life into a new quilt when they finish the first block? Like something has been set in motion that will take a certain amount of time to be done forming, then it will travel to its home, live out its life and someday meet its end. Or am I just weird? Probably, lol.

My sister asked me to make this Heather Ross quilt for her son (my nephew) Ty and his big boy bed. She sent me every bit of the HR stash I've been trying to separate her from for three years, including seagulls! To me, getting to play with it is just as good as having it. It's going to be the same pattern as the Starry Starry Night baby quilt I made, but in a twin size and with no solids. The challenge is to use just the fabric she sent. I'm using dots and stripes as solids.

I like how the selvage came out in the block above. I'll post more as I have it.

Cabin in the Snow Mini Quilt

I've always kind of wanted to make a mini quilt and so today I did! I made this Cabin in the Snow as a mug rug for a dear friend of mine. It measures 6" by 5". It's a lot cuter in person, it has more depth to the colors and you can see the little swirls in the white on white snow.



I didn't use a pattern or draw one out, I just started making tiny wonky stars by cutting 1" squares and following Sillyboodilly's great tutorial to piece them. Then I just estimated the size of everything else. The door is yellow to show that someone has a light on for you and is waiting by the fire.



On the back I used one of my oldest and most favorite fabrics. It reminds me of the bare branches in the snow of my childhood home, Milwaukee. The tiny 1/4" binding was difficult for me to sew on, witness the terrible corner on the bottom left in the photo!

I am missing fall in my homeland and wish I were soon in a cabin in the snow "up north", which in Milwaukee-speak means "anywhere in Wisconsin that is not Milwaukee".

Enjoy!

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?

Cancer is Sew Done Blocks

Click on the photo to see what they really look like. The photography is terrible as I have to do these things after my kids are in bed and the lighting is not so great!

These are the blocks for cancerissewdone. Won't you join me in that group?





This one is my favorite! Alexander Henry sprites.

Jimmy's Patriotic Quilt Finished!

Yay me! It's finally done! There must be thousands of stitches in this thing, all by hand. If I were to give this quilt a nickname it would be "the quilt that almost convinced me to buy a sewing machine". It took what seemed like forever, but was more like six weeks. If you want to see the individual blocks closer up, here are the stars, the flags, and the Sams. Here are the photos of the quilt party where I presented it to him! With cake photo!

This quilt was supposed to be a twin size, but if you'll notice, I put the sashing in only one way and not the other way - it was already too big I discovered. This gave it an interesting medallion effect in the center four blocks. As it turns out, his new bed is actually a double, so it fits perfectly and the flags don't hang off the sides as they do here.

I also didn't add the four inch border all the way around that I had cut, so I pieced it to make a piece big enough for the pillow. I put his name on the pillow in felt letters, lower case. I forgot that I don't want to use flannel for the letters on the back anymore, as they tend to shred. Oh well, I'll replace it when that happens. Also, his pillowcase was supposed to be the Texas flag, but sharp eyed viewers will note that the red and white blocks are supposed to be top and bottom to each other, not left and right. Oh well again! I'd never made a pillowcase before, so I taught myself how from this internet tutorial. It was easy.

I used an orphan 400 thread count sheet for the back and I love it! It's all smooth and silky and sheety. Mmmm. Wonderful sheetiness.... I tied it in red, white and blue embroidery floss. Enjoy!

A Twinkle of Stars

My mom just bought me the book Stars by Magic by Nancy Johnson Srebro. It was perfect to make some stars for the patriotic quilt. I love all three of her "by magic" books and many of the things on this blog are made from patterns I found in them. Her "magic" is using only cut squares and rectangles to make all the blocks. So the diamonds you see here started out as rectangles.

Sharp-eyed blog followers will notice that the blue star on the lower left is the one I featured in this post as unintentionally wonky. I lived with it for a few weeks, but eventually I couldn't stand it and I had to fix it!

Enjoy!

Star Wall Hanging

This is a wallhanging I made for our living room years ago. It still looks pretty good, except the star points that appear as light purple were originally dark purple - they faded out with the light. Still looks ok! Enjoy.

Wendy

Stars for the Australian Bushfire Quilt Project

Well, here are my two stars for the Bushfire Project. I've never made wonky stars before and it takes a bit of practice to get them wonky without the points being too skinny. Making these was especially hard for me as I don't own a machine! You have to cut through seams a lot to make them, which is no big deal for a machine sewer, but I kept cutting off my knots and having to go reknot my ends. But that's ok, because it's for a good cause. I will send them to Australia tomorrow!

Wendy

Quilt Block Potholders

Here's a cute idea, make your friends quilt block potholders! I just bought heat proof batting at Hobby Lobby for like $2 a yard, made a few blocks and voila, easy presents. I included the front and back of each one because I like the backs kind of more than the fronts!

I used fabric by Amy Butler on all three (see if you can find them!), fabric by Jennifer Paganelli on the cake and the heart, fabric by Robert Kaufmann on the cake, and fabric by Heather Ross on the star.

Love, Wendy

Space Rocket Quilt

Come Sail Away With Me! Ty's Sailboat Quilt and pattern share offer

Hi All,Today for your viewing pleasure I have a quilt I made for my sister's son Ty. Be sure to click on the photos to see them full size, they look a lot better that way! I wanted to make him something 'boyish' and had been wanting to try this pattern for some time. I changed the pattern from the original by making the top row of boats sail in the morning, the second row sail at dusk, and the last row sail at night. All those triangles in the 'water' took me forever, and as you can see, I cut off many of my points!

PS: I have the pattern scanned in, so I can share the pdf of the pattern if you like. Just send me your email request.