John's Quilt

When one of my sisters got her quilt from our extravaganza last fall, her husband asked if he could use it. Of course, the answer (knowing my sister) was, "Get one of your own!"

So when I heard this, I set aside some time and material to make a quilt for John. I don't really know him very well except that he likes red, blue and brown. I happen to have some of those colors in my stash - big surprise. I also have a quilt-block-a-day calendar that I've never gotten around to using so this gave me the ideal opportunity to use some of my extra material and experiment with a few new block.

I settled on stars for the quilt, picked out several different block patterns and went to work. The result was not only a lap-sized quilt for John but a smaller baby quilt made from a Pennsylvania Puzzle pattern and a small table runner that I just made from the left over pieces. 

The Pennsylvania Puzzle went to John with the request that he find someone who could use something that crazy. I'll save the other one for a gift - when the time comes.

Here are the blocks before they were sewn together - Michael arranged all the blocks, of course:

And here is the quilt once it was put together:

Here is the Penn. Puzzle quilt:

And this is the small table runner:

I did all the quilting myself - good practice. Each time I do a piece a large as John's Quilt, I swear I'll never do it again. But, it is quite satisfying to be the one who takes the project from beginning to end. And I think I'm getting better at it - I think.

Sister's quilts

In September, my sisters came to visit. To prepare, I made a couple hundred quilt block. It was a great way to use some of the bits and pieces of my favorite fabric. They split the blocks between them and now I get to make 4 quilts and give them to my sisters - nothing better than that.

The first pile of block came with almost no instructions - just use some turquoise and do what ever works for the rest of it.

The second sister really likes purple and wanted sash between all the blocks.



The third one is a lovely combo of black and red and yellow with a few other colors thrown in.

I haven't gotten to the last one yet but it is going to be interesting.

North Girl Pictures

This past weekend, we got together for a little chat. I had a friend come over and take pictures - this happens so seldom. I think it looks like we had fun :)

Mango Tango

OK, so I have a little too much time on my hands but that's because I'm not working right now. So the rule is, I can make all the quilts I want as long as I don't buy more material. This leads to some interesting decisions. And what I've noticed is that I have a lot of material that can go together if it's the right pattern.

This is a Red Rooster pattern that I totally buggered up with a rather unusual color pallet. I'm actually looking forward to doing the quilting myself - just straight lines but it will go well with this, I think.

Anyway, here's what I got...

Trip Squared

When The Quilt Loft closed, I took the opportunity to get some Batik. I had a pattern from Laurie Shiffen so we put together the material and I stored it away until I could get to it. I wanted to have something nice for the guest bed when my sister comes to visit - something that actually fits the bed. 

I ended up buying a couple different pieces of material to get the look I wanted but the results is stunning - if I do say so myself. I still need to find another piece to add a border so the quilt falls down the side of the mattress a little more. 

Here is the original set of material. No matter what I do with this stuff, it's going to look great!



The inner square:



Stunner!

Modern Lap Quilt Layout

I got to meet with the soon-to-be owner of this beautiful lap quilt and go through how we are going to put all the blocks together. Here's a couple rows:



The layout came from Tula Pink's 100 Modern Blocks book. Since this set well with both of us, I went to work on laying out all the blocks. Here is the first look:


When all the blocks were laid out, one of them didn't fit so I tossed it (well, set it aside for a future project really) and made a new one. 


And here is the final lay out. Of course, it's just the blocks laid out on the bed - none of the sashing is in these pictures. Can't reveal everything, you know :)


Now, the fun part - make blocks into rows and rows into a quilt top :)