The three girls' quitls

This weekend I got to meet a new customer who would like to take a pile of special garments that her two girls wore as youngsters and make quilts for both of them and one for herself.

With three quilts on the design board, it is an interesting task to keep all the ideas and garments straight. But, Mom is very organized, practical and very consistent. She is also very visual and asked if I could produce some samples of the initial quilt ideas she had. Fortunately, we agreed to use scraps so we didn't deplete the special garments. The result of the samples was quite interesting - to me. Mom was able to make decisions on the quilts for the two girls and the sample for her was what she asked for but not what she wanted. So I'll make a new set of samples now that we know more about what she wants.

For Stella, we are going to do simple 4" x 4" blocks on point. Her quilt will lean to the aqua and blue colors. It will have two borders - inner probably about 2" and the outer one 4" or 6".

Here are the "special" garments that Mom pulled out just for Stella.

And the ones I pulled that I thought would make Stella's quilt the calm, mature theme that we are looking for.

And here are the "special garments for Hazel. Not as many - second child, you know - but enough to start the theme for her quilt. She is the "rock star" who likes all bright colors and doesn't mind a little chaos. Her quilt will be hex's - probably 3" - 4" across. Some of them will be solid - to take in a special pattern or saying and others will have six triangles to make the Hex.

Here's the possibilities for the rest of Hazel's quilt.

Of course, both quilts will have some of each other's garments and there will still be enough left to make Mom's quilt.

After the first of the year, we'll get together again to make final decision about who gets what garments and to finalize the design for Mom's quilt.

Baby A's quilt top done

 This weekend, we got together to make decisions on the final border, backing and binding for Baby A's quilt. Even with a lot of on-line research, Mom still hadn't found just the right piece of material for the back. The intent was to have an outline of the world - to represent how many places Baby A has been and will get to travel to.



Instead, we ended up with a piece with all the letters of the alphabet - in lots of different colors.

There wasn't enough of this material to allow for a second border but rather than look for another piece, we decided to keep the quilt top a little smaller.

When it came to the binding, we picked 5 of the colors that are shared between the front and back - all solids. I'll piece the colors together to make a scrappy binding that will be a great way for someone to learn their colors.

 

Next, we take the finished quilt to The Quilting Loft to pick out a quilting pattern.

Baby A's pieced topFirst

Boy! What a difference an afternoon of sewing makes. Baby A's top is all together and one of the borders is on it.

After offering a rather symmetrical layout, I asked Michael to take a crack at it. His layout was much more driven by the need to make the odd sized pieces look like they were a part of the design so he put two black blocks together on opposite sides of the doubles. 

In the end, Mom liked the first layout better so that's what happened. And, we used the black backing material for the first border - it's 3". 

Rows are all done and sewn together

First border is on

Next we'll get together to pick out the second border, backing and binding material. 

Just a couple more steps before handing it over to the quilter - might happen before Christmas if we stay focused.

Baby A's blocks are done

We added a few more garments to the pile and now have enough blocks for a twin sized quilt - with a little border of course. There won't be any sashing - decided the backing created enough of a space between the special pieces to give the quilt some order. And, we will have two borders: a 3" border from the black backing material and then a 6" border of something groovy we find that pulls everything together.

Now, we are trying to decide on the lay out. The three odd sized pieces are going to go on black background - each on its own separate block. They will form the middle rows - Happy baby in the middle, mom on the right and dad on the left. Then all the other blocks will be arranged around this center.

The current layout is rather symmetrical but that felt like the way to go on this quilt. We'll see how Mom likes it.

Baby A's blocks are coming together

All the fussy cuts from the garments I have are now top-stitched onto backing pieces. There are 38 of these plus the 3 odd sized pieces which went on 4 backing blocks. A twin quilt is 54" x 90". The finished blocks will be 8" squares. So we need 9 rows of 6 blocks each = 54 blocks. That means there are 12 blanks. But that won't last long, mom is looking for a few more garments so there aren't so many blanks.

Here are just a couple of the blocks - so cute.

I laid the blocks out on the spare bed to see how they are going to look together and came up with this arrangement - not that this is what we will end up with but it is a very sweet quilt.

If we don't use sashing, the pieces top will need 9" border to make a twin sized quilt. A bit big for a border but not unreasonable. If we add an inch border between each block and around the outside of the pieced top the border would be just 2 inches. If we used the same material for the sashing and the border, the borders would be 3 inches. 

I'll meet with Mom and get a decision - and pick up the last of the garments to make the rest of the blocks.

Progress on Baby A's quilt

This weekend, I got to meet with Baby A's mom and we made some decisions on how to put her quilt together. It always surprises me but after all the pieces of material are cut out of the cute clothes, it is much easier to figure out what to do with it.

The objective is to get a twin-sized quilt from the garments. We are going to add a couple more garments to fill in the blank spots and even leave a couple of the blocks blank - to pause for the eye.

Now, all the blocks have backing. I think this picture probably looks a lot like the last one from the previous post but to me, I know that each piece is now stabilized and has be squared up to be just the right size.

I took a chance and stitched around one of them to show mom what we could do if she wanted to go this direction and, of course, she wants all of them to have the stitching (in grey) around the center piece. Although this will take some time and patience, it will make all of them look like they belong together and it will secure them so they really don't go anywhere.  It's hard to see in this picture but IRL, it looks very nice :)

The odd sized pieces are a bit of a challenge. I haven't decided exactly what to do with these. If I put 4 of the backing blocks together, all 3 of the odd-balls fit but I'll play with this a little more before making a suggestion.

The next step is to get all of them onto the backing and stitch around the edges. This being a holiday week, I'm hoping to get this next step done by the weekend - depends on how much I end up working on Friday.

Progress is such a satisfying thing.

Baby A's Quilt

I got to meet Baby A and her mom yesterday. I brought home a bundle of clothes and some ideas on how to turn them into a quilt.

I also brought home three pieces of material to use to reinforce the blocks. You can't tell from this picture but the white has white stars. There are several of the garments that have stars - nice!

And, this is what's left of all those cute little baby clothes after a few hours with a ruler and rotary cutter.

The final count is 14 6 x 6 singles, 5 6 x 6 doubles - meaning I was able to get two squares from one piece, 8 4 x 4's which includes a couple pockets from the jeans, 4 2 x 2's and 3 larger pieces that will fit in some how.

We are aiming for twin sized quilt so we need 50 6 x 6 blocks. Each will have a two inch border in one of the backing colors. Obviously we are a few block short so Mom is looking for a few more pieces to add to the pile. And, we are going to use a few blanks (just the backing material) to round out the project.

There is a lot more work to get these squares appliqued onto the backing material but it is already looking good, right?

Stacks of Support - ready for sale

This project has been such a pleasure - and a surprise. I bought the material so long ago it's nice to see it all made up.

The Quilting Loft long-arm services did a wonderful job on the quilting and having a purple binding really catches the purple that's in several of the fabrics. 

The piece 62" x 76" and the price is $300.

Sunset over Sedona - top and back done

The top is large enough to go on our queen-size bed but it doesn't fall down very far. We have an older bed and I know once it's been updated, the mattress will be taller and then this quilt won't look very good. SO... I laid out all the left over material and decided to put a row of piano keys all the way around the quilt. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough material to make this happen so the corners are all one piece. If anyone notices this, I'll politely ask them to leave.

I like this one so much, I violated my promise not to buy any more material until I went back to work. I bought a beautiful Chambray for the back. When I had it all ironed and laid out on the cutting table, Michael asked if I was going to put a few other fabrics with it - to break it up a bit. I hadn't thought about that but since I've done that on other quilts, why not on ours. The blocks are rather small given there isn't much material left but I like the way it breaks up the solid.

Now all I have to do is wait for my first (or second) paycheck so I can take it down to Angie and get the long-arm quilting work done. Can't wait for this one to be on the bed - it totally changes the feel of our room.

Sunset Over Sedona

A couple years ago, I talked Michael into buying me a kit of material for Christmas. I was really attracted to a Laurie Shifrin quilt that was hanging on the wall at The Quilting Loft for a while but the colors were all wrong. So Michael and I pulled a few bolts of fabric we really liked and Laurie finished putting the rest of the kit together. After opening my gift - Yes, Michael wrapped it and put it under the tree for me (ahhh!) - I read through the instructions and promptly put it away. Laurie's quilts are for a more advanced quilter than I thought I was.

This year, I've been on a mission to complete all the projects that are above the counter in my workspace and Sunset Over Sedona was the last one I picked up. I decided to just trust my skill and start cutting. I may have made a few mistakes along the way but we like the results so much, this is one we are going to keep for our own bed. The colors are simply stunning and getting to work with Batik was a real pleasure.

So far, the top is done to the end of the pattern but it isn't quite big enough for our bed so I'm going to have to improvise (and get some more material). I've put it away again until I get back to work and have some excess funds.

Here's what it looks like:

Lava Meets Sky - ready to deliver

I can't believe we finally made it - this quilt is finally ready for it's owner to take possession. Who would of thought that a simple half-triangle square quilt would take some much time and effort.

AND, I'm really pleased with the results!