Monday, September 30, 2019

Baby Blanket For Nephew's Family

My husband's nephew and his wife are expecting a baby boy in December.  This little baby blanket made from Minky started as a kit that I purchased from McKay Manor.  They provided both of the fabrics in 30" x 30" pieces, as well as the fluffy navy blue edging.

It was so simple to make this little blanket.  I pinned the edging to the top and basted it in place.  





I then placed the backing on top, right sides together, and sewed around the edges, leaving a small opening to turn the blanket.


And finally sewed close to the edges.


I know that the little baby and his parents will enjoy cuddling in this little Minky blanket.

And I hope you like it too!

Monday, September 16, 2019

Emily's quilt, part Three

This is a continuation of two previous posts about the making of Emily's graduation quilt.

The top was all sewn together and Blue polka dot fabric was used for the borders.   It's 69" x 87".


I have sent the quilt out to be basted and have started to plan the quilting design.  Since this quilt is so white, I plan to use white thread throughout and will try to make sure that the quilting is more modern.  This type of quilt, which is very close to an Irish Chain, has lots of spaces for fancy feathered wreaths and other old fashioned quilting designs.  However, it just seems wrong to hand something that "dated" to a young high school graduate. 

I hope you still make traditional quilts from time to time.  They're kind of fun, even though they are fussy to sew!


Monday, September 9, 2019

The Little Black Hole in my quilting room

I have a little black hole in my quilting room.  It's very similar to the little black hole of the washer and dryer that eats my socks,  the one in the rest of my house that lunches on my car keys, and the one that moves things from drawer and drawer. (Sometimes, it even gobbles them up for good.)

I had cut out all of the 3-1/2" squares for Emily's quilt and placed them on my design board.  Here's a picture to prove that they once all existed.


So, the other day I was vacuuming the room and my vacuum cleaner blew off a ton of the white squares. When I picked them up and put them back in place, I was suddenly missing a bunch of them.  Were they in the vacuum cleaner?  No.  How about under my sewing machine table?  No.  Under the bookcase?  No.  Behind other pieces on the wall? No.  Aagh!  The little black hole was at work.

I resigned myself to having to cut more, but opted to wait until it was absolutely necessary.  Hoping, of course, that they would magically appear.

Well, THEY DID!  As I was sewing together the blocks, one of the blocks had the missing squares all stacked and pinned in place.  I must have been thinking fast as they were flying off the wall and grabbed them up before the vacuum had a chance to eat them.  At least I can tell myself that.  Made me feel very smart indeed.

I hope you solve the unending mystery of the black holes in your house too.  And that you experience days when you feel extra smart.

Monday, September 2, 2019

No Grunge on this quilt - Emily's quilt Part Two

This is a continuation of a previous post about the graduation quilt I'm making for Emily.

I bought some white-on-white fabric just for this quilt.  I had a grunge fabric in my stash that I liked too.  Both of these fabrics were planned to be used in this quilt.  I wasn't sure that I liked the combination.  Most of time, I like to mix up the backgrounds to give the quilt a little more personality.  Originally, I thought that I would add gray fabrics too, but the poor pastels didn't hold up.  Do you mix up the backgrounds too?

Since I was wobbling on the decision to use the grunge fabric, I asked some of my long time quilting friends for input.  Immediately, one of them told me to loose the grunge.  It made the quilt look dirty, which is sometimes the fun part of grunge fabric.  I knew she was right.  It did make this quilt look dirty instead of young and flirty.  Hey, I'm a poet!

So, no grunge on this quilt.  I pulled out some solid white from my stash and cut that up for some of the blocks, and here it is now with the plain white instead of the grunge fabric.  It looks so much better now.



I hope you have a posse that gives you honest feedback too.