"A Person's A Person No Matter How Small!"

...a Dr Seuss crib quilt

A friend of mine is soon to be having a baby, and she asked how much it would cost to have me make her a Dr Seuss themed crib quilt.  There was no way I was going to make her pay me for a quilt for her baby-to-be!  I told her I'd make one as a gift for her and baby.

So I found a variety of fabrics to put into this quilt...  One fabric was from JoAnn Fabrics, a couple I purchased on eBay, a couple others I purchased at Herrschner's in Stevens Point, WI, and a couple were found right in my stash!

The photos show what I came up with for her baby's crib quilt,
which I named after one of Dr Seuss' quotes:

"A Person's A Person No Matter How Small!"  ~ Dr Seuss

"Dancing Stars"

DANCING STARS

Last fall I was contacted by McCall's Quilting with the exciting news that my name had been drawn as a winner in one of their online contests.  "YAY!"
What I won was a Moda Layer Cake... "Atelier" by 3 Sisters for Moda, to be exact.  

I was super thrilled and couldn't wait to get started making a quilt with it!  I decided right away that I would make myself a quilt, as I'd never made one for ME before.  The fact that I won the layer cake made me decide to treat myself to a quilt called

"Dancing Stars"

... a pattern I found in the book

"more Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts"

by Pam & Nicky Lintott.

 

Progress went quickly, as I was very diligent at sticking to my guns on this one and not letting it end up on the UFO pile!

It took me one week to make the quilt top...

Then off to the long-armers it went, where it was on a waiting list to be quilted.

I just got it back 4 days ago, and finished it off with the binding, took a few pictures, laundered it, then took some more pictures!

Finished...before laundering...

a view of the back...

It is already getting a lot of use (by me!), and I couldn't be happier!

AND... it's Jasper kitty approved!  ;)

Here's a closeup photo of my quilt after I laundered it...

I just LOVE the look and feel of a quilt after it's been laundered!

Didn't the long-armer do a GORGEOUS job of quilting this?!?!

*Credit for the long-arming goes to Meandering Mary of New London, WI.

(Note: For first time washing of any quilt, I use and recommend Retayne to help prevent colors fading and bleeding, especially if the fabrics used in the quilt were not pre-washed).

"Lunchboxes"

Two years ago my son asked me to make him a food themed quilt, featuring some of his favorite snacks and food.  I struggled with how to go about doing this since the only patterns I could find were canning jars.  I didn't feel that a quilt with canning jar blocks would be appropriate for a boy... Haha!

Then I found a pattern called "Lunchboxes" and just had to buy it! 

Today, January 27th, 2015, my son turned 15... We celebrated his birthday over this past weekend, and I gifted him the long awaited for food themed quilt.  I am so glad he still loves it and didn't feel too old for it!

Here are some pictures...

The next two photos are closeups right after it was long-armed, but before binding was added.

The next three photos are pictures of just the quilt top before it was long armed.

Vacation Time: Block 1 update

I like this block so much that I decided to make more than one.  So as I participate in Pat Sloan's 2015 Mystery QAL: Vacation Time, I will be making 4 quilts total instead of just one.

Here are my blocks for the first step... (There are 2 skull blocks, but I wasn't sure if I'd like dark or light color ways better until after making them... I like the light color way better).

Note: I am strictly using all stash fabric for these quilt projects and won't be buying any fabric for them... It's part of my goal to use up stash fabric that's been sitting around for way too long.

Another Pat Sloan Mystery QAL!

Last year I participated in Pat Sloan's Globetrotting Mystery QAL, and my quilt top is off at the long-armers waiting to be quilted.

Here's a couple pictures of my Globetrotting mystery quilt (quilt top only... Completed quilt photos will be published in a few months when it's completely done)...

Now I'm participating in Pat Sloan's 2015 mystery quilt project called "Vacation Time."  I plan to make 3 or 4 versions of this new mystery quilt... I've started with a skull theme to use up some skull fabric from my stash... Here's a picture of the first step...January's block:

I have some Harley Davidson fabric I plan to use for another version, and then I want to find some cute or pretty fabric from my stash to put into another version.  I love this block and how fantastic it works for fussy cutting focal fabrics!

"Candy Store" - A Scrappy Quilt and Bloggers Quilt Festival

I'm so excited!  Today starts the 2014 Bloggers Quilt Festival...

...and I'm entering my recently finished "Candy Store" quilt in the Scrappy Quilt category.

 The picture below shows the back of the quilt.
It's hard to see in the picture,

but both the gold and the aqua fabrics are brick patterns.

I used all sorts of scraps and leftover fabrics from my stash to make this quilt.

I saw the pattern for this quilt in my Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting, May/June 2012 magazine and knew I had to make it.  I LOVE this pattern!  Plus it was a fun quilt to make.

My son and I like this quilt so much that we are keeping it for ourselves.  (I say this because I never keep any of the quilts I make...I always sell, donate or give them as gifts).

I'd like to thank Amy Ellis over at AmysCreativeSide.com for coordinating the Bloggers Quilt Festival!  And I'd like to thank the the prize donors for all the wonderful prizes each of us has a chance at winning!

Paper Piecing ending in a "Galaxy Explosion"

I VERY recently learned how to paper-piece, thanks to a friend of mine in the Tuesday Quilters group that I belong to.  I am hooked!  I love paper-piecing, and have already started going nuts making blocks I had saved patterns for, in the hopes that someday I'd be able to make them.  The end result... a lap quilt I'm calling "Galaxy Explosion" (name for the quilt was suggested by a church friend).

I made the following blocks...

 Above: "Solaris"

 Above: "Sweet Tweets"

 Above: "Mariner's Compass"

Above: "Zeppelin"

And then the quilt...

 Above: Top of quilt, obviously
Below: Back of quilt

 The gorgeous long-arm quilting was done by:

Chantel Mundschau
Weyauwega, WI

Pooh's Birthday Bouquet

This was such a fun quilt to make!  Tedious, but fun.  I had a request to make a girly Winnie the Pooh quilt in pinks and purples.  I had a really tough time finding girly Pooh fabric...everything in local stores was geared towards babies or boyish colors.  So I got some flowery Pooh fabric from a seller on eBay, but the amount was limited, so I picked out the pattern for the quilt AFTER I got the Pooh fabric.  I had to pick a pattern that only needed as much Pooh fabric as I was able to get.  Once I got the Pooh fabric, I sat and leafed through all my quilt magazines until I came across this pattern.  I thought it was perfect...there were flowers in the Pooh fabric, and flower shapes on the quilt!  Once the pattern was picked out, I was then able to go shopping for the rest of the coordinating fabrics that I needed, and here's the end result...

Note: The pattern I used for this quilt is actually called "Little Girl's Garden"

and can be found in Fons & Porter's Scrap Quilts, Summer 2012 magazine.

*This quilt was long-arm quilted by Chantel Mundschau, Weyauwega, WI.