Another Advent Calendar

One more this season!  Popular Gifts for families with school aged children.  this one was a kit purchased last year on the spring quilt run, at clearance.  Just one panel, with folding to make the pockets.  Fill it with treats and countdown ready!

Merry Christmas, Kaileena!

Advent Calendar

Just finished this one for a friend's two daughters.  It's a simple panel, but filled with treats to count the days until Christmas, it becomes a special tradition.

Merry Christmas, Mischa and Leila! 

Dr. Seuss Good Wishes Quilt

This quilt is a very simple rail fence, with a Dr. Seuss themed fabric collection set with pain white bars.  It made it's way around the crowd at the Baby Shower and beyond, so it could be filled with the love and good wishes of all this baby's family and friends. Signed with permanent markers, it will forever be a reminder that his arrival is cause for great celebration!  We can't wait to meet you. Benny!

Granny's Advent Calenders

Each set of Granny's need an Advent Calender to count off the days until Santa's Annual Visit!  One was a simple panel, all I did was cut, sew and quilt.  The other, also a panel, included selecting charms and piecing the corner blocks. Each one will be stuffed with goodies and hung to count the days.

Baby Girl, my new Grand-Niece!

Welcome to the family, first grandchild of this generation Frances Marye!  The adoption will be final just before Christmas, and in time to join my new grand-baby Benny who arrives also mid December. One year ago, neither of these babies were in our family, this Christmas we are doubly blessed!

Early in the pregnancy of my Grandson, before I knew if we were going to be welcoming a boy or a girls, I started the embroidery for 2 quilts.  A RED one for a girls, a BLUE one for a boy.  My niece received a girl, and we are expecting a boy!  Both quilts were finished with flying geese blocks, quilted, and dedicated to the babes of the family.

Warm and Cool; Sunshine and Sea Breezes

Made in simple rail-fence design, this was a cool Kaffe Fasset jelly roll and a warm Kaffe Fasset charm pack. Delicious fabrics, just waiting for the right person or occasion.  My 14 year old granddaughter, expressing a wish for a quilt in blues, is just the right person, and Christmas the right occasion.

I spy pets and bugs

For my 6 year old grand-daughter, going through a tomboy phase, the favorite colors right now are blue and yellow.  Dogs are always welcomed, and there is a new fascination with bugs of all types.  So, for Christmas, an "I Spy" quilt featuring her favorite colors and things!

I cut my fabrics into 5" "charms" and constructed this like a split 9-patch. Bright gold in the borders, with little crabs as cornerstones, the charms feature dogs, paw prints, bones and tags, bugs and alligators, and some pigs for luck!  Can you find.... a wiener dog???

Sportsman Quilt

The motifs of the fabrics in this quilt are fish, trees, bears, leaves, stripes. The colors are are nice collection of masculine shades. I made this generous lap quilt for my son Ben, celebrating his first Christmas as a Dad. I can see him cuddling his son while wrapped in this quilt late at night!

This quilt was lost in a house fire in 2015. 

Baby Girl Braids

This design is pretty interesting: a template to be used with 5inch charms or 2 1/2 inch strips.  The pieces can be pieced together to make hexagons, or I like them a lot as braids! In this quilt, I made 4 braid strips.  Instead of placing them side by side as in other quilts, I decided to make them chase around the quilt.  I machine quilted in the ditch around each shape, then free-motion swirls in the center.

This quilt is for the baby daughter of one of my son's childhood friends. Congratulations!

Bow Tie Hugs and Kisses

I started this project with traditional colors and fabric design with a bow-tie block in mind.  No particular amount of blocks or setting decided on. Made with a charm pack, the actual fabric collection determined  the layout and size. I had about 6 or 7 left over charms.  It will be a little table runner!

I like to meander over the surface of a small quilt. Since I bough a bolt of black cotton ON SALE last week, I decided to bind it in black.  Yes, good idea!

Embroidered Blocks

I got the idea for this from a quilt I saw on Pinterest. http://yarnstorm.blogs.com/jane_brocket/2014/03/garden-party.html
I knew I had found the project for the vintage linens I had purchased at estate sales and had in a box in the garage.  I also had a cut up house dress with woven girls and boys I got at a thrift store season end "everything fre" sale in Texas while visiting my dad. I cut 5 1/2 inch squares and put them together in a simple 5X5 grid.

It would like pretty edged with the vintage hand crocheted lace I cut off the edge of one of the tablecloths.

Ocean Waves

This pattern has always fascinated me, made as a set of Half Square Triangles, in concentric sets that swirl and flow, I imagined the illusion of sparkling rainbows across the gently moving water of a sunset over the ocean in my San Diego area home.

This is one of my very favorite quilts.  It is up on the wall during the summer and I always feel the calm peace of the sunset when I look at it.

Surf's Up

When my friend Kristin excitedly announced the fact that she was expecting her second baby, many years after her first, much celebration was in order!  later we all learned, she was having a second son.  Since her family is very involved in surfing, it seemed only right that the quilt would be a Surf's Up quilt.  Many of the fabrics were a score of fabric from another co-worker.  It all ties together!

The 6' triangles came together so quickly!  I'll make another for my grandson from the scraps.

Baby Girl Low Volume Hexies

The idea of a hexie quilt held my attention for some time. The right baby came along, with a light colors scheme and a rose pop.  I gathered these low volume prints and this quilt just flew together.

Since then, Pete has asked me to make him a manly hexie quilt, in greens and tans, as the shapes remind him of the terrain maps in his beloved war simulation games.

Oh So Soft! Cuddle Rag Quilt

I bought a package of 20 minky squares in this darling baby boy colorway, and then made a rag quilt with flannel on the back side.  Never made a rag quilt, but it couldn't have been easier!  Certainly a good quilt to teach a child or beginner.

For Baby Benny!

This quilt was lost in a house fire in 2015.

Happy Little Hand Quilted Girly Quilt

Started this one when I learned I was to be a grandma!  Didn't know then if the new baby was a boy or a girls, but for a girl, I certainly wanted something feminine and hand quilted.  Finished it and learned the baby-to-be is to be a BOY!  So now I have my direction and this quilt will be gifted to my niece.

A is for.....

A happy little 4-patch quilt for snuggling in the summer time.  made with a harm pack names "A is for" and some 4 1/2 inch white and red 4-patch blocks. A 4 1/2 inch border, a thin softly draped poly batting, simply quilted both horizontally/vertically and diagonally through the 4-patch block.

Amber Stars

This quilt changed a LOT from idea to final quilt.  It started as a black/grey zipper quilt made with a charm pack. But oh!  Too somber!  So into a cupboard it went awaiting further inspiration.

Then I decided to raw edge applique some circles on it in bright colors to wake it up.  Better....

Showed it to my son and asked if Amber might like it.  He said "Add some stars and it's perfect!" So I did!

About a month later they delighted me with the news that I would be a grandma!  So out it came to be finished and presented.  A celebration of the mother of my first grandbaby!

May God Protect You

I found these linens at an estate sale for around 3 or 4 dollars.  I loved their simplicity, the great school bus yellow color, and the foreign language words which I didn't know what they said.  I loved the hand crocheted lace all around as well. I was also delighted by the "signature" of the woman I assume did the cross stitch, who completed it in 1939 at age 73.  Based on the similarity, I assume both were made by the same mystery woman from times past.

I asked around, and learned it is in German, and reads "May God Protect You." So I hand stitched each one to a piece of muslin, washed it in gentle soap, and will use them as table runners.

Christmas Quilt

Small, wall or table quilt.  Charm squares with jewel squares in the intersections.  A simple quilt I have made several times. The edge of this quilt is scalloped, an experiment in making it more interesting.

Vintage Squares by Ruth & Anne

While visiting my Dad and his wife Ruth, I found a block in the pile Ruth had going "to the craft club." It was the one with yellow and orange. She told me it was an unfinished doll-house quilt.  She didn't remember when she made it, but maybe in the 60's?  When I said I'd take it home and make it into a table runner, she rustled around and found a few more unfinished blocks.  They were in various stages of finished, colors that had nothing to do with each other, related only by the fact that she made them many years earlier.
So here they are!

I added a few strips from the scrap bin, looking for circa 60's things. I love what it is now!  Do you?

Ocean Berry Half Square Triangles

I WANTED to buy some charm packs, solid collections from Connecting Threads named "Ocean" and "Berry."  But I was on Lent Fabric Diet, so I didn't.  Then WHAT DO YOU THINK?  I found a box labeled "solid charms" and there they were!  I already OWNED these charm packs!

So I sewed them right up into HST's.... Half Square Triangles.  More or less I paired a light and a dark charm, and made each set of 2 charms become 4 HST's on the bias.  Nice technique.  And they go together well, since you can slightly stretch or contract them to come together sharply!

I made 2 sets:  Ocean, and Berry.  Then I went to the design table and started playing around.

I really like it! Each block is around 3", so the quilt is around 36 X 45. Dark blue, mottled binding, also a clearance find at Connecting Threads.  I quilted along the diagonals.

Happy with my little quilt!

Update: In 2021 I started selling quilts from my collection. Time to make more room to make more quilts. This quilt sold to another artist who remade nit into a gorgeous jacket! 

Economy Blocks

Square-in-a-square, or economy block. Solid, traditional blocks, made with charm squares as per a tutorial on Missouri Star quilts.  I simply sorted my dots/stars charms into "light" and "dark" piles.  Each block has 3 charms, so I alternated centers, one was light-dark-light, the next dark-light-dark.  Then the idea was to place a dark centered one next to a light centered one.  Uhhhhh, oops.  Somehow I mixed them all up by the time I carried them to the sewing machine!  So their placement is truly random.  By design, YEAH! I meant to randomize them!

I made enough blocks till I ran out of charms.  (I think I had 3 odd-numbered charm packs.) and then decided to place them in an asymmetrical light grey border.  Light grey......... I KNOW I had a piece of ligh grey in my stash!  Oh well, this sagey green says "SPRING!" nicely, so I used it!  I did diagonal stitches and in-the-ditch between blocks, then I just sort of quilted the border as I went along,

Since it's Springy, I used a very light weight polyester batting, so it has nice fluffy cuddle-ability!

I have not yet decided who this quilt is for, but I have someone in mind!  

Baby Ryan's Quilt

A special modern quilt for a very special baby boy.  I actually chose a quilt kit for this one, bought online at clearance from one of my favorite clearance fabric shopping places:  Connecting Threads.

The hardest part about this quilt was the uneven placement of the sashing strips, with their stripes that make a pattern, but I STILL have trouble seeing the pattern.  Otherwise, the blocks are all the same, just placed in different directions.

Graduation

I made this quilt for my nephew's graduation.  I wanted something masculine, modern, unique, striking.

Black and white with red accents is always striking.  The hashtags felt very current. Square in a square allows featuring really unique prints.

Little Houses

I found the inspiration for this quilt at Moda Bake Shop
http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/08/neighborhood-charm-quilt.html
Made for Adelle, for her housewarming.  The backgrounds are different muslins coffee dyed at different times.  The border was also very white, so I coffee dyed it to match the neutrals of the charm pack. I got the border fabric at Quilt-In-A-day shop in San Marcos on quilt-run 2014, in the back warehouse 50% off fabrics.  As soon as I saw it I thought it would go well with this charm pack!

Free Spirit Tumblers

This small goodie used up a pack of charms named Free Spirit.  There were 30, no repeats.  I have 3 charms left over..... sewed them into a random black and threw it into the orphan block bin.

The white on white background fabric was a leftover from my Mom's stash.  It was used as the solid color in a double bed-sized  Irish Chain quilt she hand sewed and quilted for my niece.  The charm squares are bright and happy.  I meandered all over it and used random scrap strips for the binding.

This exists for no know reason.  Just to make me happy!

Zipper for a House Warming

I watched a tutorial on a zipper quilt at Missouri Star Quilts, made with charms from the "Little Black Dress" collection, which I owned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtLL4liuW8o#aid=P8uoPkjwZvw

I added some pink (recommended by Racquela), a little grey, a few pieces of yellow, altered it a bit to make it lap sized, and machine quilted it with a 2 inch grid.

It's for a friend, who has recently moved into her first home!  I wrote the inscription on the back. 

8 Pointed Star

This quilt goes back to 2005.  I got the star fabrics from a fabric-of-the-month club, and immediately thought of my neighbor.  Made the little wall quilt, but then got embarrassed, assumed she would not like it because it was so small.

Fast forward.  Sharon has become an avid collector and maker of quilts. (I shared some instruction and she has been happily hooked ever since!) She was at my house and saw this little quilt and told me she LOVED the colors, and the design.  I pulled it down and confessed I had made it for HER many years ago, but thought she might now know what to do with a small quilt.

Needless to say, the quilt now has a new home, and is finally where it was always supposed to be.

Baby Weave

This is a real fun quilt to make; it just LOOKS complicated.  It's made with 2 1/2 inch strips and some solid rectangles.  You attach one strip, then slice the new block, turn it, attach another strip, and so on and so on.  Eventually you finish a block, and put them together however it pleases.  Shopping for all the different strips was more than half the fun!

I love stripes, they make the BEST borders.  Had this one in the sewing room, I liked the blues and greens, so it was added on.

I used this block in a Halloween quilt named Halloween Quilt for a Little Girl.

https://modafabrics.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/simply-woven-quilt/

Tea With Lemon

I found a magazine paper pieced pattern for the lemons, and was inspired to make a quilt for my Mother-In-Law celebrating her favorite drink, tea.  I used an Aunt Martha's iron-on pattern for the embroidered tea pots, in purple to match the fabric from a reproduction collection of fat quarters from a fabric-of-the-month club. The lemons were made from my "yellow box".  I had another paper-pieced pattern for the tea cups from Electric Quilt. This is a nice wall sized quilt.

Scrap Plates

An early quilt, made from scraps of clothes, some going back to high school dresses!

Gifted to my Mother-In-Law.

Little Dutch Girls in Blue

The design squares are an Aunt Martha's Day of the Week iron-on design on white muslin.  I then used crayons, sharpies and watercolor pencils to color each design. Then the blocks were a pile of blue blocks, made literally from the blue scrap box.  Simple designs, HST's, flying geese, 4-patches, square-in-a-squares,  pinwheels, and a few plain blocks. I decided how many based on getting the 7 days of the weeks blocks all onto the quilt, nicely centered and spaced in relation to one another.

I made this quilt but didn't finish it until JUST the right little girls came along.  My Grand Niece turns two, and this seemed like just the thing for her!  So finished the quilt-sandwich and quilted it in the ditch in a 3-inch grid. In the mail, and off to be a sweet surprise.

Fairy Princesses

I was delighted to make this baby quilt for my friend, when she was expecting her first baby.  I got the fairy panels at a quilt show.  Added blocks with fabrics from here, there and everywhere.  Added pieces and strips to make it all fit together.

Sixteen Patches for a Raffle

Just a simple lap quilt donated for a fundraiser for the Special Education in our town.  The center block was a leftover; on white muslin I pounded leaves and flowers to stain the cloth.  After heat setting the colors, I stenciled on the design from a stencil I cut.  I used oil based wax with a toothbrush for he stenciling.  Then strips from the scrap heap made the patches for the 16-patch blocks.  Threw it together, machine stitched in the ditch, and off it went to raise funds.

Baby Quilts for Woody & Nathan

Cousins, the grandsons of my friend and neighbor, were born less than a week apart!  That was 5 years ago, and of course the boys are the best of friends.  So, I made 2 quilts with similar colors but different patterns.

First was Woody's quilt, a wonky tilted square.  Then Nathan's, a slightly less crazy square in a square.

And finally, for Nathan's big sister, a doll quilt from the scraps.

Granny Squares

Worked on this quilt off and on for about a week.  It is a large lap quilt, (54 X 62) for naps or an extra blanket on the bed at night.  Quilted with a 4" grid with a flat 100% cotton batting, it's warm and snugly.  It has 420 2" squares, 300 setting triangles, and I worked on it in bits and pieces over 7 days.

The fabrics included a charm pack and some clearance yardage purchased online.  Then some scraps to add some darker color into the mix when it was looking a little too light colored.  The binding was pulled out of my box of leftover bindings; 2 1/2 inch strips already folded, that gets tossed into the box whenever I have a piece left over from another project.  It includes a bright from a baby quilt, some Christmas fabric, a batik from a wedding quilt, and other scraps of treasure.

I didn't have a technique for making the blocks of the Granny Squares, I simply cut piles of 2 1/2 inch squares, white setting triangles, and then pieced each one right at the sewing machine according to the whim of the moment.  When placing them in the quilt, I just tried to mix up the colors,  The reds appear to have been the strongest color statement in the quilt, so I tried to spread them evenly around. 

Sunny Side Lattice Block

A charm pack named Sunny Side by one of my favorite fabric designers, Kate Spain. A new block tutorial by Jenny at Missouri Star Quilts, an afternoon with no quilting deadlines......

I put a soft, thin poly batting, so it's very fluffy but thin, drapes nicely.  A good quilt for laying on a table, or wrapping up in. Quilted in the ditch between the blocks, then 1/2" apart on the lattices.  About every 1 1/2 inches along the borders, crossing seams at the corners.

Brown and Yellow 24-40 or fight

The history behind this quilt block is some political slogan from 1844 where President James Polk was lead to victory over the Oregon Territory. Or something like that.  I don't know, it doesn't make any sense to me but that's the name of this quilt block anyhow, and I like it in quilts for men.

A wall quilt, in browns and yellows, for my Father-In-Law.

25th Wedding Anniversary

Made this cheerful little quilt for the 25th wedding anniversary of  my dear cousin Patty and her husband Alex.  4-patchs and squares, alternated with simple plain blocks, arranged in a circular pattern (called barn raising in quilting terms) using a collection of fat quarters and scraps from the stash.

Flower Pounding and Fabric Painting

This was a fun fun project!  I used regular white muslin for the large blocks, and prepared them by pounding them with geraniums, roses, bougainvilleas, and all sorts of other leaves, grasses and flowers from around my yard.  After they dry and get heat set and washed, they became canvasses for hand drawn and cut stencils (cut from freezer paper) painted with oil based paint sticks.  For a stencil brush I used a toothbrush and brushed the color on in circles. A quilt like this cried for some hand quilting, and the colors suggested bright Mexican colors to m, so I dug into my Mexican Themed scraps for the borders and sashing.

Both flower pounding and the oil sticks technique re learned in a great 6 week class I took at he art museum, taught by Jane LaFazio, (http://www.janelafazio.com) a published quilt artist whose creations are often seen at local and even national quilt exhibits.  

Baby Girl Snowballs

Made this quilt in 2008 to welcome a first baby to a friend and co-worker.  Her nursery was decorated with lots of polka dots, so I decided on a snowball pattern.  Pastels, and a collection of fabrics from fabric of the month club.

Courthouse Steps

This joyful quilt is the only time I have ever made this pattern: Steps to the Courthouse.  It's like a log cabin, but the pieces for opposite colors, rather than circling around. Easy and fun to make, perfect for scraps, don't know why I haven't made this again!

I made this quilt to celebrate a return to quilting after a sad period in my life.  Several years later, Christina told me her young daughter used it at night to keep monsters from under her bed!  I must have filled the quilt with joyful enerrgy when I sewed it! 

Autumn Friendship Basket

A small wall quilt, just one basket with a great basket weave fabric, 3 green leaves appliques and a friendship symbol.  Made for my friend and neighbor, she hangs it on the wall over her fireplace every year in the fall. One of these days I want o make a whole quilt full of baskets.
This one is from 2008.

Musical Sweet 21

We first met Kait when she was around 8 years old, and now she is turning 21!  Where did those years fly?  One day in church she sat behind me and I heard her beautiful voice; pointed it out to my husband, who lead a youth group band, and the rest is history!  Today she is the music leader at church and Pete plays backup guitar and drums when she sings.

How to best honor her on her 21st birthday?  I collected musical motifs, and then tried to round them up with black/white/grey/yellow and a touch of fiery red.  Collecting the fabrics for this one was a lot of fun.
I made a charm square 9 patch, split them, turned the blocks any random way, and put them back together.  In staying adult and modern, I decided no border, so here it is.

Happy Birthday Kait!  And many more!