Friday Finish for Felix

My sister-in-law asked me if I would fix some spots on my nephew's quilt that Grandma made for him.  He is a high school freshman and this quilt is still very special to him and gets used daily.  My mother has been gone for over 12 years now, and this is possibly the last big project she made since she was in a slow decline.  She had made sunbonnet baby quilts for all the granddaughters, and was determined to make overall Sam for the first grandson.  

Felix's Quilt from Grandma

Felix LOVES this quilt.  When I got it all spread out, I could see the signs of previous fixes which my SIL had mentioned.  She had marked the spots that needed attention this time with pinned on tags.  That was very helpful.  As I went through I literally wrote a check on the tag when I made the initial fix, then I double checked after I double checked the surrounding area for needs.  I gave the quilt a good examination to give it some preventative maintenance as well.  I can see that certain fabrics are showing more wear than others.  I know that the camo fabric was from my brother's shorts as a kid, so no telling how old that was and if it was leftover scraps or pre-worn! This was a good project for a slow day off.

It is inspiring to see how her work, even in her lesser capacity, has held up over all these year.  It is heartening to see how much he loves it.  He is only three years away from college.  Will he take it with him?  

UPDATE: As I wrote this I was thinking of Felix's little brother, who never met his Grandma.  But he did get a quilt from her.  I was looking for the old post about it and discovered that I had never published the post even though it was all ready to go.  So this Friday Finish has a bonus link!  

Baby Bricks for a Friday Finish

I worked away at it little by little all week and got all the block units done.  

Sunday ...

Color placement may not be perfect, but a baby will never notice, right?

Friday!

I'm happy I got this far.  I will think on it over the weekend before starting to join the blocks.

Bike Basket Liner - Finish Friday

I was really dreading making a bike basket liner for Little S to take back to college with her.  But I was caught up on everything else and time is running out, so I just did it.  No pattern.  I measured carefully and thought through each step carefully.

I started with the heavy apron scraps from this project for the first try on one day.  That worked out well, so the next day I did the same thing with leftovers from an old sheet from the mask making days.  The third day I made the flap and attached it all.  It went together right on the first try.  It pays to do more thinking and less improvising! What a relief!

I included a pocket on the pink inside and also elastic bands to hold her water bottle.  She is happy.  I am happy.  That is a big check off the back to school list!!

Pink Bricks for a Friday Finish

This pattern was as easy as I remembered.  Bricks & Stepping Stones by Bonnie Hunter.  I was able to get the bricks prepped easily last easily.  Then the 4-patches were from strips sets.  It went together really quickly.

I wanted something fun for the back so it would match the jungle quilt in tone - simple front & fun back.  I found this cute bunny border piece but it was 6" too narrow.   It was too perfect not to use so I found a piece that works to add the extra width in the middle.  The lilac was actually a fabric I had considered for the front at one point, so it got included after all.  

I think it is going to work out just fine and will definitely coordinate with the jungle quilt for boy/girl twin quilts.

This was a great pattern that went together quickly and I will definitely keep it in mind for the other baby quilts I need to make in the coming months.  It was harder to randomize the pinks/purples than I anticipated, but it works.  I might try for more variety of prints next time or make it planned like the jungle one.

Bonus about this quilt is that there is almost nothing left from any of the fabrics used!!  Woohoo!  I am really trying to use things up/give them away/remove from the house in some way, so this worked out well.

Hexagons Turned "Pink" - Friday Finish

The hexagon quilt went from reading "blue" to reading "pink."  I was just going to finish it relatively neutral, but then Grown Up E wanted it for her godson's sibling.  So I held off finishing until they found out it the gender.  Good thing - it's a girl!  Having Little S home for the summer to unsew is a real help.  She loves to unsew!!

reads blue

My goal was to use up all of the pink stripe for border and backing, so I did some very careful math and just have a 3.5" piece left that isn't even WOF.   

now it reads pink

I have been doing more photo albums/scrapbooking this week and less sewing, but just doing a bit each day got me to quilting finished today.  I have to clear off the table to trim the top and make binding, so that will have to wait for a good stopping point in the photos.   I am pleasantly surprised with this progress!

"Pick Me, Pick Me" - Friday Finish

Little S's cross-stitch birth announcement was my oldest UFO/WIP/PHD.  Whatever I called it, it still wasn't finished after 19 years.

Since I don't watch TV, there wasn't a time to just sit and work on it, so I called it my travel project.  But then I traveled less and less and was nervous to take a needle and scissors when I flew.  Now my eye sight is not what it used to be.  

All the pieces are ready to go!

But.... it kept showing up on the PHD list with a "pick me, pick me" look!  I did not want Little S to have to finish it herself.  That would be the ultimate disgrace - not only did it take me 19 years to finish, but she had to do the finishing.

So... on a slow weekend I turned on my really bright Ott light, put in eye drops, and got to work.  It turns out that the personalization was already gridded and there were only two sections where the backstitching had not been finished.  I told myself I could do one of those parts each day and I'd be done in a week.

Before

Then a nice thunderstorm rolled in, which was very welcome since we haven't had rain in about a month.  So I stayed in the groove and got all but one of the backstitching sections finished.  That even included restitching two of the personalization sections.  It turns out that my initial stitching was less than accurate, so that made the spacing not quite right.  But I made it work.

Finally Finished!!

It is far from perfect, but I am pleased.  My new goal is to get it framed before the end of summer.

New Zipper Project Pouch for a Friday Finish

Since Little S gave away her hand stitching project pouch to her little cousin when we were in Guatemala earlier this month, making a new one moved waaaay up on the to do list!  Read about that trip HERE!

She chose the colors and asked for a specific star block as the focus.  I just had to make sure it was bigger than the last one.  It is approximately 12" x 14" so should fit her projects more easily.  

It has 3 inside pockets.  I need to work on installing zippers better, but overall it does the job and she is happy. 

No instructions.  I just made it up as I went along.  The front is padded, quilted, and lined.  The back just has a lining.  For the use it will get I think that is enough.  I boxed the bottom corners on this one and I think that will make it more useful.

This is a big check off for summer sewing.  Whew!

Baby Bears for a Friday Finish

Just after we found out that my nephew and his wife were expecting their first child, I found this fabric at my favorite thrift store.  I have been very good at not buying anything new, but Little S pointed out that this was not only super cute, but would be a good gender-neutral quilt for N&A.  The price was right - total 12.5 yards of fabric for $20!

I had planned to work on it during the summer and send down to Guatemala with Senor G in the fall to arrive in time for an early December baby.  But school was in its last days, so I decided to try to get it done to take down on our trip now.  The panel made it easy.  I just added the coordinating block fabric as wide borders and the backing.  

The block fabric wasn't wide enough to go all the way around without piecing and I didn't want to piece it poorly, so I looked for something in my stash for corners.  The yellow cherry fabric was perfect.  The red plaid was an option, but is better as the binding.  One of my favorite combinations ever I think.

For quilting, I went with my current favorite of a diagonal grid in the center panel.  Then straight lines in the borders, overlapping in the corners.  It was done in just a few days.  Whew!!  

They loved it.  N could not take his eyes off of it for a photo.  That made me glad that I had rushed to get it done in time to take now.  I had not known that their baby theme is bears, so this was just perfect for them.  Photos just aren't the same as being there to see someone's reaction.

Later this summer I will work on a flannel backed blanket with the large print coordinating fabric and some burp clothes.

Two-Step is a Flimsy

 In between Dear Jane blocks, I got the Two-Step blocks all webbed and sewn together.

I liked this pattern the first time I saw it, and I like it even more now that I see it in the bright daylight.

This was a random project at the end of the school year when I couldn't focus on something more detailed.  I'm not sure how I will finish it.  Just leave it or add a border of some sort or add more blocks.  No rush at all.   It was a great pattern and I'm glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to start something brand new.

Rows L and M are Finished!

I was on such a roll when we got back from North Carolina that I just plowed through the remaining blocks on Rows L and M.  Here is where it was nice that I had randomly made blocks for years, so I wasn't looking at finishing entire rows!  

A few of them were pretty tricky.  In fact I even redid two since I kept thinking about how unsatisfied I was with my work.  They still aren't perfect, but I think they are better and I won't wish I had tried  harder.

There are just two more blocks to make!  For whatever reason I did not have a photo copy of those blocks from the book so they never got made.  So now I will go back and fill those last gaps.  I am so close!!!

Dear Jane Row K is Finished!

Row K is finished!   

My design wall is full with Rows A-J, so Row K has to live in a plastic bag for a while.  I am hoping that by the end of the summer these little blocks will have joined their siblings with sashing.  If I can keep up at this pace and don't fizzle out, it is possible!

Long Overdue Carpenter Star

When we went to Guatemala for Christmas the girls and I helped prep this quilt for my MIL to make for my niece.  I had just made a blue one and she liked the look.  They aren't hard to cut or sew, just tricky to layout.

We figured out the layout and numbered the pieces to help her keep it all straight when she sewed it up.  There was even an extra bed to keep it out on. 
I wrote about the process.

She got the center star sewn and started pinning pieces to sew together when an urgent sewing job came in and she had to set it aside.  I heard what had happened, so that was the first thing on my TO DO list when I went back to visit.

When she unrolled the sheet it had been on I wasn't sure what we would find.  It was a big "wad" of pieces.  I was very pleased with all the pinning.  That helped a lot as far as getting the layout right.  And we found the photos on the blog and I was able to work from that to get it set up again.  Once I got it right, she pinned the pieces to the sheet just in case!  The sewing was pretty easy once I got used to her machine. 

Ta..daaa....  The center is all sewn.  She thinks she will add two borders to make it a little larger.  I am so glad that I was able to help her straighten this out and that it will eventually get into the hands of a cute little girl. 

Now I think I need to make a pink one for me!  I really like this design.

Five Friday Finishes!

I have all stages of finishes this week.  Some more flimsies as I work through the various scraps and precuts that are floating to the surface and some real finished finishes!

I took a deep breath and quilted some of the tops I had made over the last few weeks.  I like the piecing.  I like binding.  But I do not like quilting.  They don't finish themselves though.

The pretty peach & aqua D9P I finished first so that I can gift it to my niece for her new baby girl when we see her in Guatemala later this summer.  It is just oozing "little girl", so I think it will be perfect.  I pieced batting scraps to use in this one.

Then I dug into another bag of batting scraps and found one that was the perfect size for the scrappy quilt that started me down this path of using up the random precuts and scraps and making whatever came to mind.  I did not love the plaid backing as much when it was done as when I envisioned it, but done is good.

I also got 2 more tops made using squares from the random scrap drawer.
The smaller brown plaids, which also used additional fabric from the stash to complement the plaid.

The larger brown geometrics which took a bit to figure out, but I am please with the result.  Never would have thought to put these colors together with the browns, but it works.  I found a piece of leftover batting just the right size for this one, so it is next to be quilted.

And I had made another top just because.  I saw Bonnie Hunter's Bricks & Stepping Stones done in bright children's fabric and it gave me an idea.  I had been given some scraps that were a strange shape, but would produce mostly rectangles when trimmed.  Bricks & Stepping Stones seemed like the perfect way to showcase them - and it's a free pattern.  I was able to use all transportation fabrics and solid yellow and it went together very quickly.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to show off finishes.

A Week of Finishes

I was so busy sewing I didn't write about it.  That's a good thing!

With both my hosting the family gathering and the professional development class over somehow I just felt like my summer had begun and I hit the sewing full swing. I took on the drawer of random precut pieces and leftovers.  This was probably the slowest way to work though the stash, but I am attracted to the puzzle of it.  So I attacked the stack of squares - all sizes from 4" - 6".  Smaller squares are in yet a different spot because there are more of the smaller sizes.

Billowing in the breeze.

I had been eyeing the the peachy colored ones for a while (years) and I have been thinking of D9P lately as well, so that was that.  I picked the aqua w/ little peach colored flowers for the border, but had a hard time finding something in the stash to go with that to made the centers of the 9-patches which would end up being the small squares.  The Sea Glass quilt I made this spring really used up a lot of aqua and turquoise from the stash.  I finally decided on this solid bright aqua.  I wasn't convinced it was right as I was sewing, but I love the finished product and how those little squares pop right out visually.  I had to add a few more peachy squares, but otherwise this is all stash.  A backing from the stash is already set aside as well.

Patriotic

There were a lot of squares in the drawer in the blue family.  I went with a diagonal layout on this one and added some touches of red and white.  The red and a single blue square were the only ones I had to add from the stash.  The borders were nothing fancy and finish it up to a nice lap or baby quilt size.

You can sure see where I had to piece the border.  Oh well.  Done is good.

Then there was the curtain quilt.  Technically it didn't come out of the drawer, but I did do it this week.  I was cleaning out the girls' linen closet and came upon a set of lined valances we had not used in a very long time.  Since I was recently informed that purple/lilac was no longer a favorite it was unlikely they would be used again.  They were not in great shape to pass on so I decided to cut up the usable parts.  Since I had been thinking of D9P the fact that they were lined was perfect.  I was able to quickly find a fabric that would be a good border and backing so that led me to the light blue centers.  After I got the center finished it turned out that the border fabric was not so good for a border after all.  I found another purple to use.  It is a little darker than the center, but it works.  Unfortunately there was not enough of the light blue to use as a small inner border.  It isn't perfect, but it is done.

I was really pleased with my stick-with-it-ness on these.  I even got another D9P prepped with the yellows from the drawer.  I think I had truly been hoarding them because they were just so pretty.  So I can work on that one easily enough next week.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to show off finishes.

Sea Glass at the Beach

This quilt turned out amazing.  It is definitely one of my all time favorites that I have made.  It challenged me and I met the challenge - mostly.

My job this past school year was as associate teacher.  My lead teacher's daughter was expecting her first child.  They knew it was a boy and her theme was beach, but not nautical.  I poked around the internet to see what ideas were out there for quilts in sea glass colors.  Quite a few it turns out.  I liked the movement of the Snails Trail variation of Storm at Sea.

I went with my normal MO - make it up as I go along!  I started with the Snails Trail blocks.  I watched quite a few tutorials and realized that there is definitely no right way or best way or easiest way to make them.  So I just started with the center and worked my way around until it was pleasing to my eye.  I had to trim them square at every step, which was very time consuming, but ensured that the "curves" were smooth.

Then I figured out the sashing using my tri-rec rulers.  I didn't get the side points very accurate, but they are consistently not accurate if that counts!  I had run out of some of the colors I used in the Snail Trail so had to add more scraps into the mix, but I think it came out okay.

Lastly, were the corner stones.  Which took a few tries to get the right size, but once I had the correct center square they were easy.

Playing with a layout for the center.

Once the pieces were made the center all went together easily and the movement that I wanted is definitely there.  The border was harder because I wasn't sure what I wanted.  I ended up with piano keys which took about every last scrap of anything remotely a sea glass color.

Before scallops.

Then the corners which were a spur of the moment idea that worked once I got the math right.  I think the uniformity of the corners tidies up all the scrappiness of the rest of it.

 I had no idea how to quilt it, so I just did a giant spiral with the walking foot.

I have always wanted to make a scalloped border.  I finished a quilt for a friend once that already had the scallops cut, but this time I had to figure out the spacing on my own.  I marked and cut the scallops after it was quilted and it was relatively easy.  The binding was the same fabric of the star points and the edge of the corners and is just the right touch.

All in all I am very pleased with how it came out.  My sister who doesn't usually make comment on my quilts even said she liked it.  That is high praise.

Extra diamonds on the back.

I gave it to my lead teacher and she was pleased.  She later said her daughter liked it.  This is one of those situations where I don't know if it will be appreciated for its value as a quilt or not, but it is what I felt I should do.

Little S and I went to the beach to take pictures.  It was a windy day, but I love the way the colors show against the sand and sky.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to show off finishes.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

In the midst of working on two 60-hour professional development courses I decided to make a stuffed rabbit.  Not just any stuffed rabbit, but Edward Tulane.  In the spring our class was reading "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" and it seemed like having a "real" rabbit who changed as the book progressed would make it more interesting for the class.

Edward as himself.

Thankfully I found a rabbit panel at the thrift store just before I started looking at patterns.  Actually, the sewing helped keep my sanity during the early weeks of the courses as well.  The panel included a dress and pantaloons, which I used as a loose idea for the various changes of clothing for Edward.

Edward as Susanna

The pants made from a handkerchief was the most fun.  I used a real handkerchief!

Edward as Jangles

 The kids seemed to look forward to seeing what Edward would look like each day.  One little girl asked me if I re-colored the clothes each day.

Edward at the end of his journey

Fast forward to the end of the school year and I remade the dress to be the right color for the story and I found the book on CD at the book sale at the local library.

I hope next year's class enjoys him as much as this year's class.

I got it all packaged up and gifted Edward and his wardrobe and the CD set to my lead teacher as a thank you.  It is one of her favorites and seemed appropriate.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict to share finishes.