Dave's Grandma's Quilt!

My fourth post of the day! It must be a record!

This is the unfinished quilt top I pieced for Dave's Grandma D.

Better Fabric Pictures

Here are the fabric choices

Amy, Here are the fabrics I've collected so far. Of course not all of them will be used in the quilt. The pallete is looking too brown, there are not enough reds (or at least not the right reds). I'd like more blues and cool colors. In short- there is not a quilt in the works yet.

On a totally selfish note- I'm making a queen size quilt for myself once I complete the baby quilt and the lap quilt that are already in the works. It will be a good six months or so before I want to tackle Mom's quilt so I have a good long while to shop.

Anyone want to quilt with me?

Since spring is a full, busy time around our house and I don't have nearly as many hours to sit around thinking deep thoughts... I decided that in the interests of keeping my blog going (without philosophical discussion) it would be a good idea to do a few craft posts.

At the moment I am working on a quilt for my friend Christine. She is having a baby just about any day now- on Monday at the latest (since she has an induction appointment on Monday morning). I bought a set of Darla (by Tanya Whelan) fat quarters from Hancock's of Paducah (my all time favorite fabric store!). I anticipate using about half of each fat quarter to make a generous size baby quilt.

Quilting is more of an art than a science for me. What that means to you is that until the quilt is finished I will not know how much fabric I'm using or what the final dimensions will be. I'm planning on constructing the top using 8.5" squares.

Today I cut 4.5" strips and 2.5" strips from all of the Darla fabrics. I also cut a 4.5" strip of pink minky fabric (to add textural interest to the quilt).

Tomorrow (hopefully) I'll post pictures and directions for the two different types of blocks I'll be using to piece the quilt top.

Labor Pains

I've started a quilt for Dave's grandma but it's not going very quickly. This may have something to do with me being an idiot and dual enrolling my oldest son in homeschool and "specials" at the local elementary school. This means we spend about 2 hours a day running back and forth and waiting (with not quite enough time to accomplish anything). It also means we have to fit the structured part of our lessons in either before or after school instead of at our leisure (which worked very well during Christmas break). I think next year we're going to commit 100% to homeschooling because running back and forth to school every day is getting in the way of our education :-)

Here's the fabric for the quilt. It's a much more mellow, earthy pallette than I've worked with before. I hope it all comes together the way I'm picturing it in my mind.

Here are some of the completed and partial blocks. Does it look too much like an old lady?

To Satisfy Amy's Curiousity

Here are the completed projects I've been working on lately. Yes, it seems there are very few of them. Just a reminder to anyone who may have forgotten- I have a 7 year old, 4 year old, and a barely 3 year old. They are sooooo helpful when it comes to my crafting projects too. You would not believe the assistance they offer in organizing my fabrics, keeping track of my applique templates, and re-arranging my quilt block layouts.

The first quilt is one that Amy pieced and didn't ever finish. She kindly shipped it to me (I still owe her $4.80 for shipping) and I backed it with green micro-cordouroy and then stippled it. She even included the fabric to bind the quilt! It makes a beautiful baby gift for a friend of mine (if I ever get over to see her). Thanks for sharing your unused quilt top Amy!

The second quilt is Sophie's Christmas present (I'm working on James' quilt today). It a very simple strippy quilt that I backed with some fairy covered flanned I bought when we found out Katie was pregnant with a girl (yes, it's actually taken me that long to make a project for Sophie). It is randomly stippled with variegated pink thread. I hope she doesn't mind the very linear look of the strippy quilt. They're not my favorite but time is of the essence so I opted for simple piecing and actual quilting (instead of tying).

The cute little tote bag is a present for someone (somewhere). I found the applique pattern at Anna Maria Horner's website and it looks like a Lab to me, so everyone is getting a puppy for Christmas this year (especially those who really don't want a live dog)! It's done in Christmas fabrics and I think it looks very festive. These little lined bags are so easy and so fun I could make new ones every day.

Now I just need to finish James's quilt, a few more tote bags, some Christmas ornaments, two table runners, and a wall hanging. There are 10 days left- I'm sure some of the projects will get done!