Bryan House Quilts

WIP Wednesday: February 8

2012-02-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Not too much progress on projects this week due to sickness and cleaning. We are getting our house ready to sell. (Cue circus music!) BUT if I could show you what I cleaned that is never cleaned maybe you would be ~~impressed~~ tired too? :)

Anyways in order to have something done this week, (I must have something done! Anyone else feel that way?) I worked on two quick projects.

A second {Christmas} swoon block. I'm trying to do a block a month to have it ready for Christmas. So it's nice to have this done for February.

And some improv blocks for ~~the back of my giant star quilt~~ a double sided quilt. I had such a blast making these blocks. Unfortunately I didn't finish quite yet. It was bedtime. (I'm old.)

Thank you for visiting! And if you haven't yet go check out Lee's blog for other's WIPs.

Easy, Pezzy Baby Quilt, a tutorial

2012-02-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

Do you have a charm pack that you just love?

I do! And now it can be found in a quilt I made for my baby boy. He is 16 months and he was in dire need of {another} quilt. One made specially for him by his momma. {Every time he sees it he says, "Mine!" Love him.}

The quilt was so easy and fast that I thought I would share "the how" with you.

Easy, Pezzy Baby Quilt

*Use 1/4" seam allowances throughout

Materials needed:
- 1 charm pack (choose 30 charm squares), I used a Pezzy charm pack by American Jane
- A total of 3/4 coordinating solid yardage (for an additional {150} 2.5 inch squares) to match your charms. I cut from 9 fat quarters from my stash. (Pink Chalk is selling a bundle of coordinating FQs for the Pezzy prints.) Or, you could also just use 38 charms from an additional charm pack.
- 1.25 yards for sashing, I used Kona Ash
- fabric for backing and binding

My chosen charms and coordinating solids.

Cutting
For this quilt you will make {30} 9-patch blocks. Each 9-patch is made from 1 charm and {5} 2.5 inch squares from a coordinating fabric.

1. Once you've chosen your 30 charms, sub cut each charm into 2.5 inch squares. Each charm should give you {4} 2.5 inch squares.

2. Next, cut your squares from your coordinating fabric. You will need {5} 2.5 inch squares per charm square for a total of 150 squares (i.e. 150 = 30 charms x 5 coordinating solid 2.5 squares).

Typically a charm pack comes with repeating squares. The charm pack I used came with 3-4 charms of each print. So for my coordinating yardage I cut from my fat quarter {3-4} 2.5 strips and then sub cut those strips into 2.5 inch squares. The picture below uses an print with 3 charms, so I was able to cut 3 strips from my FQ.

Cutting your coordinating solid yardage

3. Cut your fabric for your sashing and border:
   - {4} 2.5 inch by WOF (width of fabric) strips, then sub cut into {24} 2.5 by 6.5 inch strips
   - {5} 2.5 inch by WOF strips
   - {2} 4.5 inch by WOF strips (border)
   - {3} 4.5 inch by WOF strips, sew end on end (border)

Sewing!
1. Begin by piecing your nine patch blocks. To make each nine patch, lay out {4} 2.5 inch squares from a charm square and {5} 2.5 inch squares of coordinating fabric in three rows of three. Sew the rows together. Press towards one side. (I always pressed towards my solid fabric. Some always press towards the darker fabric. Some press the seam open. I like to do one side so I can better match my seams, but press however you like.) Then sew the rows together.

One set of charms and coordinating solid squares ready to be sewn

Press to one side; in the case above I pressed towards the solid.

Voila, Nine Patch

Keep sewing until you have 30 nine patches.

2. Trim your nine patch blocks so that they are all the same size. They are *supposed* to finish at 6.5 inch squares. I trimmed mine down to 6.25 inch squares.

I trim in front of the television!

3. Assembling the quilt top. Lay out your blocks five blocks across and six blocks down. Play with the blocks until you have the look you want.

My winning lay out

Sew the rows together in six rows of five blocks with a 2.5 inch by 6.5 strip of sashing in between each block. Press as you like.

Rows, sewn together with 2.5 inch by 6.5 inch strips of sashing

Once all the rows are sewn and pressed, sew the rows together using a 2.5 inch by 38.5 inch strip of sashing in between each row.

A row of blocks sewn together with a strip of 2.5 inch by 38.5 inch sashing.

To better align my blocks, I often use my ruler and make a small tick mark where I want my blocks to line up. Then I pin my blocks to the mark and sew.

Added tick marks for *perfection*

Once all your rows are sewn together with sashing in between, you then add your 4.5 inch border. Sew {2} 4.5 inch by 38.5 inch strips of sashing fabric to the top and the bottom. Sew {2} 4.5 inch by 54.5 inch strips to each side.

Before finishing your top, you may want to square up each corner.

Square up the corners of your quilt top.

Assemble the back, quilt, and bind and you're done.

Find the nearest baby and give it to him or her. Or keep it to snuggle with. Grown-ups need snugglies too. :)

Easy, Pezzy Baby Quilt, finishes at approximately 46" by 54"

I'll answer questions in comments. :)

January Finishes, February plans

2012-02-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

Hi there, thank you for visiting. I'm linking up with Lily's Quilts in the hopes of getting my small blog "out there" and to sum up my January projects. So welcome! I hope you will stick around or follow me.

First I'll show my January finishes. Then I'll show you what I've got in the works for February. Can you believe it's February!?

1. Purples and Oranges mosaic, 2. Easy, Pezzy Baby Quilt, 3. Katie Squared quilt

And now for my plans in February (or beyond?!).

First up I started this hexagon project for my baby girl due later this year. I guess you could say this project has a deadline?! I'd like to have it finished to drape across her car seat. So it needs to be done I'd say by March so I can quilt it. I'm about half way finished I'd say.

Hexagons for baby girl

Next up, my {Christmas} Swoon. The fabric is Fruitcake by Basic Grey. I have the fabric. I have the pattern. Thought I'd join the "a long" so I have an incentive to finish it. I hope to make a couple blocks a month and have it finished by Christmas.

First block for {Christmas} Swoon

And then the project that I am most excited about. Inspired by Heather Jone's Big Ohio Star Quilt and working from Jeni's, of In Color Order, tutorial I made this giant star quilt. All (ha!) I need to do is make the back and quilt it and then it's ~~minesmypreciouses~~ finished.

These are all the quilts (actively) in progress I have to show. Of course there may be a few new projects. There's always something floating around in my head.

Thank you for visiting!

"Pinked Charms" Tutorial/ Quilt Pattern

2012-01-31T13:16:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,

{{{I apologize to you few that may have been waiting for this. It has taken me way too long to finish this. See, wha had happened was... I made another quilt to write this tutorial during my first trimester of pregnancy. At some point I was so ill I had to step away from all things fabric. Fabrics literally made me feel sick. I know sad right? And now, while I love Ruby, I can hardly look at it without feeling nauseated. Again, sad! Anyways, there's my excuse! }}}

A couple of people requested that I do a block layout tutorial and since I apparently didn't take very many pictures of my quilt I thought I'd just go ahead and make another quilt and document it well. So first I will give you a pattern for a lap or baby quilt. Then I'll give you the layout I used for the blocks in this quilt.

So first, the pattern for the quilt I call "Katie Squared".

Katie Squared

Materials needed:
- 2 charm packs (I used Ruby by Moda)
- 1.25 yards of white for white charms squares
- 1/2 yard of white for border
- a half yard for binding (I used a red polka dot from Bliss by Moda)
- fabric for backing

Cutting

To start with you will need to cut from your white yardage:

-53 charm squares (5" x 5") and

- (4) 5" x 14" strips

- (6) 2.5" x WOF (width of fabric) strips (for the border)

Next, take apart your charm packs. Chose from your charm packs four sets of 20 charms. Or 20 charms for each block (this quilt will have four blocks). I laid out my charms in a circle so I could divide the colors easily among the blocks. Plus it looks cool.

My four groups

Now it's time to layout your blocks. I'm going to show how to build a block in rounds. I highly recommend using your design, or floor.... or table! Start in a corner of your design space and begin laying out your first block using (1) 5"x14" strip, two white charms and four charms in the following fashion:

Round 1

In round two, you will add 12 more charms.

Round 2

The third and final round adds 10 more charms.

Round 3, first block completely laid out

Repeat this process three times for your other three blocks.

Second block, it's the one on the top

Third block, on the right

Fourth block on the lower right. Whole quilt laid out

Once you've got your quilt blocks all laid out, consider it your rough draft and edit your charms to your liking. Also fill in all the negative space with the white charms. You will fill in the spaces between each block and around all the blocks. Here's my final layout after my edits:

Sewing!

Once you are satisfied, it is time to start sewing your rows together. Yah! (Note: be sure to use 1/4" seam allowance.) Sew your rows together on the diagonal like so (sew?):

After sewing, press your seams how you like. (I pressed to alternating sides so that I could butt my seams together. And I always started pressing each row by pressing away from the last white charm square, see below.)

See how I pressed?

Continue sewing and pressing until all the rows are complete.

All rows sewn and pressed

Now, sew your rows together. Take two rows and put them right sides together, making sure to stagger them. In other words, the rows should be different lengths and the ends will not meet.

See, ends not meeting. That's a good thing.

Keep sewing your rows together until you finish. Don't forget to press. I pressed mine to one side.

All blocks sewn together.

Now get ready to trim those jagged edges.

Line up your ruler a generous 1/4" from the point of your colored points. (This will allow you to get nice sharp points in your finished blocks without lopping off your points.) See picture below. Then cut.

After you've trimmed add a 2.5" border all around.

And there's your quilt top! Hooray!

Now, quilt and bind it and show it to all of your friends! Or maybe give it to a friend?

She finishes at 52" x 52".

Now for an alternate layout. Although I used the same block, Katie's Choice, for this quilt, I used a bit different layout. Because each block had it's own color I wanted less of a scrappy look and a more symmetrical look.

For each block I chose 4 charms of one fabric. Each block utilized five different fabrics. (20 charms from 5 different fabrics.) The picture shows you where I put each fabric. Each fabric repeated each quarter turn about the center of the block {rotational symmetry for dorks like me. :) }.

***

Ok, there you have it. If you have questions or need clarification leave a comment. I would love feedback!

Thanks!

Katie Squared quilt, a friday finish

2012-01-27T12:00:00.001-08:00

Not that I am always this productive, but I was under a deadline to finish this quilt by today. This baby is off to a good home. I hope. :) Next week you can find me napping more or on the couch doing hand work. (Whew!)

I made this quilt to *help* me write a tutorial and pattern for this quilt. ~~I hope to have it up by next week.~~ (Edited to add:) Here's the tutorial. I just have to put the finishing touches on it. But since this quilt, "Katie Squared", is up and out I wanted to be sure I documented it.

Katie Squared quilt, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

She measures 52 inches by 52 inches and is made of two Ruby charm square packs and Kona white yardage. She is quilted with a stipple pattern.

The back, like a racing stripe.

Can you see the quilting? no? Darn it! I'm still working on my photography skillz.

So, she is off and ready to be snuggled and napped under. Or drug about the house with a wee, pudgy fist. Or draped across someone's lap with a red bowl of popcorn resting a top her while they watch a movie (a romantic comedy? surely not a horror flick?)

And I will be napping.

zzzzzzz

A finish for Friday

2012-01-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

Wow! Am I on a roll!? A second finish for 2012.

Motivation from a lovely fabric line and a sweet little boy and a vibrant IKEA print.

Easy, Pezzy Baby Quilt, Using a charm pack of American Jane's tonal Pezzy, 45 by 52 inches

Detail of quilting, Wobbly straight lines, sashing is Kona Ash

Backing fabric from IKEA

Mine! he says

Okay? Confession? I accidentally taught him to say, "mine." So far it is cute. The story? He was touching and messing up my fabrics, so I said, "no, no. Mine." Naturally he thinks fabric is called "mine." Not too bad, right? Now whenever he sees fabric he says, "mine."

And now he calls his quilt "mine."

Mine! says I

This was probably the easiest and fastest quilt I've ever made. Could be the pattern I used. Could be the little boy. I love him so; he is mines.

Wordless Wednesday: Free time with scraps

2012-01-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

My daughter's playing with scraps on the design wall and playing dress up

And dressing their dollies

Hexie helper

2012-01-17T06:52:00.001-08:00

Just popping in to share happenings in the way of fabric this week....

Does anyone hear the sound of Godzilla? Rawrrrr!

Hexie helper, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

A new project for my wee dino-monster, sorry it's blurry...

Now off to teach {home}school!

First finish for 2012, Purples and Peaches Solid Mosaic

2012-01-13T10:39:00.001-08:00

2012 is off to a fantastic start. I'm feeling well and less tired. I feel relatively organized even though life isn't perfect and not all the Christmas decorations are put up. I just love a tree with lights. It's so cozy.

I finished this mini-quilt in 2011 and finally disciplined myself to quilt it. The hold up was in how to quilt it; I knew I wanted to quilt it by machine and by hand. I wasn't sure how I wanted to machine quilt it. After the ideas marinated for a while, it finally dawned on me. Then I was able to finish it.

Purple and Orange Solids, cross hatch machine quilting,
hand quilting around the edges with perle,
Black heath binding, 16" by 22"

The back

Close-up of hand quilting, I heart Perle so much

Purples and Oranges mosaic, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Now, this baby has joined the other mini-quilts as baby doll quilts for my wee dollies' dollies.

It's a ...

2012-01-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

It's a Girl!

For my newest baby I was itching to start making him or her something. And I had been patiently waiting to buy suitable fabric for him or her until I found out what kind of baby I was having.

Here's the story as it relates to fabric and my impatience to begin a project.

I have a friend in St. Louis who is a nurse practitioner in a women's type health care setting so she was hoping to give me an ultrasound as soon as I could make a visit. After Christmas we made a visit and we scheduled a time to could go find out boy or girl. I laid on the table for over an hour as my friend tried to get a peek at my baby's nether regions. But baby wasn't giving it up... but our (very small) hunch was boy bulge.

So, the next day I happened to be fabric shopping, ahem, and purchased some lovely, lush orange and softly subdued gray fabrics. At this point I figured orange and gray for boy OR orange, pink, purple, and gray for girl. I could wait no longer to buy at least some fabric for my baby, ha! And I commenced making orange and gray hexagons.

A couple of days later, my friend was able to give us another scan. At which point the baby seemed to be a girl. Ninety percent girl, so my husband still held out hope for a boy (we currently have two girls and a boy). We stopped by T@rget on the way home and bought her a few things (and kept the receipt just in case). I started compiling pink and purple fabrics and added pink hexagons to my mix. Ok fine I also added more orange and grays. My mother and I went to a store that gave me eighth yard cuts, so I got an awesome variety.

When we returned to Houston, I went to my official BIG ultrasound, where we found out "for sure" we are having a baby girl (Hooray!). And thus I officially cut out 400ish orange, pink, purple and gray hexagons.

Das a lot of hexagons...

My hand work from the couch has begun. :)

Needle book completed

2012-01-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been using plastic bags for my hand sewing project. There are too many cute tutorials out there to not have a cute needle book and tote for my hand sewing projects.

Plus, most of the projects can be finished in short order.

Short and sweet. How could that be wrong!?

Strawberries remind me of my grandmother and daughters. My grandma had strawberry wall paper in her kitchen and my daughters wore dresses with a similar strawberry pattern. The button and elastic was thrifted from a Christmas gift.

I embellished the pages a bit. I embroidered the word "perle" on some tape and sewed the tape in place. (Perle is my new favorite hand quilting thread.) The pins are from corsages past. Wouldn't it be cooler if I could remember where from? I did learn that I *need* more embellishment material. :)

I took fabric from a Strawberry Fields (by Fig Tree) charm square pack. I used this tutorial for my needle book. Very simple.

Now, I'm almost ready for my couch projects, now on to a tote...

Quilts and project list for 2012 (and beyond, let's be honest)

2012-01-03T20:02:00.000-08:00

In thinking past the Christmas season (naturally I didn't document my Christmas projects well because they were secret!), there are some projects I'd like to try and finish in the next year or too. Some projects, like a baby blanket for baby, have a firmer deadline than others. Others, I can see stretching, pleasantly I hope, as long as reasonably unstressful. There comes a time when a fun non-stressful project becomes an unfinished project hanging over your head. Or taking room in your stash heap.

Anyway, without further a do, here is my (annotated?) project wish list:

* Solid red and white quilt - I have a penchant for red and white quilts, of the solid variety. I've done a red work quilt, but I'd like a solid one. This is a bucket list project, as Amanda Jean put it. I'm taking inspiration here.

* Car seat quilt for baby - I wish it to be a hand project I can do from cozy couch, as I hope to be largely pregnant and tired for a good while. I'm thinking hexagons with/out embroidered centers. I'm waiting to find out if baby is a girl or boy. :)

* Solid mosaic quilt for above the couch - I've acquired a nice selection of solid fat quarters and I'd like to play.

* Pillows, to use pillow forms I bought, learn invisible zipper technique - before I found out I was expecting I bought, or rather my mama bought me, several pillow forms. And I put these to good use. Also, it's high time I learn to put invisible zippers in my pillows. It's not that I have been intimidated, it is more of a tendency to make a pillow on a whim and not have any zippers. But I think the zippers make a pillow nicer? Classier? Last longer?

* Coin type purse - I've seen some really cute projects out there. And plain and simple, I want one! :)

* Christmas swoon - I planned to have this finished and on my bed for Christmas 2011. But with my new pregnancy I just couldn't do it. I was able to make one block, and swoon... Hoping for next Christmas!

* Finish FWQAL, need to do at least one more block - Another project that I fell behind on when I unexpectedly, happily, expecting. I need to figure out if I want to continue this project or finish what I have. At the very least I need to make one more square to square it up.

* A quilt with scalloped or equally not straight binding - I love scalloped edges on quilts. I need scalloped edges. They are floppy with coziness.

* Halloween raven runner - I made a paper pieced raven this year and had planned to make into a spooky table runner. Maybe next year?

* But, mostly moving forward into this next year, I can see myself working from the couch on a hand project. I am working out of plastic bags and have been for years. The shame! So my first project for the new year will be a new needle book and perhaps a tote for my hand projects.

2011 In Mosaic

2011-12-30T18:06:00.001-08:00

In thinking of doing a mosaic to show all I've accomplished this year, I couldn't think of much. In making the mosaic I realized I have done a fair amount. I can also see that I have a tendency to start a project but not finish it.

I like to finish things. It's like a check mark next to a to do list, no? Anyways, here's to a happy new year!

2011 In Mosaic, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

1. Fall Pillow, 2. Whirling Dervish Mini, 3. Surprise! Baby #4, 4. Cora's Quilt, 5. The Raven, 6. Ipad cover for Memaw, 7. A Wee Flower Garden, 8. Pinked Charms Quilt, 9. Paper Pieced Pumpkin, 10. FWQAL Weeks 1-12, 11. Purple n peaches, 12. Christmas Quilt for Mom

Whirling Dervish

2011-11-13T20:26:00.000-08:00

Welcome! I am linking up with the Mini Quilt Party over at Amy Lou Who, which gave me the little kick I needed to finish this baby.

Today, I am sharing a mini-quilt I've made. Coincidentally (?) it seems to also resemble my life right now. So I will share a bit of that as well.

...

Whirling Dervish mini quilt, 12 inches by 12 inches, paper pieced

Recently, my life has begun to resemble a whirling dervish. In a good, rainbow way. Recently, my husband and I found out we are unexpectedly expecting a baby. We will be adding baby number four to our brood. So yeah. Things will be exciting around here next year.

Don't misunderstand, we are beyond thrilled. Just a bit ... overwhelmed. All my plans for quilty projects have fallen by the wayside, as I have fallen to the couch, trying to maintain the basics of running my family - homeschool, clean dishes, and clean laundry - and recover from first trimester exhaustion and nausea.

Yet, as I feel life whirling around me, I feel God's blessings as well. My husband and I have always been very careful when it comes to family planning. Yet, things don't always happen the way we plan. To put it simply, I've never been so blessed without having asked for the blessing. And I have to say I am amazed at the richness of God. I am certain He will provide.

Blessedly, I have started to feel better and more like myself. I've actually cooked dinners and cleaned my house (which we may be selling!) and made some projects.

This block has been swimming around in my head for a while and I've finally put it to fabric. Like my life, I call it "Whirling Dervish" as it seems to spin and spin, in a good, rainbow way.

Straight line echo quilting, bound with Heath in Black and White

Baby got back, why yes I do.

My favorite mini turtle finds comfort on his new "bed" :)

That's it for now. Thank you for visiting. I don't know when I'll manage to post routinely.

Hopefully soon!

...

By the way, do you wash your "Minis" for that crinkly feel or do you leave it as is?

Finish: Cora's Quilt

2011-09-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

My daughter Cora is in Kindergarten this year. She is also one of the sweetest people you will ever meet (really it's true, I'm only a little biased.) Cora is a wonderful big sister to her little sister and brother; she is patient, caring, and very good with sharing.

But this time, it is her turn to get a quilt. This cuddly pinwheel quilt is all hers.

It is made to cover her twin bed. MUCH to my dismay it is a bit short. I could have added another sort of border (kicking myself!). Luckily Cora loves it.

She asked that I quilt it with flowers a la Oh Fransson. I obliged.

With the back I used leftover scraps of pink toile and a couple of rows of pinwheels (that I apparently could have used on the front, argh!).

Design: Mine, based on pinwheel block

Fabric: Hushabye by Tula Pink, Bella White Solid

Quilting: Loopy Flowers

Size: Twin (almost)

Completed: September 2011

The Raven

2011-09-12T12:52:00.001-07:00

I have an idea for a Halloween mini-quilt. A paper pieced raven is the most ambitious design element. As with most projects, I try to do the crazy hard parts first to make sure I can do it. So I turned this crow found at the the Graphics Fairy's site. (Go there!)

Old Crow, Graphics Fairy (not that she's an old crow...)

Into this paper pieced beauty:

The Raven, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Stashin' with a passion

2011-09-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

My husband may or may not have given me permission to spend a little money on fabric each month (Hooray!). Within reason.

Well. Maybe we can define reason later, hm?

Haha, no just kidding. I don't think I went that nuts. But I'll let you judge for yourselves. I assume you will be on my side. :)

The haul, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

I had a little fun at Fresh Modern Fabrics. :)

And Alice threw in some samples of more fabric. Smart move sista, cause now I want more! :)

The break down is in the mosaic below.

1. Heath in Black, Ghastly Forest in Black, 2. FQ Bundle Castle Peeps in blue, 3. Linen Texture bundle, P&B fabric, 4. Fiber weave in Turquoise and Natural

Fabric for some fall pillows, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Next I had some more fun at Pink Chalk Fabrics. The solids are from their September monthly solids bundle. I think they called it "Cider." The linen is from Joann's. I'm planning on making something for Fall with these babies. How could you not?!

So how did I do?

Pinked Charms Quilt

2011-09-05T20:35:00.001-07:00

(Edited to add: There's a tutorial now.)

It has been awhile since I've posted. I can attribute this absence to the start of (home)school and to the very large twin quilt I must quilt before I start anything else. A twin size is about the largest quilt I can quilt on my machine. But it is not something I enjoy. So I put it off and work on something small and fun. Or I make a commitment to finish it before I start another project.

That's where I'm at. But on the bright side I am finally almost finished with it and I hope to show it off later this week.

But in the meantime, may I present a finish of a different color:

Pinked Charms Quilt, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

To me this quilt looks as if there are charm squares cut up with pinking shears and laid out together. So hence the name "Pinked Charms." The actually block is called "Katie's Choice". (Maybe I'll put a wee tutorial up as to how I laid out my blocks later this week too.) All fabrics are various Amy Butlers. The brown border outlining the blocks is a K Fassett.

Pinked Charms back, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

This quilt is huge (92 inches by 92 inches) so I sent it out to have it quilted. Erin Weber did the quilting and did a fantastic job. She is much faster than me! I am so happy with it.

I highly recommend Erin's quilting services if you are looking for a long arm quilter. Visit her Etsy shop!

Procrastination

2011-08-24T18:00:00.001-07:00

It has been like a thousand degrees for over a month or something crazy. I'm ready for Fall. The sad thing is that the leaves are falling off the trees for want of water. Not Fall.

I try to hold off on getting too into Fall because down here in Houston there is not much Fall at all (read no Fall but pretend Fall). And frankly my heart aches for Fall. So I try to ignore Fall. But then Pottery Barn sends a catalog with cute Autumnal decorations. (Darn you Pottery Barn.)

So today instead of this:

Laundry, Send Help, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

I came up with this paper pieced pumpkin, rather than do what I was supposed to be doing.

Paper Pieced Pumpkin, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Because I really do like Fall and if the weather could go ahead and tone it down a notch or two, that'd be great. I will declare it Fall and celebrate when the mercury just reaches 95 for the high. (Sad right?)

Now, the question. What shall I do with it? I'm trying to come up with a runner for my entry table/console/sideboard thing. On the positive, I do have a while to make it seeing as how Fall never really shows up anyways. :)

FWQAL Weeks 1-12, in which I start foundation piecing

2011-08-18T11:19:00.001-07:00

After last week's frustration with difficulty matching points on itsy bitsy blocks, I decided to give the paper piecing method a try. So I joined the Farmer's Wife Yahoo group; they have all the foundation pdf files available for print.

Since I am scaling my blocks down to 4 inches finished. I printed some files at 67%. Then I got to work.

On my first block, I messed up a teeny bit. But I was able to fix it without starting over or ripping out a seam. Although I do seem to recall a ripped seam somewhere.

Block #23, Country Farm

The second block I tried was the easier one, but it took me a while to decide on the fabric.

Block #19, Checkerboard

Overall, I like the foundation (paper) piecing method all right. It seems to waste more fabric than cutting out the templates. It could be that I need more practice. I am very frugal with fabric, so in reality there wasn't that much fabric wasted. I just have problems. :) The blocks did come out nice and at the proper size. Pulling out the paper was a pain in the rear.

And here are the blocks from this week in combination with all the blocks:

FWQAL Weeks 1-12, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Just one more! Haha, just kidding! 24 out of 111 complete!

Catch ya next week!

Playing with Color: Purple and Peaches

2011-08-17T08:03:00.000-07:00

Linking up today with Freshly Pieced

...

I have all of these different solid fat quarters that are calling my name. "Play with me! Touch me! I'm so preetttty," they say. Initially I set out to make my oldest daughter a purple and peachy orange pencil pouch because she is starting kindergarten (le sob!). But then I got distracted and just started to play with my purple and peach solids.

So I sat down with a girly movie (Circle of Friends, it was on some random channel) and my AccuQuilt cutter and cut out a bunch of 2.5 inch squares. Then I played with different arrangements until I found one I liked. Forgive these photos, they are from my phone (I was watchin' a movie ya'll.)

After my movie was over, I sewed them all together. But then a giant tree roach cornered me in my sewing room. Luckily my hubby saved me (swoon!). That was enough sewing for me that night.

::shudder::

So during nap times and other stolen moments I was able to finish today. And? I was successfully able to keep chocolate pudding covered fingers away from my fabrics. The bathroom was not so lucky. At least I hope those smudgies were pudding. I'm 99% sure they were.

Moving on!

Here is the result:

I can't decide which picture I like better. I do know that I don't like the dates on my pictures! How did that get on there. Rrrrr.

While, I intended to make a mini-quilt it was so much fun that I'm considering making another version with different colors. So I think I'll wait on finishing it and see what happens next.

I can see it as a mini, with a frame of hand quilting in a spectrum of orange and purple perles. Or I can see it with friends: other quilt blocks with different colors. (Maybe purple and green? Orange and Aqua? The possibilities are endless.)

What do you think?

A Quilt for my Mom

2011-08-16T18:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, it feels so great to actually finish a quilt. Not just a top, but a whole quilt. It has been a while since I'd last finished a quilt. Maybe since Christmas? At least a quilt that could actually keep you warm. There's been little ones and quilt tops and blocks in the interim.

I was trying to think of why I haven't been able to finish a quilt in so long. Was it the new baby? Could be. Was it the adjusting to life with three kids? Could be. Then I remembered I built my oldest daughter a dollhouse. That's why! (Among other reasons!)

In any case, I have endeavored to actually finish a quilt before I started a new project. And I did. Kind of. Right after finishing, I started a new project that I will share later.

But without further ado, here's your quilt mom! (She's lives in St. Louis, boo!)

A Christmas Quilt for Mom, pattern by Elizabeth Hartman of Oh, Fransson!

I meant to finish it and give it to her for Christmas last year. But that didn't happen. She's been patiently waiting for it.

Back of quilt, plain Jane

My mom has been quilting for 20ish years (more or less? I think I'm already in trouble!). And she taught me how to quilt. Her mother quilted and she has shared her girlhood memories of sitting under her mother's guild's quilts as they hand quilted on the table sized loom. My mom likes to say that I am a fourth generation quilter. (How cool is that?!)

Close up of the quilting. I stippled it with a frosty blue top thread and white bobbin thread

Despite constantly being around quilting, my mom says that this quilt I made is the first quilt anyone's ever made for her. Hard to believe, but I guess she's been the one making all her quilty goodness.

All rolled up waiting for you to snuggle with. Fabric is Fruitcake by Basic Grey

I think she deserves a nice quilt, and I am happy to give it to her. Had I known this was to be the first quilt someone's made for her, I would have made one sooner!

Was it worth the wait mom?

Love ya!

Farmer's Wife Weeks #10 & #11

2011-08-11T20:58:00.001-07:00

Shiver me timbers! I had a tough time this week. My points didn't come out perfect and that bothers me. I'm going to try the paper piecing route with the blocks that have small triangles from now on. I hear that helps!

Argh!

Farmer's Wife Weeks #10 & #11, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

(Blocks (are supposed to) measure 4.5 by 4.5 inches)

Block #18 Century of Progress
Block #21 Contrary Wife
Block #22 Corn and Beans
Block #29 Economy

The redeeming block, block #29 Economy, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

This purple block is the only one that makes me smile. Look at the points and the color, hooray! And I remembered to fussy cut it on point. But not before I fussy cut it not on point. (My daughter has a new purple mini-pillow for her dollhouse bed! ha!)

Farmer's wife weeks #1-#11, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Once, the blocks are mixed in with the other blocks, I like them better. :) Don't worry. I'm over it and am moving on! I can see that I need more yellow, but sadly I don't carry a lot of yellow in my stash. Guess I'll have to go shopping. :) Oh darn.

Christmas in August

2011-08-11T13:46:00.001-07:00

Christmas in August, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

This is a quilt for my mom. I had intended to give it to her last Christmas, but things came up and I was overly ambitious (am I the only one?)

Since it wasn't getting done last Christmas, I put off quilting it to work on other things.

I was dreading quilting it, but I don't know why. When I sat down to quilt it today, I found the whole quilting thing to be quite soothing! Just like drawing.

The iced coffee from Starbucks helped!

Katie's Choice Quilt Top

2011-08-08T11:13:00.001-07:00

And here is the finished quilt top I alluded to in my last post:

And here is my finished quilt top. I hope to spruce up our bedroom starting with this quilt. So new lamps and curtains and naturally new/more pillows. :)

All of the fabric except for the border are Amy Butler charm squares. Each Katie's Choice block has 5 prints and I used 4 charms of each print. The white is a Kona white. Other details: it measures about 92 by 92 inches.

Here is a close up of the border. I used a brown tone on tone K Fassett brown to frame the busy blocks. The larger border is one of my favorite Amy Butler fabrics.

And here are the fabrics I will be using to make the quilt back. I really enjoy a simple back. I think is showcases the quilting and you can pick a favorite color and use it use it use it! So, I will be keeping it simple, but also adding a large strip of my favorite Amy Butler fabrics. (But not too large, I want pillows!)

Now I just have to find someone to quilt it. It is too large for me to do. Boo and yah!

FWQAL weeks #1-9

2011-08-04T07:28:00.001-07:00

Wow, am I tired! This heat plus getting things ready for Cora to start Kindergarten (wow!) is wearing me out! We just had a parent-as-co-teacher training for the past couple of days for Cora's school, a University Model School. I could be overwhelmed by all the information and the prospect of teaching Cora on her at-home school days, but I just want to take a nap. I think that's how I cope: by wanting to crawl back into bed!

I am a week behind in my Farmer's Wife Quilt Along, but I did manage to churn out a couple of blocks this week. I also managed to finish a queen sized quilt top that I will share when I find the energy. But back to the FW (focus!).

This week I used colors that reminded me of orange and raspberry sherbet. Fitting, given the insanely hot temperatures. The orange block picture below is number 17, "Cats & Mice". My easy block for the week is the orange-peach-pink block and is number 20, "Churn Dash". These blocks cooperated with me this week and I did not need to do any seam ripping. Hooray! Although they came out a bit small at 4.25 by 4.25 inches.

IMAG0205, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

And pictured below is the prettiest part of my design wall:

FWQAL weeks #1-9, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Off to veg out on the couch!

Week 7, block 13 Buckwheat and block 15 Buzzard's Roost

2011-07-15T17:38:00.001-07:00

This seventh week of the FWQAL, I am visiting my mother in St. Louis. We've been having our own quilt retreat amid the heat and humidity of the weather and toys and raucaus of the children.

The two blocks slated for this week (blocks 13 and 14) were both fairly piecy while next week's blocks are fairly simple. I decided I'd split them up and do one hard and one easy each week.

Naturally, I was excited to work with my fabric selections this week. Especially the Sherbert Pips fussy cut puppy. But I forgot to fussy cut it on point!!!!! And I don't have anymore puppies. So I will have to make do. But, argh and duh.

Week 7, block 13 Buckwheat and block 15 Buzzard's Roost, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

While I've planned all along to make my blocks finish at 4x4 inches, most of my blocks thus far have been 4x4 inches before finishing. But this week, my blocks actually came out to 4.5 x 4.5. Yah! and boo! cause now I have a new problem:

Block size differential, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

I guess I'll have to do some creative sashing.

Anyhoo, here are all of my babies scattered about. A lovely sight, if I don't say so myself. :)

Weeks 1-7, scattered, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

My mom is also making her own FWQuilt. For my mom's June birthday I bought her the book and we decided to have our own little quilt a long. Since she doesn't have a blog, she asked me to share. Here are her blue blocks:

My Mom's FW Quilt, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Test Block for Kaleidoscope quilt

2011-07-11T09:03:00.001-07:00

In considering whether to join the Kaleidoscope quilt along, I decided I'd better make a test block to see if I liked my fabric choices and the pattern.

Below are the fabrics I choose to make my test block. I choose mostly darker values for my kaleidoscope pieces because I am not sure how the lighter values would look. For the background I am planning on grey solids. For the grey, I think I will keep the same value and color of grey, but in different patterns.

Fabrics for test block, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

And here, is my test block:

Test Block for Kaleidoscope quilt, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

The lighter value of blue came out looking better than I expected.
I like it! Surprise, surprise!

Wednesday Works in Progress

2011-07-07T08:14:00.001-07:00

I have lots to share with you this week! First a finished product: An ipad cover for Memaw. My three year old daughter kept asking if I was going to give Memaw my ipad, haha.

Plane Jane Ipad cover for Memaw

I also finished two blocks for the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along. Only 100 or so more to go. Hahaha!

Week 6 of the FWQAL, Blocks 11 and 12, Broken Dishes and Broken Sugar Bowl (And I need to start taking real pictures instead of pictures with my phone. :) )

This week I was very happy to work with my grey fabric. The Broken Dishes block (the light grey block on top) gave me the most trouble. Most of my concentration was fixated on getting the little triangles and seams to match up. I finished triumphantly and photographed it (with my phone) and the realized I had sewn it together wrong. After much moaning and groaning to my mother and a little break, I ripped it apart and redid it. Correctly. *ish*It's not perfect, but I'll take it. Given that my blocks are only 4 by 4 inches, I guess I need to get comfortable with imperfection. Ha! (I'm there, don't worry!)

Here are all my little perfectly imperfect lovelies:

All my little blocks together

I also made another Katie's Choice Block using my blue Amy Butler Charm packs. Light and Fun!

Blue Katie's Choice. I think this is my favorite.

And as if I need another project, I'm contemplating joining the Kaleidoscope Quilt Along. But only if I find fabric I love. It would be for my son, so I want to use this FQ pack of blues I bought for him. In my mind I like the idea of using blue solids for the Kaleidoscope pieces and grey tone-on-tone or grey-on-white fabrics for the background pieces.

These are the fabrics I have pulled so far:

Blues and grays, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

What do you think? I am not quite sure. I like it, but I'm not sure how the lighter blue values would work out. An alternative would be to use the darker values of the blue (and grey?) for the kaleidoscope pieces and the lighter values of the blue (and/or grey?) for the background.

Hm...

FWQAL Week 5

2011-07-01T08:52:00.001-07:00

Weeks 1-5 Together, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

After adding some purple into the bunch, I am feeling more confident about my color choices. I am loving the way these blocks are coming together.

The two purple blocks on the left, 9: Box and 10: Bowtie, are new this week. My solids are from 1001 Peeps, Persian Purple. I was so excited to start using this fabric that I forgot to use a solid fabric in my Bowtie. Oh well. The pieces in The Box block are too small to really see the fabrics. Oh well! I love the hues of purple used in this line as much as I like the pattern on the fabric.

As I am making each block to measure 4 by 4, each block is a challenge, especially the blocks with more pieces.

I am surprised to learn that I like using the templates. My hypothesis is that I don't have to do as much trimming as I would without the templates.

Next week, I thinkkkkkk, grey! Or gray? Either way Gray!

From teeny tiny to giant

2011-07-01T08:35:00.001-07:00

Red Katie's choice block, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Aside from my teeny tiny Farmer's Wife blocks, I am working on some larger blocks. Much larger. And it's kind of nice. But going from teeny tiny to large means that I've got a skewed idea of "perfect points". When I do my teeny tiny blocks, a slight miss with my points is much more noticeable than they would be with the larger points. And I have to remember that a larger block allow for a wee bit more imperfection. (Personal Problem.)

Anyway, I am really liking my Katie's Choice blocks using charm squares of various Amy Butler prints. Each of these blocks come together at 25 inches.

FWQAL Weeks 2, 3, 4 - Expanding the color palette

2011-06-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Catching up on my blocks to week four...

My original plan was to do blocks in a rainbow of colors and then arrange the blocks in a color pattern. As such I planned to do a color a week. Weeks 1 and 2 were greens and blue and Weeks 3 and 4 were pinks and reds. (Purples are next!)

While I like the blocks individually and grouped by like color. I'm not so sure of them all together. That being said, there are only 8 blocks and 4 colors to play with. And I probably shouldn't have worked on reds this week. I think in coming weeks as I make more blocks and add more color, my original idea will look more promising. I think. Otherwise I may just make 11 different pillows!

Also challenging is my decision to make every block finish at 4 square inches instead of 6 square inches. Some of these blocks have tiny pieces at 6 inches, but at 4 inches? They are teeny tiny and naturally more challenging. Also? The blocks are finishing smaller. Each block is about 4 inches now, instead of 4.5. So they will finish at 3.5. Oy!

Block #3: Basket (without the appliqued handle!). I added a triangle to suit my taste. It makes the basket look full. Still have yet to get my applique on.

Block #7: Birds in the Air. And here's where the teeny tiny started. Each of those small triangles are 3/4 inches maybe.

Block #6: Big Dipper.

Block #8: Bouquet

Block #5: Bat Wing. I had the hardest time deciding what fabric to use, settling on just solid on solid. I wished I'd used a bit of pink print too. Oh well. C'est la quilt!

Weeks 3-4 all together. Or all pinks and reds together.

Weeks 1-2 all together. So purdy!

And all the blocks together.

In any case, I am having lots of fun!

Farmer's Wife!

2011-06-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

Where to start?

Well, one thing I knew was that I needed to finish some projects before I started any other projects. But I had been seeing these great Farmer's Wife blocks around the Blogs and finally decided to join in the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along. Really, it was my mother's fault. She and I are both joining in the fun. I just have to mail her book!

Naturally I decided to start on a whim and at night. But I was super excited to start, so I made the blocks I thought I could do without templates. The next day, I bought the required book and I love it. The book includes letters from women stating why they would want their daughters to marry a farmer. I am so impressed with the passion of the letter writers. Groups of women (and men) can really do amazing things, so I am excited to join.

A couple of "rules" for myself (rules are made for breaking!):

Each block will be a different color. In general I want to use one print and the rest solids.
I don't want another bed sized quilt to work on. So I am cutting the block size down from 6 inches to 4 inches.

So without further delay, here are the pictures.

Block 1: "Attic Windows":

Block 1: Attic Windows
Green print is from "Modern Workshop", green solids are Kona Cottons, the white is a Bella solid.

Block 2: "Autumn Tints":

Block 2: Autumn Tints
Print is from "Just Wing It". Solids are Bella Solids.

Block 4 (I skipped Block 3 for now. Maybe tonight?): "Basket Weave"

Block 4: Basket Weave
Print is from "Just Wing It" and solids are Bella Solids.
Did ya see what I did there? I broke a "rule" already. Haha.

And all playing happily together!

Work in Progress Wednesday

2011-06-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I finally finished Cora's quilt for her bed. It will be a twin sized quilt and now I have to quilt it. While I am looking forward to finishing it, it will be quite an undertaking to quilt.

So, in the meantime to distract me from my quilting chore, I have some Amy Butler fabrics on my new design wall (thanks Mom and Bob!) to play with.

Here's a sampling of what I'm planning for my precious Amy Butler charm squares:

I wasn't sure what the name of this block was, but apparently it is called "Katie's Choice". I plan to make a several of these blocks in different colors.

I am LOVING it so far.

Almost done...

2011-05-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

I'm almost finished with Cora's quilt top for her bed.

Here's a preview of the border.

It will have a white border, then a turqoise, then another white. It will be bound with the same turqoise fabric. Almost done sweetie!

A little hand quilting

2011-04-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

All along, I wanted to hand quilt my "Flower Garden" quilt with perle thread. Unfortunately when I tried earlier this year I was frustrated. Perle was a bit thicker so I wasn't able to work with it like I could with normal hand sewing thread. Because I wanted to finish-my-project-so-I-could-use-it I settled for no hand quilitng.

Last week I acquired better materials to use with perle - some chenile needles to be exact. Using the right materials, I have found it is much easier to hand quilt.

The results? I love the look. You?

Edited to add a picture of the end result:

Materials: white number 8 perle thread and a 22 chenile needle (though I think a 24 would be even better).

Flower Garden

2011-04-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

How about a little sunshine in your life? I was inspired to make this mini-quilt for my office cubicle, which could use a little color.

This quilt reminds me of a flower garden set about in rows.

It makes me happy.

Very happy.

Progress on Cora's Quilt

2011-03-27T12:13:00.000-07:00

Amid taking care of my baby boy, I have found time here and there to work on a couple of quilts. One of these projects is Cora's quilt for her bed. She has seen me make quilt after quilt but none have been for her. (Don't worry she has plenty!)

Finally, I'm working on her quilt. But it has been a pain staking process filled with lots of tedious trimming. My process is to pair up a white and a charm square, draw a line down the middle of the white square, chain piecing the squares sewing down either side of the line, cut each square set down the line, iron seems open, square each HST to 4.75 inches

But, annoying as it is, trimming the half square triangles really help me get a perfect finish. Usually.

Here's a glimpse of what I've done:

I've done more squares since posting. So I think I have a total of 37 pinwheels, which I want to double. I plan on sashing them in the white fabric and putting corner squares in the corners. Not sure about the border quite yet. I'll decide when I get there.

Project Preview

2011-01-25T19:07:00.000-08:00

This project will be filled with my favorites: rainbows of color and 1930s fabrics.

Me likey colors.

Me likey colors, a lot.

Me no likey cutting fabric.

Ahem. My baby is five months old and has stopped sleeping though the night. I'd like to blame the use of "me likey" on him. I don't think it would make a difference though. I can blame him for the lack of progress on any projects what so ever. He likes to be held. Every night. From about 7:00 to 9:00. Which means I can read lots of novels. But not finish any sewing.

I had a friend over the other day (Hi Ali!) and I got to show off a little bit. But, I realized I have a lot of unfinished projects. (This one is actually almost finished. Just have to sew the binding and then I can show you!)

Sigh. They are only baby babies for a short bit, no?

A quilter's new year

2010-12-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

I think that the quilter's new year starts December 26th. Just sayin'. I swore I would take this week off. But I got the itch! So, I got my machine back out and set up.

QY2011 (that's Quiling Year 2011 to you) starts off with these lovelies:

A project for my biggest daughter. I keep making quilts and she keeps saying, "this one's mine!" And I hate to keep letting her down. So voila her quilt is in the making.

Some lovelies I picked out with some Christmas Cash. Thanks ya'll!

So far QY2011 looks to be like a year of half square triangles (HSTs), which is way more work than I thought it would be.

Why I quilt

2010-12-29T19:49:00.000-08:00

To hear my daughter running in the family room dragging her "big qwuilt" behind her. Tuck me in mommy. No mommy wit my qwuilt.

*contented sigh*

---
Edited to add a full picture of her "qwuilt"

And a pic of the back.

It measure 88 inches by 65 inches. Pattern found here.

Finishes (just) in time for Christmas

2010-12-27T21:26:00.000-08:00

For the bestest mother-in-law in the world, I made this quilt:

The fabric line is by Heather Mulder Peterson and called Home for the Holidays. I used a pattern by Oh Fransson. Love her style, envy her energy! I quilted it using red thread with a flower pattern.

Also finished a couple of weeks ago, but for the Bryan house (ME!). This pattern was featured in a magazine and designed by Joanna Figueroa of Fig Tree & Co. Also love her fabric. She has a great mix in greens and reds. ;)

I know it is en vogue to have a pieced back on a quilt. But I just love a plain fabric, especially with a matching thread color -- red in this case. I think it shows off the quilting. It looks so comfy to me. So that's what I do.

Yah and whew!

The Goose is Cooked

2010-12-15T20:27:00.000-08:00

I finished my Christmas Geese quilt! It felt so good to have it in the washer getting all crinkly and warm.

I learned so much making this quilt. It took me nearly a year. There are a bunch of things I would do differently. This quilt was so difficult to quilt. Mostly, I think because some of the seams were some thick that it confused my machine into skipping some stitches. I unfortunately had to alter my quilting pattern. (It's quilted with a feather pattern that I had to expand to avoid the fat seams.) Wish I didn't have to do that. But all in all, I really love my quilt.

The most remarkable part: I didn't run out of white thread. (White thread on top, red on bottom)

And my quilt was immediately put into circulation. LOVE it.

Maybe, I can get some pictures to show some of the quilting detail. But for now, it's being cuddled. :) And maybe spit up on. :)

---
Edited to add a better picture.

Christmas Geese top finished

2010-11-30T11:56:00.000-08:00

And I still love it. I thought I could finish quilting it before Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that estimate was too optimistic. sigh. I wanted to have it finished for the Christmas season. Boo.

I had some issues with the tension and the thread kept breaking. Also some of the seams are so bulky, that it confuses my foot and my machine skips several stitches.

It was very frustrating and disappointing. I didn't even want to look at it! But now that I've had some time away from it, I'm ready to start again.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder!

Christmas Geese Quilt is progressing

2010-10-22T12:08:00.000-07:00

and I love it so far!

Lots of pieces!

Process: Trimming dog ears

2010-10-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

Today, I trimmed dog ears off on 174 flying geese blocks. Glad that's over!

I did have a cute little helper though. :)

Dresses for my dollies

2010-10-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

I love making dresses for my girls. Mostly I think because they love to wear them and twirl. They are very girly girls.

Cora's dress was made following a pattern/tutorial found here.

For Amalie's dress I think I just made up it up as I went. It's pretty straight forward: three gathered tiers a la Hanna Anderson sewn on to a t-shirt plus sleeve ruffles.

Here are my happy dollies posing for a picture.

The hardest part was finding white t-shirts!!! So frustrating!

The fabric is all from Jo-@nns

A new person to make things for!

2010-10-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

He needs a formal introduction, no?

Blog, meet Shepherd. He joined us September 11th.

Shep is looking forward to being loved on and having things made for him.

He already has made good use of this "I Spy" quilt my mom made for me before I had my first daughter.

Love him!

Quilt-a-beast

2010-07-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

So how does a pregnant lady get a workout?

By basting a (large) twin size quilt on the floor.

I know. You don't want to. But let's face it, your not getting any less pregnant soon. So let's get it out of the way.

Step 1: Put toddler down for nap. Move furniture and rug to find a place large enough to make your quilt sandwich. Sweep the floor. Scoop up dirt into dust pan. Eat lunch.

Step 2: Lay backing on floor right side down. On your hands and knees, smooth out wrinkles. Using painter's tape, secure to floor. That was easy. No break. Ok fine, check your email.

Step 3: Line up batting to two sides of the backing. Smooth out wrinkles. Trim the other two sides with your good scissors. Smooth out wrinkles again. Use a little more painter's tape to secure batting. Go check email again (but this time work email).

Step 4: Lay out your quilt, pretty side up, on top of the batting. Leave 2-4 inches around each side. Again, get down on all fours (don't mind that belly!) and smoooooooth out all the wrinkles. Keep smoothing it out until it's nice and flat. Crisp and sharp without the startch.

Then the hard part: baste all layers together using safety pins. (Manicure NOT recommended. A/C required.) On your hands and knees (again!), work on pinning one quarter of the quilt at a time. Make two passes. The first pass you will just place a pin at the center of each block and at the outer edges of the quilt. Find that triceps are burning (hooray!). Now, if your toddler wakes up you will at least have a decent baste job and can get your precious off the floor so your other precious won't trample it.

Break out the Snickers bar you've been saving. It's time for a break.

Ok, the baby's still asleep. Start your second pass. Pin along sashings (why does spell check not like that? Did I spell it wrong?). Notice butt and thighs burning. Yah! (ish?)

Finally! Done! Drag pregnant self up off the ground. Use a piece of furniture to help if you need. (Heave!) Admire your work:

Finish Snickers bar. Check email and blogs.

Untape quilt sandwich from the floor. Rejoice that baby is still asleep and you can do some of the fun part: quilting! (Fine. Put room back in order before you do the fun stuff. Unroll carpet. Move back furniture and toys.)

For Amalie's big girl bed quilt, I am quilting it using a loopy flowers design I saw here. I was going to do plain ole' stippling, but I couldn't get the tension right. Very frustrating, but I like flowers better. What I really like is that each flower is a separate unit - a manageable chunk if you will.

Backing is a sweet pink toile. Love me some toile.

Luckily my baby girl (ha, the one whom this big girl bed quilt is intended for!) slept for 2 more hours so I was able to get a good portion of her quilt quilted. Maybe a sixth? Too early to quantify. It will take me a while time. It measure 88 inches by 65 inches. But I'm resolved to finish it before tackling other projects.

Quilt-a-beast, indeed.

Pattern found here.

Finished: Owl Shoo-Fly

2010-07-12T18:36:00.000-07:00

Wowsers, I am terrible at publishing pictures of the quilts I finish. So I am writing this in September of 2011 but I finished it in July 2010. So I am postdating it to July 2010.

I still love this quilt and I'm glad I finished it before my baby boy, Shepherd, was born. Because for a while there? I had zero time to really do anything what with the whole adjusting to three kids thing. Not only that, but it is one of the few (only?) boy quilts I have for him. I'm working on that issue, obviously.

Finished Owl Shoe Fly, a photo by bryanhousequilts on Flickr.

Back in black

Who?

Design: Shoo-Fly blocks inspired by (drooling over) Malka's blog

Quilting: Straight-line 1/4 inch off the seams

Fabric: Citron & Gray by Michael Miller

Size: Baby quilt, 45 inches by 45 inches

Quilt top finished: Owl Quilt

2010-06-29T20:51:00.000-07:00

(I love this quilt top!)

While neglecting my children today (just kidding!), I finished this quilt top:

In all seriousness, I'm in the process of finishing Amalie's big girl bed quilt and it is a long process. I'm almost finished, just have to affix loooong borders.

It's a pain. So if I work a bit on Amalie's quilt, I reward myself with shorter projects.

This quilt came together pretty quickly: each block is 15 inches by 15 inches. In total the quilt will be 45 inches by 45 inches. I think the hard part will be putting the backing together. As of now, I have to piece together fragmented fat quarters to make a piece big enough for the back. (I'm not really a fan of the double sided quilts. They are cute. But just more work!) I may buy additional yardage, but that would be more money. :)

I plan on quilting Amalie's quilt myself and want a couple of smaller projects to practice on first. This will be one; the other, the brown baby coin quilt.

And Cora already has laid claim to this quilt. I tried to tell her it's mine (real mature!), but I think I'll have to placate her for awhile. Especially since Amalie is getting a new quilt and baby brother's quilt is in the works!

As of now, I plan on quilting it using stippling. Probably in white thread. Oh! Maybe gray? What do you think? I don't want to occlude the owl too much...

Hm. Rethinking stippling...

Things I love

2010-05-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

My mom. She got me a gift certificate to The Fat Quarter Shop for mother's day.

I also love my daughter, who is "designing" her own quilt in her own notebook with mommy's fancy colored pencils. Oh, and the Chic Fil A drink. Oh and my hubby in the background.

The Fat Quarter Shop for delivering the fabric I ordered the next day.

And Michael Miller's Gray Citron and Black line, which I am making into the variation Shoo Fly quilt (I first saw it here). The blocks will turn out to be 15 inch squares; big, but I wanted to capture the whole owl on a square.

I'm loving the way it's turning out.

Brown Baby Coin Quilt

2010-04-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Where've I been?

So long story short, I've been tired and non-bloggy or quilty due to being pregnant. Am feeling much better as you can tell because I made a quilt top today, with the help of my new sewing machine.

I threw this quilt together to practice using my new machine, but I think it's pretty darn cute.

The dog is really excited.

Lower part:

Upper part:

Not sure what I'll do with it after I quilt it. I'm still debating on what color thread to quilt it with. I'm thinking either brown or variegated thread with greens and blues. Thoughts?

Wordless Wednesday: Quilter in training, two

2010-02-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

Playing with mommy's hand sewing box.

A mom can only hope? Right mom?

Obsession Confession: I chose quilting

2010-01-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

Tonight I have piles of mess everywhere. E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E. (Gosh that was annoying to type!)

See: mess

But tonight, I chose to quilt instead. And face the mess another day. Like tomorrow. After work. When everyone is tired. That ought to work well. hehe.

But! I finished all my red geese for my Christmas quilt WIP. All 174 red Christmas geese. Yah!

Geese on a chain:

My favorite new, old tool:

My "organization" scheme (see pink and brown zig zag quilt waiting to be sandwiched and quilted in background):

Next step: sewing them together into 6 rows, well 5 because I've already sewed one.

Then on to the green geese.

Quilt top: pink and brown zig zags

2010-01-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

A couple of nights ago, I finished a quilt top I'm making for a friend's daughter. It was exciting! As you can see, the colors are pink and brown. I used this no triangle tutorial from Amanda Jean.

All cut and stacked waiting to be layed out and pieced:

Random thoughts: This quilt top was so mentally challenging for me. I think I used my seam ripper more than I ever have before. Also, I really don't like sewing long strips of fabric together and then cutting them into blocks, but I usually gravitate towards those patterns. This quilt was no exception. So, although this quilt could have been pieced rather quickly, I broke the long strips of sewing up over a couple of weeks. After that it was fun!

Much to my delight, there is a zig zag quilt along for 2010. Check out the flickr pool by clicking on the button. There are some really pretty quilts already added.

I like to hand quilt but...

2010-01-12T13:05:00.000-08:00

I also like to get things done. So this stack? And his little brother (not pictured)?

Will have to be machine quilted.

Ever since I saw this quilt , I have wanted to make it. After much hemming and hawing, I gave in and decided to purchase 10(!) yards of fabric needed to make it. (It took me awhile to decide to spend the money because I'd already spent money on several other projects in the works! )

My local quilt shop was having an end of year sale (like, no duh) so I saved some money. Since we were leaving the next day on a New Year's road trip, but I of course wanted to work with my new pretties. Using this technique, I cut some squares to work on in the car and was able to hand piece roughly 20 geese. In general, I really like the feel of hand pieced and quilted blocks, but I think it's only because you don't iron the mess out of the fabric, so it only seems softer. I was debating on doing the whole thing by hand. But...

There are over 300 geese in the finished quilt. So, I think I'll be ok with machine quilted blocks. *nods happily*

Yeah...

Anyhoo, Here are some of my Christmas Geese.

As an aside, I was really irritated with myself because I over cut. I cut 50-60 more red squares than I needed. Thus, I burned through all my red scraps. (Arg!) Alas, I guess I will have to make that Ocean Waves quilt I've been wanting to make too. :)

Machine quilting though.

Hexagons for show

2010-01-10T18:06:00.000-08:00

I'm working with this fabric to make 4 different blocks to frame for some wall art to hang in my home.

Here's the first block.

It occurred to me once I set it in my quilting hoop that it would look pretty just like that. So here it is all set to applique and embellish. But also looking pretty in the in between.

The future looks bright

2010-01-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

I don't like making resolutions. Mostly because it's January 7th and I've already trampled on them. I can't think of any resolutions that are quilting related that all that concrete. Except to make more quilts!

But, I've got some pretty new fabric to work with. There's nothing better than brand new fabric. It reminds me of a new year. It's all pretty and packaged - no mistakes. I can imagine what I want it to be. What I want to do with it. It's almost so perfect that I don't want to unwrap it and dig in.

But, I don't want it to just sit on the shelf looking pretty. It's more than just a pretty face!

So, I took a picture. For posterity. To remember how pretty it used to be. All packaged. Then I unwrapped it and flipped through each of the 42 squares in order to get it good and tousled. No more pretty package and neatly arranged fabrics.

Maybe I should resolve to change my Christmas background to a different background? Such a commitment!

Doll Quilts

2010-01-02T17:31:00.000-08:00

My mom had some fabric squares stashed away. She um, *cough*, gave them to me and I made the girls baby doll quilts for Christmas.

Cora's has her name quilted in it, down the center four squares (not shown). Amalie's has diagonal quilting. Each is backed with soft flannel. They are each cute, but I wish I had integrated rick-rack into the binding. Doh!

I had four fabric squares left over, so made each girl a little boo-boo square. I filled them with rice and they now reside in the freezer. They could also be microwaved. Is it bad that I gave my children ice-packs for Christmas? Is it better if they were stocking stuffers?

The girls didn't really care for them when they opened their quilts at Christmas. They don't really compare to toys at this point. Maybe when they are older they will appreciate them. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Quilter in training

2009-12-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

Been busy

2009-12-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been a couple of weeks!

See what you might not know about me, but may have figured out by now, is that I tend to set big project ideas and then not meet them. Or at least have to scramble accomplish them.

Take this quilt, a project idea among many others. At least this project was finished!

It was a present for a certain Memaw for Christmas. A certain gal who likes cats. I found this block and thought of her. I choose several blues and a couple of red fabrics, made 9 blocks and added a scrappy border using all 9 fabrics.

Sadly, you can't tell from the pictures but in the blocks set on the diagonal I quilted "meow" several times into the cat body. The other four blocks were quilted with random patterns, but I wish I had discovered this blog about free hand quilting before then. On the border I quilted a couple of "purr"s and "Meowy Christmas Memaw" and "2009". And on the corners I quilted mice. It was really cute.

Here's the back. I loved this cat fabric in blue, red, white, and cream. Cute!

So that's where I've been. :)

(Memaw loved it!)

Mini-Christmas Quilted Tree Skirt Tutorial

2009-12-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

Is your mini-tree naked? Are its feet cold?

Well add some modesty to your tree and wrap it up in a wee quilted tree skirt. This is a fairly easy and quick project. It took me 2-3 hours to complete. I like getting things done, don't you?

To start, you will need a pattern. I used a large pot lid to trace a half circle on a piece of paper. (Newspaper or tissue paper work better than plain white paper, but I worked with what I had.) Since, I wanted my skirt a couple inches bigger than the lid I measured two inches longer. I made tick marks every few inches around the lid.

Once you have your half-circle cut out, you will need a smaller half-circle in the center. I used my coffee cup to trace a smaller half-circle. See picture below. Once you've done that, cut it out.

Once you've got your half circle cut out, fold in half twice. You will get something like the pattern pictured below. I stapled it to keep it from slipping, but you can use a pin.

Using your pattern, cut out 8 pieces of fabric. In the picture below (hey! I found some newspaper!) you will see that I added 1/4 seam allowances. I guesstimated these as opposed to tracing. Also, you don't have to add seam allowances. Not adding seam allowances will make your final product smaller. So you decide. I made one each way. If I had to do it over again, I would add seam allowances.

Once you've cut your 8 pieces of fabric, arrange them how you want. Here's what I did. I used 3 different reds and 2 greens.

Next line up your pieces as shown below. You will have four pairs of fabric. Once they are lined up, machine sew on the right side. Press to the right.

You will now have four pieces (hey look my mom's calling!):

Line your pieces as shown below - you will now have two pairs. Machine sew right side. Press seams to the right.

Now you should have two half-circles.

Lay the two halves right sides together as shown. (Again mom?) Stitch the halves together. Press. (Pressing the seams to the right or so they are pointing clockwise will make sewing the next few steps easier. See picture below.)

Now you will have a completed circle with a hole in the middle. I see mine didn't come out the way I lined it up, but that's probably because I wasn't consistent with which side I sewed. I told you to sew on the right hand side, but I probably did left one time. Whoopsie daisy. No matter. We live with mistakes in this house.

Ok, we are ready to quilt!

Now, you will make your quilt sandwich. We are going to do a pillowcase binding. You want to lay your batting down first. Then your backing goes second, or in the middle. (If you were making a cheese sandwich, the backing would be the cheese.) Lay your backing so the right side is facing up. Finally, lay your pieced-top right side down. So, you will be sewing the right sides together, with your batting underneath that. Pin together, all the way around the circle.

Please note the following quilt sandwhich is wrong (so wrong!) and if you do it this way you will be disappointed and frustrated, like I was! Note how the backing and batting are in the WRONG places.

You've been warned.

Before we start sewing you will cut you quilt sandwich. This will be the opening for the tree skirt. You will cut on one side, a radius if you will. It should look like this. A round of cheese (hmm must be hungry).

Now, we are going to sew our sandwich together. So exciting! You are going to sew all around the inner and outer edges of your circle and on the edge of one of the cut, using a 1/4 seam is fine. You will want to put your machine in the needle down position. This will make it easier to pivot on the corners.

You will want to leave an opening so you can turn your quilt right-side out. So start here:

Then continue sewing the outer edge. Sew up the other side of the cut to the inner circle back the the edge you started and ...

Finish sewing here:

Ok, I'll wait. Go sew all the way around the edges, leaving an opening. Your sewing might look something like this.

Ok! Now that you've sewn all the way around your quilt, trim off the extra fabric like so:

Don't forget to trim the corners. This will help you get a sharp corner once you turn it right-side out. Also, you may want to clip around the edges of the circle as shown in the picture below. I thought this would help it lay flat, but I forgot to do it on one and it didn't seem to matter. So you decide. I would do it (if I remembered!). But do do the corners (hehehe do do).

Ok! Reach your hand into your quilt, in between the fabric pieces. As opposed to between the batting and fabric. Grab the far corner and pull your quilt right-side out. Once you've done that, put your fingers in to each corner, or blunt pencil, to pop out sharp corners. Press. (Put iron away! your almost done!)

Now, you will close up the opening. Pin the opening as shown in the first picture below. Using a small seam allowance, like 1/8th inch, machine stitch (can be done by hand) the opening closed and then continue top stitching allllll the way around the quilt, shown below in the second picture.

Here's a picture of top-stitching close to the edges all the way around the quilt. This is the last step of pillowcase binding.

Now, you can quilt it. You could stitch in the ditch. Or if you are really good you can free hand some holiday themed things like a bell or a word. I just sewed from corner to corner. It turned out nice and ended up looking like a Lemoyne (8-pointed) star.

Here's the back:

The back on the other one.

Here's the top.

Now you are done!

And here it is warming the feet of my dear daughter's mini-Christmas tree. Cute!

You could also use this same tutorial to make a tree skirt for any size tree. The size depends on how big your pattern is.

I will answer questions in the comments if there are any. I tend not to be clear....

Enjoy!

Obsession Confession

2009-12-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

The only good laudry involves recently purchased fabric.

Eeeee, the anticipation of it being clean and dried so you can iron it and do something with it.

I can hardly stand the wait!

A sweeter payoff

2009-12-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

I wanted to snap a picture of Amalie sleeping with her quilt.

Awwww

Much better.

Progress: Orange hexagon

2009-11-20T11:34:00.000-08:00

I love putting this quilt together. I don't like so much assembling each hexagon. Here is my progress so far. I have to baste the rest of my hexagons.

I also must say that due to my haste in wanted to avoid the hard part, I had to start over several times. :)

*Sigh* I just want to sew!

Getting ready for Christmas

2009-11-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

It's hard for me (at least) to find women my age who like to quilt. So I offered to teach a class for my mom's group. I was really excited about the prospect, but kinda nervous about the turnout. It turns out I didn't need to be worried! There are a total of 10 girls working in our little quilting group.

Here's a preview of our project. We are hand quilting Christmas placemats.

I am so glad I offered this class! We are having such a great time, and the placemats are turning out very cute. Hopefully, the girls let me snag a couple of pictures of their work!

Plus it makes me clean my house every week. :) You know how we all need that motivation. Hehe.

The payoff

2009-11-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

I finished Amalie's quilt. As you can see from her expression, she loves her new quilt! (I may or may not have plopped her in front of Elmo's World.)

I am disappointed in the size, only because I have a ton of fabric left over and if I were thinking just a wee bit harder, I would have made it larger. Lesson learned, I guess.

It is machine pieced, machine quilted, and bound by me.

In all seriousness I think she does like it. She calls it (and her binky and other blankie) mimi. Or mine. Or mine mimi.

Cute.

Quick quilt: Jelly roll

2009-11-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

I made this quilt for a friend who came over to take pictures of my daughters. Hopefully I can post those pictures soon. More importantly, hopefully there are at least one or two cute pictures of my little wild girls!

Anyways, I found these fabrics as a jelly roll. I was planning to make something else, non-quilty with them, but once I set them out in strips I had to piece them together. The fabric demanded it!

So here it is:

I machine pieced it and hand quilted off-centered concentric circles. It measures 19" by 19". My friend liked it!

Project Preview: Orange hexagons

2009-11-11T08:04:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to do a hexagon quilt using English Paper Piecing. I love the simple shape and pattern. I'm not sure if I'm going to use the blue fabric yet. I will decide after I am done with the piecing of the hexagons. I may use a geometric black fabric. It will be a smallish quilt, since I only got 5 fat quarters and I like to actually finish insane projects. :)

There was a LOT of cutting involved! Since this is my first hexagon quilt, I have been learning a lot as I go along. I had to re-cut the red fabric because I thought I could get by with not using the paper. (I think I'm smart like that.) Instead of cutting a hexagon in the fabric the second time around, I just cut a square, much like you see in the upper right hand corner. It ended up being easier to baste. I am using a water-based glue to baste.
So far, I really like how it is turning out. Stay tuned!

Lisa's Quilt: Brown and turqoise yo-yo

2009-11-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

I finished this quilt I made for a sister-in-Christ. I really loved how it turned out. And I really love how I felt after I gave it to her. She loved it!

I ended up using the tying method to quilt it. The quilt is small, maybe a mini-quilt?

Moving/Reorganizing stuff

2009-11-08T12:43:00.001-08:00

I'm going to move my quilting bloggings over to this site. I need separation. I need organization!

Quilt preview: Brown and turqoise yo-yo quilt

2009-10-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here are some picture of a quilt I've been working on (amongst others!). It's very small. Each yo-yo is about 2-inches in diameter. I think it's 9 by 13 yo-yos. If I had to do that over again, I would make it even numbers. Only so that it would be easier to fold. :)

I love this tutorial on how to make your own yo-yos. They are very easy. I used 5 fat quarters for the yo-yos and the longer brown strip you see in the first picture is the fabric that will be the backing and the binding. After I made the yo-yos, I whipstiched them together using matching turqoise quilting thread.

I just love these colors together!

Now I've got my quilt sandwich made and I just need to quilt it and then bind it. I've decided to quilt it using the tying method. You'll see it when I'm finished. Hopefully soon!

Quilt top finished

2009-09-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Amalie's quilt top is finished! Yah! Here are some pictures of the details. The checkerboard was not easy and they didn't turn out as well as I wanted them too. For whatever reason, I could not sew a straight line to save my life yesterday! Oh well, funny how perfection flies out the door when you don't have as much time....

It's shake and bake! And I helped!

After I finished, I noticed I forgot a couple of pieces. I like it just the same and you'd probably wouldn't be able to tell. See if you can pick the mistake out. Hint you'd probably be better able to see it in the first picture. Oh well!

Weekend Project - Amalie's Quilt

2009-07-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

We had planned to go to Seguin to see Bobby's parents and Memaw this weekend. (Happy Birthday from the rest of us Memaw! We love you!) But we noticed Amalie had a fever about 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave. We decided Bobby and Cora would take the trip and Mommy and Amalie would stay home.

I took advantage of all the down time and worked on Amalie's quilt. I was able to complete all the cutting:

I finished sewing all the lambs together on Saturday night. At the end I was ready to be finished with this step. It was late! But I had these 12 happy lamb faces to reward me when I was finished:

Then, today I was able to almost finish the quilt top:

I still have the checkerboard border to sew and attach to the lambs. Hopefully I can finish up Amalie's quilt in the next couple of months. (Yeah, it's not so much of a weekend project.) So far, I'm very happy with how her quilt is turning out. I love the hot pink and the brown combination. The pink fabric has white watercolor butterflies draped about. The white fabric has wee soft pink polka-dots on it. The brown fabric has swirly black dotted concentric circles.

This pattern is so easy aside from reading the directions. Also my mom and I made this quilt when I was 10ish. Cora inherited/sweetly demanded this quilt and it is one of her favorites blankies. She calls it lamb quilt and you can see it on her bed. Is it cheesy that I wanted Amalie to have a lamb quilt too?

This is a girly comment, but it worked out well that Cora inherited my lamb quilt because it works with her dark tan complexion. The hot pink lamb quilt compliments Amalie's fair complexion.