Feb 28, 2011

Flannel scrap quilt--completed

Good news--I have completed this little flannel quilt. It's constructed using only scraps left over from other quilts that I have made. Finished size is 35 by 40 inches. This quilt is destined to be donated to SPINOC--an organization that helps homeless folks get situated in a job and a nice place to live.
Either the baby quilt is used to cuddle the baby when it's cold, or it is put on the floor for baby to play on. Babies love this kind of patchwork quilt, and will drag the quilt around until it finally wears out and is in shreds. I've received photos from a Mom whose kids would not part with these old things even when the quilt was in rags and the kid was in grade school. (Of course I made new, bigger quilts for those kids!)

Feb 24, 2011

String Quilt

All finished! This string quilt was very quick and easy to make. I got to use up a lot of scraps. I sewed on a blue binding. I finally finished the hand sewing of the binding while I was watching TV. American Idol seems to be having big ratings this year. I like The Defenders too. And lots of mindless TV stuff. While I watch TV I usually sew or knit.
I'm busy now free-motion quilting that flannel quilt that I'm working on. I might slow up a bit and try making table runners or something else for a change. And good news--my grandchildren cleaned their closets and I will receive a bunch of old blue jeans. I've made a gallery of photos of denim quilts on my Flickr page. Some folks seem to have success in combining parts of old jeans with fabrics, making charming quilts. I bet I could sew some place mats that way, too. I did make a couple of quilts using blue jeans and they came out OK, but they are very heavy. I thought that only using jeans for parts of the quilt may work out better?

Feb 22, 2011

Flannel scrap quilt

As Ronald Reagan used to say, shaking his head, "There you go again!" I haven't finished sewing the binding on the last quilt, but here I am, I guess it's nervous energy--making another baby quilt--I often use flannel for quilt backings. This will result in long strips being left over when the edges are trimmed. It was a simple matter to cut these strips with a rotary cutter, especially since no special width was required for this quilt. I merely cut the strips as wide as I could. I joined them together in a log cabin style, trimming the lengths of the strips after each one was joined. I used a wider than the usual 1/4 inch seam, nearly 1/2 inch. And the result was a baby-sized quilt top. I found a couple of left over pieces of batting to join together. I join batting scraps by butting the edges and quickly hand sewing with quilting thread. And I pawed through my stash and managed to find a nice bit of baby fabric for the backing. The result is that now I will have to figure out what I feel like making next! Not so fast--I do need to quilt this!

Feb 18, 2011

Left-overs

As the old saying goes, "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Here's a photo of a baby quilt I made a while ago. I had some left-over four patches from a quilt I made back in 2005. They were left over because I substituted some appliqued patches in that four-patch quilt. So what I did with these blocks is to combine them with some squares of kid fabric and make a baby quilt. The patches are about 7 1/2 inches square and the quilt itself is about 45 inches square. Now what happened to this quilt is that I finished it, put it away on the closet shelf and forgot about it. My life was very busy back in 2005. However, I have now taken it out and I plan to donate it to charity the first chance that I get--hopefully next week! Meanwhile, I have managed to get the string quilt free-motion quilted and I'm sewing the binding on, as shown in the bottom photo.
Meanwhile "back at the ranch" as they used to say in those old Roy Rogers movies, the quilt which I donated for Alzheimer's Disease Research has gone on sale on their web site. It's number 6290. I have a logo of this charity web site on here, see below.

Feb 10, 2011

String quilt (another one)

One of the happiest times of my day is when I'm sitting at the sewing machine. I love putting colors together. Someone recently emailed to me that I ought to learn more about how to put colors together and not be so timid. She must be living on the moon. I'm still laughing. I ought to have saved her exact statement. But I erased it. Anyway, here is the latest effort. I have made similar quilts before. I want to sew on a border today. After this, I have no exact plan of what to make next. No problem, I will no doubt grab a bunch of scraps (there's so many littering my sewing area) and start on a donation quilt. I have been constantly making hats for the charity that my knitting group sends stuff to. Lately I have found a lot of sport yarn for baby hats. Folks donate yarn to our group.

Feb 7, 2011

Easy Baby Quilt, completed







So, I finally decided to free-motion quilt this quilt. And look at the nice hunk (a technical quilting term) of green flannel print that I rounded up from my stash to use for the backing. I recommend this easy quilt layout (see previous post for the recipe) for any kind of quilt, it could be using a color scheme (forgive me for using the term "color scheme") on this blog! Anyhow, the quilt could have all the same color plain squares alternating with a traditional quilt pattern such as nine patch, four patch, bow tie, or whatever. Even some applique could be thrown (Roz, how could you--applique is never thrown!) in. While it doesn't show up very well in the photo, I sewed on a yellow binding. So it's all ready for the next baby who comes along--there's always a baby! Although there seems to be a lot of baby girls in the family. I knitted a blue baby layette set a couple of years ago and no takers.
Speaking of knitting, I made some socks for myself for a change (I'm usually giving them away). I wear heavy socks to bed on cold nights. I found this pattern a long time ago, it's for a different type of heel called a peasant heel or afterthought heel. You knit the sock and you place some stitches on a spare bit of yarn, and after you do the toe, you go back, take out the bit of yarn and knit a heel with a method that is just about the same as the toe. So very easy.

Feb 4, 2011

L'Chaim to Life! wall hanging


I'm so excited to have completed this wall hanging! It was a lot of fun to make. I just love doing the free-pieced letters. Hebrew was a challenge. I hand quilted the piece. I added a bit of hand embroidery (outline stitch) to the leaves. I plan to insert a curtain rod in the back. I have sewn a hanging sleeve on there.

Feb 1, 2011

Very easy baby quilt

Here's the easy quilt. There's alternating plain and pieced squares. And the recipe is as follows: cut 10 plain squares (I used a bunch of different children's prints.) Sew 10 pieced squares. I just made free-pieced blocks--using up a bunch of scraps. All blocks are cut 6 1/2 inches square and that includes the 1/4 inch seam allowances. Then I cut sashes that were 2 1/2 inches wide. You need 7 strips, but if you are willing to piece them, you only need 6 strips. The borders are 4 1/4 inches wide, cut 4 of those. The quilt will finish up about 38 by 46 inches. So it will be simple to make a backing and use a baby quilt batt. Furthermore, if you piece the quilt by joining horizontally, four blocks at a time, there is no need to worry, the blocks will all fit together--and alternate naturally, because there are two pieced and two plain on each of the five rows. I've got to get this thing basted today! Meanwhile, I'm doing hand applique on the wall quilt. (See previous post.)