I'm gonna call this one a learning experience!

First off I want to make clear-this quilt is not completely my design. I "copied" (sort of) one that Kellie made and anything that looks awkward about my quilt is NOT her fault. I did eventually buy a pattern from her, but started this before I got it. If I had waited I am sure I would have much prettier flowers and butterflies. I feel a little funny ripping off someone else's design so I wanted make it clear that she provided the inspiration for this quilt!

I had a great experience purchasing from Kellie and there was the added bonus of the exchange rate working in my favor. I got a deal when her site converted my U.S. money to A.U. money! (Is that the proper initials? For Australia?) Her pattern was very clear and included a large section of paper with the placement of the little pieces on it. Sometimes you get a pattern and you have to tape together some smaller letter-size sheets of paper, but Kellie's was great. Now that I have the proper pattern, I will make one of these and keep it! For ME! I will use the pillow pattern and just convert it to a quilt.

So anyway, Future Niece's first quilt from her "Auntie Leesee" is finished! And it has been put into her mama's care. Before she was born even! I didn't have it done in time for the baby shower, but I did get it done before she was born, so in my book, that's on time! I used these colors because my brother has always loved purple and green- he used to have big lifted-up "monster trucks" and he would paint them one of the two colors. Or both. Well, after I gave this to my SIL, she said it was one of her favorite color combos, too. So that was cool.

This was my first try at a lot of things- free-style handquilting (which I think I made up), raw edge applique, bias cut binding and a scalloped border.

On here you can see how I just sort of started quilting "straight" lines (without marking them). At first I liked how wavy my quilting lines are, then I didn't like it, and then I switched back to liking it. It is basically what I had in mind, but after a while, I wasn't sure if I liked it in real life. I have decided that I do. I said it was "organic" and my mom laughed at me. Then all day she kept teasing me about hypo-allergenic quilting or something. I take so much abuse from my family. At least Sherry understood me.

I liked the raw edge applique, although I am a bit leery of how it will wash.

I LOVED bias cut binding and will now switch to that. Up until now I have always just done a straight cut. Straight cut is faster, but this looks and handles SO much nicer!

The front:

I just realized I took the picture by the one straight seam in the whole binding. Nice.

The back:

The white with purple polka-dots is a "vintage" sheet. (Or maybe it's just an upcycled sheet. I don't think it's very old.)

Yeah. And then. Scalloped borders. Right. Um, won't be doing that again. Not for a while. A LOONG while. It is pretty, and it turned out... well, it turned out ok.

Some areas (by that I mean ONE) even turned out pretty good.

And Future Niece herself could have done a better job on some of these BLANKETY-BLANK-BLANK pointy-inside-corner-things! From inside the womb!

I have posted this picture so that I may inspire (fear into the hearts of) those who are possibly considering making (a BIG mess of) scalloped borders!! It's a great way to finish off a quilt (if you are masochistic) and gives it a little extra charm (and some arthritic lumps). So if you want to try taking your binding and border making skills to the next level (and by that I mean if you are INSANE) go ahead and try this. (Just don't do it my way- which is trial and error, mostly error.)

Someday I will write a proper post about how (not) to make a scalloped border.

In the meantime, I would suggest you make a (slightly) wavy border and call it good.

I do other things besides quilt. I also paint.

Here is a sampling of my work.

Each item is completely original, and made either by me alone or with the help of my two assistants. Or maybe the assistants made it and I helped... I am never completely sure who is in charge.

We like to use found objects in our art. And color. We are quite fond of color.

(Our neighbors would attest to that fact.)

By far the most utilized component is the "googly eye" which Lucas demonstrates here:

Unfortunately yesterday's work session quickly degenerated into an ant attack. That is, my assistants attacked the ants. With paint. So someday some confused geologist is going to find some poor ants fossilized in bright pink craft paint.

We will be displaying these pieces in our garden all summer, so feel free to stop by for a private showing. (Prices are negotiable.)

Whazzup??

What's up on my design wall, that is:

I am working on my quilt for Project Improv. I think I can use this for the B & W plus One Challenge, too, actually. It's black, white and dark green. I have it this far and now will leave it up there for a few days and switch things around- sort of mull it over. I somehow have a glitch somewhere because I only used 90 of the 100 squares I made. Anyone see the problem? I don't, but I bet if I leave it up there a while I will figure it out.

One picture shows the fish swimming clockwise and one shows them going counter-clockwise. They will be cut down smaller and have a border put around each one.

I am leaning toward counter-clockwise at this point.
So if anyone has any suggestions or input, I am wide open over here!

Edited to add: I figured out where I went wrong and it's 10 x 10 now, but I am not sure it's improved. I don't like how two of the white strips end up on the outside.

A quilt show from Mom's house

The boys and I went to my mom's house last week and spent a week there sewing and having fun. She has THREE weddings on one day next month and was trying to get a quilt made for each one. She had them all cut out and two of them sewed together. So we put the completed tops on the frame and pinned them and she quilted those two while I worked on sewing the third top together and making a fancy backing.

Here is quilt number one. This is for my brother's friends' wedding and is the one I worked on sewing together. My brother is standing up in this wedding, so he helped pick out the fabric and my SIL helped with the sewing, too. For having three different people sewing on this top, it turned out remarkably square. I was proud of us! The back is gray camoflage.

This one is for a friend of the family's wedding. These are the colors in her bedroom. The binding on this is really pretty- a large scale blue gingham.

This one is for my brother-in-law's brother. (Wow- all the apostrophes in these relationships are confusing me!) Mom started this one a while ago and worked on it at my house so you have seen pictures of this quilt in progress.

There was a flaw in the (Walmart!) fabric that my sister had gotten for the backing for this quilt. (Not the spot- that was on my camera.) So Mom said we should cover it with a heart with the wedding couple's names on it. I agreed and said we should look at their invitation and use a heart from that. Well, there was nary a heart to be found. They had really cool, sort of gothic/bohemian invitations. So we decided on a fleur de lis instead of a heart and my bestest friend Sherry and my SIL helped me make a really big one. Then we printed their names using a cool font, appliqued them on and voila! the back is almost as cool as the front!

A closeup to see the font. My SIL designed the fancy "plus" sign and Sherry freehanded the fleur de lis. Cool, huh? Lots of artsy fartsy types in my family. Sherry is technically a friend, but she has been around long enough that we have "adopted" her. (She's just crazy enough to fit right in.)

I cut out my scalloped border and started hand quilting the purple and green heart quilt for Future Niece and the other two quilts are a lap quilt with the Lord's Prayer on it for my grandpa's birthday and a panel baby quilt for one of my cousins. My mom made those two in between making the big ones. (She's a busy lady to put it mildly.)

All stacked up.

Lukey wanted in and so he held Katie's quilt for Future Niece.

My parents have a log cabin with 2 lofts which are perfect to hang quilts on. Mom switches out the quilts seasonally. She had her spring quilts up so I took some pics so you guys could enjoy the view.

The tulip quilt is the one my Mom considers to be her "best" quilt. She made this one for herself and had it machine quilted locally by Arlene Readman who does amazing work.

This is a pretty daisy quilt that Mom made to keep. (She gives most of her quilts away.)

This quilt is MINE! My mom embroidered these fans for two years. She has over 40 hours into each fan. My mom has MS and she likes to take hand work with her whenever she gets an IV of steroids when she is having an attack. (Right now she is working on a bluework quilt that is going to be stunning.) I loved the squares and the pretty colors she chose, but had no idea that it was for me. Then when I got married she gave it to me for a wedding gift. I couldn't believe it! What you see is only half the quilt so there are another 5 fans on the other side of the railing. She saved enough of the yellow so that I can make a bedskirt out of it, but I won't take this quilt home yet. I will use it in a guest room someday and I don't have one right now. Also, I have two small "ruiners of everything nice" at this point who would get marker or koolaid or something on it and I will wait until they are a little older to have this treasure in my house. Also, I need to put this in a room with a door that closes so that I can keep the kitties off of it. Normally we use our quilts so that we can enjoy them, but this one is too precious to me to risk damaging. I will use it, but not at this point in my life.

I should have gotten a closeup of the fans, but my camera batteries were dying and it kept turning off. They are VERY pretty. I am a lucky daughter!!!

Another quilt for Future Niece!

My already-here-niece, Katie, designed this quilt! It is for Future Niece, who is Katie's Future Cousin. She picked out the flannel fabric from my mom's stash, then my mom cut out the squares and laid them out in an around the world pattern for her. Katie took one look and decided that it was not to her liking. She pushed the squares into a pile (while chanting "Bulldozer! Bulldozer!") and then rearranged them into this pattern. (She likes squares in squares like her auntie.)

Then, she sat on my mom's lap while my mom worked the foot pedal and they sewed the blocks together. My mom will quilt it for her, but she did most of the work, and all of the designing. I am a proud auntie, that's for sure!

(Katie is only 6. Impressive, no?)

Can't I have anything NICE without you guys breaking it? Part 2

Does anyone else's cat CLIMB their design wall? Mooch has been literally climbing the walls lately. He tears into the room, gets a flying start and can reach the ceiling on a good leap. My nice taut tablecloths are now hanging and droopy looking. Tiger-E is polite with her claws, but not Mooch. I think he needs to take a trip to the vet. (I always feel bad getting them declawed, but I think he will ruin too much of our stuff- like our box springs!!- if I don't.)

Speaking of trips to the vet, Mooch also has a new, er, friend. He appropriated one of the kid's stuffed bears. He LOVES this bear a lot if you get what I mean. (The kids think he is "fighting" with the bear so we leave it at that.) No one else touches the bear and when I have to move it I pick it up with the dustpan. It looks really ragged and the stuffing is falling out. I have heard of dogs doing this, but never a cat... leave it to Mooch.

Today Brady "fixed" this plate.

I'll just go throw that in the dishwasher now.

This little pile can make a BIG impact,

if you spread it out!

This is for Future Niece. This is what I ended up with for a color wheel idea. Now I want one for myself! Lukey added that tiny purple circle in the middle. He said the green circle was the "mommy circle" and then added the purple one and stated, "This one Lukey." So of course, it's staying! :0)

I tried it on white, too, but it just doesn't have the impact. I am working on hand quilting the purple and green heart quilt and want to try a scalloped border on it. We'll see how that goes.

(I think you are supposed to use a plate to trace your curves for a scalloped border... but my plate is broken! Whatever shall I do?!)

We had a sewing bee at my house!

Today my mom came to (visit and) sew. She had this quilt started and today she finished cutting the squares and got it this far- over half-way put together. (It will be queen sized when it is finished.) These are not her preferred colors...

...but they are pretty.

This next quilt is for my Future Niece. It is absolutely adorable (just as she will be). Mom is making all the nursery stuff and she brought the quilt top down so I could add my touch- which was the embroidering on the bumblebees.

(We always have one "naughty" winking face. What a rebel bee!)

This next (the color wheel) is going to be used in a baby quilt for Future Niece. In some incarnation that is- I may be cutting it up or trimming it. I like this quilt, so wanted to do something like it and came up with this. My Sis-in-law is an artist so she will enjoy the color wheel, and hopefully Future Niece will like those pretty colors, too. The original is amazing (and I would not mind one of those for myself). This was really fun to play with. I sewed it backwards- this was definitely a learning experience- but the baby won't mind. Lukey keeps pointing at it and asking if he can have it, so I see something along these lines in our future.


My brother loves purple and green together so Future Niece also needs a purple and green quilt. I am a huge fan of Kellie's work and made my version of one of her quilts. When (not if!) she puts out a book, I am first in line!

I am currently sewing down all these petals and circles- a bit tedious, but still much faster than hand applique. I remembered basically what Kellie did- made a lot of cute girly shapes all close together in a heart shape, so I wouldn't let myself look back at hers until mine was done- at least cut out and ironed on. It turned out pretty cute, so I am sure Future Niece will like it.

I am considering cutting out the heart and doing a ragged edge applique to put it onto a white background. I don't think I like it just as it is. I will mull it over while I sew the rest of the petals down.

And now for an update on the recent post- no, the wedding gift quilt did not get finished in time for the wedding. I started quilting it and had to rip it all back out. So now I am hand-quilting it and they will get it late. (Hopefully it will be done in time for next winter...)

I did finish a quilt recently, though! I made a rag quilt for my aunt out of mostly Daydreams (blue and green colorways) along with some other coordinating prints. Unfortunately, I did not have both my camera and the quilt together at any point so I don't have a picture of it.

I had the best time sewing with Mom today, and the kids were good, and the sun was shining... it just doesn't get any better! ;0)