Pajama Scrap Quilt

Good friends, Brehan and Jocela, had a baby girl in late November-- the day after Thanksgiving.  I was still working on their quilt, but didn't actually finish it until December 2nd. Here are photos of a blanket and a pillow with a pocket.  The bird fabric and (all the other square fabric) was set aside by Brehan's mom who passed away in 2013.  She had cut out all the pieces to make pajamas. Her husband was kind enough to let me browse her fabric collection, choose this pj fabric and cut it up to create the blanket and pillow.

Pillow on the bottom, Blanket rolled up on top

Pillow with a Rabbit book peeking out

Quilt, of simple design and the pillow

A glimpse inside the book

I included a book, Rabbits, to stuff inside the pocket of the pillow. The text is simple and charming. This page reads, "Rabbits like to get all dressed up if they are going to be in a storybook."

Wedding Quilt

Congratulations to our friends for getting married on this day! 

Last Christmas my Grammy found a quilt pattern that she recommended I use for an upcoming wedding quilt.  The quilt colors were bright, the fabric patterns were plentiful-- it all looked too hokey and chaotic. (See the last photo, below.) But I knew that quilting is a personal interpretation of any pattern. So I chose my own fabrics, eliminated some of the busy blocks and created this:

Welliver Comfort

roughly 60 in X 70 in.

Front (top row is folded over)

Horses

Back, a bit of city and sparkle

All packaged up!

Pattern found in a 1976 Quilting magazine

Aunt Sukey's Choice Quilt

Deer No. 3

A long while back I bought extra deer fabric from Sarah Watts' collection, Timber and Leaf. I made one deer quilt and then another and said, "Look out for Deer quilts 3 and 4 later." Well, here it is, Number 3.

Congratulations to the little baby girl born on August 5th (or 4th?) who gets to keep this beauty.

Orange Tea for Bear

 Finished! Orange Tea for Bear (named after the blocks used).  Remember that small quilt that I complained about having to remake? Here it is! It's just a tad bigger. I love it!

Back, nothing too special

Zero, dog model

The PROCESS:
This quilt pattern came as a bit of a goof. I saw the pattern in a book, Vintage Quilt Revival, but didn't buy it or even check it out from the library.  My glance at it -- even online from someone's Pinterest post-- misinterpreted what kind of blocks were used. The whole quilt is supposed to be made up of the Tea Leaf block.   But I saw it as two: all the dark blocks were Bear's Paw, and the colorful ones were Tea Leaf. No wonder the whole quilt was called Spiced Chai in the book.

Tea Leaf block

Bear's Paw block

In the end, it wasn't a huge mistake. I know that my style lends itself to "going with the flow."

Love Postcards

Used to be K's truck, now it's Zack's

Our friends, K and B, just got married yesterday. I've been working on their quilt off and on since January. Over the Christmas holiday I sat at the dining table with my mom and Grammy and spread out all of my quilter's magazines and books. "Okay, I have friends getting married in July. I need to find THE pattern!"  My mom found the winner in the first magazine she looked through-- the Jan/Feb 2013 Quilty.  It was perfect! I had a goal with seven months ahead of me, so I could choose to work on it as I got pockets of time.

I call their quilt Love Postcards.  Granted, there's nothing postcard-y about the quilt pattern, but the hearts, the small size of the blocks, the fact that one of the fabrics has words on it, all reminded me of postcards. Plus, K and B lived apart during their college years (and then some) and so I choose to force upon them the notion that maybe they sent some love letters to each other via snail mail.

I added borders that the original quilt pattern did not call for and really love the result. It ended up measuring around 62 X 70 inches.  I quilted it at home with simple straight lines. I finished the binding the day before the wedding. Phew!

Packaging

Zack cleaned up an apple crate for me and glued a small wood tag to the box so I could label it with my Alberta Marie logo. I forgot to take a picture of it at home, but we grabbed one from the gift table.  It's not the most appealing packaging but definitely the most unique.

Quilt front

The quilt back

Back closeup, two fabrics for top and bottom

One line at a time

Quilting is one of my least favorite parts of quilting. I love making the quilt blocks, making the front as one giant piece from all of these small pieces, and I love getting to free-hand the back fabrics with scraps or new material.

But sitting down at my machine and slowly feeding the sandwich of fabrics through is mind-numbing, never mind that I get extremely frustrated.  I'm never satisfied with the quality of my straight lines. I sew slanted lines. The fabric pulls and puckers. All the safety pins that I painstakingly put in are all off because it was fed wrong.

Because I've learned how to sew just through experience, I don't really feel confident in my actual knowledge of the machine. What does the tension do? What if I don't use the top feeder legs? It took me 45 minutes to sew one line down my most recent project.  Granted, part of it was keeping the dogs out of my work space, but the rest of the time was that trial and error learning curve. I needed more desk space, so I added my ironing board to the backside as an extender. But the quilt was still too heavy and pulled the work down.

Austin Kleon's books Show Your Work! and Steal Like an Artist have been so beneficial to my confidence. I feel less pessimistic.  More encouraged by the track I'm on.
In ShowYour Work! he quotes one stupefying statement by Russell Brand.

One day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple but it isn't easy: it requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.

Whatever it is, you have to start small, to start somewhere, to build up from that.  So I say to myself today, "One line at a time." And that, friends, is how I quilt.

Acting like I'm not frustrated in the least bit.

Inspiration

Last night I had several women come over and we talked about craft projects we're working on, what frustrates us, what inspires us. I had the hardest time falling asleep because I felt like I was just exposed to all this creative stimulation. Watercolors. Hardanger embroidery. Fair Isle knitting. Baby clothes. Knitting- continental and universal. Crocheting.  Photo transfers.
Some of the projects that the others were passionate about take a really long time. Years sometimes!

Now I finally feel the draw to paper piecing because I've been drooling over one image for a couple years.  It's time that I actually tried it out... even if it takes me years to finish it.

This is my current inspiration:

This is the most unique scrap diamond star quilt I've ever seen. The corner pieces of each star block are patterned fabrics.  This quilt will be exciting new territory and for that I think it will bring me equal frustrations and joys.  I found the photo on a website listing seating ideas for farm/outdoor weddings, so the subject is the seating, not the quilt.  I won't be reinventing the wheel for this pattern, but I feel like I will be! And that's part of what's driving my passion for this. Finally, I won't be sticking to the usual square and rectangle!

Happy Mistakes

I had been diligently working on a quilt for a friend. During the quilting process (the final step) I became extremely frustrated with my over-zealous effort to make lines at different angles.  I was so fed up that I almost folded up the project, stowed it under the bed and started all over.

Throughout the frustrated tantrums that I threw, I didn't even think about the size! When I was all finished I realized that the quilt was a 55 in. square-- way too small.  In the end, I'm making the quilt again, but much larger.

Here's the quilt that I'm now more at peace with. And I'm pretty sure Zack and I are going to hold on to this one.

This is what did me in: changing sewing directions

Front

Back

Funky Apples

A new record time for a quilt start to finish 4 weeks!

I used a couple fabrics from Aneela Hooey's "Little Apples."  Because it's scrappy and oddball, I'm calling it funky. PLUS, it's for a fun and funky couple - John and Jenny (mine and Zack's bosses) who are getting married in two weeks.  Congratulations to them! Not a large quilt, but enough to cover two pairs of feet on the couch, or it'll be great for an intimate picnic blanket.

Top, Posing with the gift before the wedding
Bottom, Back detail

Front

Back

Hot damn!

A new record! Quilt blocks finished in one week!

I recently surprised myself with the speed of block making. And of course it comes right after writing that it takes me so long to make a quilt.

Over Friday night and all day Saturday I studied various quilt blocks and drew them out in my notebook. Then I colored the blocks in according to the color schemes that I liked best.

On Monday I started cutting into the fabric and created 12 "Sets" for the different quilt blocks.
Between the mornings and evenings around work, I finished all of the blocks that I wanted.  (This might not be much of an accomplishment to anyone but me because I work so sporadically.)

Today, the following Monday I am going to add sashing to the blocks. And hopefully before long, I will have the quilt top all finished.

The Patience of a Nun

People ask me how long it takes me to make a quilt. And I never have a right answer. "A long time," "Weeks. Months," "It depends." I know that I could make a quilt from start to finish in a month, but the size, the pattern and my "inspiration" all play major roles in timing.

During my most recent project I have started to keep track of the time dedicated to it. It's 45 minutes  to a couple hours here and there. I am shocked to see that I spend an hour and a half just ironing those little 1/4 inch seams. I understand now why so many people joke that I must "have the patience of a nun" to quilt. Yes, it does require a lot of time, solitude (if you choose) and repetition. 

In January a friend asked for a quilt. Luckily I've learned that it takes me at least a month to just mull over the concept of a "specific" quilt, so I gave myself several months to complete the project.  The "specifics" of this one are rather simple; he asked for a quilt with some orange in it. Something to hang on the back of the couch that looks nice but can also be used for warmth. (ah, a lap quilt.)
Three weeks ago (so late February) I found the pattern I'd use and bought the fabric.
Now, I'm about to sew the pieced blocks together to make the quilt top. (A big accomplishment.)
Then, I will sew three layers (top, batting and a backing) together. That is the quilting aspect. It's a bit of hump for me to get over.  I want to use my home machine, but that limits me to straight lines. And aren't straight lines boring? Devising a way to coordinate the lines with the quilt's pattern is one the larger challenges. Despite that mild setback, I'd say, I'm two thirds of the way through.

It is a worthwhile process. I enjoy the time alone. The repetitive tasks of pinning, sewing, pressing, and trimming are relaxing. It is my way of meditating.

Square Over Square

Last year around May a man named Michael requested that I make a quilt large enough for his queen bed. Sure! I'd love to! He had no color preferences, and was very vague in general as to what he wanted. (Luckily this is very liberating. I still feared of course, what if he hates it?)

It took me about two months to decide on the color scheme and pattern. If it wasn't for a weekend away with my quilting buddy Megan, I would have never found the right inspiration. Thank goodness she had her own quilt of this pattern; and thank goodness for Moda Bakeshop tutorials!
(A note on my creative process: I originally chose green and brown fabrics and a pinwheel pattern but found that the tones that I was drawn to were altogether too pukey. Oops! So I went out and bought new fabric and chose a totally different pattern. And making all these choices takes time!)

Laying it out to measure in the dining room, furniture removed

This quilt is made up of 9 large blocks. I actually had them all finished right before the wedding.
 But then it took all of November for me to cut sashing strips, to plan the layout, and make all the pieces one single piece. Then it was easy. I used a single fabric for the back, sent it out to be quilted and then sewed the binding on after Christmas. I even added a quilt label-- my first.

This is the biggest quilt I've ever sewn. Not sure if I'll ever make another quilt of this grandeur again.  I hope to... and I hope to eventually make time to create quilts that I keep.

Inside Hotel Oregon, natural light was better than at my house

On the rooftop of Hotel Oregon for kicks

How does it look on a bed?

Ready to deliver!

Quilt Label

The quilt is SOO big!