Quilts of All Sizes.

I love working on a big quilt top, but sometimes I need a break in the middle of a long-term project.  A couple of weeks ago I needed a break from making quilt blocks--so I made a couple of mini-quilts.  (Makes no sense, now does it?)  I've been waiting and waiting to make something with this pink typewriter fabric (from Melody Miller's Ruby Star line, 2012), which is of course so very different from the aqua typewriter fabric I've used before...so I whipped up this mini quilt.

You might be asking yourself "what's so fun about a mini-quilt?"  In fact, a very good friend of mine, who is quite the crafty gal herself, told me that she thought a little quilt to hang on the wall was about the silliest thing she'd ever heard of.  (And she hadn't heard of it before I explained to her what it is I was making during our in-depth discussion of sewing, quilting, crafting, etc.) 

So here's the answer to that burning question--what's so fun about a mini-quilt?
1.  They are quick to make.  Almost-instant gratification.
2.  Things that are small tend to be cute. 
3.  Great way to try new fabric without a long-term commitment.  I admit, I have struggled with commitment in the past. 
4. Perfect for experimenting with design & technique. 
5. A great way to use up scraps. 

And....mini quilts are also a good excuse to cut into fabric that you buy for absolutely no other reason than you simply could not resist it.  Case in point:

I really, really, really loved this sewing-machine print fabric. (I found it at Stash Modern Fabric on etsy; she has an awesome selection!)  And I was dying to sew with it.  True story: my 5-year-old son was even excited when he saw the fabric and immediately said, "We gotta make a quilt out of that!"  Yep, that's my boy!  He's learned to like fabric the way I've learned to like Disney Jr. 

I had some fun experimenting with colors I don't normally use (hello mint green and purple!) and continuing my pursuit of that ever-elusive scant quarter-inch seam allowance (a piecing foot for my machine sure helps!). 

There are getting to be quite a few quilts around the house, so these two minis are listed on my etsy shop.  Another one will be going out the door this weekend: to my mother for her birthday.  She always tells me not to spend any money on her, but one year I actually did that and got her nothing for her birthday and believe me, I won't do that again.  So, she is a getting a scrappy improve quilt made up of mostly leftovers from the very first quilt I made, last spring.  It looks like this:

 
She likes green so this will work for her.  And I will claim that I didn't buy any new fabric for the quilt so she won't suffer from motherly guilt.  Everybody's happy.  And I have room for another quilt in the house, which is good. 

Black and White....and Yellow!

Yellow has never been one of my favorite colors.  I don't wear a lot of yellow and I don't have a lot of yellow stuff in my house.  But over the last several months, I've noticed that I'm increasingly drawn to it.  And I do recall reading somewhere that yellow is the color that makes people feel the happiest, so that alone is a good reason to bring a little more yellow into my world. 

I think my attraction to yellow started last year when I got my hands on this paper:

It was love at first sight!  I absolutely love this paper.  It's bright, cheerful, sweet--it makes me happy just looking at it.  In case you're wondering, it is a lotka paper (made from the Daphne plant!) and you can find it at Paper Source.

When I make a journal from an old book, I let the book's cover art take the lead when it comes to choosing the papers for the inside covers; I like for them to match, or at least coordinate with, the cover art.  Some covers give me some leeway as to what colors I can use inside, while other books don't leave much choice (in my opinion, which is, of course, the right one!).  Take for instance, this cover, from the 1974 edition of Better Homes & Gardens "Creative Decorating on a Budget":

There was no question whatsoever about what paper to put inside this cover.  And I really like it when the book cover makes my decision-making/design process simple and easy.  (Isn't the living room featured on this cover totally awesome?  I wish my living room looked like this and I am not kidding!)  Of course, I could have used a black and white paper inside this journal and it would have worked.  I did consider this paper:

I love chevrons, but it was clear that the daisies were the right match.  Instead, I put the black & white chevron paper inside this journal:

Because daisies are too girly for this macho Handyman's Book journal anyway. (Both journals are available in my shop, by the way.)

Making these journals made me think about the whole black/white/yellow combination.  I realize I see it everywhere--and by everywhere, I mean craft stores and in magazines.  I thought about this pillow cover that I made a few weeks ago:

Wouldn't this throw pillow look perfect in that 1974 living room?  And yet those fabrics are new; I just bought them last summer and I finally got around to using them in February! 

All this thinking about yellow also reminded me of my favorite scarf that I've been wearing nearly every day this winter:

I knit this way-long infinity scarf in October & November, just in time for the onslaught of arctic weather we've been having; the yarn is Loops & Threads Cozy Wool from Michael's and I love it.  It's light and cozy and warm and knits up nicely.  It's a 50/50 wool acrylic blend.  I had never entertained the idea of knitting anything yellow until I saw this yarn and fell in love with it.  The color itself is so warm and it goes great with all my gray and black shirts.  My winter wardrobe tends to be very monochromatic and boring so I need some colorful scarves to mix it up a little. 

So there you have it: my love affair with yellow.  I think it's permanent.  I feel pretty happy, too. 

Sunbonnet Babies

Around 1950 or so, my mother received this adorable quilt as a gift from her grandmother (my grandma's mother, Edna ).  It is so sweet that I think it's worth sharing here:

This is probably my favorite out of all the quilts we have.  The colors are wonderful--still so bright even though this quilt is 64 years old!  The workmanship is beautiful; I can only assume this, but I would guess that my great-grandmother did much of the sewing by hand.  Here's a closer look at the stitching:

I love how she did the applique in black thread to outline the figures.  And just look at the quilting...all I can say is Wow!  My hand-sewing skills are barely adequate at best and I can't imagine having the patience to do something like this. 

This quilt is sized for a child at about three feet wide by five feet long.  It's been well-cared-for and I'm so glad that we have it.  I imagine that my great-grandmother took great joy in making this for her only granddaughter. 

Thanks for looking!

Pillow preview!

I should be loading up my vehicle with all my inventory and gear for the craft show tomorrow--but if you live in or near Des Moines, you know why I'm not!  Yes, another lovely winter storm.  So, I thought I would use this time to share just a couple pictures of some of the pillows I will have for sale this weekend at the show being held over at the state fairgrounds' Varied Industries building.  Because the show must, and will, go on!  Here's a peak at a few pillows:

These are two of my favorites, because the fabrics I used for these covers are both old and new; the floral panels featured on each pillow cover is from a set of linen/cotton dinner napkins or table runners--I'm not sure which--that may have been a wedding gift to my parents back in 1973.  They've never been used; I've had them for quite a few years.  I must have come across them at some point and snatched them up because I thought they were pretty.  Good thing I did.  I love how they work with these modern fabrics. 
And, of course I have a few Nancy Drew pillows:

You can probably tell that in this picture they're displayed in a nice old suitcase, which I found at Goodwill just the other day; it is lined in vinyl so I could clean it, and now it's a perfect piece for my show display.  Very handy. 

I'll have plenty of journals and some collages in my booth as well, and would love to see you if you're in the mood to brave a little bit of snow.  Thanks for looking! 

Warm thoughts on a Winter's Day

Once again, it's a winter wonderland here in good old Des Moines.  Which means it's a great day to stay inside and sew and cut paper and maybe paint something!  Which is exactly what I'll be doing. 

When you live in a super-cold climate, quilting is a perfectly practical hobby.  That's doubtless one of the reasons that quilters have created quilts for hundreds of years.  They're beautiful AND useful, which in my mind equals perfection. 

In addition to snuggling up under a warm quilt to keep warm, I use quilts to warm up the house in a few different ways, literally and figuratively:

I decided to switch up the décor in our teeny-tiny dining room (aka the room where I store extra craft projects and miscellaneous stuff) from black & white to more colorful.  And because our dining room table is ugly, I really wanted to cover it up.  I also thought it would be a great way to show off this beautiful quilt I got last summer at a tag sale.  I love all the colors and prints here.  And since we don't eat in here, I don't have to worry about food stains.  Of course if we did decide to actually sit down at the dining room table for a meal, I'd remove the quilt first. 

Our bedroom is like an icebox in the winter, so I simply draped a quilt on top of the sheer curtains in hopes of keeping the cold air out and the warm air in.  I love being able to look at this gorgeous vintage quilt several times a day and before I go to sleep each night.  This is one from our family's collection, possibly made by my great-grandmother Hannah; it's backed with flannel, there's no batting, and as you can see, it's tied rather than quilted.  I've been looking through various quilt books trying to discover the name of this block--if you happen to know what it's called, please let me know!  I love the fabrics she used (from her own dresses and aprons?) and the colors are so bright and really, so modern. 

And of course, I have a few quilts on a quilt rack (a $7 thrift-store score).  I have a couple vintage ones that are "just to look at" and then the gray one I made that we actually use.  They go so nicely with my son's playmat, don't you think? 

For those of you in the area who don't mind braving a bit of cold, please stop by and say hello to me this weekend at the State Fairgrounds--I'll be at the craft show held in the Varied Industries building on Friday evening (5 to 9), all day Saturday (9 to 5) and most of Sunday (10 to 4).  I'll have lots of new journals and a bunch of pillows--this is their official debut!  And a quilt or two as well.

Stay warm!

Mid-Century Margins modern quilt

Last week I finished a quilt that I made this past fall, right before the craziness of the holiday show season started:

The typewriter you see here is my mom's, which I grew up wanting to play with and eventually she let me use it a little.  I've always thought it was so beautiful.  Last year when I stumbled across the "Type" fabric line, I immediately ordered some and then got some more when I stumbled across it during a visit to Quilter's Cupboard in Ankeny.  Then I waited patiently until I was sure exactly what I wanted to do with it.  It's hard for me to be patient, especially when it comes to super-awesome fabric but the flip side of that is I didn't want to mess it up.  Especially when said super-awesome fabric is no longer in production.   My design plan was to keep it simple and focus on the prints in a modern, uncluttered way.  Nothing too fussy.  Also, I admit that I do get bored sometimes making the same quilt block over and over.  Here's a closer view of those adorable prints:

The gray fabric (also from Quilter's Cupboard) was the perfect solid (even though it's actually a subtle print) to go with the Type fabrics.  I definitely have a thing for gray fabric!  This quilt was pieced and quilted (my typical wonky lines) with gray Aurifil.  I haven't washed it yet--once it crinkles up it will be even better. 

If you'd like to check this quilt out in person, I will have it with me in 2 weeks at my first show of 2014, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Varied Industries building on Feb. 21, 22, 23.  The show opens Friday evening (5 to 9 p.m.), and is open all day Saturday (9 to 5) and Sunday (10 to 4).  Come out and say hello!  (Yes, the concession stand will be open so you can buy a bucket of chocolate chip cookies.) 

Nancy gets a new look.

So, I made another Nancy Drew quilt.  Imagine that!  This is number 3, but quite different than the other two.

The Nancy and magnifying glass squares are from the Moda charm pack; I haven't used the red and black ones in my other quilts because they just didn't go with the blue & yellow color scheme.  But obviously I couldn't let those little charms go to waste.  Here's a closer look at a block:

Every quilt presents its own challenge; in this case, it was trying to line up the sashing.

I managed to get it done though and I am proud of this one.  The back looks like this:

I was going to do the back totally in the funky floral print but--I was a little bit short.  What can I say, my system of measuring (guesstimating) doesn't always quite work out.  But I kind of like to do something a little quirky with the back of my quilts anyway, so I'm totally okay with this.  The finished quilt measures 46.5 inches wide by 51 inches long; big enough for a lap quilt or throw, but small enough to hang on a wall for display.  I tried a new batting this time, a bamboo & organic cotton blend.  Super-duper soft!  And it was the kind that isn't supposed to require any basting, but as I do not have a very trusting nature, I confess I did baste just a little before I quilted it (with red Aurifil--love that thread!). 

This is my tenth finished quilt.  I'm really glad I got over my fear of sewing machines.