The best so far....

Towards the beginning of this year one of my closest friends told me she was expecting her first child. Immediately, I started planning what I would give Baby. I knew I wanted something handmade and special, and I began to look for some great kid-friendly fabrics. I wanted lots of color, recognizable prints and a classic color palette. Nobody knew whether Baby would be a boy or a girl, but I knew it would be okay if I stuck with stronger tones.

When I browsed through ReproDepot I found several prints that just happened to work together, and ordered a yard of each. Later on, I found a few more at Joann Fabrics, as well. This all happened in June and July.

Once the fabric was in hand, I needed to begin to think about the quilt I would make. I wanted something I Spy-like, where the novelty prints would be front and center. Something a little scrappy, where there was plenty of new stuff to see without getting sensory overload. The parents like edited and clean, so I had to keep this in mind, too. I decided on making big I Spy blocks, about 6.5" square, surrounded by a border print or solid.

This is my favorite block, personally: giant turtles tesselating through bubbly water. After I made each of the blocks, I had to make a decision about the quilting. I sew on an old featherweight, and the throatplate is tiny. It would be impossible for me to quilt an entire quilt on that machine right now, especially given that my quilting skills are not the most refined. (Yet. I'm going to get there.)

It's a good thing I had so much time to mull this project over, because sometime between purchasing the fabrics and sewing the intial blocks I reread the book Sensational Sashiko. I had looked at it when I first purchased it, even before I made any quilts, and have browsed through it occasionally. Never before did I notice the technique for quilting blocks separately and then joining them together using sashing. I made a test scrap using the instructions in the book and it worked out -- the batting nestled together and it all looked proper.

The problem was, what would I do for the second side? I needed blocks that were the same size, and I could do something a little scrappier. I also wanted something that could keep a child's interest as he or she grew up. So I decided to make tic-tac-toe blocks using scraps of fat quarters and fabrics I already had. I quilted each of the squares, paying close attention to the orders of the blocks -- not only did I have to match up the right front and back blocks together, but I also wanted to get the orientation right. Each block was quilted with parallel lines 1" apart. I wanted to quilting lines to indicate that each square was quilted individually (and also to avoid mismatching lines through the sashing), so I arranged the quilting lines vertically in every other block and horizontally in the rest.

After each block was quilted, I assembled all of the blocks and put the border on the quilt. There was a lot of hand sewing for this part, as each of the white sashing strips needed to be sewn down by hand and I also sewed the binding by hand.

(Click for bigger)

It was all worth it, though. I am so happy with the way this quilt came out! These pictures are before washing -- after I washed it it crinkled up and is really cosy.

I labeled the quilt on the back with Baby's name and birthday, packed it up, made a tag and mailed it off, and they love it. Each of them has their favorite squares, and baby boy is doing well.

Project Specs:
Pattern: My own
Fabric: from Repro Depot and Joann Fabrics, various designers including Alexander Henry, Eric Carle, Denise Schmidt and others.
Finished: September 9, 2008
Contents: 100% Cotton

It's all a blur

Finally, some new pictures for the blog.

My computer hard drive crashed, and the photo-editing software needed to be reloaded. Since we take raw images, we needed the software for the images to be read, and it took a while. I'm sorry.



In the meantime, something big happened in my family.

It was a crazy weekend: two cakes, four loaves of bread and three full meals. No knitting, sewing or quilting, but plenty of baking. These cakes are made by scratch with nothing more than flour, eggs, sugar and the basics. Including the frosting.

Yes, 100. That's my grandmother. I'm holding the second cake that's on its way to the table in a blur. Happy 100th birthday, grandma!

(Oh, and my grandma's best friend, who made the trip across the country to be with her, said that my pie crust was as good as hers. That's one of the best compliments I've ever heard in my entire life, given that I have been hearing about her own talents in the kitchen since I can remember.)

Up next: reorganization, quilts and socks.

Empty Spools

As you can see, I've been busy. All of those bobbins were full a week ago, and the spools of thread, too. One great thing about quilting is that I get to use up all my extra thread on my bobbins.

I know you're supposed to match the thread content to your fabric content. In theory I agree with it, but the practical side of me likes using up every last inch of thread in my bobbins. Especially when piecing and such.

I've been thinking about this project since May, and it's finally finished. Much of the thread was used in it, and I can't wait to show you. You'll have to wait a few more weeks, though. It needs a good, supervised washing, and for that I need to be around a washing machine I can control more than the laundromat ones. I'm looking forward to the crinkly goodness that will come out of the dryer.

The rest of the thread was used to make these:

This is only one of them, but there are really six. And what you can't see is that each of these strips is 44" long. This is going to be a present for my mother. Another one of those promised gifts that I am terribly late on delivering. The goal for this one is September 18th, which might prove to be difficult. The strips are going to turn into a quilted tablecloth, and we would love to use the tablecloth to celebrate my grandmother's 100th birthday. (I have good genes, I guess!)

The hard part about that will be quilting the tablecloth, since my machine only has a small throat. I might try to do some hand embroidery instead. We'll see how close I come!

There is also a reason I've been sewing more than knitting. I have 5 stitches in my left hand index finger that I got while (rotary) cutting some strips for the projects I've shown you. It's healing nicely, and I went last week to get them removed, only to hear I need them in for another week. I can knit, and have been a little, but haven't been able to do too much of it. I am, however, PLANNING a lot of knitting. Stay tuned....

Mittens in the Middle of Summer

I have a horrible tendency to promise my mother I'll make her something for, say, Christmas, and then be very tardy with the project's completion.

Here is the first (unlined and thumbless) mitten she asked for. When she looked through Magnificent Mittens, she loved the wide cuffs that go outside of your jacket. I said happily I'd make her some using some leftover yarn she had.

This is Harrisville Cashmere Blend, and is a marvelous yarn to work with. I'm so happy with the smooth stitches. This mitten isn't even finished, much less blocked, and my stitches look fairly even. I had some other colorwork experiences recently that did not go so smoothly, alas.

I was sidetracked by a busy summer and craziness, and so I have not gone back to the second mitten. As I recall, the hand of the first one did not take too long, but the cuff -- and especially the fringe -- were rather painful. I'll finish it up, though, hopefully in time for Christmas!

Another Quilt

I started this one a long time ago, after I saw some of these on blogs. After the Flying Geese Quilt, I had a ton of extra 5" squares, and I loved the idea of color floating in white space.

I did modifly the pattern after my experience with the Flying Geese quilt. I think most of these quilts were made in strips, but I knew my strips wouldn't be even because I still have not perfected the 1/4" seam allowance. Instead, I chose to make this pattern into a block that was 4" x 6". Each block has a 4 x 4" white square on the bottom and on the top a 2 x 2" color square and a 2 x 2" white square. This allowed me to check my measurements for accuracy and square up the blocks before I joined them. It might not have been necessary, but I enjoyed doing it this way.

I still haven't figured out how to quilt straight lines -- but I kind of like the wobbles. I'm enjoying them right now, and I'll branch out later. The back is a lovely Kaffe Fassett print surrounded by the front border print. I bought both of them on reprodepot.com, and did not intend for them to go together. Then, when I put them together they worked well, and the border gave the front of the quilt just the right amount of unity.

See how nicely all of the squares line up in this overhead shot? That's the reason I used the blocks. I'm happy now.