Phoebe Gets Her Quilt

It is a big deal for me to finish a quilt! I started Phoebe's quilt in October 2018 and finished 14 months later.  Now, each of my children sleeps under a quilt I made.  Oh, that makes me happy!

For Phoebe's quilt, I used crib sheets and scraps of clothing that she and we wore.  I limited the colors to pink, blue, and yellow, but I mixed in little exceptions to liven things up.

I am quite serious about sewing down my stash, so I used the white fabric I had on hand for the squares, which means there are actually two slightly different whites.  For a few weeks after I made this choice, I was ashamed; the church of my childhood believed in  matching as part of its religion. For years, I have been slowly growing away from this perfectionism. Quilting and mending are spiritual metaphors for me, I reminded myself, so these whites are my choice to "gather up the fragments and let nothing be lost" (paraphrased from Jesus' words in the book of John after he extended the little boy's lunch of  bread and fish to feed thousands of people).

Another use-it-up material did not work out so well for this quilt.  I bought pink yarn from the creative reuse store, making ties in the center of each pieced star with the goal of little felted balls.  But when I put the finished quilt through a hot wash and dry, the ties would not felt: the yarn was not 100% wool.  Cussing a little and refusing to drive and seek pink wool, I re-did the ties with pink perle cotton in my stash.

I like to work in a bit of machine quilting on my quilts, but it didn't seem to fit in Phoebe's quilt.  So I handquilted the whole thing in white perle cotton, outlining the stars and then highlighting them further with diagonal lines.  I am not fond of quilting that runs all over a quilt, but prefer quilting that works in harmony with the patchwork.

Phoebe's quilt pleases my eye.  She loves it, and so do I.  I am already deep into another patchwork project for the patchwork surprise I adore, as well as the pleasurable mental work of planning and dreaming The Next Quilt until I blink and find myself cutting fabric for it.  I'll keep you posted.

Deep Blue Sea: A Quilt

I made this queen-sized quilt for my husband and my bed, and I pictured it being deeply dreamy and somewhat sleepy in shades of blue and grey, with some soft orange to hot it up just a little.

Well.  Look at the vibrancy and zing that resulted! 

I do really adore patchwork for its ultimate surprise, and I do love this quilt, but it cannot be called restful and quiet. 

Its name is "Deep Blue Sea," a reference to the sleepiness and rest I envisioned, and the reality of the color and churn and surprise that actually lives in the depths of the sea (I mean, that's what I see in National Geographic, ok?).

This pattern is the scrappy trip around the world.  I googled tutorials and went from there. I started the first block in November 2016, and finished the quilt top in time to take it with me on our family trip to Maine in June to start the handquilting.

I had not planned to do a border, but I couldn't resist the urge to play, so I thought of having the trip-around-the-world break into a blue border in spots.  But I also used some large patches in the border of the prints used in the blocks because I adore scrappiness.  In this case, I think the effect is too chaotic and would have worked better with a blue border punctuated just by a few scrappy trip blocks.

I pieced the back of the quilt because scrappiness is my jam.

As for the quilting, I thought I would knot the orange streaks with orange wool and felt them into little balls.  But after doing all the handquilting on the rest of the patches, I changed my mind.  The orange did not need any more highlighting, the quilt did not need any more lively texture. 

I did some machine quilting in the solid border as I love to do by way of framing the quilt.  The handquilting is all in blue-grey perle cotton: I like the stitches to show up more than just create texture.

Overall, I am pleased with this quilt.  It's a bit short on the sides for our standard queen bed, so I will remember not to trust the packaged batting's measurements next time but do my own measuring.

The back of the quilt is the restful, soothing side with the wonderful stitching pattern, so I expect to show either side of the quilt depending on my mood.

I'm on to Phoebe's quilt already! I do love to have a big project humming along in the background.

Scrappy Trippin' Around the World

Each block looks nutty on its own, but then, I lay them out together and ahhh!  Pools of calm and sparks of energy!  I am hooked.  Good thing, too, because I want to do about 30 more blocks for a queen-sized quilt.  I started this quilt in November, and am only dawdling along.

On a November Sunday Afternoon

Genevieve was bored (which drives me crazy - the one day they don't have any chores at all, and are encouraged to relax and play!).  She asked if she could bake cookies, which was perfect because the cookie jar was just emptied recently from the last batch she made.  I love it when items on my to-do list are taken care of by other people!

She chose snickerdoodles, which oddly I have never made before.  But I think they'll go into regular rotation at our house, with a little less sugar.  I always use some all-purpose whole wheat flour in baked goods and reduce the sugar which allows me to consider them a reasonable snack.

Meanwhile, I stayed out of the kitchen and started a new quilt. I can't tell if I like it yet. It's a scrappy trip around the world, and I've loved looking at those finished quilts, but the two blocks I've worked on so far just look strange.  I'm going to persevere because often patchwork transforms into something magical, and I have so many scraps that I'm eager for a quilt to eat up.

The block's looks will improve when it's ironed.

Mennonite Girl in a Church Basement: A Quilt

I began this quilt three years ago when my Aunt Nancy decided to give me a bag of patches and a mostly-completed quilt top.  It was fabric from her childhood clothes, and she had pieced it when she was a young woman.

I was instantly drawn to the chaos of colors and loose organization.  I unified the quilt by using green perle cotton for handquilting on the front, mint-green backing, and green striped binding.  The name of the quilt refers to Aunt Nancy, the Mennonite girl as she was then, and the mint-green color of many plain Mennonite church cement-block basements back then (I haven't been in one for a while - maybe it's changed).

This is the second quilt I've made where I used three methods of quilting, and I'm really pleased with the texture and interesting creative process.  I don't get bored with it, even on a queen-sized quilt like this (the other quilt was for my mother, and the first time I used the felted ties was on this comforter).

I couldn't wait for the perfect cloudy day to photograph the quilt, so that's why it shows the sunlight and shadows.

Now, I started this quilt just because I loved the fabric so much, but I didn't have a plan for it when it was done.  In fact, it languished for a year because I didn't have a goal for it.

This spring, I knew that it needed to go to my cousin April, Aunt Nancy's youngest daughter.  So I told April I had a late birthday present for her, finished the quilt as I said her name to God over the stitches, and then we visited her in Philadelphia.  She was surprised and delighted and in literal need of a blanket.  Furthermore, she loves folky unique style like this for which I am grateful, because I have a fierce love for things that are not traditionally pretty or trendy. I wanted her to have the quilt because of her mother, but I wanted it to be loved for itself, too.

I am satisfied.  Happy.  And ready to begin another quilt!

Inspiration for Saving Old Jeans

I could not stop admiring this quilt - the wash of blue from all the kinds of denims with the powerful sprinkle of red - and see the pockets and saturated seams left from jeans?  So clever.  I love how modern the design is, how lively. One of the beach girls' mothers, Elaine Good, just made up this design for the love of quilts and creativity and materials on hand.  The quilt is about 15 years old and wearing like iron.

A Raspberry Patchwork Quilt for My Mother

This is a long story with lots of photos - it covers the month of December and an entire quilt, and I couldn't bear to leave out the details.  Settle in, if you're still with me. . .

My mother sent out some Christmas gift ideas in early December (we usually do, on that side of the family, to be helpful), and then she sent out a separate email begging for a throw quilt to snuggle under.  Dad had gotten her a polyester fleece blanket at Costco that she described as "slimy."  I immediately replied to her that I wanted to make her a quilt - I could see her desire and need so clearly - but that I wasn't a fast quiltmaker, so it might take a while.

Meanwhile, my sister was getting ready to purchase a quilt online for Mom, when I emailed my siblings and told them to back off: I was going to make a quilt.  This was December 6.  

The next day, I was digging in my cedar chest for some flannel sheets and lo, there was a patchwork quilt top that Mom had given me when she and Dad cleaned out their big house last year to move to a little house.  I had completely forgotten the quilt top, and I have no idea why I didn't store it with the other quilts in an upstairs closet.  

Suddenly, I had the daring idea of using this quilt top and finishing a throw quilt for Mom in time for Christmas morning.  Understand, I had never made a quilt quickly and never made a quilt to meet a deadline; I ruminate on quilt designs and colors for a while before I begin, and then the quilt is a background project that I work on leisurely when I feel like it. 

With supersonic speed, I worked up a color scheme to lend a bit of harmony to the randomness of the patchwork. I decided to employ all three methods of quilting (knotting, hand quilting, and machine quilting) for efficiency. I got myself to the fabric store right quick and bought puffy batting, flannel for a snuggly back, and calico for the binding.  I asked Rebecca for a bit of red wool yarn; her mother delivered hand-spun, hand-dyed wool from their very own sheep.  I actually felt nervous handling such special yarn.

First, I used the raspberry wool yarn to knot all the middles of the solid patches and along the border.  Then I used raspberry perle cotton to handquilt in long straight lines through the middles of the 9-patch squares.  Finally, I machine quilted around each block and made my typical "framing" lines in the border.  For the machine quilting, I used ecru thread on the top and pink thread in the bobbin to make the machine quilting as subtle as possible, just texture and strength.  I read a helpful article that gave advice on how much quilting a quilt needs; in a heavy quilt that is going to be washed, the quilting strengthens the quilt when it is leaden with water.  I was deliberately making this a heavy, snuggly quilt, and I knew it was going to be washed - I would do the first washing to help the wool ties felt down into little balls (like this). 

My children are now total champs at keeping secrets.  They kept our baby a secret for weeks without dropping any hints or bursting, and they did the same thing with the quilt secret every time they were around Granny.  

photo credits to my husband for all the quilt opening and hugging

Well, somehow, I snatched enough time this December to complete the quilt on December 23.  I had to wait for the rain to stop on Christmas morning to take pictures, but then I wrapped it in wrapping paper that Genevieve made and well, it was wonderful.  

I rarely have such a special gift to give to a beloved person, especially one they are not expecting.  My mother was totally surprised and happy. You can see it, right?

She tells me that the quilt top is from Grandma Weaver's things, but we are both guessing that Grandma did not make the quilt top.  For one thing, the fabric is very old (although still quite sturdy - probably because it was not made into a quilt and used), but also, the piecing work is beautiful and with an eye to regularity that Grandma did not have.

So, I'm back to the regular quilting in the background.  Actually, my latest quilt is nearly done after 18 months of on-and-off quilting. I'll be sure to share it here!

Handquilting in Black Perle Cotton

I really love the look.  I think other quilters would call this primitive, but I just think of it as emphasis.  I've carried these around to swimming lessons and the like for the past few weeks.

These hotpads went to the local museum gift shop.  I'm especially fond of that green 70s calico that a friend gave me - pieced it into the back of a hotpad, too.

And I saved a set for my own etsy shop - listing here.