quilt

New Quilts

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I haven’t done a crafting post in a while, so the time seems ripe. Actually, it’s because I hadn’t done much crafting, but now I have. A little bit, anyway. And since I’ve been really bad at taking pictures this week, I don’t have a Picture of the Week, either… So today’s all about quilts!

The older boys were both drastically outgrowing their quilts. Because they don’t have standard size beds, I make their quilts more to fit them than to fit the beds. (They have Ikea beds that are essentially extra-long toddler beds. They’ve had them for two years, and we love them!)

When I went to JoAnn’s a couple of weeks ago, I had a bit of money but no idea what to make or who to make it for. I found these flannel rolls for really cheap

quilt fabric

so I got three of them. When I got home, Munchkin loved the fabric prints, and since I’d been noticing that his quilts were much smaller than Seahawk’s (he is three years  younger, after all), he got a quilt first. I didn’t give him any choices in the fabric (since I bought it with no one in mind) or the design (as soon as I decided to make a quilt from these prints, I had the design in my head). But he loves it all the same.

quilt munchkin

After Munchkin’s quilt was done, I started noticing that Seahawk was way too big for his blankets too! I thought his blanket that I’d made him a couple of years ago (actually, it’s been about 4 now that I think about it… where does the time go?!) was still okay, but seeing him trying to huddle underneath it while Munchkin was stretched out nice and warm under his flannel quilt made me see the old quilt for what it was… So the kids and I all went to the fabric store and Seahawk got to choose his own fabrics. And his own design. It might be a little unfair to Munchkin that Seahawk got to have his way with his new quilt, but Munchkin got his first, so it all evens out.

The day we went to get Seahawk’s fabric, the flannel was on sale for 60% off, so that was a huge win. It took him a long time to find exactly what he wanted, but as soon as he spotted these dinosaurs, he knew that they were it. I talked him into getting a plain color for the contrast so as not to take away from the dinosaurs, and he agreed. The brown was just perfect. (Have I ever mentioned that brown is one of my favorite colors? It is.) He had a blue picked out for the back that would have been awesome; it matched the blue dinosaurs perfectly, but there didn’t end up being enough of it, so we picked a grassy green instead. It worked out great.

quilt seahawk

I got the quilt all done and quilted, ready for binding, and then horror of horrors, realized that it was too narrow. I should’ve figured it out before I quilted it – adding borders to make it bigger then would’ve been a snap – but I didn’t. So I had to do some intense research to figure out how to add quilted borders to a quilted-but-not-bound quilt. I found a YouTube video tutorial for a Quilt-As-You-Go quilt that turned out to be just perfect. Using her technique, I was able to make the quilt several inches wider before I put the binding on, and now the quilt is actually a good size for my son.

Both boys are in love with their new quilts. And because both are made of flannel, they’re crazy warm – which is good since my children are anti-pajamas.

I’ll have another quilt to show you guys in a couple of weeks. I’m having some trouble getting it just perfect, but once I do, it’s going to be gorgeous. I can’t wait to have it done and ready to show off!

It is Finished

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I actually finished this last week, just haven’t posted about it yet.

In case you missed it, you can see close-ups of the blocks here, here, and here.

I just love the gray with pink flowers. It was on sale for half price a few weeks ago, so I bought a whole bunch of it. (You might recognize it from my purse.) I think it was just perfect for the lattice between the blocks. I also used it for the quilt’s binding (the small strip around the edge that hides all the raw edges).

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The plain gray for the border and the gray with purple flowers was also super cheap, so I bought tons of those two fabrics also. I haven’t used them for anything else yet, but they’ll make great elements in other projects later.

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–Wendy

Another Birthday

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Some friends of ours have a baby just one week older than Small Fry, and his birthday party was on Saturday. I didn’t think I’d be able to go to the party because hubby had to sell books that day, but Friday night, our neighbor (who was also invited – these friends are also the previous tenants of our house, so they were friends with the neighbor too) said she’d drive us over. I didn’t think through until Saturday morning that this meant we should bring a gift. So I spent the bulk of Saturday making a quilt.

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Thank goodness for fabric scraps! The party was at 5:30 and I finished the quilt around 4:00. everyone was super impressed that I’d made it in one day. Which wasn’t why I did it, but still nice all the same :).

I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well.

–Wendy

Eight Down, Four to Go…

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It’s amazing how much faster sewing projects go when you have a working sewing machine! Here are the next four Sunbonnet Sue All Year blocks for my quilt.

January:

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July:

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September:

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November:

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The marshmallow in the July block is actually a hot dog in the book, but I didn’t have any fabrics that would make a convincing looking frank. When I asked the kids for thoughts, Seahawk had the brilliant idea of making it a marshmallow instead. I’m raising geniuses! Lol!

–Wendy

Picture of the Week

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We went to the annual Northwest Quilters’ Expo last weekend in Portland. No one but me was looking forward to it, but once we got in there everyone had a lot of fun. The quilts were absolutely stunning – I’ll try to remember to do a full post on them next week. One of the activities they had for kids was to design their own quilt block. After the expo, they were going to be sending all the blocks to seamstresses to piece them together and turn them into a (or many, I’m not sure) quilt for underpriveleged children in the area. This is Munchkin with his block.

As a side note, this picture was the first time I used the Snapseed app on my phone. Here’s the original picture:

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What do you think? Did I make it better or mess it up?

–Wendy

P.S. This post is completely from my phone; I wasn’t able to go into hubby’s office this week to use the computer to prep my posts. That’s why I don’t have my usual graphic signature today.

Receiving Blanket

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I’m the first to admit that I’m not one to make up my own patterns, but I *kind of* did here.

When Munchkin was a baby, we had a receiving blanket from Old Navy (it was a gift) that was much nicer than the “normal” ones from the less expensive stores. It was two-sided for one thing, and made of nicer, thicker material for another. I took that basic idea and put this one together. I also took pictures along the way so I could share with you how to do it should you want to make one.

1. Cut your fabric. You’ll need two pieces each about 35-37 inches square, depending on how big you want your finished blanket to be. You can use the same pattern or a different one for front and back; it’s entirely up to you. I cut mine about 37″ because I just have a gut feeling that Small Fry is going to be bigger than either of his brothers. Time will tell on that account :).

 

2. Using anything round (you can see that I just used a can of water chestnuts) to round the corners. Mark around the can (or other item) with a marking pencil. Do this on all 4 corners of both pieces of fabric.

3. Cut along the lines of all 8 corners.

4. Pin your front and back to each other, right sides together.

5. Sew a quarter-inch seam all the way around, leaving just enough room to turn it right side out. 4-6 inches should be enough, but if you’re worried about it, you can always leave more.

6. Clip the rounded corners. Turn.

7. Press the edges so they’re nice and crisp. (Yes, my ironing board consists of a towel laid out on my table. We try to only have things in our house that are multipurpose, and an ironing board doesn’t meet that qualification.)

8. Pin the opening (from where you turned the blanket) shut. Make sure to fold the edges under so it matches the rest of the blanket. The last thing you want is raw edges.

9. Top stitch close to the edge all the way around, including the opening.

10. Enjoy your new blanket! I’m sure the baby who receives it will :).

Knight Quilts

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We recently redecorated my sons’ bedroom, and they chose a “Knights in Shining Armor” theme, so of course I had to make them new quilts to go with the new theme! I made the appliques from clip art images, and let each kid choose his own color for the background of the pictures. They both chose blue, but in different shades, so I used the leftovers from one’s for the sashing on the other’s. These took a bit of math, too, because their beds aren’t a standard American size. I planned them carefully so that they would be approximately the size of the beds. I love sneaking in on them while they’re sleeping and seeing the matching quilts keeping them warm!

Fan Quilt

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You just saw this quilt underneath “Christmas Present Joe,” but it’s elaborate enough to get its own post! It was made in 2009, and took over a month to complete due to its 900+ individual pieces. I got the pattern from a library book.