"Ugly" Quilt

I'm on a roll! Ever since I put together the Valentine-y quilt last week, I have been itching for more, More, MORE!! I dug out a charm pack of fabrics from one of Amy Butler's lines (I LOVE her fabrics and simply cannot resist buying them!!), and started going to town! It was another invent-as-you-go quilt, and I love how it turned out:

I only call it "ugly" because the combination is rather, well, INTERESTING. Consequently, no one else *I* know would love to have this quilt for their baby girl, so... Looks like my baby girl gets another quilt!!

Here's a close-up of some of the fabulous fabrics. And Kitty. Kitty is just CERTAIN that every quilt I make is for HER. She is a very quilty cat. She loves climbing under them and waiting for some unsuspecting passerby to get close enough for her to jump out at!

Flashback Friday -- "Ugly" Quilt

I like ugly fabric. But it has to be the right kind of ugly. Take, for instance, this quilt. It is filled with fabrics that, on their own, are completely hideous.


With this quilt I challenged myself to make ugly look good. It was so, SO much fun to make!! The pattern was from an issue of American Patchwork & Quilting, and I believe it was designed by one or both of the ladies from Piece O' Cake designs. (Anyone know for sure?) I think the pattern was called "Tropical Blooms."

Anyway, I have had this one on the wall in one of my guest bedrooms for a while, but decided I loved it so much it needed to be where I could look at it more often. It is currently on the floor in the living room, and is the spot where JellyBean chills and does her tummy time.

This quilt makes me so happy!!

Flashback Friday -- The "Original" Ugly Quilt

I've written about my ugly quilts before. Well, folks, this is the one that started it all!

I made this one about ten years ago. (Yikes! I can't believe it's been that long!) When I went shopping for fabrics to make this quilt, I had one prerequisite in mind -- they had to be UGLY. I went with mostly golds, greens and browns in the most hideous prints I couild find!

It's a fairly simple pinwheel block, but the instructions I had made it rather complicated with all the cutting. They had me cutting each triangle individually, rather than sewing squares together and cutting. Time-consuming!! Another reason I don't prefer following patterns unless I really know what I am getting into!

This is one of the few quilts I have that my grandmother quilted for me before she passed away. I used to send her a quilt top every month or so, and most of them were given away as gifts. I'm so glad I have a few that she quilted to keep for myself!

I've got a few more ugly quilts in the works -- one is a real TKO that I can't wait to show you -- when it's finally finished! It will leave you reeling......

The Linoleum Quilt

Okay, so it's not actually made out of linoleum... The colors are just so reminiscent of one specific familiar linoleum!

First, some background. My beautiful and talented cousin Cara is starting college in a few weeks. For her high school graduation/start of college present I decided I want to make her a quilt. Now, lucky me, she has moved from several states away to MY state -- and is living and attending school only an hour or so away from me! Yay!

Since she is now so close, I spoiled my quilt surprise and told her my plan. We agreed that it would be much more fun to shop for fabrics and plan the quilt together!

Yesterday the timing finally worked out such that we had a decent chunk of time to hit a few quilt shops. Here is what we came up with!

We started with the fabric that is fourth from the left. So fantastic and linoleum-y! Luckily we both seem to have an affinity for -- how shall we say -- "ugly" fabrics, so grouping them while together was extra fun!
(If you're interested, you can see more of my "ugly" quilts here, here, here, and here!)

We wandered and grouped and re-grouped. Three different times we considered adding orange, but it changed the overall look to much for our liking. Three quilt shops and a couple hours later, we had our fabrics!

We ended up with fabrics from SIX different lines/designers!

I've already started cutting -- and I cannot wait to start putting this baby together! :o)

I ♥ Ugly Fabrics!

I'm not gonna lie -- I love ugly fabric! What is it about it? Well, perhaps it's the challenge -- to make something beautiful out of something completely hideous. Lemons into lemonade?
Perhaps it's because I feel sorry for the poor, unloved fabrics.

No matter what it is, I love ugly. It makes me so happy!

I wanted to share a few of the "uglies" I have in my ugly stash....

Brown, purple and orange... add in the PAISLEY factor, and you have a real winner!!


Ahhh... one of my loveliest uglies. I have a couple yards of it. Beautifully ugly.

Nothing like Cheetos orange plus green plus purple -- and hideous caviar-like circles! Woo!


Then there is a completely new category I like to call "What were they THINKING??"

Waaaaaaay too much going on here, and check out those COLORS!! Hee hee!!!

Paisley +sunflowers?? Not to mention all the other hideosity going on here!
Horrid!! I love to hate this one!

Whaaaaaaaaaaa?!!
I have no earthly use for this one, but -- oh my! -- I love it!!

And last but not least a full collection of fat quarters I purchased all together for one smashingly loathsome combination! It is, of course, heavy on the Kaffe Fasset, whom I truly ADORE. But there are a few other lovely pieces in there too. I just have to come up a fantastic quilt method for these ones!

Oh, and my favorite of the bunch? The weird circly things in the center left? That one is called "Fish Lips." Win!!

To see some of my finished ugly quilts,
CLICK HERE!

Speaking of Ugly.... and advice, please!

A few years back I found this beautiful hideosity...
I could hardly believe my eyes. I mean, the combination of flowers and ferns and swirls and curls -- not to mention COLORS -- It's just fabulous!


-- and large scale!!!

I put together this quilt top to go with it, figuring the crazy fabric would go on the back. It has very subtle curves and is just as crazy as the backing. Problem is, I got this far and couldn't decide what to do next! I was thinking I should do a skinny white border and a wider blue border, but I think the borders need to have subtle curves as well. And I just can't find a blue that I like with it!

What do you think?
And, who on earth is going to end up with this thing? It's not exactly pretty... but it is baby-sized.
I can't really give it as a baby gift, can I?

Here! Have a super ugly quilt that will likely keep your daughter up all night with its freakishness!

???? :o) ????

Flashback Friday -- K's Quilt

***Ha ha ha, looks like I am posting this from the FUTURE! (It's only Thursday.) I'll be gone over the weekend, and thought I could schedule this for tomorrow, but apparently I DID post it tomorrow.... today!***
This is another version of the "Ugly Quilt." I made it for my friend's baby girl about two years ago. I started with the backing fabric and picked my colors from there.


I love the colors -- very sherbet-y and happy! I quilted this one from the back; my very favorite method of quilting.

I should do a post on quilting from the back one of these days!

Simple Circle Applique -- TUTORIAL

I love to have a project to work on while I'm traveling or watching tv. Nothing good ever came from idle hands! Anyway, if I have a long drive coming up and nothing to work on, circle hand applique is my old standby. It travels easily, it's not hard at all, and I love the result!

Today I will show you my method!


First you will need to gather your supplies:

freezer paper
compass or round object to trace

paper scissors
a sharp pencil (mechanical pencils are great!)
iron

spray starch or spray sizing

fabric scissors

fabric scraps
needle and thread

Step One: Pull out a length of freezer paper and trace as many circles as templates you want. I like to do a whole bunch at one time.


Step Two: You will need a total of three layers of freezer paper, so whack around your group of circles and cut out two more layers to go underneath. Place the bottom layer shiny side down on your ironing board and press it directly to the ironing board on medium-ish heat. Then layer the second layer, press, and add the third layer with the circles on top. Allow it to cool, then gently peel it away from your ironing board.


Step Three: Cut out your circles. Don't use your good fabric scissors for this!

Step Four: Press a circle shiny side down to the wrong side of one of your fabric scraps and cut around it, leaving approximately 1/4" seam allowance. Then you will snip almost to the edge of your freezer paper template (but not all the way to it!) all around your circle, about 3/8" apart. This will make it easier to turn the edges under.

Step Five: Lightly mist the wrong side/back with your spray starch, then pull the edges around onto the freezer paper template and press. The spray starch will make the fabric stick to the template, and also helps the fabric to keep its shape.

Step Six: Allow it to cool, then gently peel away the template. The great thing about these freezer paper templates is that you can reuse them multiple times!

Step Seven: Pin your circle onto your background fabric.

Step Eight: (I used red thread so you could see my stitches.) Use a single strand of thread (don't double it when you knot it). Take your needle from the back a scant 1/8" from the edge of your circle to begin. You will then poke your needle down past the edge of the circle into the backing fabric, then turn the needle and poke it back up a short distance away from your first stitch, again a scant 1/8" from the edge of the circle. (Since I am right-handed, I sew clockwise around the circle.) Check out how uneven my stitches are! Who cares!! When you get all the way around your circle, knot it at the back.

(If you like, you could machine applique your circles using a narrow zigzag, blind stitch, or blanket stitch.)

You are done! Now you can machine piece together your circle blocks however you like!

This picture shows a section of my favorite quilt that a) I actually kept, and b) I actually use. It's another one of those "ugly" quilts, where I used all different not-necessarily-cute-together fabrics, grouped together to make one fantastic quilt!

This is an unfinished quilt top that I made using Amy Butler's Charm line. This was another one of those "uncuttable" fabric groups. I could only bear to cut a small piece out of each one! Of course, since then I have whacked away at it, but I do still love this quilt and need to finish it!!

Flashback Friday -- Fall Leaves Quilt

(Please ignore the weeds in the photo!)
This is another early quilt of mine. In fact, when I pulled it out of the closet to take a picture, I noticed it already has that "old" smell to it! I love it!! Anyway, I had seen a picture of the fall leaf block somewhere and wanted to duplicate it, so I figured out how to make it. It's a very fun block to piece!


This is another quilt that I chose "ugly" fabrics for. To this day it is one of my favorites -- but maybe that's partly because fall is my favorite season!

I-Spy..... Swiss Cheese!

After a little distance and time away from looking at or thinking about my epic i-spy failure, I decided that since I'd spent years and years of collecting it was absolutely worth my time to free my favorite and most irreplaceable squares from their little green prison cell blocks.

So, last week I sucked it up, bought a brand-spanking new seam ripper, put in a good movie, and started going to town on this puppy:

Once I got going and established a rhythm, I actually got quite a bit done in just one movie's worth of time -- and you know, secretly, it really wasn't all that bad.

Then the next day my sister-in-law came over and did tons more for me while I quilted her fated quilt (the one I sewed my finger doing!). I would definitely call it a fair trade, injury and all!


Now that my precious little squares are freed from their ugly fate (ha ha!), I've put them back in their box next to their hundreds of friends, where they will wait until I come up with a better plan.

And they will have to wait until after Christmas!