Flashback Friday -- Christmas Quilts!

Growing up, my mom's family had a special Christmas quilt my mom's mother had made. One of the family traditions was to get out the Christmas quilt the day after Thanksgiving.

Here it is: Her name, and each of her siblings, is embroidered in yarn on a square somewhere on the quilt. There are also little Christmas-y motifs embroidered here and there. I just love all the colors and textures!

Check out the pom-poms!!

My grandma later made Christmas quilts for each of her children's families. This one is my aunt's family's Christmas quilt, also made by my grandma. You can tell by the fabrics that this one came a little later than my mom's:



Love that embroidery between each square!

I don't have a photo of my family's quilt, but it is very similar to the first one pictured. I'm pretty sure it even had a few of the same fabrics. One year my mom continued the Christmas quilt tradition, making each of her children's families a Christmas quilt of their own. Mine disappeared shortly thereafter -- I think it went home with someone else by accident! :o( I hope it turns up!!

In the meantime, I have started collecting fun and interesting fabrics to make another for my family -- and, one day, a quilt for each of my kids' families!

Flashback Friday -- Snowflake Quilt

Here's the quilt that started my love for handwork:

I made this one, wow, six or seven years ago. (Has it really been that long??) This was an absolute "wing it" project from start to finish. I started by printing out a few photos of magnified snowflakes I'd found online. From there I made them into patterns for the snowflakes, making up many of my own as well, which I fused onto random pieces of blue fabric I had.

After that I reluctantly decided that if I ever wanted to be able to wash the finished project, the snowflakes needed to be stitched around the edges to prevent them from coming off. I purchased some sparkly silver thread and commenced doing all those itty-bitty blanket stitches. I loved the sparkly edges, and actually really enjoyed the process! It's nice to have your hands busy doing something when you are "doing nothing" -- like watching movies or commuting!

I couldn't decide then how to best approach making a quilt from my blocks. I certainly didn't want them to be lined up in straight rows. Finally I decided I would need to attach them all to a background piece, rather than try and piece them in funny angles with all that bias cutting. I found a sparkly snowflake background fabric I liked, laid them all on top the way I liked (as though they were falling snow!), and safety-pinned them in place. I turned each edge under and stitched them down.

I used another metallic thread for the quilting. I started by quilting around each square. Then I free-motion quilted around the snowflakes -- about 1/4" from the edges. That wasn't enough quilting, so I then quilted little asterisk-y snowflakes here and there to fill in the empty spaces.

I just love the quilted snowflake outlines on the back -- which is, of course, also sparkly!

I really enjoy creating make-it-up-as-you-go quilts. It is often quite surprising where the journey will take you!

Flashback Friday -- U.S. Map Quilt

This quilt, completed a few years back, is a triumph for a few reasons:

#1: I got this cute panel for practically nothing because a very small portion of Canada was cut short. Since it's a U.S. map, that was fine with me!
#2: Even though the colors in the panel are somewhat unique, I still had fabrics in all the same colors on hand!
#3: I pieced the batting from some large batting scraps.
#4: I had the backing fabric on hand too -- little all-over Earths!


That means this quilt was practically freeeeee!!

I quilted it by sewing all the state lines -- great free-motion practice.

One of my favorite parts of this quilt is the border. I free-motion quilted the names of all the states, alphabetically, all the way around. Too fun!

My four-year-old is very interested in the states and where each one is. I'm excited to break this quilt out again and look at it with him!

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......

Flashback Friday -- Green & Gold Quilt

This little baby-sized quilt is made entirely of 2 1/2" cut squares my uncle mailed to me. They were leftovers from a quilt he made. He's got an eye for color!

It was fun to lay out the design with only the squares I had. I really wanted it to be symmetrical. It was a lot of trial and error, but it was lots of fun to figure out a way to make it work!


I quilted it all over with this swoopy loopy bumpy pattern that ended up looking like...


...bubbles!

Hmmm... I forgot about that quilting pattern. I'm going to have to do it again someday!

Flashback Friday -- Two-For-One Quilt!

This is a quilt I made for our good friends' baby girl about four years ago:

I collected as many red and white prints as I could find. I cut them all into equilateral triangles (I paid no attention to the grain of the fabric. Don't tell. Nothing bad happened, either!) and sewed them all together somewhat randomly. The triangles really give it some sparkle!


Then I decided it needed to be a two-sided quilt! Our friends were living in China when the baby was born, so I decided to throw in some Chinese-themed fabrics for the other side. Fortune cookies, of course! (I am sure they rolled their eyes about it!)

It was a little bit tricky to line things up so that both sides would end up square. I simply made the borders on the red and white side extra wide and taped it to the floor face down. I spread the batting on top of it, then the Chinese-themed side. I lifted the edges of the top layer as I pinned so I could matching the centers as best I could. You can see that the top and bottom borders in the photo of the red and white side are just a little bit wonky, but overall it actually worked quite well!

Hmmm. I haven't made a two-sider since. Now I'm thinking I just might have to do it again!

Flashback Friday -- The Pinettes

I made these lovely ladies a few years back for my uncle in New York. He is a creative genius, and we often share fun little "whatevers" back and forth. He dubbed these ladies the Pinettes, and they reside in his office.

I made them from wooden clothespins from the dollar store, and added pom-pom hairstyles and silk ribbon dresses. I had everything on hand -- my favorite kind of project!


Glenda

Marlene

Pinky

They are definitely a doo-wop group, much like The Supremes. If only they had arms so they could synchronize their dance moves!!

Flashback Friday -- Black Cat Blanket

I can't believe it's October!!

Just a simple, inexpensive fleece blanket that I added black cat fleece appliques to! My kitty loves it. Obviously.

.....I do believe I am gearing up to share my Top Secret Fleece Applique Technique (ha ha ha!) I mentioned here. I also used the same technique, in part, to make these owls, creatures, and Ruff Ruffman!

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!

Flashback Friday -- Pink Quilt

About four years ago my sister came to visit for a weekend. We needed a project to work on, so we headed to JoAnn's, where they were having a crazy sale on quilting fabric. We got as many different pink fabrics as we could find (for extremely cheap, that is), and headed home to get to work. We finished two quilts like this one in just a few hours!

(Sorry about the fold lines!)


As you can see, there are some perfectly hideous fabrics in there. But once you mix all of them together, the overall look is really cute!

We put a nice pink flannel (with tiny twirling hearts!) on the back, which made it one of the most comfortable quilts ever. Plus, after washing, the flannel helped it to shrink up and squidge nicely, really showing off the swirly-twirly quilting!

Flashback Friday -- Blue Quilt

This is the second quilt I ever made, ever. I think I was 13 or 14 years old. It is pieced completely from scraps my mom got from her mother. This is actually round two on the border and backing, too. The first time around I finished it pillowcase-style, sandwiching the backing in there and turning it right side out. The batting got all bunchy, and the original border was not fantastic -- just a very narrow solid blue. So, probably about 10 years ago my mom took it apart, put on new borders, and took it with her to visit her mom. They quilted it together. I believe this is the only remaining quilt I have that was quilted by my grandmother. She did so many for me before she passed away, and all the others were given as gifts to friends and relatives. For that reason alone, this quilt is special to me.

Flashback Friday -- Peep-Quack-Chirp Blanky

Fleece is SO FRIENDLY to work with! It's very forgiving, and soft and fuzzy. It has just a little stretch, which is perfect for making softies. Best of all, the raw edges don't fray. All these qualities make it absolutely perfect for certain projects!

Last year I made this Peep-Quack-Chirp blanky for my niece's 2nd birthday. Yes, she is obsessed with Peep and the Big Wide World, too!

The little guys are appliqued on using my Top Secret Fleece Applique Technique (okay, I just made that up!), and I just LOVE how they turned out!!

I've also made fleece blankets with intricate snowflakes, trees, Halloween cats, and... gee, I don't know. Lots of others. It's fun and quick and has such a great result!

Flashback Friday -- Peep, Quack & Chirp

My boys became huge fans of "Peep and the Big Wide World" last fall. It is such a darling little show! It's also quite short -- 10 minutes-ish per episode -- so it's perfect for when they want to watch a little something! Anyhow, since it's a PBS-type show there isn't much marketing out there for it. Mr. S's birthday is in the fall, and needed something super special. I whipped these little guys up for him!

They're pictured with their "finger puppet" counterparts, who my niece absolutely adores!

Flashback Friday -- Double Wedding Ring

This is the one and only Double Wedding Ring quilt I have ever made. This was exactly six years ago -- Pre-kids! I can't remember for certain, but I think it's queen size. I traced and cut out every single piece by hand (with a tiny bit of help from my husband and little bro!) and actually finished the entire thing within a month. Like I said, pre-kids.

My brother-in-law wanted to give his wife a quilt as a really special birthday present. He knew she loved the double wedding ring pattern, and he picked out the colors he knew she liked. He commissioned me to make the whole thing! I hired out the machine quilting (can't remember to whom!), and she did a beautiful job of it.

Maybe one day I will make another one, but honestly? In most cases, if I've made something once, I generally don't have any desire to do it again!

Flashback Friday -- I-Spy Quilt

Many apologies for the horrid phone-photo -- the camera's gone missing!

I started this quilt a few years back. It's an I-Spy quilt, but of course I had to go and make it very complicated for myself by picking a complicated block. Of course this is all exponentially more difficult when you add in the fact that the centers of the blocks are 2" finished. I am determined not to have one of those cheesier versions of I-Spy quilts that have a grand total of 12 giant squares, making one VERY short game of I-Spy. I have TONS of fabrics for my I-Spy quilt (literally a couple hundred centers cut out!), and the only way to get them all in one quilt is to have small blocks! I envision having this thing be queen size so I can have it on MY bed. That way when we're all chilling together on the bed, we can play I-Spy together!

Quite recently I've become a little more excited and motivated to finish this one. My sister-in-law Susan went through my ridiculous stacks of fabric to make an I-Spy quilt for her girls, and it made me excited to work on mine. So, in the little spare bits of time I may or may not have, I can pull out a few of the blocks that are already cut out and get stitching!

Anyone else interested in I-Spy quilts? (hint, hint!)

Flashback Friday -- Unfinished Paper Collage

I started this collage earlier this year. I've spent hours on it already, cutting each piece from my vintage 1960's home decor magazines. The backing is a flat wooden frame with the Declaration of Independence pasted onto it -- from a thrift store, of course. I really love how it has turned out so far, but I am (obviously) at a point where I don't know what to do next. Three things:

1. WHAT do I do for the background (besides that fabulous carpet)?

2. Do I really need to put a face on her (me)?

3. Does the sewing machine really look as dumb as I think it does?

I've been carefully setting this atop the highest shelves, out of reach of little hands, for MONTHS so that it doesn't get shredded. I've got my ModPodge ready to go, but I can't put any of it together until I get that background taken care of!! Since the rest of it is made from those vintage magazines, don't I have to continue with the same medium?

I really want to get this up on the wall in my new sewing room!

HELP!!

Flashback Friday -- Alphabet Quilt

This was one of those quilt projects that I obsessed about until it was done!

I inherited a bunch of novelty print scraps from my mom who inherited them from a friend of a friend or something like that. This was when Buzz was about 1 1/2 and very obsessed with letters, so I had alphabet on the brain.

One of the fabrics I inherited had the whole alphabet on it, so I cut out each letter to be the center of each block. I began putting the fabrics (along with some I already had) in piles corresponding to letters the objects started with. I was very close to having enough to make blocks out of, so I started a quest to find at least four objects for each letter block. Some of the letters have lots more than four!

I quilted each letter block with its letter, using monofilament thread so it wouldn't distract from the pictures. My boys love looking at each block and pointing out each object!

Here are a few of my favorite blocks:



Outhouse and onions! I love it!!


The doggie x-ray is my very favorite fabric find in the entire quilt!!

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!

Flashback Friday -- Boogie Quilt

(Apologies for the not-so-fabulous picture -- it's the only one I have!)

In 2005 my little sisters' dog, Boogie, passed away. He was 16 years old. He was a stinky little gray, curly-tailed mutt -- part Shih-Tsu, part who-knows-what. I never liked him. The feeling was mutual between the two of us. But I can appreciate that he was a very good dog, in his own smelly, insecure, goofy little way. (And I say that with love and good humor, bless his little heart!)

Anyway, he had been a very special little doggie to my sisters, starting with my older sister. When she moved off to college and then got married, Boogie transferred his affections to my little sister. They were pals!

While my little sister was away at college, little Boogie passed away. We knew it was coming, so I started this quilt a few months beforehand:

It's quite difficult to tell, but all the fabrics are swirly, curlicue prints -- just like old Boogie's tail. I machine freehanded little scribble pictures of Boogie in his various famous poses here and there on the quilt. (Wish I had better photos!)

It was one of those make-it-up-as-you-go kind of quilts, and was so much fun to make. I sewed and whacked and sewed and whacked until I liked it!

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!!