Scrappy Nine Patch Quilt

I finished the second charity quilt for Hospice, finally. This quilt top was part of crazy mom quilts nine patch quilt-a-long. This is my favorite part of the quilt, the binding in Mille Fiore by Kaffe Fassett.


One corner of the quilt.


A close up of a nine patch with Martha Negley fabric and Kaffe Fassett fabric. Quilted in my usual meandering pattern.


The quilt in its entirety - not my usual color patterns but I did make it all from scraps and used up quite a bit of them at that. I'm still on my self imposed fabric diet through December at least. I'm only allowed to purchase muslin for backings.


The pair of charity quilts ready to be dropped off to Hospice.

Ladybug picnic quilt

This is my first of two charity quilts for Hospice. I've named the quilt "Ladybug Picnic". My hope is that the child who receives it will feel some warmth and happiness from the cheery quilt, even through the tough times of dealing with the loss of a loved one. The center of the quilt is a disappearing nine patch and other than the red polka dot fabric for the backing, I used all scraps to make it.


I started this quilt top in March and modified it to fit Hospice's size requirements of 42" by 66" (an awkward size) for Camp Erin. I'm not crazy about the light yellow fabric border I had to use to meet the size requirements, but overall, I think it turned out well. I thought of my grandmother as I bound it. Hospice helped me care for her in her last days when she was no longer well enough to stay in her own home.


I wasn't sure if I sould sign this quilt or not, as I'm giving it to a charity, but I thought perhaps the note of love from a stranger would be appreciated. Sometimes, compassion from a stranger can be profoundly more touching than kindness from a friend.

Aprons strings and chef hats

When you give a new baby a gift, you also have to give something to the older siblings. Baby Isla also has a big brother, Ian, and big sister, Sophia, so after finishing her quilt, I went to work making a little something for them as well.


Miss Sophia will receive this play apron, which works equally well when used for real in the kitchen. I tried to find a pattern I might like from my favorite apron book, A is for Apron, but ended up just winging it. The pink on pink is "Pink Damask" by Michael Miller.


Savannah loves to model for me!


I also made her a matching potholder, which turned out well overall but don't look too closely at my stitching! It was a bit too thick with two layers of batting between two layers of fabric and then a double-folded binding to stitch up neatly.


Mister Ian will receive a chef's hat so when he's working in the kitchen with big sister, they can really cook up something delicious for their mama.


Ian will also get a matching oven mitt in Alexander Henry's "Juicy" lemons. I'm glad to say that I spent more time thinking this one out before stitching it up so I think it turned out much better. I'll be making one for Miss Savannah next.


And when you make fun things for other people's children, you have to make something for your own! Savannah has plenty of aprons already so instead of making her another, I made her a chef hat as well. She loves it! The chef's hat tutorial comes from Joanna at Stardust Shoes. Thank you Joanna!

Baby Isla's Quilt

With the exception of the batting, I made this quilt from scraps in my stash. The log cabin squares are made with Kaffe Fassett and Alexander Henry fabrics and the back is a natural muslin. I wanted the squares to be big to use up as much of my fabric as possible and to be easier to put together. The large white squares in the center of the log cabin blocks give it a fresh modern twist. I had the perfect name for this quilt and then forgot it! So as of now, I am calling it "Cotton Candy Squares".


I quilted it in a large meandering pattern and bound it with my leftover blue dot fabric. This quilt measures about 42" x 42" square.


My machine seemed a little off when I was stippling - I had a harder than usual time making equal stitch lengths when using the free motion but overall it turned out very well without any unexpected puckering in the back or unusual stitches.


This quilt is going to be sent to England for baby Isla (pronounced "eye-lah") to enjoy as soon as I wash it. Isla was born this week! I hope she likes it.


I'm also sending her a set of four double-sided flannel bibs since they've been indispensable for William.

Good 'Ol Summertime Mini Quilt Swap

This is the mini quilt I made for my swap partner (who is still a secret). It's a Dresden plate pattern that I made in yellows for a sunflower. I downloaded the template for Dresden plates from Eleanor Burns' website, Quilt-in-a-day, for free. (Thank you Eleanor!)

It measures about 20" by 20". The center of the sunflower has circular quilting in dark brown thread to look like sunflower seeds and there's some decorative stitching on the petals. The rest of the quilt (the green background with mini sunflowers) is stippled in a meandering pattern. AND I used only scraps from my stash since I'm still on a fabric diet. I need to sign the quilt and put a fabric sleeve on the back then it's ready to ship to Canada.

I hope my swap partner likes this one. From her website I learned that she does appreciate the vintage patterns but this turned out to be not as traditional looking as I had planned it to be.

Organizing my fabric stash

We've completed another part of our house so I've finally been able to unpack some more boxes from my old craft room. I have to say that I have so much fabric I should be ashamed of myself! I definitely need to use it up before buying anything new. Making scrappy charity quilts helps. I have two WIP charity quilts that I'll need to finish this month and a baby quilt that's nearly done. I'd like to find another local charity that I could donate a quilt to for the holidays or perhaps donate to our library to auction off at a fundraiser. Our little library desperately needs the funds to be able to move to the old train station they are renovating, which is much larger than the basement below the bank they currently inhabit. I like thinking that my work is going directly to someone in my community.

I'm also restricting myself for fabric choices for the "In the Good Ol’ Summertime Mini Quilt Swap" I joined to use only scraps. I know I want to make a simple sunflower using the old-fashioned Dresden-plate pattern, so it's a good thing that the quilter I will be making it for enjoys vintage and traditional quilt styles.

Drooly monster bibs

Every baby goes through a drooly monster stage when their teeth are coming in and my poor William is among the drooliest of all. I'm tired of changing his onesies four times a day to keep the drool off his skin so I started using ultra-absorbent double-sided flannel bibs. They work very well but he's going through two a day, which is far better than having to change his shirts. Still, I keep running out. Today while he napped I made him a pair of choo-choo train bibs. They are sized just right for him and the flannel really does absorb more than plain cotton without soaking his shirt beneath.


I top stitched them and used velcro closure in the back. Two isn't enough though. I'll have to make at least four more to keep up with the rate of his drool flow!


And look who woke up from his nap just in time to model a new bib...