Making, making, making...

I'm in the throws of last-minute gift-making here; been working like mad all weekend. Here's what I made in the wee hours of the morning. I thought my childhood doll bed would be a perfect gift for Lucy this year; she's a devoted mama, taking care of babies all day every day. But it was in need of some new bedding. Its adorable cat-patterned flannel was ruined. So I made a new mattress and pillow:

And a new quilt (which matches the larger quilt I was making for her birth...uh, 1st birthday...uh, maybe 3rd birthday??):

Here it is all together, ready for "baby":

Back to making! I have a long way to go...

30 days of beauty: day 3

Beauty everywhere today...

in the sun shining through our blue IKEA bag (our laundry bag, transformed to stained glass):



in the wind whipping through the laundry, and in the gorgeous blue of the sky:



in a delicious pot of tea (goldenrod and anise hyssop):



in the nap-time arrangements created by the children for the stuffed animals:



in the studio:



And speaking of beauty...just look what arrived in the mail yesterday, for Lucy's first birthday. Our dear friend Julie has been working on this since Lucy was born, and couldn't wait one more second for us to open it. And no wonder! Look how amazing it is!





(I had only a moment to get these photos of the quilt, so they're not the best. But I hope you can see her amazing embroidery!) I love, love, love this quilt. All the beautiful images of childhood. The red work. The little girl in her adorable dress. The girlyness of the embroidery, contrasted with the bandanna fabric. Fabulous.

Christmas presents in the works

Well, over time I've been slowly creeping out of the closet with this blog...actually admitting to friends and family (face averted) that I've got a blog (why is it so embarrassing?) Anyway, it's gotten to the point where I can't show everything I'm working on for gifts. But here's a peek. (I still have a LONG way to go. I was up sewing until midnight last night and I see more of the same in my future...) Details to follow after Christmas.

There's this:



And these:



And then there's this:



Oh, but this I can share. These are cards for my mom, again following Denyse Schmidt's example in her Quilts book.



And oh, yes, I have a new banner. That's Lucy, at work on her first-ever painting. I waited until the ripe old age of 10 months with her, because she does still tend to put everything in her mouth. But on her 10-month birthday, she joined the kids at the studio table, and kept most of it out of her mouth. Now I've got her at work painting Christmas gifts, too (to be shown later).

Yikes!

I suddenly realized that the Craft Hope "Hope Squared" quilts are due on Sunday...and I hadn't started yet! They've said what they still need is quilts for "older boys"--a huge challenge for me (as if a quilt in less than a week isn't enough of a challenge). No time to write...I've got to sew!


(As you can see by this terrible photo, I only have time after dark these days.)

9 patches for Amanda Jean

I read a few blogs. Ok, so I read a LOT of blogs. What can I say? It's embarrassing in a way, to peek into the lives of all these strangers, and yet it's so inspirational, and such a good way to feel connected to a community of like-minded people. Anyway, one of the reasons I started a blog was to join that community more fully. I always envied those bloggers who would say "I got this in the mail today" or "I'm sending out this gift to so-and-so."

So I love it when an opportunity presents itself for me to give back a bit and to feel a part of that group. It has to be a smallish contribution, because my life is way too busy. But when I read that Creative Chicks was trying to organize a group quilt for Crazy Mom Quilts, I knew I had to participate.

You see, Amanda Jean (Crazy Mom Quilts) had made 2 9-patch quilts for herself and her sister, and had organized a virtual quilt-along as she did them. (That was too much for me to handle.) She mentioned that she'd like to make a third for her other sister, but couldn't do another. I'm one of three sisters, and I loved the idea of similar quilts for each of them.

So did the Creative Chicks, apparently, and they suggested that readers could make the blocks and send them to her. Now that I could manage. I love seeing Amanda Jean's work and enjoy reading her blog, so I thought this would be a perfect way to give a little something back.

My sewing skills are not on par with hers. I hope she won't be disappointed in my blocks. (They're prettier than the bad-lighting photos, but not so nice as I'd like them to be.) But I had fun making them, and discovered that 9-patches are deceptive--not as simple as they look (I have a hard time keeping all the seams in place as I sew). I can't wait to see what else she gets!

Margaret's Hope Chest

I grew up in New Jersey and Connecticut, went to school in Virginia and stayed a while, then moved to Massachusetts. But my heart (and my accent) belong to Michigan, the home of my mother's family, and the place of our summer vacations. My mother (and her mother) grew up in Grand Rapids, nearly all my family went to college there, and my sister lives and teaches near there. So when I heard that Craft Hope's next project would benefit homeless children in Grand Rapids, I knew I'd be participating again.



Craft Hope will be partnering with Margaret's Hope Chest with a goal of making 400 quilts. From their website:

"This summer we stepped out in faith when we agreed to provide a quilt for each child in the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Public School system who is homeless during the Christmas season. The exact number will not be clear until November but considering the economic climate in Michigan it will more than likely be high (200+). Consider the journey of a homeless child. No house to walk into at the end of a long day, no couch to cuddle on and read books with mom or dad. No kitchen to walk into and help themselves to a snack. No bedroom to sleep in- nothing to give that child the security that a home brings.
What might a handmade quilt mean to a homeless child? It might bring warmth to a 5-year-old boy in a drafty room. It might give hope to a 12-year-boy who never had a handmade gift before. It might give comfort to an 8-year-old girl who wants something pretty to snuggle under."

Can you believe they estimate 200+ children? That kills me. A quilt seems like a very small offering in the face of such tragedy, but it's something. And it's something I can do.

They are asking for quilts made of squares. They're even willing to finish it if all you can manage is the top. What could be simpler? I'm going to do it. Will you?

(Apparently, Craft Hope has not yet announced this project, but should in a few weeks. I heard about it on Crazy Mom Quilts.)

One little flower

I've been enjoying the wonky log cabin tutorials over at Quilt Dad this week. I had pretty much figured out how to make crazy log cabin blocks on my own, but it's always interesting to see someone else's techniques, and he's definitely given me some new inspiration. So even though I felt too tired to move last night, I hauled my lazy butt up to the sewing machine to make another block for Lucy's quilt. I made this:



Now, I know it's not the best block ever. But I'm psyched about it, because I finally used a technique I hadn't gotten to yet--a pieced strip. See that blue piece on the right side? I love that one flower shining out from the middle of it. I went safe and obvious this time, with the solid turquoise and the coordinating bit of vintage sheet, but next time I'll try mixing up some patterns.

Dis-cards

While we were away, we missed my sister's birthday. Good...it bought me some time to make a gift, which I'd somehow failed to do earlier. Not much time, though. Think, think...what's quick, but still special? What would she like? She's in massive de-cluttering mode, so most things I think of to give her just seem like more "stuff" she won't want. I perused some of my craft books, and I found a great idea in here:


Shop Indie Bookstores

(Quilts by Denyse Schmidt). Quilted note cards. Perfect! She's great at writing letters and often uses note cards. And I've been wanting to experiment more with quilting, and I love how this technique uses the smallest scraps.



My sister wears a lot of turquoise, so I began with what I had along turquoise/greenish lines. (Including a lovely new bit I got in the mail...more on that later...)



As my little scrap pile by the sewing machine dwindled, I happened to glance down into the trash basket and spotted some scraps discarded as being "too small" after making the birdie scarf the other day. Not too small for this! Back out they came...(don't worry, it's just sewing stuff in there; not too nasty). That led me to my bag of orange scraps for some coordinating fabrics, and soon I ended up with these:



(I hold them vertically, but I can't get the pictures to post that way. Something else to figure out...)

I love them! I can see myself making lots more of these. I was particularly intrigued to notice how the fabric changed as I quilted it. In several cases, I didn't think I liked how the card had come out until I did the quilting stitches. So interesting.

From many, one

Remember this package of fabric scraps I sent off a while back? After making a gorgeous quilt for Craft Hope, Ronit (of 2Hippos) had been asked to make a few more for the Miracle Foundation, in shades of red and orange and pink. She asked her readers to send scraps to help build her stash for this project. She's now finished one of the commissioned quilts. Here it is.

I thought it was so fun to try to spot bits of the fabric I'd sent in this quilt pieced together from so many sources. And I love the feeling of this quilt--that little bits shared by many people come together in a whole so much greater than the parts. An outpouring of love through fabric. I can't wait to see the others.

Learning not to think

I'm a thinker. I mull things over, obsess, worry. I spend so much time thinking about how best to do something, sometimes it keeps me from doing it. I am not spontaneous. In college, I quit the clarinet--which I'd played well for years--because the next stage would have been for me to play improvisationally, and I just didn't have the nerve to do it. I love ballroom dance (it has rules; I can follow), but am self-conscious just moving to music. I love to sing, and can learn and hold a second-soprano part with ease, but ask me to make up a harmony on my own? Forget it.

So it's interesting that my favorite quilts tend to be the improvised ones, rather than those that follow a pattern.

When I began my crazy log cabin quilt, I was thinking too much. Each block took me a very long time, because I'd cut a piece, search and search for the best piece to go next, think about which pieces should come after that, think about what size and shape I wanted the pieces, etc. Then one day I just cut a whole bunch of pieces randomly, so I'd have a bunch ready to just grab. They were in nice neat color-sorted piles, and I was still spending a lot of time looking for just the right piece.

Then last night, I took my color piles and jumbled them up into baskets. I liked it so much better already--I could see at a glance what I had, and the juxtaposition of pieces beside each other in the baskets suggested possibilities.



I knew I wanted to start a block using a small piece that featured a girl in bed with a rooster on the bedpost. That meant using a very wide piece against the center block, making it almost double-centered. But I didn't obsess about it. I glanced, made a quick choice, and sewed. (In fact, I was being so spontaneous, I messed up--you'll see it if you've made log cabin blocks before. Oh, well. I chose not to worry about it and kept on.)



And in the end, I love how it came out. I did another block using the same method, working too quickly to think it over too much. I generally knew which color I wanted next, and I sometimes chose and rejected one piece before settling on another, but that was about as much thought as I gave it. And it worked.

How wonderful. Sometimes, not thinking is exactly what I need. Now if only I could apply it in other areas of my life...

Back to Lucy's quilt

Finishing my quilt for Craft Hope seems to have given me renewed energy for Lucy's quilt, which has lain dormant for a while now. The other night, I made this block. Despite the error (can you see it? One side required an extra piece, as I'd cut it too small...), this is my favorite block so far. I showed it to Andi and said "I think I need some more fabric to work with," and she said "yes, you do." It shocked both of us to hear that come out of her mouth! Not one to miss an opportunity, I was in the car in minutes and on my way to Goodwill, where I picked up this pile of shirts and giant pajama pants, soon to be cut to bits.

I finished my quilt!

I can hardly believe it: I finished my quilt for Craft Hope. On time. And it's pretty darn cute! I am ridiculously proud of it.

Now, that isn't to say it went smoothly. Last you heard, I'd pieced all the blocks, lickety split. And then I sewed them all together the next night. But soon after, I got stalled. The problem was the quilting.

I'd ended up with several extra blocks (after laying it all out, I thought it was too big, so I removed a row). So I used those to practice quilting. First I thought I'd try free-motion quilting. I gave it a shot, but decided I would need a LOT more practice before I could do it on a quilt. So then I decided a squared-off spiral would look good with the pattern I'd chosen. Nope. I kept having problems with the thread bunching at the turns (more on that later). Also, I was surprised at how quickly the quilt got stiff that way--very stiff. Not the feel I was going for. Finally, I decided on diagonal lines, dividing all the squares into triangles. A nice look and feel and better for my novice self, but there was the problem of straight lines on not-perfectly-lined-up blocks. That made me crazy.

I went ahead anyway, using a water soluble marker and ruler to mark the lines. But it was taking forever (we know patience is not my strong suit). So after doing only a few lines, I set it aside and dreaded finishing it. But then, just in the nick of time, Crazy Mom Quilts posted a painter's-tape tutorial. Just exactly what I needed! I pulled out the blue tape, and somehow, it made the line marking so much easier. Plus, she made me feel better about the lines not perfectly bisecting every corner.

But I was still having trouble with the thread. It just kept breaking--strangely, in almost the same spot on every line, about 4/5 of the way along (just when I thought I'd finally finish a row without rethreading!) I was using a new needle, there weren't any particularly bunchy seams, I'd cleaned out all the lint...I couldn't figure it out. But then I ran out of white thread, and had to run out to the drugstore on the corner to get more. I took whatever they had so I could get back to work. And guess what? It stopped breaking. I've been so pleased to be able to be able to dip into my big thrift-store and tag-sale stash of notions whenever I want to make a project, without having to buy new. But it might be time to admit that some new thread would be worth buying.

I thought about various fabric options for binding, but in the end, went with expediency and chose some bias tape I had on hand. I worried that it would be too narrow, but I actually ended up really liking how it looks: the bright turquoise pops out despite its small size, and saves the quilt from being too cutesy pastel. I even love the back--simply solid white, but now, crisscrossed with quilting lines and edged in turquoise, it looks so inviting.

I made mine much smaller than the pattern called for, but even still, it's quite large: about 36"X42". I think it's just right for a baby to play on, though, and will work well for years. I've never been a big fan of tiny receiving blankets; I like something more substantial.

Can I make a quilt in time?

When I decided to join Craft Hope for their third challenge, I pledged to make at least a hat and a pair of booties. I made two hats right away, and got started on a pair of booties. Somewhere along the line, I decided to make a blanket to go with each set. I was thinking about hemming up a simple flannel blanket, and trying to figure out when I'd get out to buy the flannel, when somehow, I got a notion to make a quilt. Unlike some bloggers out there who seem to whip out a quilt every week, I've only ever made one quilt (a sad, lumpen, polyester thing made with love for my honey right after college). I've started on one for Lucy's room, and am doing an occasional block here and there towards finishing that for her first birthday. But this seemed more manageable--small, and on a deadline (I have until July 25th). Where do I get these notions? I have a million other projects I want to get to. And yet...

I googled around for a suitable pattern, and chose this one. I'm making mine smaller, more swaddler size than crib size. Once I had the idea in my mind, I was possessed, and went digging through my fabric for a large variety that went well together (this is when I wish I had a larger stash, though what I've got barely fits as it is!). I started cutting, and couldn't stop until all the pieces were cut out (I stayed up WAY too late working after my family was asleep). And never mind that the sewing machine is in our bedroom; I simply had to sew together the first block just to see how it would look (they slept through it). Here it is:

(Ignore the washed-out picture. It's been raining here forever, I think. It's way cuter in person.)

Now, if it weren't for that pesky thing called work, I could just sew and sew like a maniac until I'd done them all! Couldn't we just have a quilting holiday?
....
I wrote the above yesterday, planning to post it today. Then last night, I got on a completely obsessed sewing spree. From one block completed, to this:

(completed blocks, clearly in need of pressing, laid out on Lucy's floor, where they're in grave danger of being scattered by galloping cats)

I love it! I really don't want to do anything else until I've got it all sewn together. Now I'm thinking I might actually be able to finish it in time!

Another quilt block

Please excuse the terrible photo...when I work all day and then squeeze in some sewing, by the time I'm ready to take a picture, the light is nearly gone. This block is much prettier in person. (Unfortunately, I don't have a good excuse for the way-too-skinny outer "logs.") Despite the weird proportions, I'm very happy with this block because I incorporated three new fabrics I love:
--the yellow gardening girl fabric in the upper left, which is one of the ones I bought on vacation, and which I just love for its vintage-y charm.
--the green alphabet fabric, also bought on vacation. I didn't have enough green in this quilt yet, and I imagine Lucy will love finding Ls and other favorite letters at some point in the not-too-distant future.
--a teeny scrap of the vintage sheet that's been seen in so many of my projects this spring (Lucy's kimono, my skirt, my headband, my purse...). There will be so many fond memories attached to that fabric. Some day, after I've done much more sewing, I look forward to making a whole quilt of meaningful scraps like that one, with stories attached.

One more finished...

crazy log cabin quilt block 5
Originally uploaded by mcghol

Went to the sewing machine to enlarge the waistband on Lucy's longies, got sucked in, and couldn't stop until I'd finished another quilt block. Getting there, slowly but surely!

52 to go

On the twin bed in Lucy's room, we have a beautiful vintage quilt that I found at a thrift shop for only $2. It's what inspired the turquoise and red color scheme, and looks gorgeous on the bed. Unfortunately, every time someone sits on it, it tears a bit more, and several of the patches are simply disintigrating: not the best choice for a baby's room! Before she was born, I'd been collecting fabrics to make her a crib-sized quilt, but after 2 baby showers and many visitors, she'd received so many blankets and afghans and quilts, it was clear she had no need of more. So my little crib quilt project turned into a much bigger replace-the-twin-bed-quilt project.

So slowly, slowly, I've been piecing together blocks in a crazy log-cabin style. I have four now--only 52 more to go!

Clearly, I'm still learning. Sometimes the pieces end up too wide; other times too narrow. But overall, I'm pleased with it so far.

The fabrics are mostly a random collection of things I picked up used: sheets, shirts, dish cloths, etc. There are a few bits of new things I picked up at Jo-Ann's to round it out. Then there are two really special fabrics. Sweet Dreams, which I bought from Reprodepot because I just couldn't resist its adorableness (perfect for a household with chickens), and a beautiful yellow fabric with gnomes, which is just the softest, loveliest cotton, given to us as gift wrap on a shower gift (edit: I see now it's from Heather Ross' "lightning bugs and other mysteries" line).

In the works...

quilt block 1
Originally uploaded by mcghol

I'm working on a quilt for Lucy's room, 1 block at a time. Here's a preview... Will post the others I've done as soon as I have a few spare minutes.