Turning Pinwheels

Every year my mother and I host the church women's group at our house for a spring tea. My dad is the pastor, and we love a good reason to have everyone over for a party. Was I ever thrilled when we decided that this year's theme was going to be quilting and sewing! Can you imagine a better excuse for hopping online to buy some new fabric? I've spent the last few days working on table runners featuring Hello Luscious by Basic Grey. I'm truly loving this line of prints. It looks far better than it does in my pictures (forgive the poor lighting -- it's evening here) and what you see online. Everything about it makes me think of a 1950's bungalow all dressed up in its domestic glory. It's even given me an idea for my quilt for the Ellison Lane Quilts Modern Mini Challenge (click on the button to the right if you haven't seen this yet), but that's a post for another day. Have a wonderful weekend!

Sweet Dreams

There were moments when I wasn't sure who would come out alive...me or this quilt. Not since my humility quilt have I been so ready to take a project and throw it in the trash can out of frustration. Thankfully we have both survived the struggle and are hopefully better people because of it (well, me anyway).

This wall hanging was made using only fat quarters or smaller pieces, hence the occasional piecing line in a place where I'd rather not have one. It's far from perfect -- you can see that the dimensions got a little wonky as I went -- but that's okay. My characters are from the imaginations of Heather Ross and Lizzy House; the princess would rather be playing with her pet unicorn but must instead sit on that lousy stack of mattresses while being serenaded by the minstrel and his dog. The smaller pieces were attached through applique, but most of this quilt was pieced together. Trying to join those mountains with the sky was a nightmare -- the never ending cycle of sewing and ripping out seams was almost my undoing -- but there they are, if a little bit more pointed than I had originally planned them to be. I bound the quilt in a black and white stripe so that it will match the girls' quilts when I make those as well. By the end of the day, this quilt will be hanging in their room where they can happily find the pea in the stack of mattresses for the 457th time.

Though it was a real challenge, I'm happy that I made this quilt. It was a stretch and I've learned more about what I can do and what I like to do. It's been a good adventure. Now on to the next one!

Linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday & Finish it Up Friday.

Trying New Things

My husband is the most amazing man. One of the many things I love about him is how he always believes that I can do greater things than I think I can. For the past few weeks he's been encouraging me to branch out a little bit from my quilt projects into something new. I had been toying with the idea of making a picture quilt to hang on the wall in the girls' room, but I wasn't sure that my skills were up to it yet. Still my husband insisted that I give it a try, so I dove into the creative process this weekend. The quilt has a princess theme to go along with the Castle Peeps quilts I plan to make for the girls' beds this spring. I sketched out some thoughts on paper and then started blocking out a rough idea of the picture with heaps of fabric on the floor.

After a little editing and adding, I had a bit of a feel for how I wanted the shapes to look. Next I started cutting out the fabric into flat pieces.

Then yesterday, I started sewing those pieces together. It's a bit of a brain teaser because you have to sit down and think about what pieces need to be attached first and so on. There's definitely an order to it.

The castle pieces were not as difficult as the landscape -- all those curved edges give me a minor heart attack. You can definitely see my lack of experience in the occasional puckers. I'm hoping to get some more work done on this tonight so that the basic quilt top is finished and I can start adding the little pieces to the front before starting in on the quilting. Stay tuned...

Over the (Half) Moon

It's become a game for my three girls to see who can be the first one to spot the moon in the sky whenever we go out in the evenings. Bunny is usually the first to see it, and Bear is especially thrilled when it's a "cheshire cat smile" moon. Mouse just points in the same general direction as her sisters and squeals happily even though she doesn't really get what all the excitement's about. So when my Half Moon Modern charm squares arrived in the mail, I knew that I wanted to make something pretty to hang on the wall of my sewing room, and that I wanted it to include some reference to the moon. It's a little abstract, I suppose, but you can see the half moon in the bottom left corner of this mini quilt. I love the patterns in this fabric line and enjoyed toying with different combinations as I put the half square triangles together. This is the first quilt I've made where I've hand stitched my own binding (Woven from the Echo collection) to the back (one of the scissor prints in white and gray). It's a lot of work -- I can't imagine doing it on a full size quilt -- but I must say that the effect is well worth it. I can't tell you how much pleasure it gave me to make this quilt. And every time I look at it, I'll be thinking of my little moon gazers.

http://www.canoeridgecreations.com/2012/02/sew-modern-monday.html

Party Favors

How is it possible that my oldest daughter can be turning five this month? The days at home seem to stretch on forever at times, but the months and years are flying past me at a dizzying rate. I've been doing a little work on the Alice in Wonderland tea party that she requested, and the party favors are now nearly done. Each of the girls will be getting a little pillow with some small felt friends to take home with them. I had originally planned to include the Mad Hatter too, but I wasn't satisfied with the way he was turning out -- a little too much like the guy on the Lucky Charms box for me. While I have some regrets that I didn't make the dolls a little larger and out of fabric, I think they have a certain charm to them. My daughters keep begging to play with them, so I must be doing something right.

I used leftover charm squares (from the lap quilt I just made) out of Kate Spain's Good Fortune for the front of the pillow and two shades of Lizzy House's Outfoxed Chain Link print for the back. The Good Fortune patterns reminded me of scenes from the movie: the giant flowers, the tea party, the marching cards.  I figured that the girls could use this as a nice quiet time toy. They can play with the characters on the pillow in their laps, and then tuck them in the pocket on the back when they're done. I love a toy that organizes itself!

More Friendly

 I was visiting Lily's Quilts for the first time today and noticed that she has a link for small quilt blogs to get together. What a great idea. I'm looking forward to seeing what else is out there in blogland...

Friendly

Somehow I find myself gravitating constantly toward prints by Kate Spain. There's something about her fabric that is magically ethereal and yet so friendly at the same time. When I first saw pictures of her new Good Fortune line, I knew that I desperately wanted to make something with it. I originally planned to do a more complex design for the quilt with a lot more cutting, but I just couldn't bear to cut these charm squares any smaller. I wanted the prints to shine as they were. Looking at the quilt top, it reminds me of a tiled pool with ripples of water running down the middle.

The back is plain except for one square that I added at the last minute with embroidered initials and the year. 

I'm excited to put this in the mail for a friend of mine.