Emma's Revisit

My youngest daughter's first quilt was made the summer she turned seven.  It was a Quartered Nine Patch, made in tone-on-tone pastels.  I remember her, sitting at the little table, singing, "Making a quilt is fun to do!" I counted that day a success and promptly quilted up her throw on my machine.  We bound that quilt in red Kona Cotton and backed it in a playful flannel that showed children at play.  She has used that quilt for several years, but now she is taller than I am and the quilt, if anything, has shrunk.

Last summer she made another version, in green and white 30's and 40's prints, with a pop of pink.  I thought she was making a cuddle quilt for the family to enjoy, but she was interested in a fluffy soft quilt for herself.

Frankly, it was not very enjoyable, folded and sitting in the closet!  The backing, a pink flannel with white, green, pink and brown dots, was ready and folded up with it.  Waiting.

By this time, the quilt had grown a bit too big for me to feel comfortable machine quilting it.  She wanted a fluffy batting, but I did not want to tie it.  A couple of weeks ago I found a nearby quilter whose prices were reasonable and took it to her.  She helped choose a charming pattern with tulips and five-petaled flowers.

After two weeks and with no obvious pain to my hands, the fluffy quilt is quilted!  My daughter loves the pattern and took it to her room to wrap up in it, even before binding could be applied.  I expect we shall use a white for the binding.  Now it seems clear that her older sister needs something non-tattered to cuddle into!

Batts in the Belfry ~ Or ~ My Fluff Brain

The second bolt of Warm and White that I began using when I started machine quilting is now gone.  That is probably a good thing, since the rumblings are that folks around here think that kind of cotton batting is too stiff -- and not very warm.

So, what shall I get to replace it?  I prefer a white batting, since much of what I make has white or light-hued backgrounds.  I like hand quilting on wool, but I really like the puckery look that cotton makes when it shrinks.  It is hard to machine quilt on fluffy polyester battings, but when I get them quilted professionally, that is least expensive and my family seems to like it.  Whichever direction I go, I would rather have my own stock on hand, since that is most cost effective.

What do you use?  What deals have you found, and where?  These past few days I have been dreaming about and doing online searches of batting, but I still don't know what to do.  Is the 80/20 blend a good option?  It would promise drapeability and durability, both desirable attributes.  If I am serious about finishing quilts, I am going to use a lot of batting!

Skydiving Turtles

A neighborhood quilt group meets monthly at my house.  During the past year, we have made a "block of the month" to try out new patterns.  People are invited to make up a few samples from the pattern and when we meet again the following month we draw to see who will win the opportunity to make the blocks into a quilt for herself.

To be honest, I was hoping to win these Drunkard's Path Turtle blocks!  The assignment was to use a black solid for the background and to make the turtles out of and "ugly" fabric -- or one that looked like a turtle.  As usual, it is interesting what people think of as "ugly."

Our group laid the blocks on the floor and laughingly arranged them as if the turtles were holding hands, "like skydivers!" The swirly, star-filled sashing fabric was chosen because it suggested sky and its varied blacks made the variation in black background fabrics less obvious.  Swirls are repeated in the quilting design and on the yellow and gold dotted batik fabric on the back, as well as in a few of the prints.  To communicate ocean waves, I would turn the quilting template the other direction, but what we were after is swirls and whorls.

When the sixteen blocks were stitched together, they made a nice baby quilt-sized top.  Three of my adult-sized children asked who would get this quilt, for each of them wanted it!  Because many of the turtles were made of other people's scraps, I wondered how to draw the turtle colors out into the border.  I considered making four wavy snakes in the borders, giving them similarly dimensional heads and tail ends; this might suggest that the snakes were waiting for the skydivers to fail!

Making a border of random-pieced squares solved the problem.  A few of the turtle fabrics are scattered into the border, but others in similar hues and shapes serve to communicate that the quilt was planned this way, rather than that the top was too small and needed to be stretched.

The heads and tails of the turtles are slightly stuffed and they flop about a little.  The quilt needed to be hand quilted so these 3D effects wouldn't be lost or make trouble.  I am using a wool batting, which I really like to work with.  I try to work on this project for a little while each day, while listening to a General Conference talk or to my daily scripture reading.  In a few days it will be a friendly cuddle quilt, invitingly draped over the arm of the front room couch. 

Wild Horses Circling the Log Cabin

This quilt was begun more than a year ago, as a gift to thank a neighbor.  I lost interest in working on it when I discovered that the horse print purchased for the border didn't really work.  It was buried and unearthed several times, then I found a different horse print that worked better.  Some extra of the first print (but not quite enough) was purchased and pieced together to put on the back.

Over the Christmas holidays our entire family worked on quilting the quilt together.  We watched movies, visited, and just spent time together.  Instead of quilting next to each and every line, we quilted long, straight lines in the light and dark sections of the Log Cabin pattern, quilting a rope motif down the centers of the lighter patches.

This quilt was completed because of my husband's enthusiastic encouragement, and he willingly worked on it, discovering that he has a good talent for it.  Our oldest son made three stitches, which were worked as he chanted his love for our neighbor.  Our youngest son's stitches were carefully made, but they are pretty long on the bottom of the quilt.  He told me he was proud of those stitches!  I know our wonderful neighbor will recognize that they are a representation of his love.

My husband's favorite fabric is the blue batik, and I wish I had purchased more of it when a local Walmart was clearing out its expensive fabrics for $1 a yard!  He really likes the touch of the blue in this quilt and wanted me to use it in the border, but it was wrapped up in another piece and could not be found in time.  The batting is a packaged 100% cotton.

When we took it off the frame we washed it to make sure that the colored pencil we had used to mark the quilting lines would come out.  I like the puckery look that shrunken cotton batting makes when it is washed.  Last week my daughter and I finished stitching the binding and we delivered it to our friend and his wife. 

I am thankful for the experience of unity and love this project fostered in our home.

New Quilt From Old

The first week of this year brought an eight-hour trip to Oregon to visit my mother.  Actually, the trip was delayed and took longer than usual, since I was shop hopping to locate some fabric to help her friend complete one of her quilts!  I found a couple of prints in a lovely store in the heart of a rural Idaho town; though they were not exactly what she was looking to match, they ultimately worked for her project.

When I arrived, I asked what Mom wanted me to help with.  We planned to move her sewing room from the rooms on the main floor into the upstairs bedroom across from hers; we wanted to finalize the design on Dad's headstone; we needed to update and reorganize the photographs on the Grandchildren Wall; and she wanted me to recreate the pattern for the quilt design of an antique quilt fragment she had.

We got a lot done!  We spent one day with her UFO group and I worked on the quilt top design that day.  Yes, we visited the monument store and hauled furniture and fabric.  We printed up photos and organized the wall to include everyone -- even the Future Possibles.  She prepared a couple of quilt backs and I stitched binding onto one of her completed quilts.  It was a full and busy week, and I managed to avoid snowstorms both directions.

I like the way the quilt design turned out and plan to use it on a future quilt.  The baby quilt top is complete, in soft mint and a muted 30's reproduction print.  The print squares are 4" and the X blocks are 3 1/2" squares.  The original was stitched by hand.