Quilt Mom

Quarter Hour Quilting

2011-05-06T12:16:00.000-04:00

Because of the inspiration from visiting the International Quilt Festival and a desire to try to preserve what sanity I still have, I thought I'd try to break a quilting project down into 15 minute increments. So I thought I'd detail my steps in hopes that it can help others. Too often people say quilting is too time consuming -- but if done in small steps, I think it can be accomplished without spending hours at a time. We'll see how this little experiment works!

Of course, I didn't decide until after I cut the fabric and just now thought of the journaling aspect, so I dont' have pictures of the early steps -- but here's what I've accomplished so far.

The pattern is called Top Hat Tessellations by Rebecca Boline. It's one of four twin size quilt patterns I received when I bought a fabric bundle at the quilt festival. There were 5 1-yard fabrics in the bundle.

Day 1: Cut the fabric into the initial strips called for in the pattern.
Day 2: I sewed the larger strips together.
Day 3: I ironed the strips in preparation for cross-cutting.
Day 4: I cross cut the strips.
Day 5: I pinned the first set of strips to the left side of one set of the cross cut pieces.
Day 6: I pinned the second set of strips to the left side of one set of the cross cut pieces.

Not a very exciting picture -- but this is what they look like now. I've got 72 of these to sew over the next few days to create two different blocks.

International Quilt Festival

2011-05-06T12:05:00.000-04:00

Last month, I had the chance to go to the International Quilt Festival with my step-mom. We had a great time and there were an incredible number of beautiful quilts there.

Here are some of my favorites.

Mike's Quilt

2011-05-06T11:58:00.000-04:00

It's scary that already almost a year has passed since I've posted anything. Since then, I finally completed Mike's quilt.

Bless his patient heart. I stopped and started on this so many times. But it's done.

It was machine pieced and hand quilted. Given my thumb issues, it's probably one of the last large quilts I'll do by hand, but wanted to do so with his.

This is called a box-in-box pattern. It was designed on EQ6. I was able to scan in the fabrics and Mike and I were able to play iwth the design to get this effect. I'm glad he liked the optical illusions. I do too.

The colors go with our family room.

Mark's quilt

2010-05-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

Here are pictures of Mark's quilt. I made it for him for Christmas. He loves gambling and I found a collection of fat quarters depicting various aspects including poker and slots. It seemed the only way to pull such a variety of fabrics together was with the use of a tone-on-tone black border. This quilt was also stipled.

He loved it!

Remembering Jay

2010-05-27T22:22:00.001-04:00

I'm still catching up.

It's been 2 months since my step-dad passed away. After a long, courageous battle with cancer, he died at home, under the quilt I made him. I put it together in just a few weeks after he cancer returned. While a simple pattern, it has a variety of fabrics that represented his favorite things such as University of Kentucky, Nascar, Jack Daniels and his beloved chihuahua Peanut. I wanted him to remember that I was with him, even when I wasn't and hoped the quilt would be a replacement.

I'm glad he enjoyed the quilt for as long as he did and now my mom has it as part of her many memories of him.

Catching up

2010-05-27T22:07:00.000-04:00

While I'm pretty slow to make quilts, it seems I'm even slower to post pictures!

Because of some homework, I just realized how dated my blog was.

This a quilt I made for myself. While the piecing was pretty simple, it was by design. In order to use the bold pansy fabric, I needed to find a large pattern. It was machine quilted with a stipling design. The quilt has pink flannel on the back and is very comfy when curling up on the couch.

Belated post on Christmas presents

2009-02-06T08:39:00.000-05:00

I just realized I added these to my Facebook page -- but didn't update the blog!

Here's how I spent my spare time in November and December.

The checkered quilt was made for my mom -- and includes fabrics from a wall hanging I made her last year where each Grandmother's Fan square represented a grand child. I chose fabrics that showed their interests (Tyler's had golf, tennis, music -- while Rebecca's included school, soccer and dance). I need to post a picture of that one too! But anyway -- in addition to the grand child fabrics, I included those from my step-father's quilt and Mary Cate (the latest niece). It has a flannel back to keep her warm on the couch!

The second quilt was made for my dad and my step-mom. It's a friendship star pattern. The inspiration fabric was a Cincinnati Reds piece I was able to find on e-bay because it's out of print. I didn't have much to work with -- but I think it works. My dad loves baseball and the Reds and hopes to spend part of his Florida winter trip at spring training. The quilt back (and self binding) is a baseball fabric. They are using the quilt in Florida now...

These were my first and second attempts at machine quilting. It's quite a change from hand quilting -- but there are so many wonderful options. Everything else I've done has been stitch-in-a ditch hand quilting.
I'm now working on a quilt for my hubby!

2008-11-30T20:44:00.000-05:00

Mary Cate and her quilt

Earlier, I shared a picture of the latest baby quilt I made for my niece Mary Cate before her arrival. She was born on the 24th -- so here are some pictures of her with the quilt!

Hopefully she will get lots of use out of it. Now that all 13 nieces and nephews have baby quilts but just one has a bigger kid quilt -- so need to start making more of those!

I'm now busy trying to wrap up a few projects in time for Christmas and will post some pictures after I give them, so I don't ruin any surprises beforehand!

The Boys

2008-11-09T16:43:00.000-05:00

Here are the quilts I've made for my boys. Tyler who is almost 15 -- picked out the pattern and the fabric for his. It's a modified version of one called "Tiddlywinks" -- but without the little circles to represent the Tiddlywinks. He liked the optical illusion it creates. Thankfully he was very patient -- While I was able to piece it in a reasonable amount of time -- it took me several years to actually hand quilt it --due to a few little things like work, having his brother, making baby quilts for his cousins..... I finally finished it in the fall of 2007. He sleeps under it every night.

I began Chandler's quilt while pregnant with him -- even though I knew I wouldn't finish it for quite awhile. That's because Quiltmakers was offering a class for this specific pattern -- it's a Double Irish Chain with racing colors ( in honor of the Indianapolis 500). Since Chandler's room was going to have a racing theme -- it was perfect. I began hand quilting it after I completed Tyler's and finished in in March of 2008. I finished it while spending time with my Grandma before she died. She was the one who taught me to quilt (more on that later) -- so it was very calming to sit in her room and work on the quilt.

Before I finished Chandler's quilt -- he did have a baby quilt (also with a racing them) which was machine pieced and hand quilted and the train quilt (in the picture above). Even though it didn't require any piecing, I hand quilted it to accent the images on the fabric. It's been a nice lap quilt for him and one he can also use a track for his trains.

Newest Addition

2008-11-09T14:45:00.000-05:00

Just completed the latest quilt for the latest addition to our family. My brother and his wife are expecting a little girl soon -- and for once, I'm actually ahead of the game on the quilt making. The brightness of the colors really don't come through in the photo, but the inspiration fabric is the pastel-colored check fabric. I fell in love with it several months ago and stashed it away -- not expecting to make another baby quilt -- but it worked out perfectly. I've now made 13 baby quilts for my nieces and nephews -- each one is different.

Halloween 2008

2008-10-30T10:43:00.000-04:00

Even though this isn't about quilting -- thought I should post --- here is Chandler in his Halloween costume.

While I was initially nervous about it at first, it actually came together fairly easily. He wore it to Kindermusik yesterday and is so proud of it.

He can't wait until Friday!

I've made most of the boys' Halloween costumes -- a tradition passed down from my mom. She made most of the ones my brother and I wore.

Jay's quilt

2008-10-30T10:32:00.000-04:00

Here's my most recent quilt. While not a fancy design -- it holds a lot of special memories. It was made for my step-father who recently learned his cancer had returned.

I felt helpess because I'm two hours away and can't be there in person all of the time to help my mom and step-dad, so I turned to quilting.

I collected fabrics of his favorite things -- teams, pets, beverages, etc. to include in the quilt. The backing is flannel, with University of Kentucky logos (his favorite team).

The signature tag says "So you are always surrounded by love and warmth."