Shark!
September 2022

Back in July, when Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter sent the baby quilt tops that I finished into Polka Party 1-4, she also sent a box stuffed full of scrap fabrics and remnant pieces. One of the remnant pieces was the shark fabric, which I thought was too cute to fussy cut, so I used it as bands at the top and bottom. I also used some blue scrap fabrics she had sent, and pulled a bunch of scappy blues from my scraps box to create the center section. The pieces to create the rows were 1.5″, 2″, 2.5″ and 3″ (unfinished).

I had read an article recently about quilting “rules”. I apologize for not noting down the author’s name, as it was one of those articles that you see go by, you do a quick read, and then move on to the next article in your feed. I then spent a bit of time reflecting on her take on quilting “rules”, which was basically that the creative process thrives with no hard fast rules. However, the creative process usually does well when there is a plan – that may include some tentative rules – at the outset of a project. For this quilt, in addition to using blues as one rule, I decided to use a pattern for the rows, as opposed to just placing them randomly. So, for all those out there that love to figure out patterns, what pattern did I use?

I will be sending this quilt to Little Lambs Foundation based in Utah, as part of the 2023 Hands2Help challenge comfort quilts being hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Little Lambs Foundation provides backpacks full of comfort items for children from newborn to 17 who are transitioning into foster care, emergency shelters, or hospitalization.

Where Pink Happens
September 2022

Did you know that scientists question the existence of the color pink? I hadn’t really been looking for information on the topic of the color pink’s existence, but the internet seems to have many rabbit holes for one to fall into! It is actually quite a fascinating topic – one to tuck away for a potential conversation starter. My take away from the Scientific American article is that I’m quite happy that our brains provide us with the sensation of color, as pink has always been a favorite of mine. When my sisters and I were kids, my mother always dressed us in an “assigned” color. From my eldest sister down to me, we were purple, blue, yellow and pink. Family pictures were always so colorful!

Back in July, when Jocelyn over at Happy Cottage Quilter sent the baby quilt tops that I finished into Polka Party 1-4, she also sent a box stuffed full of scrap fabrics and remnant pieces. There were a lot of 2.5″ wide pink and purple scraps, that I combined with some of my pink and purple scraps to make the 5×5 scrap blocks. The white/stars and the lilac fabrics were also part of what Jocelyn sent, which I used to make the larger chevron blocks. I finished this as a quanket, backing it with pink fleece.

While I had intended this quanket to be donated to a foster child, sometimes life just has different plans. In mid-2022, my connection to CPS sort of just dried up. The facility I had been dropping my quilts off to, closed. I left many messages for my contacts with CPS, to no avail. So, the quilts were just sitting, waiting to find a home.

In early 2023, my Dad was admitted to the ER. It’s a long story. Anyways, Toni, a family friend, was a huge support to myself and my siblings, giving us the peace of mind that someone was hanging out with him, and advocating for him, while he was in the hospital, as we scrambled to make arrangements to relocate him closer to myself and my sister in Southern California. I gifted this to Toni as a huge THANK YOU, and as a remembrance of her time with my Dad.

Bloom
March 2022

This quilt will be donated as part of this year’s Hands2Help Challenge. This year, the challenge is being hosted by Mari over at The Academic Quilter. She will begin the sign-up process soon, so if you’re interested in joining this year’s challenge, check out her blog.

The backing fabric, shown here, is a Mary Engelbreit design from 2001, and has been living in my stash for about ten years now. I think the fabric is super cute, but every time I considered using it in a quilt, I was not sure how to cut the fabric. The individual elements are so close to one another, that I was concerned that even fussy cutting it would lose too many aspects of the overall design. I finally figured that using it as a backing on a baby quilt was going to do it the most justice. The piecing on the front mainly uses scraps and small pieces from my stash, and the flower pot is done using a raw-edge appliqué technique.

Tod
January 2022

While putting away my holiday scraps, I found that my reds bin was close to exploding. So, time for a red scrappy quilt! I kept this baby quilt super simple, patchworking 2″ blocks. As for the fox, I found a coloring page online, and then enlarged the image to the size I wanted, and traced directly from my monitor. I know all you techies are cringing, yes, it’s probably not good form to trace off a monitor, but I try to press only ‘very, very lightly’ 🙂 Typically, I either trace using my monitor, or against a window… of course, during daytime for using the window 😂 I made the fox using a raw-edge appliqué technique.

I often hear new quilters ask about the best way to store and manage their scraps. I hear some quilters suggest cutting into standard sizes before storing, and to only keep those pieces larger than 2″. My recommendation is to keep it all, and to not pre-cut it. Since I often dig into my scraps for appliqué projects, the size and irregularity of a piece is not a problem. I also enjoy the crumb block technique, which uses not only irregular shapes, but also very small pieces. Lastly, I sort scraps by color and use photo boxes to keep them in. This way, when the lid no longer wants to stay properly on the box, I know it’s time to do a scrappy quilt! If you are needing ideas for a scrappy quilt, check out Quilting is more fun than Housework’s blog.

This was donated to Friends of Short Avenue Elementary for a silent auction in March, 2022.

Lassie
September 2021

This quanket combines many scraps from Toodles, a quilt I made for my nephew Dexter, six years ago. The colorway is very mid-century modern. The avocado, browns, teals and oranges have made these fabrics a bit of a challenge to incorporate into other quilts over the past six years, not only because of their strong color personality, but also because the colors are all very saturated. I felt the linen color for the background provided the neutrality needed to compliment these strong colors.

This scrappy quilt began by sewing the small’ish scraps (most under 4″x3″), combining them with the solid linen and avocado colored fabrics. I constructed 12″ blocks, but wasn’t happy with how they looked once they were up on my design wall*. So, I used a trick I learned many year’s ago when making Calm Reflection, of cutting the block in half, and flipping it around to create a new design. The technique was one I had found on wont-to-be quilter’s blog, however, I can no longer find the instructions there. Please drop me a comment with your email address if you would like me to send to you. I made ‘Lassie’ as a quanket, finishing it with fleece backing.

“Did you ever see a lassie go this way and that (way)?”
~ Roud Folk Song Index number 5040

This quanket was donated for a child in foster care in October, 2021.

*While the picture of my design wall doesn’t have this latest quanket on it, I thought you might like to see what my design wall looks like. It is a piece of 1/2″ styrofoam insulation covered with felt, measuring roughly 5’x6′. My murphy-style cutting table is immediately behind my sewing machine, a 1950’s Singer 401a, slant-o-matic. The cabinet for the fold-up cutting table has a blackboard backing, so I can keep notes for my current projects. The sewing machine was my grandmothers, and the one she used to teach me to sew over 50 years ago.

M82
August 2021

The cream fabric in this scrappy quilt is leftover from my Firsts quilt while the blues were pulled from my bottomless blue scraps bin. I organize my scraps by color, and it seems that no matter how many times I create scrappy blue quilts, this bin is always full! I created the scrappy blocks by sewing seven, 1.5″ x 7.5″ strips, and then combining a cream block to make the half square rectangles (HSTs).

I love the versatility of HSTs. Just a simple rotation, or placement of fabric and color can make it look completely different from something made in the same quilt design. I’m not certain if there is a name for this particular design. I use EQ8 and designed it there, basing it off a Lonestar design. I love the look of an off centered Lonestar, such as I did with Rising Star, and in this case I chose to not complete it out to the star points, but instead kept it extremely ‘zoomed in’. I made this as a quanket, finishing it with fleece backing.

This quanket was donated for a child in foster care in October, 2021.

Echoes
May 2021

Here’s a baby quilt that will be donated to Little Lambs Foundation for Kids @littlelambsfoundationforkids as part of this year’s Hands2Help Challenge being hosted by Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict @fabricaddictquilts.

The fabric of the animals riding around in cars is the last I have of this fabric, which I also used in Twizzler Goes for a Ride and Toodles. The blue, cream-colored and dark green blocks are all solid fabrics, which is deceiving since the fleece I used for the backing on this quanket (blanket + quilt = quanket) shows through when held up to light. The fleece backing is green with big white polka dots, making an interesting echo from the back to the front.

Fun fact: the letter E in the NATO phonetic alphabet is Echo and its morse code is a dot.

#h2h2021 #hands2help2021