The Authentic Quilt

This couch quilt or lap quilt was about my 2nd or 3rd quilt. It was finished in October of last year and given as a Christmas gift to my thesis advisor. I used Moda Authentic fabric which has that lovely word-sy feel. Perfect since my thesis is on credibility in online journalism and my advisor is a former reporter.

The pattern is one I saw in a photo online somewhere; I couldn't even begin to tell you where. I bound it with one of my favorite stash staples, a cream on black design with ornate curves. It's quilted with deliberately not-quite-straight parallel lines about an inch and a half apart. I remember listening to some of Eddie Izzard's comedy shows while I was quilting this. I kept having to stop quilting because I was laughing so hard. You should really check him out if you never have before.

This quilt generated a ton of scraps which I incorporated into a bed sized quilt I'll upload here later.

Here is the obligatory picture of Wilson and my roomie's cat, Admiral, soaking up the warmth of my desk lamp and generally being in the way. You can see the top of my fabric storage system underneath the desk. It's improved since then, I promise!

My Grandma's Quilts

My grandmother and her sister were fantastic quilters. They mostly machine pieced with those old pedal Singer machines but everything was handquilted the old fashioned way. They both died well before I was born, but my parents have quite a few of their quilts. Here are some of my favorites.

This is called a Robbing Peter to Pay Paul variation or a Simple Snowball. We have 2 of these.

I also like this solid/patterened nine patch of dark fabrics. There are two of these as well. They used the fabrics leftover from clothes, curtains, and other items. Both of these ladies were perfectly capable of sewing up their own version of a dress they saw in a catalog.

This is an appliqued dresden plate sewn on feed sacks.

I love this large carpenters wheel. I replicated one of these blocks for a mini quilt swap over Christmas using blue and white fabrics. I quilted it so it looked like a snowflake. It was really a great holiday themed wall hanging and I learned to do Y-seams - a real learning experience. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but there will definitely be more of this block in my future.

I believe this is called a one patch. It's very colorful and fun. I owe many thanks to Ann Champion who helped me identify many of these. She has a great blog where she highlights antique quilt tops which you should visit!

Finish! The Whirligig Quilt

The Whirligig quilt is done! Since I'm visiting my parents this weekend I took to opportunity to get some photos of it with their pretty staircase and good windows. Wilson is notably absent. Traveling in the car is very stressful for him, so he stays home on short trips like these.

I drew out this pattern and developed all the cut requirements and measurements for myself. I added the miniature whirligigs to use up some of the fabrics I got in my Moda Sampler Pack for Christmas. They are from the 'Frolic' line by Sandy Gervais. The rest of the fabrics, except for the border, came from stash. I tried hard to keep it gender neutral, but I was definitely thinking of a little girl when I made it and the Frolic fabric has some little flowers on it. Still, I think it could work for a little boy, too. The backing is flannel, corduroy, and linen. I made a scrappy binding from the leftover backing. I love the way the corduroy binding feels. That is definitely one of my favorite fabrics.


This is the densest quilting I have ever done and also the first curved line quilting. It really made it crinkle up beautifully. The body has overlapping circles that are almost as big as the blocks (about 9 inches) and the border has a celtic inspired design I worked out and traced onto the fabric using cardboard cut from a cereal box as a template.

This is a toddler bed sized quilt, approximately 50" x 60". I don't know any toddlers (who I want to give it to, anyway) or any expectant mothers. The idea for it just got under my skin and I had to try it to see the design on paper become a quilt. This is definitely my favorite quilt I have made so far and the first that I feel good enough about the quality to be willing to sell it to someone. I'm happy to enjoy looking at it until the right person has a baby and I can pass it along.

Shopping

When I visit home my mom and I visit the local fabric store. Today I got 6 yards of fabric to be backing, borders, and binding for a blooming nine patch quilt that's been on UFO status since last fall. The quilt is for a friend of mine. I'm normally not much of a pink person.



I also got the great pick-your-own bag of scraps. I got some strings and saturated colors, but mostly a lot of neutrals to put toward the neutral scrap quilt I'm planning.

Lazy Sunday

I'm feeling sick today so I'm even less productive than usual. In quilting news, I received my Plume layercake yesterday and I'm super excited about it. These are my two favorite motifs.

I don't have any plans yet for the layercake, so in the meanwhile quilting continues on my whirligig baby quilt. As soon as I get Wilson off of it, that is...

Giveaways!

Two great giveaways that you should go give me some competition for:

Audrey of Pickles & Bacon bought too much delicious Plume fabric


and Jandi in Stitches is celebrating her new blog

My first real quilt

This was my first real quilt. I finished it in Sept. of 09 (I began quilting mid August). It's based on Wonderland Garden by Jaquie of Tallgrass Quilts.

It's twin size (shown on a full size bed) and very scrappy. I named mine "Garden Together" because the panels show a mother and daughter gardening and doing other summer-time activities that remind me of spending time with my mother at home.

I quilted it with two inch wide crosshatching using masking tape as a guide. This was definitely a learner quilt, as are all my quilts. It has mistakes in the quilting and piecing, but I prefer to leave them in and move on than to pick them out. This quilt isn't ever going anywhere. It currently lives on my old bed at my parents' house.

The black kitty making a cameo here is Admiral, my roommate's cat.

On my design wall

On my design wall today is half of a rainbow bargello quilt. I put this together yesterday from a Kona Cottons dark palette roll-up; I'm waiting for a 2nd roll-up to arrive in the mail to finish the body of it. Note Wilson squatting on top of my printer. I don't know how he managed to be in every picture...


I played with the photo to see what it will look like once I make the other half. The question now is, should I finish it off without borders and make a 60" square child's quilt or add borders and make a full or queen size bed quilt?

Or...

I'll be gradually adding posts about my older quilts but that's what I have going on today.