Christmas 2012

 

Silas and Yoki

Olivia and her purple dragon costume

Mike and his quilt

I haven't been able to post about Mike's Christmas quilt, but here it is. I made it while he was away at the ESA meeting in Knoxville. One day when Mike was still home, I was browsing a quilt pattern book that my co-worker lent me, and when I was on this pattern, he looked over and said, "Wow, that's a really nice quilt." So without even knowing it, he picked out his own quilt pattern. I ended up making it reversible, which was not in the pattern or part of my original plan, but I thought the light tan  fabric I bought for the backing was super boring, so I decided to make a chevron strip across the back.

Olivia's Christmas Wish

After making Silas' fat dragon I was concerned that Olivia might be jealous and want one as well. So one day when I was skyping with Tasha and Olivia, Tasha asked Olivia if she wanted a dragon for Christmas. Olivia said, "I want a purple dragon costume." Now every time Tasha asks Olivia what she wants from Aunt Katie for Christmas, she says, "A dragon costume." So that is what she is getting.

I made the pattern up on my own using an old sheet and I used a 3T hooded jacket to get the sizing about right (I made it big so she can wear it for multiple years). I used dark purple minky fabric for the outer layer, lavender minky for the spines, belly and inner part of the ears and then lined it with regular cotton fabric. The hardest part was figuring out how to get it turned right side out after I sewed the two layers together. In order to get it turned right side out, I ended up having to take the lining hood off and sew it back on by hand. I am still convinced it can be done some other way, but my brain couldn't figure it out (neither could Mike's). The ears were hard too, and they ended up a bit floppy, but they'll do. I sewed a strip of sequin around the edge, hood and belly to add a little interest. I think it is going to be too long in the arms so I am going to attach some elastic bands that Olivia can put around her wrists that way she can flap the wings.

I had a hard time getting good pictures, but here are a couple to give you an idea of how it turned out.

Yoki the Fat Dragon

I purchased a pattern for this little cutie -- Yoki the Fat Dragon -- to make as Silas' Christmas present. I made a practice Yoki with scrap fabric a few weekends back and then made the real deal last weekend. I am glad I practiced first because the final Yoki is much improved. I sure hope Silas really loves this guy because it was a serious labor of love! But then, I would do anything for my godson!

Kids with Quilts

Megan, Drew, Anna and Ethan with their warm and cozy Christmas quilts.

Quilting Bonanza

The boys' quilts are finished. I was able to get the quilting on the zig zag quilt done during the week and bound it Saturday before we went to the beer festival in Buellton. Today I did all of the quilting and binding on the argyle quilt. Not too shabby of a sewing weekend!

The quilting bonanza has come to an end!

Zig Zag Quilt

Here is the last of the four quilt tops. I have started in on quilting it and am nearly done. I should be able to finish it this week and then I'll work on quilting the argyle quilt next weekend. I think I'll meet my goal of having these all done by Thanksgiving!

Preppy Argyle Quilt

This is the first time I have used all solid fabrics in a quilt, I really never even considered it, but I think this is one of the coolest quilts I've made. I cut all the diamonds last night, laid them out and started in on piecing it together first thing this morning. It took longer than I expected because I ended up having to do a lot of pinning to get the points matched up. It was tricky business, and if you look closely at the real thing, almost none of the points are perfectly matched, but you can't tell from far away! I think I will go ahead and make the 4th quilt top (hopefully this week) and then get to quilting them next weekend. My new goal is to get them finished by Thanksgiving for our visit to Atlanta.

Oh, I should mention that this  is hanging from a rope, so the white diamonds at the top are whole and there is another line of alternating blue and red diamonds and the top ends in half navy diamonds. I'll get the whole thing pictured once it's quilted.

Starburst Quilt

I was not expecting to finish this quilt this weekend, but I got lucky and was able to find a coordinating teal fabric to use for the backing and binding. I used my new walking foot for the first time and used it for the quilting and the binding. I really loved it for sewing on the binding, but it caused some puckering of the backing fabric while I was quilting. It makes nice straight lines though, so I guess I will have to make sure the backing fabric is pulled really tight when I make the sandwich.

Starburst Quilt Top

I don't love it, but it's nice...

Block Party

All 30 blocks are now complete! This weekend I will cut the white sashing pieces and finish off the quilt top. I am hoping to find some backing fabric at the local fabric shop so I can get to quilting it this weekend, too. 

Starburst Block

Here's an example of the starburst blocks I have been putting together this weekend. I have 16 finished and have 14 to go. Each block takes approximately 15 minutes, so I've got another 3.5 hours of block work to go!

One Down

All finished up with the first of four quilts. Second one is planned out and the fabric arrived last week so I am ready to go!

The Evolution of a Quilt

This quilt has evolved quite a bit since I originally started working on it. I almost gave up on it because I wasn't liking the direction it was going, but I am glad I kept working on it because I really like the way it turned out. I've got most of the quilting done so I just need to finish that up and then bind it. Three more to go!

Block Design

Which one do you like best?

Pile of Pinwheels

I earned a little more sewing time and pieced the pinwheels together this evening...

The squares for the diamond blocks are waiting to be trimmed to 2 1/4"... which takes forever ...

Diamonds and Pinwheels

I spent the last few weekends making notecards for my final work exam and decided I have earned a little sewing time. I have slowly been working on piecing together scrap half squares from Brody and Krista's quilt. I learned how to chain piece, which I should have learned long ago, but it is a fast way to piece and it doesn't waste so much thread. Here I laid out all the pieces and pushed them through the machine...

My vision for the quilt...

Here are all the pieced triangles with an example of what they will become...

New Quilt Labels

No more iron-on labels! I had these custom quilt labels printed by the twill tape guy. I am excited to try these out on my next quilt!

http://www.twilltape.com/servlet/the-Custom-Printed-Twill-Tape/Categories

Brody & Krista's Wedding Quilt

I forgot to post pictures of the finished product, so here they are. Congratulations, Brody and Krista! Love you two and hope this keeps you warm on those cold Iowa winter nights!

Applique Bunting Quilt

I decided to try something new for this quilt using some scraps I had left over from Silas' quilt. I had all of these triangles and had seen some bunting wall hangings and thought, why not sew them onto a quilt? I googled "bunting quilt" and found a few, but none are as cute as this one (in my opinion). I simply appliqued all of the triangles on the white fabric, sewed on the top lining dots and then made the quilt sandwich, quilted and bound(?) it. Pretty simple. It was a fun little project and I hope little baby Jude enjoys some tummy time on it.

Learning to Tie with Mom

Star Block Quilt Top

More Star Blocks

All 54 blocks are complete. Now time to lay them out and sew the quilt top together. Whew.

Star Blocks

This very lovely star block required approximately 18 steps to get to to its completed 11" x 11" form. I have spent the entire weekend working on these blocks. So far I have 15 completely finished (out of 54). The good news is I have everything done up to sewing the nine squares together. So each block now only requires 8 steps (plus ironing). The next time I think a multi-step block would be "fun" to try, I will reconsider...

What do you think?

Which do you like better? The same fabric in the middle of the star or a different fabric? I know which way I like, but we'll see what you have to say. Be forewarned, regardless of what you say, I'll still do what I want!!

The Beginning of a New Quilt

I am using this tutorial to make a star block quilt:

http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2011/06/tutorial-july-star-blocks.html

Tonight I cut the 486 blocks for the stars. The 54 stacks pictured above each have one 4x4 block and eight 3x3 blocks. Later this week I will cut the 432 denim blocks I need for the outline of each star. I am already excited to get to piecing the blocks so I can get an idea of how it will turn out. Luckily Mike is going to be busy the next two weekends with his histerid conference so I will have plenty of time to sew!

ABC Book

Olivia loves books...but she's a little book monster who destoys paper books in no time. For Christmas I wanted to make her a fabric book she couldn't tear up, but never found the time :/ I finally got around to it today and made this super cute ABC book. I used some scrap fabrics for the letters and an old pair of jeans for the pages. I cut out rectangles of colored fabric for the letters, ironed on Pellon Fusible Web to the back of the fabric, traced the letter stencils on the back of the pellon, cut the letters out and then ironed them onto the fabric. Once they were ironed on to the denim pages I used my handy-dandy sewing machine to applique the letters. It took me a long time to figure out how to bind the book together, but luckily Mike was around to suggest button holes with a fabric tie (why didn't I think of that?). So that's what I did. I hope this can stand the test of the Book Monster.

Tasha said she already knows ABCD so now she can work on the rest of the alphabet.

Kaleidoscope Quilt

Hope this keeps Baby Banta #2 warm for years to come!

Love Bug Quilts

Quilt Label