Monica's Baby Quilt - Split Rail

The One That Started It All!  When I was expecting Monica, my first, I was one of the leaders for the young women, ages 16-18 at church.  I taught the lessons on Sunday and the other leader coordinated the activities during the week.  We each were there to help out the other during whatever the activity was.  So, the other leader, Mary Sue, conspired with the girls to make me a baby quilt for my new baby over the course of several weeks.  One week we went to the cloth store and chose fabrics. The next week we rotary cut the fabric into strips and began sewing the strips together. We may have done that two weeks or Mary Sue finished it up at home. Then the last week we helped tie the quilt.  It was so much fun!  This inspired me to want to try other quilts - I'll have to find the first one I made by myself and post a picture.  I still had a lot to learn.

This poor quilt was loved so much it's falling apart.  I don't know if you can see how worn the fabric is, but my daughter has been wise to put it carefully away and not keep it on her bed any longer.

As I told you about my own baby blanket (under "Sterling's Baby Quilt"), mine was in much worse shape when it was re-covered.











Below is the quilt made for her 8th birthday. The flower fabric matched her original blanket, though in the wrong colors, but I was given so much of it, and I couldn't find the fabric in the correct colors, so we went with it and matched the new color scheme as best we could.  She got to help quilt it, too.

Donovan's Baby Quilt - Maple Leaves

When I was expecting Donovan, one of my sisters and I decided to make 12 wall hanging quilts each - one for each month.  Neither of us were very experienced with quilt top piecing, but excited to learn.  Our quilts were virtually identical, though there were some fabrics that differed - probably only 2.  Anyway, after making the 12 quilt tops, I felt ready to tackle a baby blanket for Donovan and try something more complicated than Monica's split rail.  Yet, at the same time, I knew my limitations. The Maple Leaf seemed a great way to go.  It's virtually a 9-patch, though some of the squares are made up by triangles.  I could do this. . . and I did.  I was very pleased with the result. One thing that distressed me later was that the fabrics used for the maple leaves did not wear well.  You can see areas where there are holes that look like someone cut the fabric (in the pink and gold). Those just randomly appeared, right along the thread lines.  The fabrics were not cheap either.  I learned that not all fabrics are created equal.  And price does not necessarily mean quality.

When I decided to do large quilts to match the baby blanket, (see Sterling's Baby Quilt entry) the fabrics I had used were no longer available, though I found as close to the originals as I could.  The colors of green and blue I was left to use was a disappointment.  They're nice, and I like them.  I just preferred the brightness of the baby blanket better.  When I quilted the large one, I stitched, not in the ditch, but about a quarter inch from the edge of the leaf.

Sterling's Baby Quilt - Birds in the Air

Found out very recently that this quilt pattern was called "Birds in the Air."  I never would have guessed. I always thought it looked like fish, and have also heard Christmas trees and arrow heads which all seem more plausible than birds, but I guess that's the privilege of being the first to name something. Anyway, this is a combination of the fish pattern (sorry, it still looks like fish to me) from one quilt and the bright, vivid rainbow colors on a black background from another.

This quilt was the best for teaching colors.  Since I made this one when I was still expecting Sterling, my 18 month old, Donovan impressed his Parents As Teachers lady with his grasp of all the colors.  I attribute it to not only my son's intelligence, but this blanket as well, for exposing him to the colors in such a obvious way.

I promised I would explain with Sterling's quilt about the idea for having a large quilt that matches the baby blanket.  When I was in the planning stages of Sterling's quilt, thoughts of my own baby blanket and what it meant to me came forcibly to my mind.  I loved my baby blanket to shreds - literally, so that my mother said we needed to throw it away.  I protested so vehemently that she said that if I wanted to keep it, we'd have to recover it.  This, I agreed to.  The exact colors of gingham green and plain pink back were not available which is what I really wanted, but since I couldn't have that, I chose some pastel purple gingham in two sizes of squares to cover it with.  If you hold it up to the light, you can see the tattered remains of my beloved blanket.

Brought to my mind was a time in college when I was feeling particularly lonely and depressed, where I just wanted to snuggle up in my bed with my baby blanket and teddy bear, yet, I was in college and such behavior would have been unacceptable in my mind.  And then an epiphany struck! No one would think much of snuggling under your blanket - a regular sized blanket.  If I made a big quilt, to match their special blanket, that they could then take to college, when they were big, they would have something that would remind them constantly of the love they felt at home and could feel our embrace as they snuggled under it.

So, I planned, not only the baby blanket, but a large blanket as well.  I first thought that they would get the big quilt as a going away present when they went off to college, but then, reasoned I, that there would be no sentimentality attached to the large one, even if it matched. Then came the thought that for their 8th birthday, a special birthday for us since in our faith, that is the age of accountability and therefore old enough to decide to get baptized, they would get the large quilt then. They would also be old enough not to drag it around the house as they did their baby blanket.  And so it began.

Unfortunately, I did not have the fabrics from the two oldest's quilts, so those I did the best I could to match.

Fiona's Baby Quilt - Pinwheel Variation

Though the years as I became more and more interested in quilting, when I happened upon a quilt or quilt pattern that I liked, I would cut it out of the magazine and glue it into the back of my quilt book, or, if I saw it somewhere where I couldn't cut it out, I would draw the pattern into the back cover of my book, thus keeping them all in the same place.  This pattern I saw and cut out of a magazine or advertisement for quilt books and figured out how to make it.  You see, I'm far too cheap to buy something I can figure out myself, thus sometimes learning things through the school of hard knocks rather than someone else's experiences.  Either that, or I enjoy the challenge of figuring it all out myself.  Yeah, let's go with that.

Here is Fiona's baby blanket.  My sister, Emerald, found the fabric for the large squares - the one that all the other fabrics had to match.  It seemed perfect and I immediately found the two dark fabrics that would be perfect.  A trip to another store unearthed the light blue, but that lavender eluded me for quite some time, to the point where I thought I would have to start over again.  Finally finding all the fabrics, I discovered that the green that I would later use in Karina's quilt with less than perfect satisfaction for me, really made the other colors pop in Fiona's quilt.  To have a little fun, I used two different colors of yarn to tie her quilt.  I liked the green in the corners, except in the center of the pinwheel.  For that I used a lavender yarn with much satisfaction.  I even tied it in a new way where there's a bow tied on the top of the blanket, and a tie on the back.

Below is Fiona's large quilt, hand quilted very simply on the diagonal, which is very much my style.  Her's in a quilt I continue to look on with much satisfaction.  It's always good to get those colors just so.  You'll be looking at it a lot longer than that dress that will go out of fashion in a few years.  Of all my girls, I think that it was good that I got her quilt just right.  She's probably the most likely to follow in my footsteps of sewing/quilting or at least something that will use her artistic eye.

Karina's Baby Quilt - Nine Patch Arrows

I'm not even sure the exact name for this nine-patch pattern, but it's one I saw many long years ago, drew a little tiny picture of the patch in the back of my one and only quilting book (one that is still my favorite and my go-to book) and chose as Karina's quilt.  The one thing that I wish I would have done differently, was to use either the red or the purple as the back and binding.  The green was a fine color, but having that be the binding brings the green out in the quilt, and not only did I like the purple color better, knowing Karina now as I do, she would have preferred purple or red.  So why, if I liked the purple better did I go with the green anyway? Price.  The purple was the most expensive of the fabrics and the green was the cheapest.  Unfortunately, money was an issue and I let that be my guide.  Little did I know that the long term result would be forever wishing I had done it differently. SIGH!  I've learned that some things are worth the added expense to make it right.

Here is Karina's large quilt, not yet quilted, but it's time to get it up on the frame as her 8th birthday is approaching.  Yes, you can see how the white squares on point don't line up perfectly. I've learned a bit more about dealing with bias sewing for quilts and how that affects squaring the blocks before sewing them.  But hey, you live and learn.

Gideon's Baby Quilt - Attic Window

 Gideon's baby blanket, done in the attic window pattern. It has the tiger print in an X which on the large quilt is repeated over and over which ends up looking like a series of X's and O's.  Lots of hugs and kisses for this little guy, who gives great hugs and wet, juicy kisses.

This is the large quilt folded in quarters that I obviously have not put together since Gideon is not yet 8.  The zebra print is the border and the bottom, giraffe print is the back and binding. Guess what his dad got him as his special stuffed animal.  A tiger.  Are you surprised that tigers are his favorite animal?

Porter's Baby Quilt - Log Cabin

Each of my children have a pieced, tied, baby blanket that I made for them.  I'm going to post each of them here in the next few days starting with the youngest.  That way when someone scrolls through my blog in a few weeks, they will be able to start at the oldest and see down through the youngest, in the order they were made.  Porter's is a Log Cabin quilt pattern in blues from almost black to almost white.  I always tie my baby's quilts because I remember loving to roll the ties of my own baby blanket between my fingers, and don't want to deprive them of that tactile experience.

When they turn 8, a milestone birthday in our home, they receive a large quilt of the same style and fabrics to put on their bed - I'll explain how I came up with that idea with Sterling's Quilt in a few days. By that point they can leave it on the bed and not drag it around the house. That quilt, I hand quilt - my personal preference.  Porter is not yet 8 so this is the folded quilt top with the backing fabric and binding shown at the top of the photo.  I'll quilt it when we get nearer his 8th birthday.

 There are a couple interesting things about his quilt that I'll share with you.  There were two colors I struggled to find that matched perfectly.  First off, the almost white fabric I could not find any that were light enough. One day when looking, I saw the wrong side of a scrap of fabric that my sister had and thought that would be perfect.  I then went to the store where she had purchased it, but the first bolt of fabric in that color was too dark.  Finally I found another bolt of the same fabric where the wrong side was the perfect color.  The other color I struggled with was the darker medium blue that touches the central block.  It was almost identical in color to the lighter medium color on the other side of the central square.  The solution was to buy a fabric marker and color each piece - a bit of a pain, but worth it in the end.  I love the flow of colors, and although traditionally a log cabin has a red or yellow center, I opted not to because I really wanted the flow of color to be continuous.

Young Frankenstein Peignoir

Last week was a whirl wind sewing fest (the reason for my lack of posts) to make a Halloween costume of the peignoir worn by Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein for a most charming lady. It of course would look much better with someone wearing it, but we did our best to duplicate (as well as we could with the fabric available) the negligee set.

Pink, Blue and Green Pillows to Match the Lap Quilt

To match the lap quilt shown on October 15, 2013, I made two large pillows to match.  The front of the pillows are identical and match the quilt, though on a slightly smaller scale. It also has a layer of batting so I could quilt it in the same style as the quilt - a fun flower machine quilted into the center of each square. The back of the pillow (shown on the left), is from the same fabric as the quilt back.  The closure is an invisible zipper next to the pink piping (which is out of the same fabric as the binding on the quilt).

New Lunch Boxes for the Boys

I wanted to wait and post these when I had the girls' new lunch boxes done as well, so you could see all of them together, but I haven't gotten the girl's done yet.  Karina's none too happy about that.  I made these when I was in "solitary confinement" at the beginning of September.  I could see that the girls needed new lunch boxes, and had a new idea for a pattern that I wanted to try out. As soon as the two younger boys heard about me making new lunchboxes for the middle girls, Gideon piped up and said that he didn't even have one lunch box!  Would I make him one as well?  Porter than said he wanted one, too.  Well, the boys didn't have lunch boxes because they didn't NEED lunch boxes yet, being in half day kindergarten and preschool, but I told them I would make them each one. After all, when you're on a roll making something, it's easier to make the same thing back to back than wait several years in between. Of course now, I don't know if I can find my written instructions that I made - I may have to re-figure everything out all over again. Ugh!

I made the boys lunchboxes first, figuring if I made a mistake, the boys would care less about mistakes than the girls would.  The problem with that was that I made the boys first, and the girls, who need them more, are still waiting.  Karina told me that all the kids at school are still waiting to see the new one that she had promised she would have last month. I told her I haven't had time to make it yet.  Donovan, my say-it-like-it-is teenage boy said, "You always have time for Trenna when she calls."  I looked at him and said, "Well, yeah.  She's paying me.  If someone was paying you to do something, wouldn't you find the time to do it?"  Mumbled "yes" in reply. ;-)  Yes, paying customers come first, so the girls still wait while I show you the boys' new lunch boxes.  I must add that the fabrics used to make these were left overs from their baby quilts, so they are extra special in that regard as well.

I did Gideon's lunch box first and decided it was a little taller than I wanted, so I revised the pattern and then made Porter's, which was a better size, in my opinion.  There's a pocket inside and since taking the pictures, I added some elastic inside to hold a water bottle in place.