Project Quilting - Challenge 6 - Flower Power Dolly Blanket

This weeks challenge for Project Quilting was to find inspiration in an office supply store. I could come up with nothing until Kim told me to go to the store and wander around. Which I did and inspiration struck. We were to use 3 supplies for inspiration. Here's what I came up with. (Scary dolly for display purpose only)

The inspiration for my dolly blanket was all the bright colors of the new school supplies, a folder (pictured below), white poster board, and a quilted backpack.

I started with 2 pieces of cotton fabric I had gotten a while back at Walmart. They are supposed to be big dish towels, but I loved the texture and knew I could do something with them someday. They came in a big package of 5. After ironing them out, they looked and were about the size of white poster board.

I cut one piece in half, sandwiched it with some batting and quilted it. I quilted in a diagonal manner like the way the backpack I saw was quilted. I really like how it looks as I usually stipple everything.

I then heat bonded a bunch of solid colored fabrics, traced out my flowers, cut them out and ironed them onto my quilted surface. The butterfly wasn't on the inspiration folder, but I thought it would blend in nicely. I then free-handed the remaining flowers that were going to be just stitched.

After adhering all the flowers I matched thread and sewed over the flowers. I stitched several times around not going over the same line of stitching as I wanted it to look like doodling.

As I was finishing all the doodling, my machine decided she had had enough and I spent about an hour trying to figure out what was wrong. Which was aproximatly 57 minutes to many. So, before taking a sledge hammer to her or putting my head thru the nearest wall, I got out my baby Janome (which is like a kids sewing machine) and sewed on the ribbon border. I wanted it to be nicely couched onto the quilt but my janome only does a simple zig-zag. Whatever.

This piece measures 22 x 16 and was fitfully made in water-logged Elgin, IL.

Head over to Flicker to check out the other pieces....especially Aunt Kathleen's. I'm thinking she will be the judges winner this week!

Project Quilting - Challenge 4 - Bulletin Board

The directions were:

For Challenge 4, we're going back to something a little more traditional.

1. The inspiration for this week is the Log Cabin block.

2. Use as many fabrics as you like, but use both the front and reverse sides of at least one of them.

3. Maximum size is 36" x 36".

Here's what I came up with:

I started this project not knowing what it was going to turn into. I started be making 4 12" log cabin blocks from 3 inch strips of vintage linens. I ended up using only 2 of the blocks which I then cut in half. I still didn't know what it was going to be so just started fooling around with placement, adding the white to the triangles and a frame came to mind. Added large orange ric rac to peek out. Somewhere along the way I was thinking...maybe a big photo in the middle......then I thought ...bulletin board! The back is four 12" pieces of cork held together with heavy duty tape. I then quilted the top leaving the middle unquilted so that it would 'pop' and added some yellow ricrac (I heart ric-rac). I then stretched it over the cork and secured the piece to the back side. More ric-rac for hanging and it was done. I think it turned out great! Oh, I almost forgot....the fabric in the very middle and on the sides are the backside of that fabric.

I hot-glued large beads to the plain tacks to jazz them up a bit. Everything came from my stash except the cork. This piece and is now hanging in our kitchen. It measure 24" X 24".

Update: July 5, 2010
Score from the judges: 6.83 (out of 10). Not so great. Oh well......;)

Worlds collide - - Quilting meets scrapbooking.

I'm sure you all have been wondering where I've been this week....well at least my mom has ....my other blog reader....Aunt Kath, knew where I was ;) Project Quilting, of course! There was NO time this week to squeeze anything else in. We got the challenge on Sunday (my last post) and it took me a day or two to figure out what I was going to do. Once I had it figured out, life got in the way...as usual. 2 babies, postpartum visits, 6 hour neonatal Resuscitation (NRP) exam on-line, 9 hour NRP practical yesterday...sheesh...I'm never this busy! In between all of that I worked on my project.....I even stayed up really late (9p) a few nights and got up really early (4a) to work on it. It was an absolute joy! I forgot how much I enjoyed scrapbooking. By the end of the week, my craft room was (and is) torn to pieces. It's a complete disaster area!Anyway, here's what I made this week. I think it turned out great. I just posted it on Flicker, so go check out the other entries.

I started with some Amy Butler fat 1/4's (that I've had for a long time and didn't know what to do with), some matching solids, a 1/2 yd cut of cream fabric, and a 1/2 yd of light green fabric. I used almost all the 3 by 5's but not all the 1/2 yard cuts.

I then made 4 tiny 'quilts'. The front and back cover measure 8 1/2 by 7 inches and the inside pages measure 6 by 71/2 inches. I considered binding the pages, but it seemed to add too much bulk so I zig-zagged around the edges instead.

I had a lot of fun with this project...I really like how it turned out. I was going to do a 'sister' page, but instead Sophie ended up in the book...sorry, girls...ur on the cutting room floor. Oh, and one more thing this week...it poured rain on Thursday morn and we had some seepage in the basement. Lake Garcia next door was full up. Scroll down for pics.

Quilts For Kids

The last week or so (actually 9 days and a total of 24 sewing hours. I wrote down the time every time I sat down to work on this project...I don't know why...I'm weird.) has been dedicated to putting together the kits that Quilts for Kids sent me. Here's the rusults. I love how bright they are. These will be my 2 of 12 donations I plan to make this year.....1 per month. January and February.....Done!

Baby Merritt's Quilt

Henry's mom, Jennifer, had her baby last Saturday and all is well. Here is his quilt.( This is the one I copied from.) I love how it turned out. I think this is one of my favorite quilts I've made so far. I hope baby Merritt and his mom like it too. Hopefully I'll be able to get a pic of him wrapped up in it.

****

See if you can find the inscription I 'wrote' on the front side of the quilt. (Hint: Click on photo)

Baby Computer Bunting

Well, the computer jacket ended up looking like baby bunting but its not too bad. It does the job. I probably should have found a pattern to follow. I still need to put a closure on the flap so the cords don't fall out.
(I did think I was rather ingenious by making the pocket for the cords;)