Triumph

This is the first quilt I've completed in over a year and a half! The baby it was made for is nine months old. Whatever. I feel like a million bucks for having it completed.

This is another group quilt by our collective of intrepid quilters. Prior quilts are here, here and here. Like the other quilts, a theme was chosen: numbers. Each quilter chose a number to represent. Blocks were delivered to me along with scraps of the fabric used. I divided the scraps into four color groups to construct the borders. Prior coverage of the quilting in the borders is here.

I bordered each individual block in yellow. The quilt is bound in a fabric from the train block, it is the same stripey binding as I used in this quilt. Unlike prior group quilts, the layout of this one was predetermined, as the blocks were to go in numerical order. I can't believe how wonderfully that turned out, with some red in each corner, and two blue blocks and two green blocks balancing each other out on opposite sides of the center. Perfect serendipity.The quilters are far and wide and while some got to see it in person today, others will have to settle for online unveiling, so below each block's creator is identified. The final size is 50 x 51 inches.

 By Sandra.

By Laura. I'm proud of the lighthearted cloud quilting.Those balloons look so real!

By Natalie.

By Kara. See the little quilted train tracks?

By Katie. The background fabric is more lavendar than the blue it appears in this picture. I was not impressed with my quilting on this block, I did it in a rush, while hubby watched the baby just-15-more-minutes. Of course, this is the block where my thread choice makes the quilting stand out more than all the others. Oh well.

By Anna.Quilting this one was fun.

 By Monica. This quilter tried to make seven flowers. That didn't work out so she delivered me a number seven instead. I quilted in seven butterflies to keep everything on the up and up.

 By Bree. I am 100% in love with the leaves I quilted on the tree. They look so sweet against those fabulous little lemons.

By me! I hand embroidered those little seeds on the watermelon.

The background is the green print shown above. It is finished with a handwritten label. These quilts are folk art. Most of the contributors are not quilters. I love that they just jumped in and sewed! I hope it inspires others to just sew stuff together. You don't need expensive fabric, books, patterns or classes. You need fabric, a needle and thread.

 I have more to show you about this quilt. I'm not like those quilting bloggers that have a new quilt to show you every week. So I'm gonna stretch this one out over a couple posts. See you next time!

Wedding quilt process post #2

I am thinking abstract design for this quilt. Here are a couple thumbnail sketches I've made.

I worked with the idea of "union" in each of these designs. I think the last is my favorite. A nod to the "double wedding ring" design but modern and huge. Huge is my new interest.

Technology is making me a better quilter

Exhibit A: Flickr app for iPhone. Thousands of quilt pictures whenever I want!

Exhibit B: camera phone. Taking pictures of works in progress allows me to remember where I was months later when I pick them back up. Also helps me keep things straight as I sew, without continually having to lay things back out. Less up and down from the machine.

Exhibit C: Sketchbook Express iPhone app. Allows me to sketch ideas as I have them. Whenever they strike!

Summer!

It was a long wet spring here in Oregon but finally finally the sun is shining, and flowers are exploding into bloom. Look at what I picked from our own garden!

And with the heat came an excuse to try that elderflower syrup. I use four tablespoons syrup, some ice and club soda. Mmmmmm. I will be making this again next year. I might increase the amount of sugar, and, as Sandra suggested, I may boil the syrup again afterward, to give it a longer shelf life. What a delicious reason to be using those coasters.

Making it happen

Hey! Less than a month ago I bought some fabric and now it's been turned into coasters. In mom time that's practically instantaneous.

Our previous coasters were relegated somewhere high up about a year ago. It will be so nice to have somewhere to set our glasses besides stray envelopes and magazines. I like the feeling of following through on my ideas, even when they're small.

Wedding quilt process post #1

Aw. That's sweet. This happened four years ago. Four years? Wow. A few days before the wedding I got a Great Idea. I would make a wedding quilt. Every guest at the ceremony would take a piece of fabric and make a prayer or wish or blessing for us and I would use the fabrics to make a quilt.

It was a sweet part of the ceremony. It was also like a hundred degrees out, and these puppies doubled as handkerchiefs for sweaty guests. Half of our friends watched my dad mop his brow with his and told us we "should wash them". Anyway, guess what's happened with those fabrics over the past four years?

Yeah. Sad. Despite the new home ownership, the graduate school and the breeding in the intervening years, the real reason this quilt hasn't gone anywhere is a case of quilter's paralysis. First of all, I shopped for these fabrics in an incredible rush and without much fabric choosing experience. Would I have chosen these same fabrics today? Heck no. So when I look at these fabrics I am a little perplexed. My husband, for his part, requested that the quilt "not look like a regular quilt". So I have a bin full of fabrics I don't love, and I need to turn it into a quilt that doesn't look like a regular quilt.

As my current quilt project nears completion, I find myself pondering this quilt constantly. I want it done so so bad. During nap time today I got the bin out and counted and measured the pieces, and thought about how I want this to go. I want the piecing to be simple enough to not stall out for the next two years. I want the design to symbolize togetherness in some way. I want to use at least a piece of all 65 scraps of fabric in that bin. And I would like, at the end of it, for us to actually use that quilt on our queen sized bed. So. That's where I am. I've got a couple ideas that I'll share with you next time but I welcome any thoughts on this matter!

Spare batting and a toddler

I cut some shapes out of felt and let the little one stick them on this scrap of batting. It was fun for about 5 minutes. I think her dad played with it more than she did! I'm leaving the batting up, we'll see if it takes.