A Special quilt for a 1st grandbaby friend

 One of the things I enjoy most about I spy quilts is when I can make them special with fabrics meaningful for the family.  I got to do that for one of my daughter's good childhood friends early in 2020.  And recently I got to do it again for daughter's "birthday buddy", her friend who shares the same birthday.  We are also friends with the new grandparents from church and so I was able to ask them for ideas for both mom and dad. As this is the 1st grandbaby they of course are very excited.  They gave me lots of great ideas and it became a treasure hunt to find relevant fabrics.  As I was finding the fabrics in my stash as well as shopping I would sent texts to grandma.  We were both having a lot of fun thinking of ideas.  I thought I'd share the fun here as well as the finished quilt.

The first idea was that mom and dad met while students at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.  That one was easy, I found the fabric at my local LQS that keeps a selection of Texas university fabrics.  

They also both enjoy going to see the Texas Rangers play base ball - also easy.  This I found at JoAnns.  

I also had some generic sports fabric with a baseball bat in my stash.  

The mom was a music major when she first went to school, plays the flute & piano.  I knew I had several music related fabrics in my stash.  This particular fabric I used for the letter X (xylophone) before I found the X ray cats.  I used to have several yards but with all the fussy cutting over the years there isn't much left.  Fortunately there was a piece with both a piano and flutes close together.

The dad is currently going to medical school and doing medical research.  Aha, this fabric previously purchased for a family friend whose husband is a doctor would work for both with the microscope and prescription bottle.  When I showed this picture to the new grandma she also mentioned mom loves fried pickles - perfect!

Mom is a nurse at a clinic.  Nurses are a little harder to find but I did have this fabric in my stash that a friend gave me several years ago.  I'm not a big fan of animals dressed up like humans so I haven't use it much.  But it does definitely give the idea of nursing.

Mom wears glasses - that was in my stash too.

They also have a family dog though I couldn't find the exact breed of their current dog.  Mom did grow up with a chihuahua and the big eared one at the bottom looks a lot like a chi. 

Mom loves to read so I included this stack of books.

And crochet.  Well I knew the yarn fabric had to be included regardless for the letter Y.  I didn't have any crochet hooks but she won't mind the knitting needles. 

Now for dad's hobbies and interests.  1st the family mentioned he has purchased a canoe and has been taking it out on a nearby lake.  Hmm, no canoes in my stash.  But I did find this one at the LQS - I was so excited.  I have to laugh though, as soon as the quilt was finished I found another fabric with canoes.  That is one of those things that often happens, you keep finding things after you are done looking.  But now I have a canoes in my stash.  

Dad also enjoys cooking outside - I was so excited to finally get to use this fabric.  I've had it in my stash for a couple of years.

And the very best.  The dad grew up in Amarillo, Texas - and look what I found!  Most of the fabrics in my stash that reference Texas usually show Austin or Houston (due to NASA) but I found this in a scrap of Route 66 fabric.  Can't wait for him to see this one.

All 3 of these fabrics were so perfect as far as content but the fabrics didn't have enough contrast with the background so I added some scrappy flanges to make them stand out a bit. 

But the toughest thing to find.  Mom and dad both enjoy singing in their church choir.  Hmmm.  I could not find anything in my stash.  I tried searching the internet with no success.  Though I did get the idea of looking for Christmas caroling fabric - but of course all the Christmas fabric is long gone from the stores at this point.  I posted on the online quilt forum I've enjoyed for years asking if anyone had Singing or caroling figures in novelty fabric.  Fortunately a friend in Oklahoma had the perfect fabric that she shared with me.

And here is the finished quilt.  The pattern is Double Square Star from Missouri Quilt Company.  I'm sure they will have a lot of fun finding the special fabrics in the quilt.  I can't wait for the baby shower.

A Busy Spring

 Not sure why, but I frequently get a bunch of ideas at once and next thing I know I've made a  stack of I spy quilts with no idea what to do with them all.  This spring the start for all those ideas was a baby shower for one of my daughter's high school friends.  While looking for ideas for one quilt I found so many the next thing I knew I had a stack of 10 finished quilts and only one home for them.  No, I'm not going to give the new mom 10 quilts.  I've posted about several of them previously and the one for the baby shower will get it's own post.  Here are the remaining 3.

This idea came from a Jordan Fabrics video & pattern called Jagged X.  I used up a bunch of 2.5 strips and a stack of 2.5 x 4.5 rectangles for this, so there are fabric repeats but it was nice to be able to use the large stash of white novelties I've collected.  It was a fun pattern to do and Donna Jordan had a great suggestion on how to sew the diagonal without marking a line that was helpful, proving that even experienced sewers can learn new skills.  (Search Jagged X Jordan Fabrics if you wish to watch the video).  I think I am going to make this again in the future using non-novelties.  I like the effect and since there are very few seams to match it goes together quickly.

Jagged X

The idea of this next quilt also came from Jordan Fabrics though in a round about way.  They have a pattern called Chain Links which looks kind of like an Irish Chain using a 9 patch alternated with TOT to make a diagonal pattern. Since I wanted to use my standard 4" finished square, I decided to make modified 16 patches instead of 9 patches to make the math easier (1" squares) and allow me to use up some more of those scraps that always accumulate after fussy cutting.  I envisioned a long "leader/ender" project but wow, I should have done the math - 216 little 4 patches to trim. But once I started I felt obligated to finish.  This one goes in the "won't be doing that one again" list.

This next quilt is one of my favorites from the 10 made this spring.  The idea came from Lynne from an online quilt group.  We enable each other frequently with ideas.  I love the secondary zigzag pattern on this one.  Her original quilt used 4 patches and HST but I wanted to have larger pieces of novelty & fewer seams so I made a large flying geese instead.  Still pretty quick to do.

Using up some scraps

 Any time you work with novelties or any fabric where you fussy cut, you end up with lots of odd sizes left over.  I typically throw them in a bin and when it gets full I sew them all together in rows to make piano keys - usually used for pieced borders.  But I decided I was getting overwhelmed with piano keys and so cut them into sections for this quilt.  It ended up looking a lot like a string quilt but that's OK.  I've done something similar a LONG time ago with dark blue fabrics in the corners.  I don't like this one quite as well (I think it needed something different in the corners), but it did use up all those rolls of piano keys I had accumulate for the recent months. And almost all the bits an scraps of the blue chambray I've been using for t-shirt quilts over the last year. win win.

Starting out 2021 with color

 I've been having some fun with color and novelties.  I decided to cut a bunch of 2.5" strips and 4.5" strips from scatter print fabrics to have "on hand" for I spy quilts, thinking this would save some time refolding fabrics.  And then of course I had to find some quilt patterns to make. 

This pattern is called Ridiculously Easy Jelly Roll by Shabby fabrics.  I modified to use 8.5" cut novelty strips and adjusted to minimize the background.  Each block is 3 strips wide and 14.5" long - kind of strange but it worked.

This is Balancing act by Jordan Fabrics, pattern modified to utilize 8.5" cut novelty strips.  The unevenness of the pattern makes me a little uncomfortable but it was was fast and easy!

I think this is my favorite - another pattern from Jordan fabrics.  This one is called Beads.  Again I modified the construction method to work well for novelties and also minimize the piecing of the background blocks.  The rows and blocks are on point, the only triangles are on the edges.  I'll definitely make this one again, I love how it sparkles.

This is a basic rail pattern.  I had a bunch of left over strips so I trimmed to 6.5" (to work with 3 strips).  I'm pretty sure I've done something similar before but maybe not exactly this layout.  The hardest part was deciding how to arrange the fabrics - not all the reds or blues read the same.  Looking at this small picture there are some I'm tempted to change but will probably leave them - as it isn't noticeable when you are looking at the quilt in person.

Almost all those 2.5" strips I precut are now gone - good job.  Though the baskets of folded fabric seem to be just as full.  Probably because they are breeding at night - yeah, we'll say that's it. 😀

A few more non-novelty quilts from my bucket list

 I think every quilter has some ideas of quilts they want to make "someday".  Over the last couple of months I've just not been much inspired to play with the novelty fabrics, and I was definitely very tired of T-shirt quilts (I think it's been 12 in the last 12 months).  So I tried some different things from my bucket list.  

I received some Applipops for Christmas so wanted to try them out.  I had been wanting to make another black and white quilt for a while so when I searched for quilts with applique circles this one was perfect. It is only about 14" square and it was fun to play with all those bright scraps. Pattern "True Colors" by Nancy Mahoney.

Several months ago I had run across the traditional pattern called Jack's chain and a related modification called Ring Cycles (designer Lessa Siegele).  I loved the interlocking circles.  Initially I had thought I would hand piece it, but then decided to give machine piecing all the Y-seams a try.  I am very glad I decided to use batiks as they don't wobble around as much as other fabrics.  Also very glad I decided to just do a table runner size.  I think I would have gone nuts doing all those Y-seams for a full size quilt.  But the optical illusion of the circles is great. And all from my stash too.  But I have confirmed, I really don't like Y-seams! 

I have also been making some progress on a hand piecing project that I started at least 3 years ago.  I am enjoying how it is coming out, but I am getting tired of all the curved seams and pinning required.  I was hoping to get it to throw size, but it might require some borders to get there.  I think I am going to do another 10 or so "flowers" then put them together.  No idea yet how I'm going to finish the edges.  I might even applique them, but will have to cross that bridge when I get there.

Though I've enjoyed all the "regular" quilts I've been making, I really must spend some time with my novelty fabrics, I haven't opened those drawers in 6 months now.  Though I admit I have purchased the odd FQ here and there.  I think I'll scan back through this blog, see if I can get inspired.  There is a friend's 1st grandbaby on the way this summer that deserves a very special quilt.

Finishing out 2020 with applique

 Several months ago one of my quilty cousins contacted me to tell me she was thinning her stash. I have 2 close cousins-in-law that quilt that I call quilty cousins.  Anyway since this particular cousin used to work & teach at a quilt shop I of course wanted to see what she was getting rid of - I knew it would be nice fabric.  Among other things, I bought this stash of reds that are definitely NOT in my usual bright/bold fabric style, but my stash is pretty thin on reds so I figured I would use them eventually.  

I started looking at how pretty they were together and decided to make something for my dear daughter who loves red.  And since I was itching to do some applique, I'd include some applique in the center of the quilt.  I wasn't exactly sure where I was going with this other than I knew I wanted some applique and some piecing, kind of country looking from the plaids.  So this quilt literally grew as it went along.  The applique patterns are from Aunt Millie's Garden by Piece O Cake designs.  It was fun to watch how this worked out, mixing a bit of this and a bit of that.  I am very pleased how it came out, and in time for Christmas.  Notice the pieced hearts on the sides - appropriate for my sweet daughter.

One additional note, I had really enjoyed the applique pattern & Piece O Cake's method of applique so I decided to email Becky Goldsmith and let her know.  And she replied, very nice reply.  And put me on her own blog - see the Feb 14, 2021 post.  Cool!

2020 so far

So what have I done with my quarentine - besides lots of working from home.  Seems like all I've done this year has been T-shirt quilts.  And more T-shirt quilts (see my other blog Dee B Tees).   I have made some masks but only those requested by friends or family - not the hundreds that many have done.  But what else have I sewn while staying home for 6 months?

Only one was a novelty quilt but this isn't the 1st time I've posted non-novelty work on this blog - so here we go.  

Back in June, tired of t-shirts, I decided to spent a little time playing with novelties.  This modified Pinwheel was fun to do, made up of 4 quarter sqaure triangles and a 4" center square.  And some scraps around the outside.  Inspiration was a pattern called Whirlygigs that I modified to work better with novelties (not as chopped up).

Wanting to try something different I decided to make a miniature quilt from a pattern I had done several years ago, lsat time bed sized.  That was fun, and it doesn't take up much space when done.  I enjoy following the swirling tails around.  The Pattern is Kool Kats Kwilt by Patti Carey.

Remaking a favorite quilt  - a few years ago I had taken apart a quilt I had made back at the very beginning of my quilting journey.  Not knowing any better at the time I had used poly batting.  I also didn't know how to apply borders properly.  The whole thing waved like a flag in the breeze. I really did like the quilt despite all this.  I thought about various ways to fix the defects but finally just removed the quilting & batting completely, then put it away to "age".  I ran across it in my "to do" basket this spring when trying to think of a project.  At first I thought about making another one but I really did like these fabrics.  I decided to see if I could save it.  The sashing was wonky, but the individual blocks were ok - a few missing points but not terrible and the seams were decently 1/4".  

So I re-pieced the sashing and requilted and bound.  I even had some of the original fabric for the corner stones - 20 years ago!  Not as badly faded as the green foruntately.  I added a nice red flange on the binding (had some of the red too, just barely enough for the flange). And I love it - it's hanging at the entrance to my sewing room where I can enjoy it. Originally I had added buttons as embalishment but decided I really liked it this way better, just simple.  And FLAT - ha!

Here is the "Before" picture - ugh - this is from my very 1st blog post -  The green was brighter then, but those borders are painful to even look at.  I've definitely improved in 20 years of quilting.

Beginner Houses

Next - How about a bright pretty candy colored pattern?  I had purchased the pattern several months ago and decided I needed something bright and cheerful in July.  This fit the bill.  It doesn't have a border yet but I love the colors. Big simple blocks, it went together very fast.  The pattern is All Roads by Angela Walters.  I modified her piecing as I wanted to minimize the seams instead of all hst's.

And one more, I finished up a needle turn applique wall hanging started last year, pattern by Eye of the Beholder (love their patterns).  I want to do something special with the quilting background but still thinking on how to do it.  Once done it will hang in my sewing room of course.  I'm running out of wall space -  I may have to start rotating like an art gallery!  😃

Well pretty productive.  It is amazing how much time I used to spend driving.  I am saving a lot of gas and enjoying being 10 steps from my work to my sewing room - I'm very fortunate to have a job for now and a wonderful work and play space to spend my time.