Palm Beach in winter

My grandparents are snowbirds. After Christmas each year they drive down to a small town in Florida near West Palm Beach to spend a few months out of the cold. One year, maybe the year after we were married, my husband and I went down to visit them in their golf course community. We took golf lessons, went out to eat, shopped. It was warm, but everything looked windswept and crispy, dry. Being Florida, the decor in many of the restaurants and shops included aquamarine blues and a fair amount of magenta. This quilt reminds me of the memory of that trip. Does that make sense?
In truth, this quilt was born out of panic. After my son was born, I didn't have time to craft at all. In those first few months, I was worried that I would never again be able to devote time to quilting and the other handwork hobbies that I love. So I panicked, and bought a few Amy Butler Midwest Modern II charm packs. I'd never bought charm packs before, but I needed a quick fix, and these hourglass blocks fit the bill. I added in some Heather Bailey prints along with a couple of other things from my stash, and made several blocks each nap time. Until I couldn't make any more.

There are 169 blocks in this quilt. It measures about 47.5" square. I have seven or eight leftover blocks, but I couldn't even make enough more to finish out another row of 13. I was burned out on hourglasses. I wish it was a little bit bigger, but it's a decent sofa lap quilt for the basement.
I love the backing fabric, a cotton/linen blend birdseed print (that made the quilting a little bit tricky). I think it's perfect for this quilt. This quilt was actually finished several months ago, and has been serving couch duty since then. The quilt may have proved that I can find time for crafting with an under-one-year-old, but there certainly doesn't seem to be all that much time for blogging, too!

Zig Zag

We spend a lot of time on the floor lately. Henry crawls and bangs things together and ignores his toys in favor of much more exciting things like outlets and electrical cords. I sing and bang things together in an attempt to make his toys look interesting and thwart his constant attempts to electrocute himself. These days, camping out on the floor is how we fill our time between naps and meals and occasional trips to the farm.

So there couldn't be a better time for a new floor quilt. Papa calls them H's "activity mats". This one measures about 40" by 47". I wish it were a bit bigger, but I love its bold pattern. Later, I hope those zigs will become rivers and the zags roads and mountains. For now, H wads the quilt up with busy knees on his way across the room or allows me to drape it over his head for a game of peek-a-boo. He examines the patterns and fabrics in the quiet moments before naptime, and every so often he actually pops his thumb in his mouth and lays down his head, ever so briefly. Good enough for me.

Meet Quiltie

When we were children, my brothers and I each had a different "lovey". Mine was a polyester department store baby blanket that my mom improved by hand-applying a satin ribbon binding. I loved my blankie. My oldest little brother had a Plaudie bear (more on this in an upcoming post), and my youngest brother had Quiltie. Ted's quiltie is awesome, with needle-turned hearts surrounding a calico checkerboard. That handmade quilt became threadbare as baby Ted and then toddler Ted dragged him everywhere and slept with him every night. I still have my blankie, and I think lovies can be very important to little children.

When Henry was born, we got several "minkee" blankets as gifts from friends. They are very very soft, but they lack personality. I know that's probably because they often need to be replaced and the simpler something is, the easier it is to replace. But. I made this little guy when I made this quilt for my friend Katie's son. I had a few extra blocks and I cut them down from half-square triangles into these hourglass blocks. The quilt measures about 11 inches by 13 and is batted with bamboo, which makes it very drapey and not at all stiff.

Henry is currently a fan of grabbing things, and this quilt has been in his crib ready for grabbing since about three weeks after he was born. It goes with us on most car trips and in the stroller, protecting his chubby little legs from the sun. I know I can't force this little quilt as his lovey, but he does seem to like it now, rubbing it on his face to soothe himself in the crib, sucking his thumb all the while. And I love to see him snuggling with this little quilt that I made him.

Bowties or butterflies?

I did it again-- I took my quilt photos in the fat middle of the day. It makes the colors so over-bright. But here we go anyway. This is a crumb-type scrap quilt that I made in the months just before our baby was born. It's made up of alternating nine-patch blocks (an "x" block next to a "cross" block, if that makes sense). It was inspired by the ones that the little red hen makes, like this one, except that I only put colors in the corners of alternate patches instead of in each patch.

It measures about 36 inches by 43 inches, and sports my normal stippled quilting. Each patch of the nine-patch blocks is 2.5 inches finished. There are a few different white fabrics in the quilt, some Kona bleach white and some white on white prints, because this is a true scrap quilt. Everything came out of the bins.

Everything, that is, except the back, which I love. It's a green and white print of tiny train tracks complemented with the yellower-green leaf print. Initially I had planned on doing a green binding as well, but I'm so glad I opted for the dark brown Civil War repro print. There are tiny light brown leaves on it, and I think the dark color does such a great job of setting off all that white.

The baby boy has been using this as an activity quilt. When we went to our mothers' group, he rolled around all over it, and he spit up on it at least once during Mama/baby yoga. Thus all the stippling. I love dense quilting like this on a baby quilt because it can be thrown in the washer and dryer without a thought. It's getting softer and softer. I hope the boy will grow to love this one as much as I do, in all its crinkly goodness.

Projects

We're still alive! Baby and I are surviving our first weeks home alone and trying to establish a routine (for example, the "routine" morning nap for both Mama and baby, with baby's head nestled softly under my chin as he sleeps on my chest).

Standards have been lowered slightly (This morning, I was eating a blueberry waffle that I made and froze in the first weeks of H's life when he was sleeping a lot. Since the child wants to be held constantly, he was in the Baby Bjorn, riding high on my chest. A droplet of syrup fell on his tiny, downy head and I licked it off without a second thought.), but we're enjoying each other.

I have been missing my crafting time, however. I've been dreaming up elaborate quilts in my head, quilts that I probably won't have time for in the next eighteen years. And although the dreaming is fun, I'd love to get my hands on some actual fabric someday soon. I'm trying to institute the solo afternoon nap, for baby only. In the meantime, there are two crafty products in the photo above. The heart onesie is probably the only thing I've finished since H was born. I whipped it up in about seven minutes on Valentine's Day as H's (and my) gift to his papa. Yay for scraps of quilting fabric and interfacing!

The crumb quilt that the baby's lying on is another story. I finished the piecing and quilting several weeks before he was to be born, but since he surprised us and came almost three weeks early, there's no binding. Luckily, in this view you can't tell. More about that little quilt when it finally has some edges-- maybe in three years?

New Dear Jane

Two new Dear Jane blocks this week. Both blocks came about when I needed to zone out on piecework. Those foundation papers make this so easy to do, and so relaxing. First is L-5 Chattanooga Charlie, another batik block. This block was meant to be brown, but I like the additional color and movement that the wilder batik adds. I'm getting a little sick of all the brown blocks, and my stash is running a little thin.
And this is M-11, Rickshaw. There was a little more lining up to do in this block, which as you can see wasn't as successful as it could have been. But I still like the finished product. This is one of the first fabrics I bought on my own as a quilter, in 2001. I find it kind of somber now.

Another girly baby quilt

So. This quilt is for a friend who's a little more girly than the one for whom I made the first "girl" baby quilt. Pinwheels instead of hourglasses, and all pinks and grays. This one was kind of hard to give away, it turned out so well. But I could make another if I really wanted to; all the fabrics are still in the stash. The quilt is still smaller than the "standard" baby quilt size, but I like them that way-- they can be used as a play mat or drag-along as well as for the wrapping-up in the first few weeks and months. BQ (before quilting) it was 36" by 41", and I forgot to measure after. I was rushing to get it completed for my friend's baby shower today, where it was received very warmly.

A few cobwebs have been forming around the blog here lately. I think summer is getting in the way. Back soon, hopefully!

K-11, H-1

K-11, Columbine, and
H-1, Peek-a-boo.

Two new Dear Jane blocks completed over the weekend. Both of these were foundation-piece-and-go! I'm not quite sure about the Joel Dewberry print in the second block, but I think it'll all blend in.

K-8 Springbrook Park

Trying to catch up on the Dear Jane quilt-along. Here's my latest block, K-8 Springbrook Park. Just a nice foundation-pieced jaunt. I wish that I could find a better way to photograph these so that there wouldn't always be little cut-off corners and such. Oh, well.

Baby Quilt 2 of 4: For a girl

So I guess I'm rolling right through the "popular" internet quilts right now, huh? This one is an hourglass quilt for the baby of a friend who's due in September. This quilt was made entirely from stashed materials, which feels pretty good. I used the measurements that AmandaJean gave over at crazymomquilts-- seven blocks by seven blocks, and it's finished at about 35 inches square. These quilts are pretty small, but I think they'll be good for wrapping up a little baby, don't you?
The quilting came much easier on this one (practice makes perfect, I guess), but I think the white Kona cotton must be a little stiffer than some of the other colors. The brown and orange and blue quilt came out of the dryer feeling much softer than this one did. Has anyone else had this experience with the white Kona cotton?
This is probably the best photo of the quilt. I just threw it out on top of the tall grass (yet to be made into hay) at the farm and snapped away. Summer certainly can grow up some good photo assistants!

Baby Quilt 1: For a boy

Several of my friends will be first-time mothers this August and September, so I'm trying to get a jump on baby crafting. This quilt will be for the baby boy of a friend who doesn't read this blog too often, so I think it will still be a surprise.

This quilt was inspired heavily by one that Rebekah at don't call me becky dot com made last month. She used charm squares from Moda's Summer in the City line. I really liked the idea of a quilt for a boy with oranges and blues and this brown. Hers is probably a little more baby-friendly, with its more muted colors, but I really love how this one came out. All the oranges and blues came from my stash.

This quilt is my first meandering machine-quilted finished product. It measures about 36 inches square. I can't wait to start on the two quilts for baby girls! For some reason I think those will be harder than this one. I'm not a very girly girl, but I do want to put some pinks and purples in those quilts-- maybe with spring greens and gray?

Hump day

Today we were talking about my rhododendrons, which are going crazy this year, and my grandmother said that our soil must be acidic at the house since the rhodos and azaleas do so well here. She said she thought that might be the reason that my peonies haven't done so well, because "they like the sweeter soil".

And a couple of works-in-progress:
On the sewing machine.
And on the design wall.

100!

Wow, this is my 100th post. I meant to post something more interesting in honor of the occasion, but I'm afraid it will only be more Dear Jane blocks. So here we go. At least this batch means I'm only two blocks behind on my quilt-along.
This is A-13, Starlight Starbright. I really like the way it turned out, even if the inset seams did get a little wonky. It's fun to work with some blue fabric for a change, too-- there'll be so little of it in my interpretation of this quilt.This is B-1, Bachelor's Buttons, reverse applique. I like to think I'm getting a little better at this applique business. It certainly is easier to applique a circle than a teardrop.

Oh, and a little anecdote that has nothing to do with crafting: Wednesday night I was standing at my ironing board in our basement when I heard a buzzing noise, growing louder, in the bathroom. I found several yellow jackets buzzing around the windows and lights in the room, and then I opened the door to the bathroom and it was like a horror movie. At least two hundred yellow jackets were swarming behind the curtains of the window facing the back of the house, back lit by the setting sun. I was just waiting for them to come after me. There was nothing to do but close the bathroom door, call the exterminator and spend the rest of the evening upstairs. Yikes. But maybe I can blame my lack of posting on the wasps?

Three more

Three more Dear Jane blocks today. I think this is my favorite of the bunch. This is D-7, Meeting Place. I'm just such a sucker for the crazy batiks tamed by straight lines and natural fabric backgrounds!
D-3, Jason's Jacks. I'm enjoying these appliqued blocks now that the quilt-along has forced me to tackle them. I love this fabric for this block, too.
And the third is K-7, Rose of Sharing. This one was appliqued in four parts and then machine stitched together. I'm branching out a little more as far as fabric choice goes, too. These three blocks don't look too hot all together, but on my design sheet and on the wall they look just fine in context. Just one more block and I'll be caught up on the Dear Jane-along.

Keeping up with Jane

Four new Dear Jane blocks today. Some were easier than others. This is E8, Mama's Maze. All paper pieced, and lots of fun. They just come out so great this way. Also, I love this orange fabric.
B-2, Sweet Tater Pie. This is another one (see also: A-1) that is running in the opposite direction from the original. I still think it looks cool. This one started out as two pinwheel blocks, one appliqued on top of the other. This is the method that I wanted to use on the block below, but I thought I should try the curved piecing...
Which was kind of a mistake. This is B-3, Mirror Image, and it's my second try at the block. At this point, I say good enough. Fortunately, the brown fabric does a pretty good job of camouflaging the worst flaws.
And just to document them all, this is M-10, Simple Simon.

Quilty Saturday

This morning, the puppy jumped in a mud puddle and temporarily rendered himself grey, head-to-toe. I wish I had had a camera. Then he jumped into the lake to 'wash himself off'. It must finally be spring, because the lake water's warming up and beginning to produce algae, which makes certain puppies smell like swamp. If he'd stayed muddy at least he'd have just smelled like dirt. There's been a lot of quilting going on this weekend. Last night I had my first go with the Bernina free-motion quilting foot (#29) for my older-model machine. I quilted this blue and almost-white block that I made back in the winter of 2003 when I was so bored at night after work that I decided to make every star block in my 1000 Great Quilt Blocks book. (Lots of those blocks had to be modified to take out extraneous seams, by the way.)

It occurred to me just as I wrote that sentence that the whole Dear Jane quilt is a little like my quest to make all the stars. One of each, hundreds of tiny little blocks. That said, here are a couple more. These are the ones that were up this week for Anina's Dear Baby Jane quilt-along.
D-13 Field of Dreams: Pretty straightforward.
A-7 Dad's Plaids: I still suck at the applique, but I guess I'm getting better. Also love how this one doesn't even line up. I guess it will be *another* humility block for this quilt.

Seventy-five quilt

Today is my Virginia grandmother's seventy-fifth birthday. I sent her this little spring quilt in celebration. The blocks were all foundation pieced (templates at Piece By Number), and the whole thing is about twelve inches square. The results with paper piecing are so fantastic that I almost don't mind that this thing took me all day Sunday to make. But seventy-five? It had to be something special. More photos on flickr.

Back on the Dear Jane bandwagon

A lovely new addition to my Dear Jane quest, this is block C-9, Jane's tears. I did this one in reverse applique, and it looks at least a little better than my last attempt at teeny-tiny applique. It was actually really enjoyable to do the whole thing by hand.

I've gotten back on the right track with this quilt thanks to Anina's Dear Baby Jane quilt-along. This block and B-13, Four Corner Press, were the blocks for this first week.

Quilt-along lil' gator

Here are two more blocks for the quilt-along. Most folks are all finished with their blocks and working on settings, but I still have a few blocks left to complete. I don't know why I'm dragging my feet on this, but this weekend I took down the blocks for another quilt that were hogging my design wall and threw these up. That has made all the difference in my feelings about this quilt. Seeing all the blocks up there on the wall looking awesome together is giving me the push I need to get it finished. Without further adieu: These are the week 9 blocks. I've always loved churn-dash. I used the batik on the left once before, but I think it's better displayed with these larger pieces. I like how it's really directional. And the brown one on the right because the design wall told me I needed more brown in the quilt.
And these are the blocks from week 10 of the project. I really like the one on the right, where you don't immediately realize that the colored blocks of the nine-patch are made from more than one fabric.
And here's one last thing that I finished up the other day. It's the Baby Alligator Scarf, made from a kit from Morehouse Farm Merino. The sport-weight yarn is a little stiff and was kind of full of plant matter*, but I think the stiffness really helps to make this pattern pop. Now the only question is-- Is this way too scary for a child to want to wear? It's sized for a wee little one but it even kind of freaks me out when I look at those empty eye sockets. Whew! ( I know that a slightly older kid, say 5 or so, would probably enjoy it, but I'm not sure it's big enough...)

*When I was a new knitter, I knit my first sweater from some lovely Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk yarn, with a Debbie Bliss pattern. I didn't feel confident enough to choose my own yarn to replace the yarn called for in patterns. My second sweater, for my husband, I chose to knit in Morehouse Farm Merino, mostly because the price was right. That was the most painful knit ever. I was pulling twigs and stems out of the yarn every few stitches, and after all that work, the finished product wasn't even that great-- it was stiff and kind of pill-y. The whole experience put me back quite a bit on this knitting thing. So know I know that the Morehouse Farm stuff is much better for smaller projects (for which they have several really cute patterns), and that knitting is expensive if you want it to be enjoyable.

Catching up

I spent some time this week doing some catching up on AmandaJean's quilt-along. I'm still not quite there, but here are the blocks from week 4. I wish that I was better at piecing and could have made the four pairs of half-square triangles on each side of the blocks (in the background charcoal color) out of one triangle. But this is not the first time that I have tried and failed to make that type of measurement work out. So this will have to do for now. And here are the blocks for week 7. I like that a lot of these blocks have a very diagonal energy to them. I think that's what might end up making my quilt work. I have a couple of ideas for setting these blocks in the finished quilt, and I'm looking forward to trying them out when the 12 weeks are up and I have 24 blocks.
But right now I have some more catching up to do. Week 5's blocks are in progress, and week 6 and week 8 still remain to be done. Happy weekend, all!