Pixels in warm tones

 Bobbi and I just finished up another pixelated photo quilt - this one of her beloved Biology teacher from back when she lived in Bulgaria. Kind of an unusual gift, but Bobbi was certain this was what she wanted to do, and she and I enjoy having a regularly set time each week to work together on a project. 

Instead of the gray-scale that we used on the Toygar quilt and the one we made for Jared and Dondi last summer, she wanted to go warmer, so we have white and cream through beiges, caramels and deep espresso brown. 

We had some fun with the quilting pattern, going with a swirly pattern where her hair is, as it's such a defining, graphic element in the quilt, and frames her face so nicely. The rest of the quilt is just quilted with straight lines to complete the grid - lighter thread on her face, and dark brown over the background.

We finished it with a fun colorful science-themed backing since their connection is biology class.

This quilt just flew over the ocean to be delivered in person! Curious what her former teacher's going to think about receiving a gift with her face on it!

Anniversary gift

 After the success Bobbi and I had with a pixelated quilt last year, we decided to tackle another one, and THIS time she wanted to do one of a friend of ours who for many years had been part of a regionally well-known acapella singing group. She calls him "Superstar" and, with he and his wife being good friends of me and Matt, and sharing the same wedding anniversary, she decided to do this for an anniversary gift!

Almost completed...

And here it is hanging up at the County Fair with all the other quilts. The further away you are, the better it reads!

Pixelated Toygar quilt

 Bobbi's been wanting a blanket with her favorite music artist's face on it. But she doesn't have any images of him with high enough resolution to get something decent, so Dad had the brilliant idea of pixelating his face and recreating it as a quilt made of squares!!!

It made a great project for her and me to work on together for an hour once a week, little by little - she counted the different shades off the gridded pattern, and we built it one vertical strip at a time.

Here's the end result!

Made with Bobbi

After being inspired by Leah's and then Owen's quilt, Bobbi decided she wanted to make one, too.

What I've loved about making these with my kids is how different each one looks even when made from the exact same pattern.

Fun details about this quilt is the mix of Mom's leftovers (Buzz lightyear and Woody, cats on motorcycles, that funky neon one on the left, and some solids that fit with the color scheme), a few that Bobbi picked out on her own (the Batman flannel, the horses), and the blue stars donated by Kelsey, her occupational therapist. The finishing touch was the Superman fleece on the back in honor of Dad.

One beautiful thing about the directions for this project is that it suggests using no batting, so only having to wrestle with two layers. The fleece offers warmth, and with the smaller size, it's not too bulky.

Bobbi and I did the cutting with a rotary cutter hand over hand, and the sewing was done with Bobbi on the pedal and Mom at the machine itself, and I didn't lose any fingers. It probably took us six months from start to finish, but we did it! She was pretty pleased with the results, and equally proud of the 4H blue ribbon at the county fair.

 It was pretty neat, too, to come back later in the week and see the burgundy "award of excellence" added next to the blue.

She ended up taking the quilt to the State Fair as well, and only got a red level ribbon, but she was satisfied, knowing that it's a solid middle-of-the-road award leaving room for improvement, and she was inspired to start another project this year. We'll see what comes of that!