Alex's quilt

 So, a week before Christmas, Matt says to me, "We should make a bed size quilt for Alex*!" 

*Alex is Owen's friend who's been living with us since August.

So, why not - many hands makes light work, right? So Matt and I laid it out that night with help from Rinnah and Leah (the benefit of putting in hours over the years here and there getting squares precut!) and the next day, Evania, Gloria, Rinnah and I started sewing. A few minutes here and there all week long, and we got the top done, laid it all out with Leah and Rinnah helping again one evening, and got half of it tied. Matt got the rest tied the next morning (Christmas Eve), while I worked on preparing our fancy dinner for the evening. Alex came up at one point that morning and asked if we had a big blanket that he could use because although he has three, they're all throw size so none of them cover his whole body. I said, "Sure!" and went upstairs and grabbed the first quilt I made for him to use. We were all laughing as he went back down to his room...even Owen who was also in on the secret, and made it up later that afternoon to help with sewing on the binding so it would be ready to give to Alex that evening!!

We think he liked it. :)

One interesting tidbit is that we used up a stack of 34 larger size squares that I think were left over from the quilt that I made for Matt back when we were dating! They're a larger size than our current 4.5" square cut size, so they have languished unused for years. Now they're gone. :) Yay!!

Resourcefulness quilt #2

It's been four years, and we're back talking about resourcefulness, but this time Owen and Leah got to take the lead on designing the quilt. The only stipulations were that 1) they had to only use fabrics that we already had in the house and 2) they had to agree on the design.

Their solution was to use color as a unifying factor. We didn't have the same pre-cut uniformity that was available for the last quilt, but decided to make use of the pre-cut squares that we already had. They each had veto power for any fabric that they didn't want in the quilt, as long as there was still enough in the color family to make the design work. Even deciding how to stitch the quilting lines (and what color!!) was a major deal, but at the end of the day (or month, or year or however long it took!) we got a pretty nice finished product! The finished size is the same oversized throw that the last Resourcefulness Quilt ended up being.

I should mention, too, that although Rinnah wasn't as involved in the design, she was quite involved in the stitching. The kids (Owen and Leah) ended up taking the quilt to the county fair with 4H.

Machine quilted with cotton batting. Backing red/black plaid flannel. All machine pieced and rotary cut.

Owen's fleece backed quilt

After seeing how nicely Leah's quilt turned out, and feeling how nice it was to snuggle up with, Owen decided to make himself one using the same pattern. He went through my stash of stuff to pick some basic solids and then purchased a few special ones to make a really cool car/gear themed quilt.

(Note - I can't remember when he made this one! It was before Bobbi made hers, but after Leah made hers. Owen and I are pretty sure August 2017 was right, because he made it and showed it at the county fair that year...)

Resourcefulness quilt

As part of our home school curriculum, we use a resource called "Character First" which highlights a different positive character trait each month. This particular month we were studying "resourcefulness" and decided to put it into practice by making a quilt all using pieces we already had here at home.

The base of the quilt was made from a box of 2.5" cut squares. Some of these were ones I'd cut, but the box was one I'd inherited from my grandparents when my grandma died and grandpa eventually sold his house when he remarried. This quilt, although somewhat garish, is special on many levels - some of the fabrics are mine, some shout "grandma and grandpa" to me (like the hay and eggs, or the blue with the little trucks, trees, and mailboxes on it!), and it's all put together with the creativity and teamwork of Owen and Leah. Not only did they use resourcefulness in making something beautiful and useful out of a box of scraps, but when there were fabrics that didn't have enough for a full row, they adapted. Sometime this meant using that fabric for one of the shorter diagonal rows, and sometimes (like in the red row in the close up) it meant using many different red fabrics all together.

The borders for the quilt were also made from scraps, with the widths chosen purposely to use every inch of available fabric. We were excited to use the 2.5" squares themselves to make a third border, and then, since the proportions were not what we'd been hoping for, we found another fabric to widen it a bit. The backing was a piece of flannel I'd had for years, and the batting was pieces of leftover we had laying around.

Machine pieced (by me, Leah, and some by Owen), machine quilted, low-loft cotton batting.