Monday, April 7, 2025

One more demin quilt

 Our dear friends, for whom the "Glewwe Quilt" is a rite of passage when each of their children moves from their crib to a big boy/girl bed, announced to us that they were expecting their 8th by having number 7 record a video saying they needed another Glewwe Quilt!

So, we delightedly began sewing, with the fun addition of two pairs of the new baby's dad's jeans to incorporate into the mix. As a summer baby, we picked a bright, cheery, strawberry print for the fleece backing. And a funny detail: while we always make these quilts 10 squares wide by 14 squares long, we accidentally laid this one out 10x15, so hers is a little bigger than her siblings! I didn't notice until I was tying the quilt and realized that the corners on one side weren't coming out the way they always do (with a tie in each corner when I do every other. Ha! Jokes on me!)



Gloria, Rinnah, and Evania all helped me a bit on this one, both laying out and sewing, and Evania trimmed all the yarn ties for me at the end.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Annaseya's quilt

 Another reason to make a denim baby quilt! These are so fun to make - I love repurposing old denim, and they come together so nicely and are a great balance of rugged and snuggly.

Here's Ebenezer enjoying the batting! I always buy a full roll because I know I'll use it up eventually!



This one is for our niece's fourth child.


Sweet peachy foxes on the back side. Also, notice the fun stitching on the pocket under the fold, and the cute blue corduroy OshKosh overalls!


Sunday, December 1, 2024

A record for me

This is intended just for me (and my kids, if they're ever interested) to keep track of the projects that I've made over the years. I'm excited to have all the photos in one place, and to be able to jot a few notes about each one as I go.

As my kids have grown up, it's been neat to watch them participate. Already Owen, Leah, and Bobbi have made quilts with me already, and Rinnah just finished up her first full size one a few weeks ago! Evania tackled two different small projects, and Gloria's made her own throw size denim quilt. (Eventually I'll get photos of those up!) Ebenezer says he wants to learn to sew, but it will be a while before I'm ready for that!!

Monday, July 1, 2024

Gloria's Tripper quilt!

 Gloria was inspired by Evania's Tripper quilt, and decided to make one with a few similar fabrics, as the girls share a bedroom, but with some fun additions to make it her own.

The strawberry fabric and the pale cream teddy bears match Evania's, and the rest are pulled from our stash of leftovers, with the exception of the strawberry shortcake print.



Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Grandmother's Flower Garden

 

It's finally finished! My great-grandma (dad's mom's mother) started this quilt many, many, many years ago. When she died it went to my grandparents' house, and when my grandma died (even though my grandpa does some quilting), it got passed to me. Most of the flowers themselves were completed, with two or three that were missing the outer row or just one hexie. I think I was in late high school. I thought it was really ugly, and my quilting skills were still just beginning (I preferred straight seams in the machine) and I wasn't really sure how to hand-piece hexagons.

A few years later I decided to give it a try - I didn't want to invest too much extra time, so instead of doing the classic join with a border between the flowers, I just began stitching the flowers together directly. By hand. (Because I still don't know a better way to join hexagons!)

But I didn't like how it looked, and after getting it about 80% of the way done, set it back aside again. And had ten children.

But THEN, Covid hit! And with it, stay-at-home orders, and with the new routines that provided for our family (our favorite was Andrew Peterson reading aloud his Wingfeather saga a few chapters a night), I got it back out again and decided to cut green hexies for the border between the flowers, UN-did all of the joining I'd done, and then re-joined all of the pieces by hand little by little by little. To finish it around the edges I decided to make new half-flowers, which were created from my own collection of scraps.

I chose a pink flannel for the backing, and the binding is a scrappy binding using three different greens.

I machine quilted the layers using free-motion quilting. The flowers were done in four different styles (shown below) and the green borders I did a meandering vine with a leaf in each hexagon.

This iteration of the flower quilting breaks the center into sixths and follows the hexagonal shape of the "petals" for a honeycomb appearance.

This version swirls in the center and does two rows of curved concentric petals, kind of like a zinnia.

This iteration was a "rose" in my imagination, with wavy lines creating a swirl that starts in the center and works to the outer layer.

And the last version was a daisy form, with a single row of long, skinny petals radiating from the center.


Sunday, December 31, 2023

Seraphina's quilt

 Another denim quilt! Although we'd planned to do two others this Christmas as well, but we don't have enough denim squares!!!

 We got to use a few olive green squares that we had that tied in really nicely with...

...the adorable mouse and strawberry print on the back!

A new baby in the family is always a good reason to make a quilt. :)

Sunday, July 30, 2023

Evania's "Tripper" quilt

 This one has become almost a rite of passage, as Leah, Owen, and Bobbi have all made one. It's neat to see how very different the choice of fabrics makes the final result!

Evania's has a nice range of browns and pinks, with a fun horse fabric (left over from Bobbi's!) complemented by the red barn print and brown saddle print. The strawberries were a fun way to bridge the pink and red, and the pink leopard print was an obvious choice. :) She worked with a good balance of fabrics we already had and a few that she purchased just for the project.