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.

Caleb's quilt

My helper - Krassimir was thrilled when I let him hold the finished quilt after having to tell him not to touch it while I was finishing the pin-infested border.

Of all of our college friends that we made "first baby" quilts for, one of those couples made it clear how much they loved the quilt, so when they had their second child, we made her one, too.

We never guessed going into it that they would have seven children! And it's become kind of a thing for us to make a "Glewwe Quilt" for each one of their new babies, and their tradition is that the child gets to have their Glewwe quilt when they're old enough to graduate from their crib to a big-kid bed. And this is a good thing, because it means we have enough time to actually get the quilt done between nine months of pregnancy and a good year plus after birth before it needs to be ready. ;) So this poor, simple quilt has been quite a while in the making, but we're just a little past Caleb's first birthday, so once again, we'll have it to them in time for his rite of passage!

Another basic 10x14 grid of 4" pre-cut denim squares, hand tied with yarn, polyester batting and fleece backing.

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...)

Leah fleece backed

Leah was given a quilting book for Christmas that showed a few ideas of how to adapt classic quilt patterns with a fresh look. We thought this one was a good match for her skill level and a really handy size/style. The front is a pretty simple "around the world" pattern, but with a few little twists as some of the squares are broken down into four smaller squares and rotated to make a secondary pattern. Then, instead of using batting and backing, the pattern has you just use a piece of fleece - makes it cuddly, but not too heavy, and means that the quilting doesn't have to be too close together because there's only the two layers to hold. She and I had a great time picking out the fabrics, and really liked the fleece, which totally tied it all together!

The binding was a fun ah-ha as it used a rather garish, but perfectly suited to this quilt, fabric that had been Matt's grandmother's that we inherited with the house!

Leah got to take this one to the Dakota County Fair with 4H.

Evania's quilt

There's a tiny bit of the purple kitty-paw-print!

Evania's quilt was a true departure for me. I'd seen an idea in a book about little "improv" blocks, and decided to give it a try. I also wanted to experiment with letting the quilting of a quilt take a higher priority in the design of the quilt, and figured there was no better way to do it than with a solid light colored background. The color families still follow the general colors of the other kids' quilts - purple, green, yellow and pink, but with lots of lee-way within those general ranges. The pink square is made of the left over from the backing of Rinnah's quilt.

I used a variety of different patterns for the machine quilting. Some straight lines evenly spaced, some with a more rhythmic approach, and some randomly spaced. One portion has leaves and curving lines, and one (the last one, because I'm still not very good at it!) is a free-form of swirls and flowers.

The backing of Evania's quilt is a bright, cheery print to offset the mostly-yellow front (just in case she isn't as interested in my experimentation!) Instead of trying to hide the necessary seam, I highlighted it with a row of scraps from the fabrics on the front of the quilt. I was particularly pleased with how well the stitching on the narrow-wide part of the quilting ended up aligning with the stripe on the backing. I *tried* to do it, but wasn't sure how closely I could hit it since I was working from the front!

The binding on this one was a separate binding instead of bringing the backing over to the front. I had some 1" double fold bias binding left over from repairing a quilt for my mother-in-law, and from a quilt I had made for a client. The colors (dark purple and dark green) were just right for this quilt. I estimated, stitched it on, and then realized I didn't have *quite* enough, so finished it off with an on-the-grain double folded border in pink to get around the last corner. The binding was machine stitched onto the front and then hand-blind-stitched on the back side.

The quilt was machine pieced, cutting the pieces for the small improv squares as I went - none of them were pre-planned, and one of them was so lousy I didn't use it. ;) I used low-loft cotton batting and machine quilted it. It was finished *after* Gloria was born and after we'd started the adoption process for B and T! Nothing like impending future work to provide the incentive to get a project finished!

Leah's farm quilt

This was Leah's baby. She wanted to do a quilt, and specifically, a farm quilt. I immediately envisioned a simple patchwork representing the grid of farm fields from a bird's eye view. She had something very different (and more challenging!) in mind.

It turned out really well, and was a lot of fun to plan and sew together! I helped her with the cutting, but she did most of the sewing by herself. Most of the fabric was stuff I had on hand, but she purchased the chickens and the cartoony farm animals as well as the blue and the beans for the borders. She finished it in time to show at the Dakota County Fair for her last year as a Cloverbud.

Leah for Evania

Leah made this one from our box of pre-cut squares and a piece of leftover jersey knit, and gave it to Evania for her baby dolls. We don't know exactly when she made it, so this is an approximate date! It was her first venture into piecing all on her own, and the finishing of the border was also a first independent venture.