Penelope's Pumpkin Patch

Note: Post updated Feb 22, 2010 to replace picture of unfinished top with completed quilt.

Way back in October of last year, I happened to win our guild's block of the month drawing (for the pumpkin blocks). I never win ANYTHING, but I was really happy to get this particular one. I added the kitty cat to make it a truly fun "Halloween" quilt, and I have candy corn fabric for the backing. I'm very pleased with the way this one turned out--can't wait to see about quilting. I might try to see how much it would be to have someone else quilt it, though... we'll see.

Finished QOV #3

Here's my latest Quilt of Valor... all quilted and bound and nearly ready to go! Just need to put on the label & wash it before sending.

A close-up of some of the really nice quilting done by my longarm partner!

The presentation tote...
The body of the tote is the same fabric as the quilt's backing, and the straps are the same as the border and binding. The tote is made using the free "Fabric Grocery Bag" instructions from The Creative Thimble. I love this little tote--too easy & cute!--so I'll be making myself a few shopping bags very soon!

Fun with Scraps!

Several months ago, I did another swap on the Scrap Quilting forum on DelphiForums. This one was an exercise in color play. Everyone made two pairs of blocks each for the others in the swap. Each pair was to be a set of a rail fence block and a four patch block. Both blocks in a set had to use the same tone-on-tone or solid matched with two different fabrics that could go with the solid, but not necessarily with each other. Here's one of my sets as an example... both use the same blue, but the other fabric is different, and certainly not what you would normally use in a quilt together. My other set was more "subdued," using a burgundy solid with two prints that didn't contrast quite as much. The burgundy set made it into the quilt, but I didn't have room for the blue ones... I have a few sets of that left, so I'm making other plans for them.

Due to the fact that there's no room in the budget for new fabric right this second (like I NEED any more fabric...LOL), I decided to take them out and play. And here's what I came up with! I used the four patch blocks for the center, and then lined up the rail fence blocks as a border of sorts. Then I added the corner blocks to carry the line of the rail fence around the edge of the quilt. What do you think? I'm not usually one for wild scrappy with "reckless abandon," but I actually really like the outcome. Very colorful to say the least... It's not very big, only 30x30, but it will make a nice tea party blanket or kid cozy quilt. Another reason I went ahead and put this together is that I need a small project to test out the Flynn Frame my mom got me for Christmas. That's my next challenge...

More Travel Pillows

These use the same wonderful pattern from Charlotte's Sew Natural that I used for my family's Christmas pillows. So funny... when I thought of making myself one, I immediately thought of this exact fabric, called "Paris Cats." Then -voilà- suddenly it came up on clearance on one of my favorite online shops. So I bought a half-yard pack of the fabrics and made myself a really cute pillow. I love the cats on their scooters running by Paris' most well-known landmarks...
And since I had some more half-yard pieces in the Paris Cats line, I made the fun one on the bottom of this picture for a project that I'm planning on undertaking with my MIL & SIL. The other one in the photo is a twin of a pillow I made for my mom, and is also for the proposed project. I thought it was nice and feminine without being "frou-frou."

Cabbage Rose BOM

For several months now, I've been doing the block of the month program from Cabbage Rose Quilting in Fort Worth. Way back when it started, you only had to choose which color way you wanted and pay a small start up fee & then all the monthly blocks are free as long as you remember to order them on a certain day each month (I usually do, but sometimes end up paying the $5 "late fee"). So far I have 9 of the blocks. I have never done much with batiks so I decided to go with that option, and I haven't been disappointed! Such pretty colors! And since they're all traditional blocks, the piecing has been pretty easy. I did learn a really neat cool easy way to make the flying geese (used in the teal block), so I'm certain I'll be using that again.

Here is a shot with the first 9 blocks. I think that leaves me with 3 monthly blocks to go, and then I'll have to decide if I want to pony up for their finishing kit or create my own...
I really like all of the colors, but I'm not too sure about the block with the bright orange... kinda seems to stick out a bit. Maybe some of the last few blocks will have colors of similar intensity.

Another Swap

This time the swap is of colors, instead of a particular block. Everyone in the swap is to make 12" blocks in a pattern of their choosing, using a blue/yellow/white palette. I've been dying to make a blue-yellow quilt & I've wanted to try the Hayes Corner block since Hayes is one of my family names, so I couldn't help but join in. Here's my "pilot" block and a couple showing different layouts of of 4 blocks together. This is all I could make with the fun blue paisley fabric I used, so the others will have a different blue, but you can get the idea. Sooooo gonna make a big quilt with this block!

Why I Quilt

Every quilt I make is intended to be used and loved. When my sweeties cuddled up under this one (the first I've actually KEPT), I couldn't help but snap a shot.
And then there's always other uses for quilts. She says she's a "mon-ter... wooooo."

QOV #3

Here is the unquilted top of my 3rd Quilt of Valor so far. (Will update when it's all quilted etc)

This quilt honestly has caused me no end of consternation, but I am pleased with the final result. It has been sewn, ripped, re-sewn, re-ripped, re-arranged and flipped around with the entire middle jettisoned (used to have a panel in the center!), re-re-sewn, ripped yet again to adjust length trying to do something cool with the borders, which I eventually gave up on ... and finally just finished. The zig-zag blocks (called "Delectable Mountains") at the top & bottom are from a block swap I did online. They're neat & really pretty, but a very odd size/shape which made them kind of hard to work with. I'll be using the rest of them in their own quilt so I won't have to worry about the weird size. Anyway... since those blocks were already scrappy, I went scrappy with my courthouse steps blocks. They each have the same flag print fabric at the center, then random strips for the red, blue & neutrals. I've never done courthouse steps before, but I love them & will certainly use them again. If you can't see, the whole quilt is framed by a narrow border of deep navy blue with tiny white stars. Overall, I think it's kind of a neat quilt. Hope its eventual recipient agrees!

"Santa's Blizzard Blues"

Here it is all completed, quilted and bound as I entered it in the show... for more background (pattern info, etc) on this quilt... click here.

"Winds of the Seasons" --Completed!

Here's my first entry for the quilt show, all done including hanging sleeve and label. It's hand-quilted... my stitches aren't terribly small yet, but they are pretty even, and the larger stitches (I think) work well with the folk-y style of the overall project. In the panels, I quilted the house outlines, the hills and the paths. There's a ribbon pattern quilted into the blue sections of the sashing, and then I added the cute little wooden buttons in the center of the pinwheels to make it that much more homespun-feeling. It's not "master quilter" quality, but I think I met the guild challenge of taking pre-printed blocks/panels and making them my own.

Christmas Sewing

This is "Dutch Iris" designed by Eileen B. Sullivan at The Designer's Workshop.

This is the first Christmas project I finished. My mom has a serious "thing" for irises, so when I saw this kit at the quilt festival, I knew I just HAD to make it for her for Christmas. Paper piecing is one of my new favorite types of quilting, since it's so precise and makes such intricate pictures with ease. Due to the way I piece (preferring newsprint to freezer paper) my iris is a mirror image of the original... and the cute little ladybug is graciously hiding a pretty major flaw in my piecing. So it's not perfect, but she loves it and that's all that really matters anyway!


These are based on the Tremendously Tidy Travel Pillow created by Charlotte at Charlotte's Sew Natural. Everyone in our house got one of these (except me... I'll make one for myself later). The baseball one (for Elijah) is actually one of her kits, and I pulled together fabrics for the camo pillow (for Jack) and Dora pillow (for Abigail) on my own. The pillowcase is really cool... the inner liner, shown in the second picture, is attached to the inside of the outer case and serves to keep the 12x16 pillow clean and inside the case... neat, huh? And they go together very quickly-- I can see many more pillows being made from this pattern!

My Surprise Find

Not far from our house is one of those shops where you can rent a booth and sell whatever you want... candles, Avon, homemade crafts, antiques, assorted junk (trust me there's LOTS of that category there) Honestly, I think I've been in there all of 3 times in the nearly 3 years we have lived here. Well, today I just happened to pop in, mostly to get ideas on what I could charge if I started selling miscellaneous craft items. I made my way through the aisles and found a booth way on the back wall with a sign indicating that the items were being sold by the family of a woman who had passed away back in October. What first caught my eye were the four 8 fat quarter bundles marked $2.50 each (usually you would pay $2.50 per FQ, right?), plus I later learned that there was a 20% off sale going on... I decided to poke around a bit further and found a non-descript plastic bag containing the above 38 applique leaf blocks. What a treasure trove! They will make a beautiful quilt top... for a whopping $20 (after the 20% came off). I told the shop owner that I would try to complete the quilt and give her a picture of it to share with the woman's family, which she indicated they would probably like.

Hey I just finished one project today... time to add another one to the pile, right?? (Oh and I can't post a pic of the finished project, since it's going to someone who reads my blog :-) Sorry, you'll just have to wait)

Pumpkin Blocks from Guild BOM Swap

This is the pumpkin I made for the drawing. I especially LOVE the strip with the polka dots. (And Mom, recognize the last strip, with the leaves?)

And here are all my little pumpkins, save one which I should be getting soon from someone who forgot to bring hers to the meeting. Now I get to decide what to do with them... thinking of adding a full moon block (and/or black cat?) and maybe making one pumpkin into a jack-o'lantern for a true Halloween feel. We'll have to see (this project MIGHT get finished for next Fall, but right now I have bigger fish to fry...).

A Big Step

Today's post is all about my quilt-making. So far, I've been "small-potatoes"-- making little projects and a couple of cute little baby quilts for friends. I've made some larger quilt tops, like for Quilts of Valor, but those are quilted by someone else. Well... as of last night, it's official, I've signed on to be a "real" quilter.

Our local guild will be having a show in January. I had already planned to show one of my quilts, "Winds of the Seasons," since it was specifically made for the guild challenge (using pre-printed blocks/panels), but I wasn't going to enter it to be judged... After asking some quilty friends and soliciting advice from our guild president, I am not only having that little wall-hanging judged, but I'm also entering my latest creation, now entitled "Santa's Blizzard Blues." You can see both unquilted tops on my quilt page. Now I just need to actually quilt both of them! I'll be hand quilting the smaller of the two and (gulp!) machine quilting my big, lap-sized quilt. Now I have no illusions of winning ANYTHING, but maybe I'll at least be able to get some constructive criticism and a little "direction" from some people who really know their stuff.

Wish me luck!

Oh and I forgot to mention! I also won the drawing for this month's block of the month! Each month the guild ladies who want to participate make blocks from a pattern and bring them to the meeting. The block for last night was a cute simple pumpkin on neutral background... I made one (I usually participate) and actually won the 15 blocks--enough for an entire quilt...woohoo! Now I can put them together at my leisure and have an Autumn/Halloween quilt. There's a picture of the blocks that I received over on my quilt page.

I've Got a Name: "Santa's Blizzard Blues"

Here is the completely finished top... If you click on the picture, it will come up bigger. The pattern is called disappearing 9-patch (Thanks Helen!). The finished size will be approx 58 x58. It uses Moda's "Snow Village" charm squares -- you can even see Santa in his sleigh in one of the squares. Just leave a comment with your suggestion... I really need help (everything I've come up with is either terminally boring or terribly cheesy...LOL)

Completed QOV #2

Here are the pics of my second completed Quilt of Valor, quilted by Edith S. in Odessa, TX, with an all-over stars & loops quilting pattern. I'm so happy with the way it turned out! If you look carefully at the close-up shot, you can see where she actually quilted the words "With deepest gratitude" into the inner border -- gorgeous! This quilt was sent to the Wilmington VA Medical Center.

"What Little Boys Are Made Of"

A baby quilt for a friend at church who is having a baby boy in September (her shower is this weekend). I hope she likes lime green...

This pattern is the "Star-Sashing Baby Quilt" from the (really helpful) book Quilting 101. It's really cool, because the stars sort of appear as you assemble the quilt, rather than being individually pieced, which makes it MUCH easier to handle. The name I gave this particular quilt comes from the fabric featured in the large squares which has frogs, crabs, fish and snails scattered across the blue-green stripes. I haven't quite finished the binding, but I wanted to get the picture up. Now don't look too close or you'll see why I say that I'm a quilt-topper, not a quilter... I really need to find a friend with a long-arm machine...

Another Quilt of Valor

I just finished the top for my second QOV. Now, it hasn't been quilted yet, but I'll be requesting a longarmer from QOVF later today. I still need to get a backing fabric for it... something simple. The pattern is another free one from Quilt Index, called "Richly Deserved." I thought this was a perfect name for a quilt going to a wounded soldier. I had to increase the quilt size from the pattern to be big enough for QOV, but it was just a matter of adding another row & column of blocks. The outer border fabric is WW2 theme Army print with newspaper, medals, postcards and the like. I had this fabric first (another one from the Christmastime fabric shopping spree with my MIL) and then pulled the colors out for the other fabrics. I personally think the end result is very handsome, but then I'm a little biased.

"Hook 'Em Horns!"

A few months ago a very sweet friend did something for my family which was overly generous and totally unexpected. I won't go publicly into what he did for us, but suffice to say we could never hope to repay his gesture. He is an old college buddy of mine and like me totally bleeds orange. I made this little (the whole thing is less than a foot square) paper-pieced wall hanging for his office as a small token of our thanks. I had never paper pieced before, and I decided that I really like doing it--uses very little fabric & hard to mess up, even though I did in couple of places-- but even for my first time, I think it came out pretty OK. Hope he likes it, and if not I'll tell him to give it to his wife for a hot pot holder...LOL

"Winds of the Seasons"

This is my entry for our quilt guild's show challenge (only doing it since it can be entered as "non-judged"...LOL) The challenge is to take pre-printed squares/pictures of some type, cut them apart and make them your own. Back around Christmas, my MIL had taken me fabric shopping and these seasonal squares were one of the purchases we made. I took the changing seasons blocks, chose one color from each season and made little pinwheel blocks to separate them and carry over the feeling of the changing seasons, hence the quilt's name. As you can see it's not quite done yet. I can't decide if it needs another border--perhaps out of the blue coordinating fabric I used in the pieced sashing or maybe a pieced border using the different colors? Then I need to quilt it (likely by hand since my machine has been misbehaving and won't feed fabric right), and then bind it off in the blue. If anyone has border suggestions (or if you think it doesn't need one), please leave me a comment with your suggestion!