Church Quilts 10/08

My father and I belong to a church in his new hometown. Can I say that I love having my parents close at hand. If you would have told me this twenty years ago I would have LMAO, but seriously they are great to have around and B. loves going to see Grandma and Grandpa. They are her favorite Baby-sitters. Grandma will watch endless hours of "her shows" and Grandpa is a good pillow to curl up and take a nap with.
Swimming with fishes.
Well there was a baby shower for two of the ladies at church. None of the sexes of the babies were known at the time so I had to stay in the neutral zone. Nobody at church guessed what an avid quilter I was and how fast I could whip out baby quilts. This one is called "Swimming with fishes." The only request (from the husband) is that the fabric come from my stash, except for the backs. Well, the three quilts were made in less then two weeks and met that requirement. I really like how nice and bright they are, the babies were born late fall when our weather starts to turn grey and it can be depressing for some. I normally do not use orange but this brighten up the quilt without being girly. The other option was lime green but that made the quilt to much of the blue family and I wanted a balence with the major amount of blue in the center of the quilt.
Huggs and Kisses

These two were for twins. They needed to be similar but unique. They are the same pattern: Trip around the world but the strips are arranged in a different order. The binding is a reallly funky rainbow swirl that added a fun element to the quilt. Looking back on the quilts, my favorite is kisses due to the brighter nature of the quilt. Huggs though is fun, too.

A Very Hungery Catepiller 5/09

Okay, after the two in one week there was a lull in the quilts needed for work. That is good because mid-terms came up, then parent conferences (I do not stop talking for 2 1/2 hours), and then Science night (with the famous chocolate fountain). Oh yea, somewhere in there is the hometown school auction. This is why I have no time during the school year to actually think about, let alone update the blog.

My principle is expecting his second and it is a little boy. Well, I picked up this fabric grouping and was waiting for someone special to make it for. I looked online for patterns online and did not like what I saw. None of the quilts told the story of the catepiller.

Well, after using some basic graphing skills and some really carefull fussy cutting, which I only do for people I really care about, the quilt tells the story, as much as the fabric will let me.

At the same time I created a second quilt (70% complete) top. It was for B's classroom teacher, but due to circumstances outside of my control it did not go to him but I plan on finishing it this summer and giving it to her kindergarden teacher next year. The second one will be finished with the green and white little catepiller fabric for an outer boarder (4") and the multicolored dots as the binding. It will be backed in a bright cherry red or a light denim, my goal is that it is a reading quilt folded in the corner of the classroom, taken out to warm little laps as minds are taken on adventures that books provide.

Flamingo Fun and FF2 6/09

So here is a simple fun quilt. My good friend did a similar one as a test quilt for a well known known quilt author. I looked at her quilt and took inspiration from it and created Flamingo Fun. There is a unit secretary that works with my husband who is always very grounded and will difuse a difficult situation before it explodes. She is having her forth kid. When asked what she would like in her quilt cocktail she said "Pink Flamingos!" Well with my tendency to Bright and Obnoxious it was easy on my eye to create something with my multitude of pink farics.

The inner green boarder is 1.5inches and the outr is 2.5. I could not make it any larger and still have it fit on the bright pink with white polka dot Minkie back. Love the Minkie, it may be a pain to cut and work with. I had to sew one quilting line three times before it would lay flat but well worth the pain.

Looking back on it I would have used a yellow inner boarder like I did on FF2. Who FF2 is for I have? No Clue but I had the blocks and put it togther with a minimum of fuss this summer once school was over. It is not quilted but if I put togther the front I can then quilt it in an evening. And there will be a time where there is a need and no time. After all this time I have learned to: Trust in the fabric, for it knows more then you.

A VERY busy week 1/09

Pooh Corner:
One week this spring, one of our english teachers was soon to leave on maternity leave, so I ask her what is her plans for the nursery. She replied that she was going to use the same as her older daugther and redo her daughter's new room. I asked were there any major theme elements? Winnie the Pooh.
I knew just the fabric and I could not wait to go to Walmart and pick it up. Yes: Walmart. They are in McMinnville about a hour south of home and there is the BEST chinnesse place just down the way. So since I was headed down there for the fabric, I could easily stop and get my favorite Moo Shoo Shrimp with Crab Ragoon. YUMMMY. Well the quilt came together nicely and I backed it in the kelly green Minkey. Mmmm soft.
Back to why it was a busy week. On Monday I take it in to give it away, showing it off to the other quilters on campus, and a councilor comes up to me and says "did you know that one of the math teacher wife is pregnant?" My responce "No, when is she due?" Her reply "Any day now." OMG! So I grill my students and they said: Yes he has his cell phone on and is waiting for the call.
Frantic
Well that puts me into hyper drive and when I get home, after hitting the drive through for Subway so that I do not have to cook. I look at my stash and see what I can put together without having to go to the fabric store. Well this is not that much of an issue. I have probably around a few thousand dollars of fabric in my study closet. Some arranged by color some by fabric line.

Well I put together "Frantic" in 27 hours. Yes I know that one block is upside down but at the time there was NO time to fix it. I also slept, taught school, Mom to 4 year old, and the husband worked both nights. Thank you Cindy for doing bedtime duty so that I could breath and have a glass of wine. To say the least I gave it to him before the Wednesday morning meeting and his son was born that night. My one request to my co-workers a little more notice and I will be greatful.

Summertime Quilts

I don't normally quilt during the summer. There is to much to do that I cannot do in the winter. This summer espically. I took two summer courses to finish up my reading endorsement, my fabulous mother in law came to town to help celebrate B's fourth birthday, took the reading specialist exam and tried to keep my house clean. There were three pending births at school though and so I had to whip out three easy quilts

Pink Elephants on Parade

Here is a picture of a quilt I made this summer. The fabric was brought back from Tialand, a co-worker went there for his honeymood. They will forever have a reminder the trip in thier daughter's baby quilt. Who knows she might have been concieved there.

Summer Daisies:

This bright one was for our reading specialist at school. When asked what her nursery was like she replied "Orange, Yellow and to make it a bit girly we added in Pink. But my favorite color is orange." I was waiting for someone to say that because I was dying to use the border fabric in a quilt but it needed to be for someone who enjoys the BRIGHTS. She loved the quilt!

Turquoise Turning:

The perfect equation for a little girl whose dad is a math teacher/ football coach. He did not know this was coming. And when I asked co-workers they did not know any color/ design requests. So I went with something that was girly without being overly girly.

Pinwheel Roses

This is a quilt I made for a co-worker this winter. The pattern is American Patchwork Quilting Magazine. I used thangles for the half square triangles. This is a relatively easy pattern that looks much harder. The quilt is backed in a rose colored minkie. The green is more in the cream flower print but is not aparent in this small of a picture.

More Choas

Well I just finished with the leftover blocks of Choas and this is the same size as B's Cuddle Quilt. I am satisfied with the quilt there are some changes that I would go back and do. Such as the ladybugs next to the monkeys. I think I would use more of the red and yellow, but then again... But I think that happens with most quilts that I make. I also would change the border and make it a solid to tone down the quilt but the print has really all the colors within the quilt so maybe not. Well I do need input on what color to bind/back it with. So Help! But I do have to send a thank you to the ladies at The Quilted Hill (http://www.thequiltedhill.com/) for some ideas of which fabric would help with the overall apperance of the quilt. They also have the coolest little quilt shop in the area. Just be careful that you are going the speed limit (in town 25 mph) because the police made my last shopping trip REALLY expensive. I thought it was a 35 and was doing 38 mph, well this makes me offically an Oregonian. I have gotten a ticket in either Yamhill, Carlton or North Plains. Three really small towns with really big reputations.