Commemorative quilts

My dad would have turned 70 this month.  I sure do miss him, but having photos of him around the house and the quilt I made from his t-shirts hanging in my sewing room brings a smile to my face as I think of him often.  So imagine my delight to see that this weekend's quilt show at the Quilting Gallery is Commemorative Quilts.  I just had to enter the one I made for my dad.  I just checked out all the quilts over there, and there are some beauties and some heart-warming stories.  I encourage you to take a look, and if you are so moved, to vote.  You can vote for up to FIVE quilts this week!

http://quiltinggallery.com/2012/02/10/commemorative-quilts/

Have a great weekend, everyone!  We have a guild meeting with a TRUNK SHOW tonight, so I am PUMPED!  I'm hoping it will rev up my creative juices - I haven't felt like sewing much since last weekend.  In fact, I haven't felt like doing much except eating and sleeping.  Not a good combination!

Music to my ears

Melody #1 - I showed my denim quilt at work today so the woman who donated so much denim would know what I did with it. A co-worker who was walking by stopped and said, "Cool! Can I order one of those?"

Melody #2 - Jason got off the bus and said, "Mom, you know that bookmark you made me? My friend Haley saw it and really likes it - can you make one for her, too?"

Melody #3 - just got an email from Beth at LoveLaughQuilt that read, "YOU WON!" I love aprons, so winning an apron pattern makes me super happy!

Having people like what I make makes making it even more fun! (Ha! Do all those makes in a row make sense?)

What I did instead

This probably makes me sound un-American, but I could care less about the SuperBowl.  The only reason I know who is playing is because my sons keep me informed.  I have no idea how they know what is going on since no one watches football in our house.  So my Sunday wasn't spent eating pizza and wings, drinking beer, and yelling at a TV screen.  Here's what I did instead:

I snipped and snipped and snipped the seam allowances on my Half Pipe Dreams denim rag quilt.  I managed to finish just in time to leave the house, SOLO, to go watch THE HELP at the University (we have a theater that shows free movies - oh yeah!).  I'm actually glad I went alone because I cried the entire time, from start to finish.  I know it is just a story, but oh, the things we did to each other back in the day, and the things that we do to each other still.  It breaks my heart.  But I loved the movie.  I loved how it was very true to the book, and I loved how colorful it was.

Then, I took the quilt to the laundromat to wash it in someone else's machine.  I really wasn't interested in having all those strings gum up my machine.  That's probably wrong of me, isn't it?  While the quilt was washing, I treated myself to a coffeehouse coffee and browsed at Goodwill.  While the quilt was drying, I read some of the latest Someday Quilts Mysteries, The Devil's Puzzle by Clare O'Donohue.  This is my favorite of the four books in the series so far.

When the quilt was finished drying, I brought it home and reluctantly turned it back over to my son, its rightful owner.  I LOVE IT and wanted to snuggle up under it myself!  I'm so glad I have lots of denim left because I definitely want to make another.  I'm super impressed that I started and finished a quilt in just a week and a half - that's very unlike me with my Quilters Attention Deficit Disorder. 

Here it is, all ragged up!  It is too small for my queen bed, but it is perfect for his twin-sized top bunk.  I love it when an idea comes together just the way I imagined it.

Good Fortune!

My Good Fortune came from winning Linda's giveaway over at Stray Stitches.  Isn't it lovely?  Thanks, Linda and Fat Quarter Shop!

Mr. Random Number Generator determined that commenter #21 should get some good fortune, too.

robin said...

How about Backside 180? Ask your son if he likes it.

Thanks for playing along, Robin.  Some neutrals will be on their way to you once I get your mailing address.

And my son's good fortune was that I met my goal of finishing the piecing of his quilt today.  As I was sewing the final seams, the name came to me.  While I love Sandy Bottoms, the quilt isn't for Sandy, and it has some of my bottoms and Jason's bottoms and Donald's bottoms and even a neighbor's bottoms in it, too, so I'm going to have to save that name for another quilt.  Skate Dreams captures the essence of the quilt, but it just didn't resonate with me.  But then it hit me - HALF PIPE DREAMS.  It's a play on "pipe dreams", and the skaters among you will recognize that a half pipe is a structure used in skateboarding.  There is small one at the skatepark that my children beg me to take them to any time the sun shines.

I present to you HALF PIPE DREAMS!

The front (denim) side

The back (homespun plaid) side

Since this is a denim RAG quilt, I still have to clip the seam allowances.  I've only clipped 2 of 12 rows, and I already have a blister.  This is going to take a while.  I am giving myself permission to park in front of the TV or iPad and clip away while I watch McLeod's Daughters to my heart's content.  Once I get it clipped and washed and dried, I'll take another picture so you can see the final result.  Right now, however, my son is cuddled up under his new quilt which he was so surprised to see ("So THAT'S what you've been doing with all those jeans!") and for which I received multiple hugs and a declaration that he loves it and he is going to use it for the rest of his life.

Can you imagine my smile right now?

Forever in Blue Jeans (...giveaway...)

I've been wanting to make a denim quilt for years, so I've been slowly saving up our worn out jeans to cut and upcycle.  However, with 2 little boys, while they go through LOTS of jeans, their pants are LITTLE!  Since I was envisioning a rag quilt with 1/2" seams, I need rather large blocks of denim to cut out.

Then, last week, a co-worked gifted me a whole bag of worn out jeans from her husband.  I was so excited that I got started right away this weekend.  I dismantled jeans at my son's basketball game on Saturday (and got some strange looks for it, I might add).  I dismantled jeans while watching shows on Netflix.  I dismantled jeans while singing along with my favorite country music.  I'm surprised I can type today, as my right hand has been working overtime with those scissors!

This is about 1/2 of the cutting I have done.  I still have about 6 pairs of jeans to go.

I am backing the quilt with plaids.  I am making it for my oldest son who fancies himself a skateboarder, and who tells me that old ripped blue jeans and unbuttoned plaid shirts with t-shirts underneath are the unofficial uniform for skateboarders.  This quilt will mirror that "uniform."  I'm thinking of calling it "Skate Dreams."  However, since most of the denim is coming from the pants of my co-worker's husband, whose name is Sandy, I am also playing with the idea of calling it "Sandy Bottoms."

How about a quick giveaway?  Leave a comment with 2 things:  which name do you prefer for the quilt (Skate Dreams, Sandy Bottoms or come up with your own name if you have a creative brainstorm), and tell me which of the following you'd like to add to your stash - juvenile novelty fabric, neutrals, or stripes.  I'll pick a random winner on Friday, February 3 (my goal date for having the top completely pieced), and I'll send the winner 3 Fat Quarters from my stash of whichever type of fabric they said they wanted more of (novelty, neutrals or stripes).  My stash has outgrown my space for it, so it must be time to share.

I don't have a picture of the quilt yet, but how about a photo of what I've been doing with those odd bits left over from cutting that aren't big enough for a rag quilt - denim-backed bookmarks!

Denim and fabric fused together, sewn around the edges and trimmed with pinking shears.

I gave one to my co-worker already, made from her husband's jeans and with pig fabric on front (pigs are her favorite animal).  I've also pulled out some red bandanna fabric - wouldn't that be cool on the other side of the denim bookmark?

Today, I cried

I just got out of a meeting, and logged onto Facebook to peek at what others are doing before I jumped into what needs attention on my desk.  Usually, I see who is on vacation, who is slammed with work, whose kids said something funny - you know, typical Facebook stuff.

Lately, I've been the one posting "slammed at work" type stuff.  You know when you get to the point where you are doing so much and not sure you are doing any of it well?  That's been me lately, and it has come across in my Facebook statuses.

When I logged on just now, my stepfather had commented on one of my posts:

I sit here and reflect on a major life journey I embarked on.  It began with meeting a tiny bare foot girl,riding bareback on a pony,in the Maine woods on a dirt road at a residence called the Funny Farm. She rode up to me looked me in the eye with an incredible grin and engaged me in a very mature conversation.  I left that day wondering who this amazing child was and wishing I would get the chance to know her better.  For whatever reason the Creator granted me that wish.  A short time later the little girl her three siblings and their mother became my family. I watched this little girl turn into a teenager and do great things in high school. Then into a beautiful young woman, I drove her to Harvard University and lugged her trunk up several flights of stairs in her dorm.  I drove back home with tears of pride.  I went with her to pick up her first motorcycle then watched her climb on it with a teddybear and leave for Calafornia by herself.  Again I watched her go with tears of pride because I had done the same thing.  She made it but turned around and drove back to Maine.  When she got back we asked why she didn't stay she replied "Because people in Calafornia are insane". Then for several years I watched her relationship with a young man that she was fiercely in love with.  There were ups and downs and a few times the Atlantic Ocean seperated them.  A few times I was tempted to go visit the young man and smack him upside his head for making her sad and cry.  I forced myself to stay out of it,then one day she told us he had proposed marriage.  At the wedding I watched the proud young man break down and shed tears of pride while he was voiceing his marriage vows to her.  Then I understood why she had stuck by him, I walked away and stopped where I could observe the two of them at a distance and again shed tears of pride.



Sense then the two of them became successful young professionals then produced two wonderfull children. In the future when this VERY acomplished mature woman questions her accomplishments I hope she can reflect back to a time in the middle of the Maine woods barefooted riding bareback on a pony and approaching a long haired bearded wildman and engageing him in a mature conversation. Because that man is very aware and extremely proud of her many many accomplishments that continue to this day.
 
Tell me you wouldn't have cried, too.
 

I love you, Mike Buxton.

Corner Bookmark Tutorial

At the request of a couple of readers, I am including my instructions for making a corner bookmark made from fabric.  These are pretty big, but I like them that way - it seems that it is more likely to stay in place that way.  The size of the initial rectangle could be made smaller, though, to reduce the size of the finished product.  You could also embellish with lace or ric rac or fused shapes on the front.  These take no more than 15 minutes to make, start to finish.

1) Cut two 6.5" x 3.5" rectangles of fabric, an outside fabric and an inside fabric.  Sew around 3 sides, right sides together, leaving one 6.5" side open.  The open side will be the top of the bookmark, if you need to keep that in mind when using directional or fussy cut fabric.

The flowers are my outside fabric and the bluish purple is my inside fabric.

2. Cut one 6.5" x 3.5" rectangle of fusible (I used Pellon Wonder Under), and fuse to one side of the 3-sides-sewn rectangle.  Remove the paper backing of the fusible.

Hard to get a meaningful photo for this step...

3. Clip the 2 corners that are sewn on both sides close to the seam to reduce bulk and turn the rectangles right-side-out.  Align as best you can before pressing to fuse the two fabrics together.

4. Fold the two 3.5" sides together until they meet with the outside fabric on the inside.  Sew the raw, unsewn edges of the top of the rectangle together, backstitching at the beginning and end to stabilize.

5. Clip the corner that you just sewed closed close to the seam to reduce bulk, then turn right-side out.  Press the seam open, and then smoosh the fabric into a triangle.  Press.

A mini iron would come in mighty hand right about now!

If you make some, I'd love to see them!