Merry Christmas

I received a marvelous present from my husband.  It's a Something Blue quilt kit! I can't wait to dig into this one!  Here's what it will look like:

I already have a couple of quilt kits waiting for me to do, but I think I will tackle this one next. It's not as complicated as Beauties of Joy, but still a lot of paper-piecing and directions to follow.  I think it looks way more complicated than it is.  I haven't done this many curves yet, but I can sew sleeves, and collars and necklines, and those are curves too, so it can't be any more complicated than those!

I have a few things to finish up before I start, but it's always exciting to get new quilt kits and fabrics!

Quilting Drew's Asteroid Quilt.

As of late, I have been working on getting the Asteroid quilt quilted.  It has been going together so easily, I'm not sure if it's because Dianne is such an excellent pinner (which she is!) or if it has to do with the fact that I am getting so much better at quilting (which I am!) or if it is because of the fusible batting I am using.

I never had Dianne pin a quilt for me before, and I learned a few things from watching her,  She uses a LOT of tape.  She totally smooths out each and every layer so not a single wrinkle is in sight.  She also tapes the batting to the floor, not just backing.  The quilt sandwich stayed put for the entire pinning session, and I was most impressed.  I will be following these steps in the future!

The batting used for this quilt is FUSIBLE batting, Hobbs 80/20 Heirloom.  I never used fusible batting before.  No, I take that back!  I used the batting scraps from the Asteroid in the Kitty baby quilt I just made.  It was smaller, so I sewed the strips together that we had trimmed off from The Asteroid quilt after it was pinned.  I actually ironed that batting to the baby quilt top and bottom, and I was not impressed with how it looked.  I decided I would never use it again!  However, Drew's Asteroid quilt was NOT ironed.  The batting felt a bit "tacky" and was stuck together when we unrolled it to lay it out for pinning.  I thought something was wrong with that batting.  I don't recall ordering "fusible" batting (it came in the mail from Connecting Threads.)  That unironed fusible tacky batting must keep the batting and top/bottom from sliding around.  The more I quilted it, the more I liked it!!  I'll have to re-think that "never again" part...

I have been stitching in the ditch around the stars and shapes in the pattern quilt top.  I may or may not do some decorative quilting when I am through with the "stabelizing" phase of the quilt.  We'll see how it looks and how much time I have.  Here's how the quilting looks:

 

Emergency Baby Quilt

Monday night when I got home from a  Quilt Guild meeting, my Hunny reminded me of a Baptism we need to attend on Sunday, which was only 5 days away.)  Yes, I remembered.  Oh, and by the way, "do you think you could whip up a baby quilt that we can give as a gift?"  ARGHHHHH!

But I can do it.  I have an idea for a cool baby quilt from a picture I saved from the web. Since this is for a girl baby, my cats will all be pink be pink.  It will look something like this:

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It said on the web that this quilt will finish off at 41".  That's all I had to go by, I do not have a pattern.  Just the name of the quilt (Cat Nap), it's finished size, and this picture.  So I started doing the math. Trial and error in the beginning, but then REAL math for the corner triangles.  Starting with a 25" center square on point, add a 2.5" border, so it is now 29".  The formula for corner triangles, is finished block size divided by 1.414 plus 7/8" for seam allowances (round up to the nearest 1/8"), which will equal the size of the square you need to cut in half on the diagonal for 2 corners.  SO! 29 divided by 1.414 is about 20.5", plus 7/8"would = 21 3/8".  I used  a 22" square just to be on the safe side, yes, it was a little larger than necessary, but I could easily trim it to size and leave that quarter inch seam allowance for sewing on the final border.  The head is a 7.5" square, the shoulders is a 3.5" square cut in half on the diagonal, and the ears are 60 degree triangles cut at 2.5" tall.  Paws are 3" x 5", rounded off on one end and appliqued on after the border was sewn.  There, that's my pattern!

I went off to the fabric store to get some fleece for the backing, and decided against an outer border.  I whipped up this quilt from start to finish in just 4 days.  Here is my version of Cat Nap, front and back!

  

The original quilt had claws on the cat too, which I decided to leave off.  Claws on kitties make them mean or mad, which is cute, but not for a baby.  (my opinion).  I also used circles of a reddish pink batik for the eyes, and added black pupils in the circles.  I think it's very cute!

Cute eyes

I basically did this the same as I did the seasonal Skinnies, applique the pieces, and stitch all around.  I added more quilting then on a skinnie though.  Also, I free-motioned the  whiskers and mouth before I added that square to the quilt so black thread wouldn't show on the back of the quilt.  I didn't want to use the applique stitch for the eyes and noses, the curves are pretty tight.  So I did a very small zigzag around them, and that worked perfectly.  All done in less than 4 days.  I'm pretty proud of myself!

Player Piano Mouse

One of  Author quilt blocks will feature a book by Dr. Dachman, Player Piano Mouse.  I have had fun making this block, both the mouse and the piano keys.  It's a little wider than most of our other blocks, but it can be trimmed down and help to even out a short row.  (Not all of our blocks are turning out to be 10 1/2" square!)  You'd think with paper piecing, all the blocks will end up perfectly, but that's not the case.  Some are 10 1/4" or some other measurement.  One turned out to be only 9.5" wide, an inch too short.  We could add on an extra book to each short block to bring each block to the 10.5"  but we talked it over and decided to "square each row" to 60" rather than dink around with tiny individual variances!  So here is "Player Piano Mouse."  I used musical themed fabrics for the two books, too!

Football

One of our blocks in the Author quilt is about a football coach and his trials and tribulations as he pursues greatness for his team.  I found a paper pieced pattern for a football, and decided to use it.  Here it is:

Bias on the Bottom

I have finally finished the Whirligigs quilt top!  I still have to sandwich/pin/quilt yet.  But slow but sure wins the race, and finishes quilts.  Here's how it looks:

I put a small HST in each corner as a little accent, but it's hard to see.  The Delectable Mountains border turned out really well.  I was worried that they would stretch out when I sewed them on, but I remembered my rule:  "Bias on the bottom."  When you sew, it works better if you put the stretchy(ier) part on the bottom, and the strip of plain border on top.  The pressure foot pushes along against the top piece, but if there's no bias or seam, there is no stretch. The teeth underneath just grab the fabric and move it along and it all goes together beautifully.  That little rule made the difference is sewing that border.

Argyle

I have been thinking about making Aidan a quilt for a couple years now.  I recently asked him what his favorite color was, he said blue and then asked "why?"  I told him it was so I knew what color underwear to buy him for Christmas!  He said he had a different idea, maybe it was for a quilt!  Big smiles here for both of us!  We both understood what was really being asked. Aidan knows how to read between the lines! I asked what about a second color, you know, for "contrast" in the "underwear".  He said Red.  Now, I have to really look for, and buy, some red and blue boys underwear to wrap up a Christmas!!  But in the meantime, I will be working on his Christmas quilt!

I had bought, some time ago, a fair amount of blue plaid flannel fabrics, with a snuggily cozy blue flannel quilt in mind just for Aidan. Aidan is the kind of kid who likes a snuggily blanket!  I had a pattern in mind, and plenty of fabric to do it, but was just too busy with other quilts. Then I changed my mind when I saw the Three Dudes Quilt, and I thought, THIS is for Aidan!  I kept this in the back of my mind too.  Now I have some time (not really!) and have been re-thinking what to do for Aidan.  I found ANOTHER new pattern, and thought THIS ONE would be perfect for Aidan, and I have gone back to the original idea of my plaid flannels.  I have even made "the first cut" so the quilt is officially started!  This one will go fast, and I think it'll be just perfect Aidan.  Here is picture of the quilt, a pattern named "Argyle." (I don't have the pattern, but I can easily figure it out from this picture.)

Just picture this in reds and blues.  Blue borders, a very light gray instead of white, blue plaids instead of green solids.  Here are the first 4 blocks!

This is a really simple pattern, 10" blocks, no seams to match in the blocks.  You'd have to match the red and blue diagonal lines when you put the blocks and rows together, but that's not too bad! I'll be able to chain piece this, so it should go really fast!  I'm on a mission!!