Ethan's Quilt

I finished this quilt in a rush right before Christmas and realized that I need to post pictures of Ethan's I Spy quilt.  I had made a small baby quilt for Ethan when he was born.  But now he is 4 and has been sleeping in a big boy bed so he needed a bigger quilt. 

This quilt began with lots of super cute fabrics.  All kinds of fun "boy" things included.  Ethan's room is blue, so the fabrics focused on blues with lots of red and yellows and a few greens added.

This is a close-up showing the quilting.  I used a walking foot and straight line quilting 1/4" on either side of the ditch between the squares.  I have enjoyed reading the http://www.redpepperquilts.com/  blog for a long time.  Rita, of Red Pepper Quilts does a lot of quilts with squares and uses this quilting technique with stitching on either side of the seam lines and I really like the look of it.   So I decided to use this technique on Ethan's quilt.  It also kept it so the fabrics/prints are the most important thing, rather than the quilting being too busy.

Ethan's baby quilt had minky on the back, and he loved it.  So it was a no brainer that the I Spy quilt have minky on the back.  I was a bit concerned because the minky is so slippery, and can get wrinkles in it.  The quilt is 62" x 74".  So it was very large too.  I ended up pinning the minky to the carpet with straight pins, nice and smooth.  I then sprayed it with the June Tailor basting spray (from Joanns) carefully layed the batting on the back smoothing it out, and then spray basting the batting and laying the pieced top on it and smoothed it all out.  It was completely stuck together - no pins whatsoever!  I quilted the entire quilt on my Juki and the quilt stayed together throughout the entire quilting process - and there were no wrinkles or puckers on the back. 

 I was on a tight timeline to get the quilt done before the grandkids were coming for Christmas.  I had worked hard to get all the cleaning and grocery shopping done before some bad weather hit, so that I could work on the quilting during the storm (2 days before our family Christmas).  The storm hit, ice, snow and high winds, and I got to my studio, got bobbins all wound, everything set up and ready and started stitching, and quilted for 15 min. or so when all of a sudden the machine stopped - the electricity had gone out!  I was so upset and frustrated.  Just had to wait till power came back on.  It did finally come back on a few hours later,  and I got right back to the quilting and got it all done in time before the grandkids got here :>)

Ethan, loved the quilt, and even brings it with him when he comes to Grammy's house.  It's really fun to look at all of the fabrics, some of Ethan's favorite super heros, construction vehicles, bugs and animals... 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed seeing Ethan's quilt.  I have been finishing a lot of quilts in the past few months (It's been a long winter), so I plan to show more quilts in the upcoming weeks.  So please stop back.

Oh Baby

 

 

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post.  Been busy around here with our latest project.  My middle daughter (the one that got married last Oct.) is now pregnant!  We are all so excited!  They just had the 20 week ultrasound, and as you can see the baby is pretty cute :>)

Kelly is finally getting a bit of a baby tummy and was having a terrible time finding pants to fit.  So we did some remodeling of some old jeans she had.  I got some 2 -way stretch knit at Joanns and made a stretch panel, I cut off the old waistband, sewed the zipper shut and then sewed the stretch panel onto the top of the jeans.  They fit her perfectly and she is so excited because they are comfortable.

While I was at Joanns I found some shirting that was cute so I decided to make a maternity shirt for her.

This is how it turned out (I don't have the buttons on yet though).  I think it is so cute.  Unfortunately you can't get the full effect since my dress form doesn't have a baby bump :>)

This is the back of the shirt, I added darts.  Kelly thought a little shape to the back might help downplay her hips.  Kelly's husband Doug told her the other day he thought she was getting her "birthing hips".  Of course she is telling us this story and we are all looking at Doug, amazed Doug is still able to walk.  So now she is trying to hide the "birthing hips", just had to laugh at that one.

Detail of the pintucks on the front, they kind of blend in with the stripe in the fabric.  Overall, I am very happy with how the shirt came out.

 

 

 

BTW, have you seen these cute Denyse Schmidt fabrics at Joann's?  I ran across them at our Joann's the other day and had to get some for my stash.  I just love the dots on dots.  Wish they came in red though.

 

 

 

And just in case you thought I wasn't doing any quilting here is a sneak peek at what I've  been working on. 

 

 

 

And for those of you in the midwest, you will understand, this is what our driveway looked like one week ago.  Luckily it melted fairly quickly (within a few days), but it has been COLD all this week and was snowing a bit when I was out earlier.  I am so sick of winter and ready for spring. 

 

 

 

This is what my poor little daffodils look like.  I don't think they are going to make it to blooming by Easter.  So sad. 

 

I am linking up to Cindy at Live a Colorful Life, random thursday posts.  I have to say I am pretty jealous of those pics she has of the beautiful flowers.

 

Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoy my random thoughts.

Sylvia

The Wedding Shrug

 

When my daughter got engaged in June, and as we were planning the wedding we were having one of the hottest summers on record. She picked out her "dream" dress with lace, and a beautiful strapless sweetheart neckline.   But the date of the wedding was October 20, I kept thinking that her beautiful strapless dress might be  a problem when the weather cooled down in October.  So I began researching and trying to find a pattern for a shrug that would have a beautiful lace design, and not cover up her beautiful dress.

I ended up putting together a pattern for stockings (Vogue magazine Spring/summer 2009) with a stockinette knit back, and then added a knitted lace edging at the sleeve and along the bottom of the back.  The yarn I used was Blue Skies Alpaca and Silk that I got at my LYS.  I was guessing that the color would work with the color of the dress (Ivory), as the dress didn't come in until late September.  Luckily, the color was perfect.  I also added pearl beads randomly throughout the knitted shrug to tie it in with her dress and the overall styling for the wedding.

 

It took a couple of restarts to get the sizing of the lace and sleeves right.  I was trying to make the shrug as a surprise for Kelly which meant I couldn't try it on her.  So it was mostly knitted by looking at some of her sweaters and crossing my fingers :>).  I ended up giving it to her 3 weeks or so before the wedding and did have to do some alterations to sleeve length, but otherwise it fit really well.  Whew!

 

 

Considering the temperatures ended up barely reaching 50 degrees that day, I think she was so glad to have the shrug.  And as you can see in the pictures it added some warmth for her arms and shoulders without covering up any of her dress.

 

 

 

And can I just say Kelly and Doug are so cute together.  The wedding ceremony was outdoors in a beautiful meadow surrounded by trees, and the reception was in a barn on the same property.  The wedding day was amazing.  And I have to thank the amazing photographers.  The first 3 pictures are by my friend Rissa, the rest of the photos are by Toni Price Photography.  Toni and Rissa did an amazing job.

 

And yes, we had quilts draped on some of the chairs in case guests were cold. 

 

Thanks for stopping by, Sylvia

 

{linked to} 

 

Random Christmas fun

My youngest daughter sent me this pic from the Meijer parking lot the other day.  She texted me "Mom, thought you would find this humorous"  and she was right.  I laughed out loud and still smile every time I see the picture.  I told my daughter I hope the driver noticed before she drove off.  She agreed but thought that would have been really funny to see the ball of yarn trailing behind the van...

Isn't this Christmas Tree skirt beautiful?  My daughter Alyssa made it!  She saw a picture of a similar one online and decided she could make that - one of those sometimes detrimental traits she learned from her mother :>)

She used a matelasse fabric she found at Joanns and then used osnaburg also from Joanns for the border.  She made a stencil and stenciled on the words.  The border also has silk ribbon stitching around the inner edge of the outer border.  I think it turned out beautifully.

My grandkids Ethan and Cora got to go on the Polar Express Christmas train with Mom and Dad.  Here is Ethan and Cora (at left) with Santa on the train.  They got to ride the train, had hot chocolate and cookies, and saw Santa and Mrs. Claus.  I think they had a really fun time.

This is a house and garage my grandson Ethan built.  I love the colorful symmetry with the block shapes. 

He also built this tower and bridge using legos and wood train tracks - so amazing!  Especially since he just turned 4, again totally symmetrical, he does have some OCD tendencies :>)  So we are on the hunt for fun building sets for him.  It seems all the Lego sets are to build a specific building or vehicle... just haven't found the right set for him.

 

This is a sneak peek at a surprise I Spy quilt for Ethan.  I intended to get this done for his birthday, but with all of the wedding stuff that didn't happen.  So, I am trying to get it done for Christmas.

 

OK, I think thats all for now.  Hope you enjoy my random Christmas post.  Hope you are having a joyous season, without too much stress.

Really Random

I am working on hand quilting a baby doll quilt for my grandaughter Cora.  This quilt was put together of left over tumblers from another project. 

It was fun just sewing these scraps together.  It is only 24" x 30" so I don't think it will take too long to quilt.

I used a soft flannel instead of batting so that the quilt would stay nice and soft and easy to use with her baby dolls.

This is the before and after of an armchair that I have been working on for a long time.  We aquired the chair a long time ago when my oldest daughter was in college.  She loved it cause it was small but super comfy - she still calls it her homework chair.  Then it got left in our garage, where I got big ideas about re-doing it. 

 I started tearing the old chair apart over a year ago, and then one project after another kept getting in the way of working on it.  Including my daughters engagement and wedding.

 

 So finally this last week I got a chance to get back at it and once I really started working on it and got out my husbands air stapler (high powered tools are always better :>)) the job went fairly quickly.

This is a pic of the chair all finished and in the room.  I have been re-doing this room, so I also just got the bookshelves all painted (they were unfinished pine to start out) and installed in the room.  Still have to get the rest of my books out of the basement.  But I am super happy with how the room is coming together.

And these two pics are close ups of a shrug that I knit for my daughter to wear with her wedding dress.  It is made of Alpaca and silk yarn and has pearl beads added in the knitting.  These pics were of the shrug as I blocked it.  The shrug is VERY soft and warm which was perfect as the wedding was outside and it was barely 50 degrees that day.

This is my daughter Kelly at the end of her wedding reception (and lots of dancing) with her new husband Doug.  You can see the shrug with the wedding dress.  Hopefully, I will get the photographer photos of the wedding soon, including some close ups of the shrug that I will post next week.  So please check back next week to see the finished shrug.

Thank you for stopping by to check out my random projects!!  Hope you are getting lots of projects done too.

4 patch wedding quilt

I finished this quilt back in early October, but with all of the wedding plans I never got the pictures of the finished quilt posted.  The wedding was October 20, it turned out beautifully and such a special celebration.  So I am finally beginning to get caught up, and decided it was time to get the finished quilt pics posted.

 This antique bowtie quilt that I got at an auction was the inspiration for the colors used in the 4 patch quilt.  We gave everyone at the bridal shower a block to write a sentiment or wish for Kelly and Doug, and the blocks were worked into the quilt.

We chose the colors of the borders to give the same feeling of the antique bowtie quilt.  We also used muslin for the binding, and backing like the antique quilt.

 This is a shot as I was quilting it.  It is straight line quilting along the diagonal of the 4 patch, both directions, giving it a diagonal grid just like the original bowtie quilt. 

The newlyweds are enjoying life together, and were thrilled with the quilt, and the good wishes included with it.

A shot of the quilt on my vintage childs chair, that my grandkids love.  The quilt is a nice lap size, 52" x 60", and I used a quilters dream batting so that after washing it has a really nice crinkly texture.