new modern meets old traditional

I showed a blurry photo of this baby quilt as it was coming together in an earlier post.

  I thought as neither cousin who is having the babies (I am making two quilts!) knows what they are having I would make it scrappy.  I love this modern pattern.  It is quick and easy. 

This fabric is what I am thinking of using for the backing.  It is a great fabric I picked up cheap at IKEA.

The center block is a hand appliqued cat, embroidered around the edge and for the face by my Grandma.  She also use to make dog blocks.  These were used in quilts for the second generation of grandchildren.  My generation received charm square quilts.  Here is the first one she gave me when I was about 3 or 4.

I still love to sleep under it.  It is very heavy.

Here is the second one she gave me when I was around 12 or 13. 

I love to put this on my bed in the summer.  I love the shirting fabrics she used from fabric sample cards. 

I love them both.  I need to get a photo of my sisters cat quilt.  It had about 12 blocks in it.

Keep dreaming...Colleen





The first real quilt I made was for my grandmother and here I am giving it to her for her birthday.  It lived with her for ten years in the nursing home where she suffered from Alzheimer's.  I have it back and after 10 years of bleach through the wash it does not quite look like this anymore.  The yo yos made hyacinths I always loved to smell in her garden.  The red fabric for the ribbon came from her house when we cleaned it out to sell.  It is totally faded and washed out.  Except for the black sharpie ink where they wrote her name on the back.





Creeping closer to a finish

Before I went on vacation I finished the modern log cabin quilt I started back in November. Im going to love having this quilt on my bed.  I have picked fabric to piece the back from my stash. 

I just need to take the plunge and figures out how I want to quilt it.  I made it with scraps from $1 scrap bags I bought at Karen Gray designs during the Flaunt event last October.  BTW Flaunt is an arts and crafts fair happening again this year on October 22 and I will again be participating. 

Keep dreaming...Colleen

Knit Picky is an amazing yarn store in Winston -Salem I discovered recently.

Librarians Rule!

I'm going to try and get caught up on my posts.  First up is the Scrappy Mug Rug swap I just finished.  My secret swap partner was Meg Norrell of The Mad Quilting Librarian.  How perfect!  I could design for a fellow librarian!  I knew she liked bright modern colors and fabrics.  So I came up with this plan.

Can you tell what it is?  A shelf of books with spine labels!  Here is what they mean

E Col and E Yar are E-fiction books for the first letters of my first and last names.  F Nor and F Meg  are for F-fiction books and the names of my swap partner.  006.754 Fli is the Dewey number for online social networks according to the 2008 update.  641.337 Cof is for coffee, 746.46 Qui is quilting books, 974.6 Con is for Conneticut where Meg is from and 975.6 Nor is for North Carolina where I am from.  I had the most fun with it!

I went through my scraps and found some bright modern prints.  Then I began to cut and piece.

Then the spine labels.  I did a little goof.  You know how sometimes you get SO excited to sew the pieces together you forget to add an important piece?  Well I forgot the spine labels until I had already sewed the books together.

So I had to rip up a little from the bottom to sew the labels on.  They are hand written because I can not get the fabric to go through me printer without jamming.  I also figured out a way to easily fold down and press the seam allowance.  I just sewed a tube with the seam pressed to the center, turned and pressed.  Then cut off the width I needed and cut the seam away from the back.   

I really liked how the spine labels turned out.  I forgot to take a picture with the spine labels uncovered.

And here is how it turned out.  Would you believe I had a scrap of green binding from the sewing machine cover that was perfect? 

And the backing was from a 1/2 yard of vintage fabric I picked up somewhere that felt right with the colors.

***********************

Here is the lovely mug rug package I received from my secret partner. 

She included scraps of my favorite fabric line moda Bliss.  Plus some fun goodies.

I am using it next to my comfy chair in the studio.  I was always knowing the small coaster down and there is room for a snack too.

Keep Dreaming...Colleen



La princesa aka Jasmine aka Jazzy Girl thinking
 "Yes, I am queen of all I survey."
Such a poser!



Scrappy pin cushion

I had a sewin tonight and made my scrappy pincushion for the Flickr groups swap.

It is two sided.  I dug into my special scraps to make this.

I even added a needle holder.  I hate when pincushions don't have these.  And then the pins get lost in the cushion.

I also tried a little experimentation with some polymer clay and made some pin toppers!

They turned out better then I could hope. 

 Good enough to include three with the pincushion.

And I also rolled up some great scraps so my swap partner could make some more scrappy goodness.

I added a few vintage sewing supplies-a 10cent rick rack and spool of thread.

I may add a few more goodies before I mail this.

Keep dreaming...Colleen



A duck filled raffle basket that raised $45 for Relay last year.
Included a baby quilt, stuffed quilt, and lots of rubber ducks!



Quilting back in time

I was excited today to discover the weekly history blog Civil War Quilts written by Barabara Brackman.  Every week she gives the pattern for a Civil War era block and a story from that era.  She is a designer for Moda who designs Civil War reproduction fabrics. It is only the second week so only two blocks have been posted.   I realized when I sorted my stash that some of the 90's fabric is repro from around that era-I think they were Smithsonian collection?  This could be another way to bust my 90's stash.

I also found a stash of HST already sewn into squares with white on white prints that have the same old feeling.  I decided not to worry about size and went ahead and quickly sewed together the two blocks.

This first block is called 'Catch Me If You Can' in honor of the Underground railroad.  Notice how authentic I am using slightly different prints when I ran out.

The second block is my favorite star block with many names but on the blog is called 'North Star'.  You have to go read about the 1856 baby quilt in this pattern made for an abolitionist fair.  I put a little twist on it by not using a solid center.  I used the hst I already had cut.

I have been working on other projects.  Including finishing my Valentine tree and other projects from the Be Mine blog tour.  I also found this fabric in my stash hiding with the fat quarters to use with the charm squares in the other projects.  However they were put on hold as I was finally able to work on Mom's birthday gift for Sunday.  Sadly there are no more Sew Days this week as we are back to school tomorrow.  Of course we do have a vacation day Monday, so THREE DAY WEEKEND!

More pics to follow.

Keep dreaming…Colleen

Christmas snow and geese on the lake at Mom and Dad's.

Change of plans, have you ever....

 started a project without a goal in mind as to how it would look but with a goal in mind as to what you would do with it? 

I did with the blue(rainbow) scrap challenge (see link above). 

This was going to be a table runner/candle mat  for a family gift exchange this weekend.  Well now its not.  Now I'm thinking if I am going to be working with scraps each month maybe I  will add to the blue thing above. 

What do you think?

Borders? Sections? Individual blocks?

Wild and free?

Can you picture the random areas of color?

Let me know what you think.

I still needed a present for Saturday. 

So I went ahead, dived(dove?) into and pulled out 17 charm squares, a scrap of muslin, and whipped up a slightly smaller varied version of my Charming Candle mat pattern.

(I know I promised a tutorial but 'Ive been busy!).

P.S. Have you seen the gorgeous block Lana made for me in the Block Swap Adventure, that is even now winding its way across the country?  Check it out here.

PPS  Check out my friend Cheryl Lynch, she has a new book coming out January 11. 
Check out the details here.

Keep dreaming…Colleen

Blue scraps challenge part 2 and a question

 Hey blue scrapers!

I have been working on the table runner(I think thats what it is going to be).

Ignore the hst, they are for another project. 

So I took the scraps and sewed a little and laid out some more strips and I have something that looks like this.

I still have some muslin strips to add to the long sides. 

 I also found this blue plaid print in my 90s stash for the backing with a roll to front binding.

Do you think this works?  I would appreciate any comments.

I like the scrappy modern free spirit of it-I didn't really measure, just kind of cut and sewed.

BTW I've been wanting to ask everyone what hint or technique or tool you learned about in 2010 that really helped you be a better quilter.  For me it is spray starch,

 I love this stuff!

 a teacher in a class I took introduced us to it.  I have been using this very inexpensive brand from Walmarts and I love how effective it is in setting seams.  It seems to make my blocks come out better.  Which is good because as you can see above I can get a little wild...

Keep dreaming…Colleen

Blue Scraps challenge...and my stash

 I joined up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Soscrappy.  She called for us to dig into our blue scraps and make something. 

She gave some ideas on her blog of a mug rug or some blocks.  I pulled out my blue scraps and my white/neutral scraps. 

I just sewed and cut and ironed and used my Dresden wedge ruler. 

 I ended up with this.

I think that I may take these blue and white scraps...

And piece strips on the ends to create a table runner. And these scraps

To piece a backing.

 I need a gift for an upcoming family get together next Sat, and this may fill the bill.

BTW check out this stash!

These are my new Billy bookshelves from IKEA. They were on sale for $99 with the glass doors.  I will put those on after I finish straightening the mess. FYI I used comic boards to create all of these lovely mini bolts.  100 for about $7 or 8 .  Check out my how to here. I need to get another pack because I still have some fabric to fold. 

All the little containers stacked up the middle and off to the side are my scraps and fat quarters.  I still need to sort through and organize them better.  It is delightful to be able to see all the fabric I have. 

 The fabric on the left is my 90's stash.  On the right the top shelf  is my feed sacks, batiks, and repros from the 90's too.  The 2nd and third shelves are mostly new fabrics I have been collecting.  Then my solids including hand dyed. Next to the bottom are baskets I am organizing fat quarters into. The bottom is my Christmas fabrics.  Be looking for my January stash giveaway coming up in a week or so.  I will be choosing some fabric from my blue 90s stash.  I may just coordinate my giveaways to the Rainbow Scrap challenge.

Keep dreaming…Colleen

the orginial lucky duck