Take-5......and Take My Sisters..........Please!

I'm talking about the "Take-5" pattern from "The Teachers Pet." Last fall this pattern became my new favorite way of making a quick, cute and really fun quilt. It calls for 5/8 yard of five different coordinating fabrics and then fabric for the borders and backing. I just completed this pink and yellow version to donate to CASA for a teenager going through the foster system. I hope it gives some young girl just a little bit of comfort.

Let me tell you how this "Take-5" thing started. See.....I have these sisters........

Last year my sister, Barb, said those words that every quilter dreads, "I found some old material and thought you could use it." Well, this time it actually worked out for good! She had purchased this giant cats fabric a long, long time ago to make a dress and never got that far. When I saw it I thought it was actually pretty cool, so I decided to make her a quilt from it. This is the first quilt I made using the "Take-5" pattern. Barb was surprised with her "Comfy Cats" quilt, and she really liked it.

When you have four sisters you can't make a quilt for one of them and not the rest. I mean, you can't play favorites, right? Carol's quilt was easy because she is a real nut for Betty Boop and an internet search revealed that there are waaaaay too many Betty Boop fabrics out there! Carol was surprised with her quilt, too! I called hers "Peek-a-Boop" because Betty looked like she was looking out a window.

It was a little more difficult to select fabric for Debbie. There are lots of things she likes but she isn't actually crazy for any of them. (Don't take that the wrong way, Carol!) One thing Debbie does like is hot food, so I settled on a hot peppers focus fabric and called her quilt "Too Hot Too Handle." I don't know if, by this time, she was catching on, but she acted surprised, and I got the feeling she liked her quilt, too.

Now, Dee Dee.............What can I say? Dee Dee has a great appreciation for really physically fit good-lookin' guys. I had seen a lot of different "hunks" fabrics at quilt shows and in magazines, so considering that her dear hubby is in construction I did an on-line fabric search for "construction hunks" and wouldn't you know it - I was not disappointed. Either was Dee Dee! I couldn't use the same pattern for her quilt without cutting up the guys too much, so I used the "BQ" pattern from Maple Island Quilts and called it "Hubba Hubba." Need I say, She liked it?! (I don't think she was too surprised, though!)
You can see better photos of the quilts (and a close-up of Dee Dee's quilt) in my Flickr albums -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandypanagos/sets/