I Spy a Penelope Rose

I do love an I Spy quilt.  There are so many fun novelty prints out there. Penelope Rose would be here soon, and her quilting Gramma already had a bunch of quilts awaiting her arrival, so I decided a toddler sized I Spy quilt would be the perfect gift.  I dug into my bag of scrappy novelty prints and my Biscotti jars of strips, and made a plan.







  






























Even the simplest block works with interesting fabrics and bright colors.

















I had everything from kites and cows to ice cream cones, silly hippos, baby chicks, and lobsters. 

Even platform shoes!

A little meander quilting .....

..... a fun backing and a special customized label from Gramma.

Don't tell any of my 'Bama friends, but I threw in a few Auburn blocks for Mom and Dad.

I made it big enough so Penelope can use it for a long time.  

Gramma loves it.  Big sister Dallas isn't sure.

I think Penelope will love it.  As soon as she wakes up.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict 
Linking up with Tish's Adventures in Wonderland  
Linking up with So Scrappy    

Jeep Girl

It was my sister Carol's turn for a new quilt.  I asked her if there was a theme or type of quilt she wanted, and without missing a beat she said, "A Jeep quilt".  I wasn't surprised.  She is most definitely a Jeep girl!

I couldn't find any Jeep fabric locally so I had to shop online.  Darn!  I hate when that happens.  Just kidding.  I can almost always find exactly what I need on quiltshops.com.  























We decided on the pattern Pastoral Countryside from All People Quilt, and I added one more fabric to the mix.  

It was Shirley Jackson to the rescue again, and the quilting was perfect. 

And you know what the best part was, right?  Giving it to my sister in person!

I love, love, love that kind of reaction!

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
    Linking up with Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Antelope Canyon

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  It's just been a very strange year.  I have done a few quilty things, but I haven't actually blogged about much of it.  In the next few weeks I'll try to catch up a little.  

I finished my sister's batik quilt and gifted it in March of this year.  You can see photos of it here.

Sweet little Nolan was gifted with his Bear Paw baby quilt in August. You can read about that here.

Earlier this year I started a sew-along with two friends of mine to make the Lauri Shifrin quilt, Antelope Canyon.  I was excited to start on an interesting project ..... 

..... until I saw the directions.

Yikes!  Then I got into cutting it out.

Did I already say, "Yikes!"?

It's actually made of only 4 large blocks that come together to make the pattern, but I had to stay really focused to keep everything in order.  This is just the center of one of the blocks.

When I posted a picture of the finished top on my Facebook page, my niece Kourtnie told me how much she loved it.  That's when it became a "quilt for Kourtnie".  My friend Shirley Jackson quilted this one for me and did a beautiful job as always.

It was fun presenting it because of Kourtnie's reaction.  I love it when someone loves a quilt I made for them.

Turns out, I'm really glad I made this one.  It was well worth the effort.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Linking up with Tish's Adventures in Wonderland 
Linking up with SoScrappy
Linking up with Quilting is More Fun than Housework

My First One Block Wonder

I bought this fabric almost 10 years ago thinking I would make a One Block Wonder (OBW), but I didn't buy enough so it has been patiently waiting in my stash for me to do something with it.  

A friend of mine was teaching the OBW in an online quilt group I help moderate so I decided to see what I could do with it.  I didn't have enough repeats of the fabric to make a very big quilt so I set out to do what I could.  I liked the way the blocks were looking.  With only 33 blocks I was still only going to have enough for a wall-hanging, though, and I wasn't sure I wanted that to happen.

Since you need six repeats to cut out enough triangles for hexagons, and I only had three repeats left,  I decided to play.  I made half-hexagons with some of the triangles and put them together .....

..... and I just cut out whatever triangles I could using the leftover scraps.  I mixed those up into half-hexies.

It was fun to really play and see what kind of layout I could come up with.  It went from this .....

..... to this .....

..... and once I got the borders on it looked like this.

It's still not very big but definitely big enough for a fun baby quilt.   A trip to my LQS ended with the perfect backing fabric.

I'm going to go a little outside the box on this one and do some big stitch quilting with Perle Cotton.   It's all basted and ready to go.  I'll keep you posted!

Linking up with Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Nolan's Baby Quilt

So much has been going on in my life this year that quilty goals and blog-writing keep getting pushed to the bottom of the "to do" list. There's no way to make up for lost time, but it's never too late to start again, so here I am.  I've been making the quilty part a priority  lately. Now it's time to blog about it.

A brand new great-nephew appeared on the scene in January. Knowing that bears were part of the nursery theme I chose to make a bear paw quilt in nursery colors as his "being born" gift.  I took one of the sheets to my LQS to find the perfect fabrics.

Any pattern with half-square-triangles goes together quickly, and these blocks did just that.

 Hand quilting always makes a quilt extra special.  

Scrappy binding.....

.....leftover blocks on the back.....

.....Baby's name embroidered as a label.....

.....and done!  Don't you love watching people's faces when you gift a quilt?  

Mommy loved it.  Nolan seemed especially pleased with his new sunglasses from Aunt Sandy, too.

I believe he was looking ahead to all the future snuggling time with his new quilt.

This is Nolan a few months later enjoying his quilt and even dressing to match.  He's quite a guy!

In the days ahead I hope to show you at least a little of what I've been up to lately.  I haven't been a total slug!

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  Can I get a Whoop Whoop?

Linking up with Tish's Adventures in Wonderland

Debbie's Quilt - A Finish!

The last time I shared with you about Debbie's quilt the top was finished, the backing was ordered, and I was getting ready to mail it off to my quilter friend, Shirley Jackson.   The pantograph and thread choices are perfect for this quilt.  But, of course. Shirley always does a beautiful job.

In 2017 Debbie asked me to make her a new quilt because the one I had made for her 36 years earlier was worn out, I was more than happy to. That's why this quilt will no longer be known as "Debbie's Quilt", but rather "Because You Asked".   (I'm not usually any good at naming quilts, but I like this name!)

This is my first finish for 2019.
























I was excited to be able to make a trip to St. Louis recently to gift it in person.  Partly because it weighs a ton, and I didn't want to mail it. 



















Mostly because I wanted to see Debbie's face and bask in the glow of her love and admiration.  Not really.  I just wanted to love on her a little bit.  I don't get to see her often enough.

So, it's finally in Debbie's arms.  Seriously.  It's probably actually in her arms this very minute.  She was so happy when I gave it to her the other evening I feel certain she's yet to let it go.