Shirley A's Quilt - "Just Breathe"

At some point during the pandemic isolation (it's all kind of a blur to be honest) my online group of quilty friends decided to have an "Orphan Block" Challenge.  The challenge was to take all those blocks left over from other projects, unused sample blocks, or maybe blocks made to learn a new technique, basically sad and lonely blocks in need of a home, and put them all into one project.  And believe me, it really was a challenge.

First, every single one of my orphan blocks went up on the design wall.  

Then, play time!  Making something out of this was a lot more of a challenge than I thought it would be.  I took some of the blocks, cut and stitched them to combine them with others to make new blocks, and some of the blocks I cut into smaller pieces.  It took a while to go from the above to this .....

..... and after deciding to fill in empty spots with checkerboard sashings, to this.....

And then it went to this.

I didn't want to end up with any "orphaned" orphan blocks, so I put most of what was left on the back.

I free-motion quilted this, and not without excitement.  I have a habit (a bad one) of getting my fingers a little too close to the needle while I'm sewing, but at least this time it was just my free-motion quilting glove that got caught and not my finger!  Whew!

Just a closeup.

One really special block went onto the back.  My grandson, Gavin, made this block when he was just a little guy and had decided, for about five minutes, that he wanted to learn how to sew.  I blogged about that here.

I am very pleased with how this turned out.

I named this quilt "Just Breathe" and gifted it to my precious friend, Shirley A, who was going through a very hard time.  She loves it.

I ended up with only these teal orphan blocks left .....

..... but I already had a plan for those!

Linking up with Can I Get A Whoop Whoop!

Ashley's Wedding Quilt

If you're tired of me starting off my blog posts with "another niece needed a wedding quilt" I'll just say instead that Emily's and Paige's cousin, Ashley, needed a wedding quilt.  Yes, that would be my niece.  Another niece.  I have a lot of them.  

I'm still trying to use up those batiks, so this time I chose the "Bella" pattern by Timeless Treasures.  

The stars really added a lot of interest to an otherwise simple pattern.

Another interesting part of the process was sewing the first two columns on upside down .....

.....then ripping them off and putting them back on right side up.

Can you see the difference?  Please tell me you can see the difference!  I would have never experienced another peaceful night's sleep if I hadn't corrected it.  Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but .....

Either way, this beautiful bride loves it .....

..... and that's all that matters.

Linking up with So Scrappy and Oh Scrap!

[wedding photo credit Rachel Turner Photography]

Paige and Paul's Wedding Quilt

Another niece, another wedding quilt.  This time it was Paige's turn.  I was on a roll using up those batiks!  The Organized Chaos pattern by Cozy Quilts is perfect for batiks.  I'd been wanting to use this eggplant batik with gold stars for a while.  I had never auditioned it next to other prints before.  It turned out to be perfect.  I need to "play" with my stash more often!

I worked on this quilt during the Covid isolation while I wasn't even thinking about blogging, so I only took two photos.  Let's just jump ahead to a picture of the finished quilt .....

..... and the happy couple.

Hmmm, it doesn't seem right to leave you after such a short post and so few photos.

I'll just share a little bit about two of the quilts I made for Paige as she was growing up.  Actually, she helped with one.  She decided to learn to sew; she wanted to make a quilt; and Aunt Sandy was just the one to teach her. 

We picked out a panel (aka "cheater cloth"), a bright aqua for borders, and hot pink and yellow for a checkerboard border.  Paige did some of the sewing, but decided pretty quickly that sewing wasn't really for her.  I finished up the borders, added some bright buttons as cornerstones, named it "Girlfriends", and called it "done"!

In 2005 I thought she needed a more grownup quilt.  She was thirteen by then, after all.  I wanted to use Judy Laquidara's pattern "Rainbow Connection", but as you can see I didn't want to use rainbow colors, just two colors - pink and black.

It was a fun surprise that Christmas and a big hit as well.

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A Wedding Quilt For Emily and Chris

So this beautiful couple .....

..... had a wedding coming up, and it was time for Aunt Sandy to spring into action.  I really did, too.  I actually finished and gifted in time for them to unwrap their quilt with the rest of their wedding gifts.  What a concept, right?!?!   

I was still trying to use up some of the batiks in my stash, and what better way to choose the perfect pattern than to check out Jenny Doan's tutorials again.  This time it was "Dream Weavers" that caught my eye.  

Cutting pieces and constructing blocks didn't take long.  (By the way, those hash marks mean absolutely nothing.  As you know, in addition to being math challenged I also cannot count.)

Making decisions about sashing and border fabrics took a little longer.  My original plan was to sash with a nice shade of yellow and dark cornerstones, but once I got that up on my design wall I decided it didn't work.  Especially when I saw it next to the option of dark sashing and yellow cornerstones.  It never ceases to amaze me how color choice can make such a big difference!

And if you had told me that I'd end up with a black and brown border with neutral accents, I would not have believed you.  It totally works, though!  See what happens when you let yourself "play" a little?

I thought naming this wedding quilt "Weaving Dreams" would put a nice twist on the "Dream Weavers" pattern name.  Especially for a sweet couple starting out their new lives together.

So, some more batiks bit the dust, I supported my Local Quilt Shop by buying borders and backing, and I was able to gift a quilt I love to people I love .....

..... and that will be loved for a long time to come.

Linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Aaron's Rag Quilt

I don't mean to brag (actually, I do!), but I'm feeling pretty good that I actually started on a quilt "just" two years after my son asked me to make it.  This was another of my Covid isolation projects.  Aaron and I had shopped for flannels when I went to Seattle to spend some time with him over Mother's Day weekend in 2018.  In mid-2020 I started working on it.  Pretty impressive, right?  It didn't even have time to become a UFO!

He was pretty sure about what he wanted.  We ended up with some nice flannels.

It didn't take long to sew the larger sets of squares corner to corner and make four-patches from the smaller sets.

I hadn't made a rag quilt in about twenty years, so I had to buy new Fiskars Easy Action Rag Quilt Snips for clipping all those seams.  Who knows what happened to the scissors I used to have!

If you've ever made a rag quilt you KNOW the most fun part was washing and drying it multiple times to get those seams good and frayed. 

Or maybe I should say the most fun part was cleaning up all that lint.  Wow!

It was worth it in the end.  The quilt is exactly what he wanted.

And now HE gets to wash it!

Kacie's Quilt

Every girl needs a new quilt when she leaves home to go off to college.  Especially when her Aunt Sandy thinks she does! And even more so when her sisters have recently received new quilts.  (You can read about Karlie's here and Kourtnie's here.)  It was Kacie's turn.

Jennie Doan's "Summer Camp" pattern looked like fun, and I was in the mood to work with teals and grays.  I dug into my stash and found something to work with, but I ended up adding a few fat-quarters to round out the mix.  We have to do our part to support our Local Quilt Shops.  I mean, that's a given, right?

The blocks were pretty basic so it went together quickly.  That's a good thing since I had waited to even start on it until she was just about ready to leave for school!  Isn't it nice when a block starts out as a half-square-triangle and keeps changing as you add simple strips?

I reversed the way the lights and darks in the HSTs are positioned in order to get a different look.  You know me.  Gotta change it up a little if I'm using a pattern!  It didn't make much difference really, but ... well ... you know .....

Another beautiful quilting job by my friend, Shirley Jackson, and a hand-stitched label and binding, and Aunt Sandy was ready to ship it off to one of her (many!) darling nieces.  

Getting some nice shots of the finished quilt is one of my fave things to do.

Seeing that big smile when someone gets their quilt is my absolute fave, though!

It makes my heart happy!

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