2 of my World-Famous-Scrappy-Color-Block-Baby-Quilts

Soo back in February my cousin had twins.  A boy and a girl!  A week before I was going to see them at a family gathering, I decided I'd better make them my world famous scrappy color block baby quilts.  Me? A procrastinator??  Maybe just a little bit.  :)

(think we could use a good rain? The whole state of Iowa could use a nice soak!)

I think maybe scrappy doesn't quite describe these blocks.  They are more like fragments of fabric.  Tiny pieces that you can't hardly do anything with.  I'm pretty sure that making a "real" block would be much quicker to sew.  A 9-patch or Ohio Star or something.  But that would just leave me with more little scraps!

Love this pink and yellow combo. 

 

I can just sit here at look at these fabric fragments all day.  I see 3 that I made dresses out of back in my 4-H days.  One my mom made me a dress from when I was really little.  Some I've inherited from my sister, my MIL, and my Mom's stash.  Some I received in my scrap bundle from Sew Fresh Fabrics.  Some are leftovers from some of my more recent projects... 

Anyway- Welcome to the world little baby twins!  Linking up to Megan's Sew Modern Monday. 

A Pink Quilt for a Cause

Jessica made this darling pink quilt.  She is donating it to a friend stricken with cancer.  I asked her if she paper pieced those little squares because all those points just looked so perfect.  Nope, she didn't.  She's just that good! 

(tee hee!  notice my big toe holding down the quilt!)

I did an all-over rose/leaf/curly-Q combo in the center.

I mimicked the design in the fabric on the outer border.  It's hard to see, but it's loopy hearts with curly-Q's. 

The back. 

Thanks again Jessica for letting me quilt up your projects!

Swirly Purple Snail Trail

My sister made this lovely purple snail's trail quilt.  Love how she made it lighter in the center!  She said that she had to lay it out as she was making it and figure out how to make each block.

Quilting this one was all about the swirls. 

Here's a little sneak peek at my garden.  This little gray butterfly is called a Gray Hairstreak.  I learned a little something about it here.  It says it is common in "disturbed, weedy areas"...  Baa Haa haa!  That's my yard alright! :)

'Victoria Falls' Iris- One of the bluest irises out there!

Zebra striped T-shirt quilt

Elaine made this T-Shirt quilt for her granddaughter who is graduating high school.  Elaine is not a quilter, so she got some expert tips and advice from her quilting friends to help with this project.  She did an excellent job! 

I usually think of how I'm going to quilt something as I'm putting it on the machine.  As in a few moments before I actually start quilting on it.  And that was the case with this one too.  I had a moment of genius to do zebra stripes in the big black border and I just love how it turned out!  I used a fine gray Aurifil thread throughout this quilt.  The quilting blended in and stood out in all the right places.

I kept the center pretty simple and did loops with a few stars here and there in the big empty spaces.  As well as stars in the cornerstones.  T-shirt quilts are always kind of fun to figure out how you are going to quilt around each shirt design.  It's fun to weave in and out of the words.  Sometimes you can get away with just outlining the design, but others are too big to leave unquilted.  For example this one; after the quilt was off the machine, I decided to go back and stitch around the "sister!".   My machine has no problems stitching through those vinyl/plastic-like decals.  But it is still a little nerve-wracking because if you have to rip it out, you will leave little holes in it. 

Anyways, Elaine was just tickled with how her quilt turned out, and I think I might just say that this might be my favorite t-shirt quilt I've done so far!  :)

*notice how I've removed the dates on my pictures.  Now you have NO IDEA how belated my posts are!  Ha ha!

Whirligig Quilt

This "whirligig" quilt (I don't know if that's what this pattern is called, but that's what I'm going to call it) was made by my Mom, sister, sister-in-law and me for a cousin who is graduating high school.  I'll admit that I did very little of the piecing...

...but I got to quilt it!  I just did some simple swirls (my favorite) all over in cream thread. 

All swirls except for this little part. 

And here's the back. 

Swirls.

Congratulations Joe! 

Birdies and Owls

Here is another quilt from Joyce for her grandaugher.  Love this one too!

 

Her only request was to stitch around the birds and the owls.  I echoed them a little bit to make them stand out.  How cute is this fabric??  Super cute I say.

In the rest of the quilt I did a little bit of everything!  Feathers, flowers, swirls, swirls with feathers, swirls with petals...  I had fun with this one. :)

Here's a good look of the back. 

And -what the heck- here's a couple pics of my little guy. 

He's 4 months old and growing by leaps and bounds!

A couple more from Jessica

Jessica had me quilt up this darling little pink quilt. 

In the big pink border I did circles.  Extra-large pebbling you might call it.  In the little dark brown border there is loop-de-loops, using the square patches as a spacing guide.

And in the patches I did curly-Q's and a few hearts to sweeten it up a little bit.  I had the perfect pink thread to match! 

Here's another quilt she made using a layer cake with Moda fabrics.  Love this one!

She said she had a hard time matching up all those angles.  I bet!  But she did a great job. I quilted free-motion flowers and swirls in Aurifil grey thread.  It blends in pretty well on the top. 

Check out the back.  Thanks for having me quilt your fun sewing projects Jessica!

Cappuccino quilt

Another one from Joyce.  This one is called Cappuccino.  It was a pretty big quilt.  So big that I could barely get a picture of it all.  I can only capture so much while standing on a chair with my camera over my head! 

I quilted all-over free-motion hook feathers using Connecting Threads Essential Pro thread in a brown color. 

Love how the high-loft batting really makes those feathers pop!

Tea Dying

I've been working on a little sewing project lately that required some light-yellow-brownish fabric.  I don't have light-yellow-brownish fabric, but I DO have a lot of light yellow fabric.  If only it were a little bit more brown...hmmm, I could tea dye it!  I have never dyed anything with tea before, but it's pretty simple.  Just brew up some strong tea and put your fabric in it. 

I've got one of those giant tea bags in there that makes a whole pitcher of tea.  I only had the one tea bag left otherwise I would have used 2. 

I let it soak for about 6 hours or so.  I kind of forget exactly how long.  But once I decided it was done, I rinsed it out until it squeezed out clear and let it air dry.  Then I gave it a good ironing.  The fabric on the left is the before and on the right is the dyed fabric.  Capturing the color difference on camera is a bit difficult, but the color turned out pretty well I think.

The coloring is a little mottled/spotty, probably because of how it was folded and wadded up in the tea bath.  And I probably could have poured more water into it so the fabric had more room to swim, but it's cool because it is going to turn into a tree trunk so it will look very natural.  Right??  Yes. 

Have you ever tried tea dying?  How did it turn out?  Do you like tea?  Do you prefer hot or iced? Sugar?  Lemon?  Honey?  In summer I like iced tea with a lemon.  In winter hot tea with honey. 

Stars to Heaven

Oooh.  Pretty. 

This one is called Stars to Heaven made by Joyce. 

I quilted feathers in the background and meandered in the stars. 

And did some custom borders too. 

(Nevermind the camera strap!  Or the fact that I am posting this almost 3 weeks after I actually completed quilting it!  I'm such a great blogger...)

The plain back really shows off the quilting.  I'll admit I'm a little proud of myself on this one-it turned out really nice.  :)