Baby Quilt Finished

The Batik Baby Quilt is labeled, bound, and on it's way to the new baby boy.  I've done many baby quilts for this client, and she always asks for quilts that will grow with the baby into adult-hood, not too "baby-ish".  This batik quilt fits the bill.

I quilted the center with straight lines, forming an 8-pointed star in each block, and used the same curved line design in the border that I used on the last baby quilt.  All ruler work, done on my APQS George.

Last Post of 2015

I finished assembling all six quilt tops this week.  Guess I know how I'll be starting out 2016 - quilting!

Cheers!  And Happy New Year!

Tasting Table Tuesday - New Quilts for a New Year

I am spending a quiet afternoon at my sewing machine today, as we prepare for a bought of winter weather - finally!  Our family was here for a late Christmas celebration over the weekend and they left this morning.  Now the house seems strangely quiet.  A good day to get some sewing done while I remember how wonderful the last few days have been.  There is something magical about having young children here for the holidays - or anytime, for that matter!

As I look forward to 2016, I plan to make some changes to my Etsy Shop, and focus on making more of what I love - small quilts.  So this is my start at making some new, fresh, quilts.  I started these blocks at a quilting retreat this fall, and just finished the last of them now.

Enough to make six baby quilts.

Each quilt pairs White Kona Cotton with a Color in a checkerboard fashion.

There's a Coral & Gray one...

and a Green one... 

a Purple one... 

and an Aqua one... 

a Blue one... 

and the last is a mix of them all. 

All will be listed in my Etsy Shop, Cotton Cellar as soon as they're done.

Here's hoping that you all have a Joyous New Year!

Cheers!

My Bleeding Quilts

I finished four baby quilts last week.  Three of them are bright - VERY bright!

As usual, I washed these quilts.  Knowing that baby quilts are meant to be used and will be washed frequently, I like to wash them myself before they leave my hands.  That way, if anything unexpected happens, it happens to me - not my customer.

Good thing I did, because the dyes in these quilts bled like crazy!

I was so upset that I didn't even photograph the damage.

I was sure the quilts were destined for the garbage bin (or animal shelter as dog beds).

I put four Shout Color Catcher sheets in the washer and this is how they came out...

If you think that looks bad, you should have seen the yellow backing fabric on one of the quilts.  It was way worse than this - believe me!  It looked like a 2-year-old had a field day with markers and mommy's lipstick. I was sure it was ruined...

The green and blue backed quilts were affected also, but not nearly as bad as the yellow one.

Naturally, I blew off steam to a friend and whined about my problem.  She found an article on the internet about bleeding quilts, which she forwarded to me, with hopes it might solve the problem.

Thank the Lord - it worked!!!!!

I won't share all the details here, because you can read it all for yourself HERE.  If you have ever had this problem with any of your quilts, or just want to be prepared for the possibility, you HAVE TO READ THIS BLOG POST!

And here is a direct link to the instruction document.

A huge thank you to Vicki Welsh for her research and testing.  Every bit of excess dye came out of my quilts and they are like new again!  (And thanks to my friend Ann, for finding the article for me!)

Cheers!

Tasting Table Tuesday - An almost-finished baby quilt...

I've finished quilting the baby quilt that I showed you in my previous post and I've come to the conclusion that white quilts are extremely difficult to photograph.  It's hard to get the white and the colors to all look natural - either one or the other is always a little off, no matter how much editing I do.  I'm learning every day though, so maybe I'll eventually get it figured out.  Like quilting, I guess photography is all about practice, practice, practice also...

 I stitched in the ditch of the patchwork strips and extended those lines all the way out to the edge of the quilt in both directions.  As much as I like free-motion quilting, there's still something about the look of row after row of straight neat stitches.  I guess it's my drafting background, again...

I used one of the P&B Modern Shadows fabrics that I bought a couple of weeks ago for the back, but only had one yard of it, so I added a band of one of the fabrics that I used in the patchwork strips on the front.  There's a little bit of the same gray in it, so the two go together perfectly.  I haven't done many pieced backs before, but I love how this one went together.

Now it's time to bind it and write the description for my Cotton Cellar listing...

Cheers!

Progress Report

This is the time of year that I'm grateful to be sewing in the basement - it's so much cooler down there!  We're in a heat wave here, so I've been down there most of the day, but I just came up for a cool drink (details of that next...) and thought I'd share my latest project with you.

I designed this baby quilt months ago on EQ, but set it aside while I worked on higher priority projects.  Today I was just in the mood to start something new, so that's exactly what I did.  My blocks are done, and I just have to cut my sashing and borders then put it all together.

The patchwork strips are leftover from the big custom order of Fabric Covered Journals that I did a few months ago.  I'm setting them in a background of white, but it's not quite solid.  It's a subtle tone-on-tone of snow white with a modern circle design printed on it.  I hope you can see the details in the next picture, but it's so hard to photograph white on white.

Now for the drink details...  I'm on a juice smoothie kick these days, and it's especially refreshing on a scorcher like today.  I threw together some frozen grapes (I keep a bag of these in the freezer), frozen mango, fresh pineapple, and a sprinkling of frozen chopped spinach.  Added some water, then blended it all up with my handy-dandy new Ninja Pulse.

DEE-LICIOUS!   Cold and super refreshing!

Cheers!

Tasting Table Tuesday - Inspiration

Like most of you, I have more fabric in my stash than I'll ever use.  I keep telling myself that I won't buy any more until I use up more of what I already have.  But lately, every time I go into my local quilt shop, this particular collection has been whispering in my ear.  "Buy me - Buy me!".  OK - so maybe it's been just a tad louder than a whisper...  Anyway, I've been promising myself that I would resist buying it until I had a project in mind...

On Saturday, I dropped in to deliver my latest handbag sample and Tracy said "by the way - I just got in some new books on Modern Quilting!".  (Bear in mind that Needles Quilt Shop primarily caters to the traditional quilters, but a few of us have been encouraging Tracy to start stocking some modern fabrics and patterns, so she has started ordering a little bit to see how it goes.  Yeah Tracy!)

Of course, I had to look...  and a look lead to a purchase...

The book I chose is called "Modern BABY - Easy, Fresh, and Fun Quilt Designs" and it's full of great ideas and inspiration.  But when I saw this zig zag chevron quilt in gray, black & white, I knew it was time to buy these fabrics!  The pattern is called "Daddy's Little Girl" by Melissa Cory.  I don't plan on making this exact quilt, but it certainly has inspired me enough to buy these fabrics and see what I can come up with.  Now maybe they'll quit yelling at me when I walk by, and I can shop in peace.

The fabrics are from the "Modern Shadows" collection by P&B, except for the floral one in the center - it's called "Shades of Black" by Me & My Sister Designs for Moda.

And just for smiles, my neighbor had some little visitors in her backyard.  Mama was close by keeping an eye on them.

Cheers!

Tasting Table Tuesday

So much going on here in the Cotton Cellar today! It's so warm outside today that I'm finding it hard to make myself stay inside and sew, but there's so much to do! First off, I finished some Easter projects for the grandkids - gotta get them mailed soon! This pattern is called "Blossoms & Bloomers" by Favorite Little Things. I just love the bell shape of the hat, and I fussy-cut all 5 panels so the bunnies are centered in each one.

Next up is two more sun hats. I love this Bucket Hat pattern by oliver + s. The pattern is in their "little things to sew" book, which I have, but just noticed recently that this pattern is also available as a free download here. I couldn't decide which fabric to use, so I made two! You can never have too many hats, right?

It's going to be a busy time for awhile now, because I've just gotten two requests for custom quilts. One is a T-Shirt quilt that I think is going to turn out awesome! More details on that later as I get further in to it.

This next one is going to be a "Crazy Curves" quilt. My customer requested that pattern, and asked for bright batik fabrics in saffron yellow, turquoise, magenta, and purple. I think this fabric selection is right on the mark - don't ya think??? Can't wait to start piecing these blocks - I just love the colors!

And just to show how little self-restraint I have, I broke down and bought the jelly roll I've been dreaming about. It's all grey & cream fabrics from Bunny Hill Designs, called "Puttin' on the Ritz". (by the way, if you're looking for a great fabric shop, check out Sanourras Fabric Love on Etsy. Megan's fabric selection is great, as are her prices and service. Stop by and tell her I sent you!) I think it will make an awesome, contemporary baby quilt. Now to come up with a design...

And speaking of Etsy, there's another new shop that you need to check out. It's called "Half Pint Knits" and she's doing a giveaway to celebrate her grand-opening. Click here for more info.

And don't forget the "free shipping spring special" at my Etsy shop thru the end of March!

Now it's Happy Hour and my wine is waiting. Have a great evening!

"Cube Mates" Completed

Today I finished binding my quilt and the weather cooperated, so I was able to get some quick pictures outdoors before supper - (well most of them were outdoors - this first one was on my living room floor.) Don't you just love the late-afternoon sun? It was almost around the side of the house by this time so it didn't hinder my photography, but you can still see the yellow glow in the background.

I quilted this one with straight-rows of stitching 1/2" away from each seam, using a light grey cotton thread.

I mentioned before that the top is pieced entirely from oxford shirts I collected from my co-workers in the 1980's, and you might think "Free Fabric - Great!" - right??? Well, it might have been free, but what I didn't spend in cash, I spent in time. It's definitely a labor-intensive process. After washing & drying the shirts, you have to cut the sections apart, remove all the buttons (ok - I could have just thrown them out, but I love to collect buttons!), discard the stained and/or worn areas, then starch them all before cutting. The old fabric was so soft that I thought it would be easier to work with if I starched it first, and it made a huge difference! Definitely worth the time! Of course, that meant I had to wash the quilt when I was done, to remove the starch, but that's ok.

Using newly purchased fabric would have been much faster, but wouldn't have that "well-worn/loved" look that I love. And if you know anyone who worked at Wellsboro's Glass Factory in the 1980's, you just might find a piece of their shirt somewhere in this quilt! :)

For Sale at Etsy.com - click here to see more.

Tasting Table Tuesday

It's been a productive day today in the Cotton Cellar. Vintage Shirts have been Slashed, Starched, Stripped & Stitched. (Of course, they were washed & dried before I even started - but that was on Sunday, so it doesn't count.)

I've had this collection of men's oxford shirts since the mid-1980's, when I asked my co-workers if they would kindly donate their used shirts to me. I was just learning how to quilt back then, and I thought it would be neat to make a quilt with all these shirts, but of course, they got packed away in a box in my sewing room with plans of using them "some day". Well, I just decided that "some day" had waited long enough and it was time to use them, or pitch them. So far, I've only used the backs of the shirts and I have enough pieces cut to make two throws or baby quilts, plus there are still enough unused strips to make two more (or one twin). That's not even counting the fronts of the shirts!

The color palette is very soft - kind of "shabby-chic-ish" - like something you'd see at an old beach cottage and the pattern I designed is very simple. I hope to have at least one done by the end of this week and I'll share it with you as soon as it's finished. Maybe I'll even continue right on and make a few more!