The Joy of Simple Squares

First off, yes, it is May, and yes, those are Halloween squares. Again. ;-) This is the start of my daughter's Halloween quilt. I really just wanted to try a nice plain straight ahead patchwork square layout, so this is it. Those are 4.5 inch squares. It is a toddler-bed sized quilt.

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It will be my second quilt that I machine quilt myself. I am planning straight lines just off to the side of each seam. I may try glow-in-the-dark thread which I think would be really cool for a Halloween quilt, but part of me is saying, why would you want your amateur quilting attempt and crooked mistakes to glow? Wouldn't it be better if they just blended in? So it may be orange thread instead, we'll see.

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In the picture the squares are only sewn together in one direction. I'll try hard to make it line up nicely when it all goes together.

Coming Soon to a Planet Near You ...

... or Coming Eventually is more like it. But I do have a plan now. This drawing is about as detailed as anything gets for me before I start the cutting and piecing. And since I know it's not abundantly clear from my artwork ;-) it's a robot. It my outline for The Robot Quilt listed under the Planned Quilts 2010 in the blog sidebar.

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I think the quilt will be a lot of fun once I get started on it. I have a few fabrics picked out that I'll probably use. The problem is that I have more ideas than I do appropriate fabrics -- especially when it comes to wanting just a little snip of fabric to fussy cut. I have a few more pieces ordered. And I also have some others in my stash not shown here.

But to begin with, here are some of the metal fabrics to build the basic robot body.

Some geometric, space-age type stuff for who knows what.

Possibilities for the sky/atmosphere on another fantastical planet.
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I'm looking forward to getting started.

Five Minute Scrappy Party Streamers

For my daughter's third birthday, which was this past weekend, my son (my decorating assistant) wanted streamers. He had just read a story about a party that had streamers, so, you know, they instantly became essential at ours.

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Enter my scrap bin. I had lots of scraps left over from trimming squares for a string quilt. I thought they looked a bit like pennants, the way the edges were angled and pointy ... and it was perfect the way each piece was longer in the middle section and smaller at the ends -- a great scalloped look. They were pink and red predominantly, which was perfect for my daughter too.

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I grabbed a pile and my stapler and started attaching them together. Each fabric piece was at least 12 inches long, so it didn't take too many pieces to make a nice streamer. Then I stapled them (gasp!) to the edge of the curtains. No joke, this took maybe five minutes for four windows and another two strips which I put over a picture and above the dining room entry.

And now, party over, they are back in my scrap bin unharmed to use another time for whatever.

My kids liked them and the party guests did too!

Free-Pieced Castle Quilt for my Little Princess

This quilt is my exhibit in the Blogger's Quilt Festival. The timing of the festival couldn't be better as I just finished this quilt two days ago and it is for my daughter's 3rd birthday which is tomorrow. It is called Royal-T aka Tess's Princess Castle Quilt.
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(Click any photo to enlarge if you wish)

As you can see, I used muted tones and matching fabrics ... ;-) Ha!
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Oh well, I like bright colours and it looks coordinated to me anyway. (... and I actually find the pictures make the quilt look more pale than it is in person)


I like to free-piece without a pattern because then I can make it up as I go along and throw in anything I want (also, mistakes can just be called design decisions instead, perfect!). Plus it gives me lots of opportunities to fussy cut, which I love. See my daughter and me up there in that tower? (It is amazing how much that little fabric girl looks like my daughter. Me? My fabric lady is more of a flattering approximation, but my daughter knows it represents me so that's what counts.)
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The flags are the provincial flag of New Brunswick. I was able to cut them out of fabric that showed flags of all the Canadian provinces. I love, love them ... castles always have flags and we are proud New Brunswickers.


One of the first things I made for the quilt was the door. Those birds are of course another fussy cut, from some Jennifer Paganelli fabric. I just thought they looked regal and elegant. I was also able to use some of the same fabric for window trim which worked well.

The birds also guard the corners of the quilt. At first I made free-pieced princess crowns for the corners but it just didn't look right. The birds are way better.


The back of the quilt got the royal treatment with some Flea Market Fancy fabric. Most of the back is the yellow seeds fabric. The other portion shown in the photo is a strip down the back. I don't sign my quilts, but I use that I Love You fabric somewhere on the back of the kids' quilts. And see the fussy-cut me there again?

Blooper reel ... That's my husband under there. He rests the quilt on his head when his arms get tired and I am still insisting on more photos. It is to appease me as I am saying "Don't let it get on the ground!" You understand, right? I mean, it had even rained earlier ... the grass was still damp!

This quilt definitely had its frustrations, but was worth it. I am glad I stuck to my idea of making fabric bricks for the castle. I sewed strips, then sliced them up, then lined them back up in a staggered pattern, then sewed. It worked well! The trickiest thing was trying to get the whole castle and background neatly put together using the least amount of pieces and knowing I could only sew straight lines. Any angled pieces were big, big annoyances. I am still new at this (5 months since I got my first rotary cutter) so I figure I will eventually learn how to do angles easily ... or I hope so anyway.
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The next most challenging thing was choosing fabrics. I rejected many of my early choices. Honest.
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Speaking of fabrics, a few others that are in there include Michael Miller Speckled Bird for the fantastical bird-filled sky. Rainbow Print from The Rainbow Garden by Prints Charming was used for the mountains. Others are Kaffe Fassett Stencil Carnation, more Michael Miller, more Jennifer Paganelli, Bubblegum Basics flowers, Henry Glass Fandango in turquoise and magenta, a Moda fabric that looks like bricks for the front step ... and on and on. The binding is Woodgrain in pink by Joel Dewberry.

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The quilting is a simple overall stipple done by long-arm at my local quilt store (Thanks Tina!). Thank goodness someone else did it as I would have been petrified to wreck it.

It is a twin-sized quilt. Earlier posts showing the quilt in progress can be found here, here, here and here. (You will be able to see some of the changes I made along the way)

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Thanks so, so much for stopping by! If you would like to see more quilts in the Blogger's Quilt Festival just click here or on the icon on the sidebar. You'll be glad you did!

Thanks for the World Tour: Giveaway Winner!

Firstly, thanks so much to everyone who entered, from near and far. You gave a little boy SO much joy! I can't believe over 400 people commented. We are still checking places on the map, globe, Google Maps and Mapquest. We had so, so many different places represented! And such wonderful friendly responses -- the worldwide quilting community is the BEST!

Now, without further ado ... onto the winner. Chosen by random number generator. See the official draw video below ;-) ... (It's there, the start box is just blending in to the black background, press the small play arrow and it will start)

Coming to us online all the way from ...

... Rockville, MD, USA ...

Rayamashita!

Woohooo! Congratulations!

Hope you fancy some Flea Market Fancy, cause now you've got some coming to you!

I will be contacting Rayamashita by email.

I will definitely have to have another giveaway sometime. This has been great. Thanks again to everyone who entered and thanks to Sew Mama Sew for coordinating this!

Oh, and if you want, have a peek at the blog tomorrow to see my quilt for the Bloggers Quilt Festival. More online fun!

It's Giveaway Time: Flea Market Fancy

Okay, this is going to be fun! My first giveaway! I have gathered from browsing around quilty blogland that this is a popular, but discontinued, fabric line. I found some for a really nice deal, so I thought I'd share. One lucky winner will receive a full metre (a little bit bigger than a yard) of each of the shown FreeSpirit fabrics -- Flea Market Fancy by Denyse Schmidt. So, two metres total.

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To enter, just leave a comment on this post. All I ask is that in your comment you tell me where in the world you are located. My five-year-old son absolutely loves geography and maps and we will have fun looking in his atlas (or on Mapquest) to see where you're from! International entries are welcome and encouraged!
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This Giveaway is my little part of the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, so per their guidelines, comments are open until May 20. I will leave them open until 7:00 PM Atlantic Standard Time that day. A random draw will take place after that and the winner will be posted by May 21, here on the blog.

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Please be sure your email address is either on your blog profile, or that you leave it in the comment, so I can contact you should you be the lucky winner. Just one comment per person please.
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Good Luck!

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COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED

Little Summer Dress

I knew it would happen sooner or later ... I'd make something besides a quilt. My daughter's 3rd birthday is coming up soon, so I made this little dress for her. And don't worry, she doesn't read my blog ... the surprise won't be spoiled ;-)
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I didn't have a pattern, but it is pretty much just a fancied-up rectangle of fabric. I don't know that it would flatter anyone much over three feet tall, but I am expecting it to look pretty sweet on my little Tessers.

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I had some nice variegated thread left from my Attack of the Scraps Quilt, so I used that. I even put some extra non-required lines of stitches in so the thread would show ... and they are surprisingly quite straight too.

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The computer screen is doing nothing for the colours of this. It just looks so vibrant in person. The main fabric has a rich, rich chocolate brown background, and I love the little scraps.
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But a quilt is next.

Sounds Fun! I'm In!

Come back here on Monday, May 17 to check out my giveaway as part of Giveaway Day 2010 coordinated by the Sew Mama Sew blog.

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I was glad to hear about this as I had wanted to do a giveaway for fun, but I haven't been at this long enough to have a milestone to celebrate, like 100 posts, or 100 followers, or 100 quilts done (yet, ha!)

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Anyway, my giveaway will be for some fabric. Nice fabric. Want a clue? It kind of rhymes with Sea Park It Nancy ... ;-)

Almost ... 58 of 63

Anyone who has stopped by the blog before has seen these blocks in progress. I finally decided that I need 63 for a twin-sized quilt (a layout of 7 by 9 with these 8 inch squares). I have 58 done, so the whole stack is getting put away for a while. I thought I'd leave the last 5 unfinished for now, as I have a friend who wants to trade some Halloween fabric with me, and maybe I'll end up with something great I that I'll really want to include in this.

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The squares are just randomly placed in the pictures. The job of arranging them will come later. It is funny, as when I started making the blocks for this I envisioned it as a long-term project to just work on over the course of the year, but little did I know how easy and fun the blocks would be to make. No two are alike which should make for challenging games of I-Spy.
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Now onto my new fabric pile to see what I can get started.

Happy Mother's Day to ...

... me! A little stash building fun was my Mother's Day treat courtesy of my husband and kids. Now, I must say to qualify: 1. I am still new at this and am just starting to build my stash. 2. That fabric is all liquidation priced which enabled a bit more shopping freedom. 3. I actually have plans for most of it.

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Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, Mother-in-law, Sisters-in-law and Mom/Quilty friends!

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Out takes

So part of the fun of quilt blogging is trying to get a nice picture of your completed project, right? I have seen wonderful photography on many, many other blogs. But I bet for every good picture, there were plenty of others that weren't so super -- that's definitely my situation anyway!
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Those legs showing in the photo are my DQH: Designated Quilt Holder. Also known as my husband. To see the pictures of this quilt that actually did turn out, just click here.

Attack of the Scraps Quilt

So the plan was to make a quilt that I would quilt myself. I free-pieced this using all scraps. I did it quite quickly ... you know the adage measure twice, cut once ... well this was more like measure never, then cut, slice and dice. I wanted to make a quilt top that I wouldn't feel too badly about wrecking if disaster struck during my first attempt at using a walking foot.
Well, I'm pleased to announce it's not wrecked and I am really happy with it! I definitely need major practice with quilting, but at least it was a start. I will also say that I don't know if the foot on the machine ever went for a nice walk ... it was more like a saunter, then a crooked stagger, then a jog ... the stitch length on the quilting is as scrappy as the top itself! I did use a variegated thread which is lovely. I made an argyle pattern using diagonal stripes spaced 2.5 inches apart.

I backed it with Flea Market Fancy, the gold seeds. It is lovely and soft.

Being modelled by the new owner. The quilt is 45 by 60. It is a cuddle/travelling quilt for taking in the van on trips.