Penelope Rose and Winsome

Penelope Rose is finished.  

40" wide x 54" long

Quilted with my liberated fans/spirals using Glide thread in Pink.  

This will initially be Baby Girl's floor/tummy time quilt and later it can be used in her crib (she's due in October - daughter of our middle nephew and his wife).

Backing by Carrie Bloomston - Starry Elephants from her Wish line.

The toucan quilt clips are Alycia's fault - she uses flamingo clips to hold her quilts and shared the source in the linked post.    

I love having a fun new alternative to my giant clothespins.

Winsome (2021) is also going to Baby Girl.

It measures 51" x 62" and will be ready once she's bigger.

Here's a detail photo of Winsome, again with the fun toucan clips.

Both quilts will be laundered before they're sent so they're soft and crinkly - and so the parents won't have to worry about washing a brand new quilt before it can be used.

* * *

Next up will be Dot to Dot for Baby Girl's big brother.  

Thread has been chosen and the backing pieced.  Time to get the layers pin basted and start quilting.  

Quiltdivajulie

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"Art is important.  We tend to think of it as a luxury, but it gives people deep pleasure because beauty is the personification of hope that something grander is at work."

Gil Dellinger

Pieces of Progress

This small wall quilt made with three leftover pieces out of Lynne's stash is now quilted and finished.

I've hung it in my design studio near the doorway, where I can enjoy the bright colors every time I enter the room.

RAZZLE-DAZZLE has moved forward in that I've chosen potential border and binding fabrics from the leftovers stash, added the backing fabric to the design wall group (far right - Tula Pink's Lemur Me Alone) and added the last few pieces cut from Tula Pink's Between the Lines zebras. 

(for this quilt, I'm going to use one fabric for the side triangles around the exterior edges as shown above and I'll use the same fabric to add a narrow floater border)

The remaining side triangles are cut and waiting for me to get them laid out on the design wall.  

The 17" wide insert column for the back of Rident is sewn together.  I won't add the side sections using the green until the top is complete and I know how wide the backing needs to be.

To clarify an earlier comment about needing to make a big brother quilt - RIDENT will be for one of my sister's grands who will (if all goes well) have a new baby brother or sister next April.

The borders have been added to the baby girl quilt  intended for my sister's fifth grandchild (second girl) who is expected to arrive in early October.

I've also pieced the backing, gotten the layers for Penelope Rose (aka Ferhoodle) pin basted, and chosen the thread.

* * *

Progress on several fronts - now I can settle in and get to quilting.

Quiltdivajulie

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"In our life there is a single color, as on an artist's palette, which provides the meaning of life and art.  It is the color of love."

Mark Chagall

Decisions

For a long time I've been planning to use the leftover 2.5" strips and bindings to make a very scrappy utility/comfort quilt.

Earlier this week I decided that the color mash-mash was just TOO scrappy since I love controlled chaos but despise the "pull it out of the brown paper bag and sew it no matter what" approach.

SO . . . I am going to use this group of strips, bindings, and short bits from the resource boxes to make a set of six "beachy" placemats.

I'll use the pieces of Marcia Derse blues (left) for their reverse sides and I'll use a narrow turquoise stripe from the stash for binding.

Ideally these would become a Christmas gift come December but realistically they may not be ready by then.  Time will tell.

These strips and more short pieces from the brown and gold resource boxes will become a second set of six placemats to be used here during the autumn season - beginning in 2023.

The group in the foreground will be used for backing / binding while the upper group will be used to piece the tops.

There are still plenty of strips still in the drawers, but I am relieved to remove the worry about finding a way to have so many different and unrelated colors play together nicely.

I mentioned a while back needing to make another "new big brother" quilt for next Spring so . . . I pulled out the leftover Seuss fabrics from Little Man's Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz quilt plus the remaining pieced bits from Ohana to assess what I had to work with.  

The photo above shows a mock up for the pieced insert I'll add to the backing (under the name tag).

(Rident means "laughing, smiling, cheerful")

These are the two newly-pieced side columns (they're each twice as long as what shows here).  I added the 2.5" strips of black and white stripe to the mock up above as a nod to the planned clown stripe binding.  

The other leftover pieces of Seuss yardage have been cut into 2.5" strips for Rident's top so I could see what was available to lengthen the backing's scrappy coin-style column (more than enough).  

Yet another situation where I can stop wondering how to make the pile of scraps into a coherent quilt.

I'd like to get that coin column pieced and the three columns attached to each other before Rident is set aside so I can work (without so many wandering worries) on things with a more pressing deadline.  

We shall see how that goes.

Another major decision was to set aside Spots and Dots and use Ferhoodle for October's baby girl newborn quilt.  I plan to add a 2.5" outer border from the pink/black polka dot before this one gets pin basted for quilting.

I really do need to get on this one soon.

And Ferhoodle's name is also changing to Penelope Rose, which seems much more fitting than a word that means "to confuse or mix up."

Quiltdivajulie

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"A good artist has less time than ideas."

Martin Kippenberger

More Shopping of the Stash

Planning ahead, I have spent some time generating two more fabric pulls for comfort quilts to be donated in 2023.  

This is one grouping of paired fabrics (one darker, one brighter) that will become 6" finished HSTs.  

As time and energy permit, I'll get these die cut and into their project box.  It helps so much to have some pre-cut projects that allow me to just start stitching.

I have also set aside and labeled backing fabric for this project I've named SHAGGY (the backing fabric's name) so it will be ready to go when the time comes.

This is another color palette that has been cut into paired sets of 2.5" strips for a zig zag rail fence.  

They are already in a labeled project box with their chosen backing fabric labeled and waiting.

I've named this one TAKMEEL (which means "completion")

I like these combinations so much that a second quilt of a different design will be cut out before any remaining yardage returns to the stash. I chose several smaller pieces of complementary yardage to create a pieced backing (again, set aside and labeled).

I've heard a rumor that there may well be another baby in 2023 within my sister's family.  So Ferhoodle (shown here prior to the blocks being assembled) will have a destination, if indeed the rumor proves to be valid.

Again, if that rumor is true, the scrappy leftovers from Little Man's Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz (Dr. Seuss) quilt will be combined with the leftover pieced strips from Ohana to become a quilt for the baby's big brother.  I've named this quilt project RIDENT (which means "laughing, cheerful, smiling")

Quiltdivajulie

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"There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."

Vincent Van Gogh

Ohana - Moving It Forward

Much of Ohana is now sewn together and on the design wall.  

Made with 2.5" strip sets cut from rectangle strip sets put together with leftovers from Dot to Dot and Ferhoodle, the layout was mostly inspired by a vintage utility quilt.

This is the vintage inspiration quilt.  You can read about it HERE.

The original plan was for another crib quilt but when all was said and done, there were enough strip sets to make this 60" long.  In order to widen the top to 48" I used some of the leftover 1.5" strips cut from those same rectangles and inserted them into the vertical sashing columns.

Just six more long seams and the top will be complete - I'm liking the way it has come together.

This tropical parrots/flowers yardage will become the backing.

I'll bind it with the same black print used in the verticals.  

All in good time.

Quiltdivajulie

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“It’s not sometimes realistic to think that something magical can happen, but I like to look for the magic.”

Sherilyn Fenn

Friday Updates

The new flexible-use design wall has been covered and attached to the wall at long last.  Next week I'll paint the screw heads and washers so they don't show quite so much against the white flannel.

The earlier 18" test block is on the left and a new 12" version is on the right. 

I think I want to go forward with this project, but if I do I won't be using KF fabrics for the baskets and flowers.  I haven't decided if there will be a controlled palette or whether it will be entirely scrappy yet.  

And then, it might not happen at all.  Time will tell.

All of the four-rectangle strip sets (pieced using leftovers from Dot to Dot and Ferhoodle) have been trimmed into 1.5" and 2.5" cross cuts.  

The 2.5" units will be used for Ohana (see previous posts using the label below).

For now I am planning to incorporate the 1.5" strips into a future scrappy Dr. Seuss crib/toddler quilt.  

Unless another idea for the polka dot strips that has been rolling around in my head becomes reality . . . 

Finally, with the scrappy back fabrics for La Colcha off the design wall and put away, I was able to lay out the nearly 200 HSTs left after making Gone Dotty.

They are now becoming a baby quilt named Spots and Dots (shown here with the horizontal rows sewn, ready to finish webbing the top together).

Here is the 36" x 45" flimsy with its intended backing and binding.

And here's a close up of the binding.  There are rows of little dots in between the binding fabric's rainbow stripes; and the giraffe and others on the backing have colorful spots, all in keeping with the ongoing polka dot theme.

 

Quiltdivajulie

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“There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.”

Norman Vincent Peale

Ferhoodle and Dot to Dot - Two Flimsies

Dot to Dot has achieved flimsy (quilt top) stage.  

It measures 48" x 64" and is destined to become an oversize crib or toddler quilt.

My sister recently shared that she is happily waiting for her sixth grand to be born this fall. 

After several texts, she and I have chosen the quilt (Winsome) for the parents, so I am thinking about gifting Dot to Dot to my sister for her house.

Ferhoodle has also achieved flimsy status.  It was made with many of the excess rectangles cut for Dot to Dot.

This top measures 36" wide x 50" long and is destined to become a crib quilt.  

Since Winsome measures 51" x 62" I may send Ferhoodle along with Winsome so they have a choice of sizes for different situations.  I need to look and see if I have a quilt to send along for the baby's new big brother.

* * *

This leaves Spots and Dots to use the excess HSTs from Gone Dotty and Ohana to use the rest of the excess rectangles from Dot to Dot and Ferhoodle.  When I cut the WOF strips from that long ago polka dot fabric pull, I had NO idea that they would yield five quilts!

* * *

P.S. You can use the labels at the end of this post to see earlier posts for each of these projects.

Quiltdivajulie

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“. . . you can find magic wherever you look.  Sit back and relax, all you need is a book!”

Dr. Seuss

FERHOODLE - the Layout

Lynne and I spent a couple of hours on the phone one evening and I sorted some of the leftover rectangles into groups of five as we chatted.  

When I went to move the stacks off my sewing machine, I decided it was simpler to just sew them together.   So now the blocks for Ferhoodle ("to mix up") are laid out on the design wall.

I pulled this yardage out of the backing stash and pinned it up beside the blocks.  It has been in the backing stash for eons but never found just the right quilt for it to be used, until now. 

Hooray!

And for those who wonder where/how I come up with the words I use as quilt names . . . there is no simple answer.  I hear words in song lyrics, I see them in printed materials, I find them in the thesaurus, I hear them in conversations, and I am not afraid to go online and look up the "vibe" of a project and see what words might pop up in the process.  

I also have a file folder with a Word document where I make notes to myself about possible quilt naming words for the future.

* * *

I've started prepping the rest of the leftover rectangles to leader-ender into pairs which will then be turned into pairs (meaning four rectangles will end up sewn together) since the HSTs for Flaneur are all sewn now and waiting to be pressed open.  

Stitch by stitch progress is happening.

Quiltdivajulie

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 “Words and magic were in the beginning one and the same thing, and even today words retain much of their magical power.”

 Sigmund Freud

Dot to Dot - the Layout

Initially I thought about scattering the colors throughout the quilt top but when I arranged the 8" (when finished) blocks in rows . . . well, there was no more pondering/auditioning needed.  

Here's a straight-on view - the top will finish in the 48" x 64" range when it is sewn together.

I recently gifted the last of my finished baby quilts so this one will be a new one to have on hand.

Another quilt shop in our area is closing - the owner is retiring so she and her husband can travel.  Much of the yardage in her shop is not significantly marked down yet but I bought this fun print at $4/yard specifically to back Dot to Dot.  

I like the way the blocks and the backing play together and that the finished quilt could be gifted to a boy or a girl.

* * *

When I was cutting rectangles for this project I knew I was over-cutting.  I also hoped I would be able to make another scrappy baby/toddler quilt with those extras.  

I sat down this weekend and counted the bonus rectangles and there are enough to make TWO crib size quilt tops.  I've named one project OHANA (which means family) and the other FERHOODLE (meaning to mix up).  

Both design ideas are chosen and I've started sorting the rectangles into combinations so they can become my leader-ender project once the last of the HSTs for FLANEUR are finished.

Quiltdivajulie

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“Consistency is an underappreciated form of intentional magic disguised as a mundane doing.”

Victoria Erickson