mama urchin

With delays for illnesses and vacations and all kinds of things we are finally able to call this round of miniswap complete. Katrina and Tristan were paired with Caroline who loves puppies, kittens, playing with dolls, etc. We decided for Katie and Tristan to each direct a project where they could help participate. Tristan’s project was a coloring set. I made the bag and sketchbook and the urchins helped with the crayons.

After looking through The Cute Book Katrina decided we should make a kitty for Caroline. We used the basic shapes included in the book but made some adjustments and made a mama cat too. Then we decided to make some toys and other things a la Lyn and include them in an old wooden box that originally held olive oil and balsamic vinegar. So Mama Kitty and her baby have a fish and a mouse as well as a pillow and some milk bottles in case they get tired or thirsty. Mama’s apron comes off for when she’s not chasing Baby Kitty’s messes.

We also included a rice pillow that matches Katie’s — fabric choices made entirely by her — and some other purchased things that we thought Caroline might enjoy. Caroline and her mama, Amber, spoiled us and you can see what they sent here, here, and here . Thank you Caroline and Amber, and thanks Molly for another great round of miniswap.

Before Christmas Martha asked me to make her a fishing set for her son O. We decided to do a little swap. She was really busy with her ACC appearance so she recently made some clothes for Tristan and the timing was perfect for our trip to California. Martha loves this denim and we do too — as you can tell by all the clothes the kids have in it — so the pants were loved immediately. I love that the pants are denim but were still nice enough for a family event. Lots of comments were made about the green button on Tristan’s shirt, I even wore a green dress — sorry for the mediocre photo, we obviously weren’t paying attention to the person with our camera. And speaking of coordinating, Katrina wore her denim gather halter dress so the two of them were matching without being too matchy-matchy. As you can see we had a wonderful time. Thanks Martha for making the urchins look so good.

We’re back from sunny Southern California. We even got a little sun on our necks and dipped our toes in the ocean. Now it’s back to blustery weather and winter coats. All in all we’re feeling a bit like this:

Once I dig out from all the laundry I’ll be back in this space ready to share again. Our mailbox has been brimming with goodies.

Your sewing machine engines that is. Today I cut twelve fat quarters and packed them up to send. That can only mean one thing… the Virtual Quilting Bee is about to begin. My quilt is going to be first so I can be the guinea pig and work out any kinks in the system — as well as work out some participant nerves. So let’s talk about the quilt I’m hoping to have come March 1.

First off, the quilt is going to be for our playroom. This is where we spend a lot of time but the room is in our basement and it can be chilly down there in all seasons. My crafty area is in this room too so happily I’ll be able to keep a close eye on the finished quilt. As you can see the colors are bright — really bright — and the mood is fun. I love the idea of all of you making a quilt to wrap around my kids.

As for the actual quilt, I’m up for pretty much anything as long as it will tolerate the washing machine. I love patchwork and appliqué; I think freezer paper stenciling is gorgeous; I don’t mind crazy patterns and textures. As for what I’m sending the group: the fat quarters are a busy, busy print from IKEA and I also included a 10″x10″ square of squash colored chenille. I’m planning to use the same chenille for the back. So, be inspired friends, I cannot wait to see what you come up with.

When I was about eight or nine years old my mom joined a quilting bee and learned to quilt. Each month was assigned to one person and during that month everyone worked on that person’s quilt. It was the early eighties and appliqué was en vogue so they each made an appliqué square with fabric and pattern provided by the eventual owner of the quilt. I think they all hand-quilted the squares individually and at the next meeting someone got all the pieces to assemble their quilt. After that my mom made a number of other appliqué quilts and I have two of them. In the last ten years she started doing patchwork — which I had been begging her to do for years — and I’ve been the lucky recipient of a bunch of those too. There is nothing quite like a hug from Mom even when it’s in the form of a snuggly quilt and you’re 33 years old.

I got to thinking about that quilting bee recently and was thinking about how fun it must have been. Something I love about hand made things is feeling the hand of the maker through their creation. How special it must be to have a quilt made by the hands of friends. I would love to participate in something like that but I only have a few real-life friends who are interested in any type of crafting and only one of them can sew. Then one day it came to me — I sure do have a lot of virtual friends who make all kinds of quilts and quilt-like creations. I wonder if they would want to start a virtual quilting bee?

Nervously, I emailed a small group and guess what? they loved the idea! I cannot overstate how happy that makes me. Starting in February we’re going to create one quilt a month. You can watch our progress here or on flickr. I am super lucky to count all eleven of these ladies as my friends and I cannot wait to see this project unfold.

You may remember our first fishing game back in August, well this is an improved version for a swap with a friend. Papa turned the handle for the fishing rod and both the handle and rod are coated with Tried and True wood finish. The hook is made of wool felt and a very strong magnet is sandwiched inside. The fish are made from cotton denim and some have selvedge fins or tails — each has a metal washer inside, held in place by the embroidered eye. Last but not least is a canvas bag to hold the catch with a measuring tape handle to see if you caught a whopper.

We participated in round 2 of Tracy’s Kids’ CD Swap. We were very happy she decided to host it again since the CD from the first round is still in the car rotation. Of course, we couldn’t just send a CD so an improved set of Lilypad Toss was in order. This is much more like what I envisioned this game to be. I still used the purl frog as the base for the frog but I rounded the feet and heads. I also experimented with “webbing” the feet on one of them but I’m not sure I like it — more fiddling is needed. I know I’ll be making more for the holidays so I’ll have opportunities, I’m sure. Ean and Evie - we hope you like it and the CD too.

I’ve got two to show today. First up is the quilt I sent to Jhoanna as part of the Doll Quilt Swap II. She left it up to me as to what to send her. I found these fabrics designed by Joel Dewberry and then was inspired by a post on Amy Karol’s blog. I loved making all those french knots.

Quilt number two is the gorgeous doll quilt I received from Jenni as part of the same swap:

I think she was worried I wouldn’t like it but I love it. I am always amazed with triangles in quilts — they are really finicky to do — and all of Jenni’s are lined up beautifully. I love the civil war reproduction feel of it and I can’t get over the little touch of lavender in the fabrics. For some reason that just makes it for me.

I was having a lot of trouble figuring out what I was going to make for round 2 of the doll quilt swap. You may remember I made my first quilt ever for the first round and Lauri liked it very much — thank goodness. This time my partner has offered no info as far as likes and dislikes and I was just overwhelmed with the possibilities.

Last weekend my mom and I went to a new-to-us quilt shop where I saw a fat quarter stack of Joel Dewberry’s new line, chestnut hill in the earth colorway — I actually like the stream colorway better and I think I’ll be hunting some down at some point. I decided to do something rail-fence inspired. I cut out the strips and made twelve blocks but as I was laying them out I was noticing how boring it all looked. Hmmm. Later I was looking at Amy Karol’s blog and saw a post about a child’s shirt. Wow. I had already been thinking about embroidery and I love those little buttons and I can never get enough french knots and I was well on my way to being inspired. Funny how that happens sometimes.

I realize it’s a little crazy to sign up for a doll quilt swap when you’ve never made a quilt before but I did sign up figuring it’s a doll quilt — how bad could it be? Lauri — who received my quilt today — said that she was very into red and aqua at the moment and I had some good reds in my stash from reprodepot. So I supplemented with some aquas and more reds from my local stores. I knew I wanted to do a patchwork quilt but making the top of Katie’s doll quilt was good practice and showed me that I’m still not consistent enough to get all my squares to line up perfectly. So inspired partly by Lisa Congdon’s bib and pillow designs I decided to do strips where the seams would never meet — avoiding the lining up problem altogether.

So I cut strips in 1.5″, 2″, and 3″ widths. Then I put them all in a stack — sorted by width — and used the random number generator to put them in pairs. Then I stitched them end to end and used the random number generator again to cut each of the pairs into a shorter length. Then, one more time with the random number generator and I had them ordered to sew together in one long strip for each width. The only time I ignored the random advice was when it put two pieces of the same fabric next to each other. I knew I wanted the quilt 18″ wide so I cut my long strips into pieces ranging from about 20″ to 24″ long. Once I had all my strips cut I started placing them to become the quilt top. I avoided any seams lining up and tried to balance the fabrics around the quilt. Once I was happy with the result I sewed all the chosen strips together. I trimmed the resulting fabric to the size I wanted — about 18″ by 24″ — and saved a strip from one of the sides for the back.

Next up was piecing the back, the quilt sandwich and then the quilting. Inspired by a Lori Mason quilt in my home and because of the horizontal-ness of the patchwork I decided to quilt in vertical lines. I started quilting in the ditch of the patchwork strip and moved outward. This is where my walking foot decided to self-destruct — thank you very much. Finally, I found a new one and finished the quilting. The next step was to trim the quilt and add the binding — made from leftover 2″ strips cut down. I didn’t want mitered corners so I just sewed the side bindings on first then the top and bottom. The binding was then hand-sewn to the back of the quilt and voilà, my first quilt was complete.

I had a little trouble letting it go so I hope Lauri really likes it despite the amateur execution. Once I’m set up on a new sewing machine I’ll finish up Katie’s doll quilt but I don’t see myself becoming a quilter. These little ones have been fun though and would make great gifts for a little girl so I’m glad I know how to make one now. See more quilts from the swap in the flickr pool.