Fabric Dolls -- Episode Two. Dolls I designed for play.

Today I'd like to introduce you to some of the dolls I've designed and made.  They were sewn in the 1970s and 1980s.  My Mom gave me a copy of Jean Ray Laury's Doll Making:  A Creative Approach.  It is a great resource which explains how to design, joint and add hair for children's toys as well as art dolls.  

My dolls are all products of their day:  Their bodies are cotton polyester fabric and they are all stuffed the polyester fill. The clothes are cotton or cotton polyester blend.  I chose to use the cotton poly fabric.  There wasn't a wide range of solid cotton fabrics available at the time and I didn't like the look or feel of the muslin which was rough to the touch.  

Each of the dolls were created for someone special.  Most were made for the children in my life though two dolls were made for adults who fell in love with them and asked if they could have one.  

"Amy", the doll above is the second doll I made.  Her photo is dated 1975.  I have 2 photos of my first doll, but unfortunately those pictures have faded with time and didn't scan well.   "Amy" and my first doll are from the same pattern, though as my second doll, "Amy's" fabric hair has better styling!  Both these early dolls were made for children under 2 years old.  They are toddler-safe:  No fuzzy hair to chew and the doll's features are embroidered.  One of the faded photos of is a toddler and her doll together in a wagon.  Sweet!

As the children got a bit older, I made them larger dolls with yarn hair.  Here is "Annenina".  She was my first child doll and still my favorite. 

"Annenina"

These dolls were made with a separate head, torso, arms and legs.  The head was stuffed and then sewn onto the completed torso.  The doll's arms have joints at the shoulder, elbow and wrist. The legs have hips, knees and ankles. The arms and legs are sewn into the torso--no buttons.  I drew the pattern pieces for the doll on the paper used to pad packages for shipping. I still have the pattern!

The dolls are a bit floppy but the joints in the extremities do make the dolls delightfully posable.  I didn't know about Waldorf dolls when I was making these dolls. The construction of the Waldorf doll has the key to a doll with a separate head which isn't floppy. Waldorf dolls have a neck section which extends into the torso which gives it excellent stability.  

To make my dolls washable, I chose to use polyester yarn for their hair.  Only one of the dolls, "Annje" so is on the far right below, has wool hair. 

Here are some of the other dolls.  Left to right, "Molly", "Kaja" and "Annje."   Molly's freckles are French knots. I really like them!  Seeing them now, I wish I'd used them on more of the dolls!

I was making smocked dresses for the doll's owners at the time, so the dolls often got smocked dresses as well!   The checked gingham provides a perfect grid for the gathering needed for the smocking, no marking required!

I made one doll for a boy.  "Meriadoc" is based on one of the hobbits from J. R. R. Tolkein's book The Hobbitt.  He has yarn loop hair on his head and his feet!  This hair is created by sewing the yarn directly into the head.  One loose loop is followed by a tight loop to lock the first stitch in place. It's very secure and has a great effect. It takes a long time to make a head of hair this way, and it's a bit hard on the fingers.  But is really is worth it!

"Meriadoc"

"Meriadoc" has French knot freckles and embroidered rosy cheeks!  He's a cutie!

"Meriadoc" and "Molly" are both dressed in fabrics hand silkscreened by Marblehead Handprints from Marblehead, Massachusetts.  I was living near Marblehead at the time and frequently used their fabrics for both crafts and clothing construction. It fun to shop in their store and see the ladies doing the silkscreening.  The Marblehead Handprints shop closed years ago but you can see some of their other fabrics and products on Pinterest by clicking the link above.

Next Monday I'll show you a couple of my other dolls.  You'll be surprised!  

I'm the binding on the Economy Block bird quilt today.  Bonnie Hunter's "Grand Illusion" Mystery Quilt is next in the Finish it February quilt pile!

Quilting Feathers: Never say "Never"!

Never!  I was convinced I would never, ever, quilt feathers.  I'd tried.  They were always warped looking. Besides, with so many other options for quilting designs, who needs feathers?  

But then I took Angela Walter's great course Machine Quilting--Small Changes on Craftsy.  Angela explain that feathers really are just heart shapes...and they don't have to be perfect to look great. Thanks Angela!!  I still wasn't planning to use this information.  But I'm working on my Bird Economy Block quilt with alternating chain blocks with lots of negative space. Birds--they need feathers!  And you know, Angela is absolutely correct.  Feathers aren't that hard to quilt and they do look great even when they aren't perfect.  

Quilting a feather sequence, left to right.  Note the heart shape at the bottom of 3rd feather

One of my great quilting tools is my Fisher-Price Doodle Pro.  Using this erasable tablet you can practice your quilting designs before you start to sew.  If you hold the stylus with a closed fist, rather than your fingers, your brain will develop muscle memory that is similar to the way hands move fabric under the needle for free motion quilting. It really does work.

The photo on the Doodle Pro above illustrates how I stitched out my feathers.  

Here is a feather being stitched on the machine.   

Quilting a Feather

On the left side of the photo at the top of this post, note that my stitching moved from the top of a feather into a meander stitch in the adjacent 4 patch block.  I was able to quilt about 1/3 of the blocks without having stop. 

This was my first attempt to quilt feathers. Do my feathers all have perfect heart shapes?  No. But The overall effect is great.  I'm really happy with the results!

Fabric Dolls -- Episode One. Doll from the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I started making cloth dolls a couple of years after I learned to quilt.  They have a lot in common. 2 layers of fabric with batting or stuffing in the middle. A fabric doll is essentially a quilt with animation!  While I work on quilting my stack of Finish it February UFOs, I thought I'd share some of my adventures with cloth dolls and their construction. I hope you will enjoy this detour!

Dolls.  I was one of those little girls who always loved dolls.  But only baby dolls.  I was given a couple wonderful English and Italian baby dolls when we lived overseas.  But were both hard molded plastic.  I loved them all, but longed for a doll with a soft cuddly body.  I had stuffed animals but no fabric dolls in my "family."

Until our family came home for a break in the early 1960s and we took a road trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Along the way we stopped at a craft store. There I found the most amazing cloth dolls. I had to have one.  I was probably 10 years old. I remember a discussion about my being a bit old for a new doll. Not so!  Somehow I was able to convince my folks that this doll was different and worth purchasing.  And so she was!

Many years later, showing evidence of years of love, here she is!  She is wearing all her original clothing. Only her hair ribbons have been replaced. 

She really is an amazing doll.  The sections of her head and body are made from continuous long curvy strips of fabric.  The center strip that makes up the middle of her face extends through the middle of her trunk.  She was stuffed through an opening on the right side of her abdomen.

She has articulated button arms and legs.  There is a nice curve in both her arms and legs. She sits well.

Legs are stuffed at the knee on the front of the leg!

Her hair is wool yarn.  I loved being able to braid it!

Hair detail

When I started making dolls, I considered trying to replicate her.  But making a pattern with those continuous head to trunk strips really stumped me.  I did design my own patterns for the cloth dolls I made. The patterns had a more conventional doll construction with separate head, trunk and extremities.  I'll share some of my own creations next week.

Back to the UFOs!

Quilting straight lines

Finish It February is underway. I'm currently working on the royal blue flying geese lap quilt.  It's so modern, that quilting using straight lines using my walking foot felt like the best match for most of the quilt. Here are some photos of my quilting.

Echo stitching the "geese" in the flying geese blocks

I like to use painter's tape for straight line quilting over areas with negative space, especially if I am quilting diagonally. It's easy to apply, it stays in place and can be used several times before it gets too linty to stick well, and it doesn't leave a glue residue when removed.  The painter's tape in the photos is 1 inch wide. When I stitch, I keep the inner edge of my walking foot right at the edge of the painter's tape. It's easy to follow as I sew and it keeps me from sewing over the tape.  

If I have a stitch line that I want to follow but I want the distance between rows of stitching to be more than 1 inch, I use the metal guide bar on the walking foot.  The bar runs right over the line of stitches.  The line of stitching you get is only as good as the row of stitching you are following. Daydreaming isn't advised!

Using the guide bar on the walking foot

I used the wavy serpentine stitch on the blue and yellow strips in the quilt.  It's stitch #4 on my Bernina and I increase the length to 25 to get a wider wave and I use the walking foot.

This quilt is almost done.  I'm still thinking about how to quilt the small flying geese blocks. 

Quilt number two has top, backing and batting all set to sandwich!  Hopefully I'll get that done today. 

Finish it February -- 2015

It's snowy February here in Massachusetts.  It's a fine month to stay indoors and work on that pile of UFOs.  My stack of quilt tops which need to be turned into finished quilts is beginning to rival the height of the snowbanks outdoors!

4 of the quilts are bed size (2 twin, 2 queen +), 3 are lap or crib size.  One of bed quilts needs to be quilted on a long arm--I don't expect to get that one done this month.  The others I can do on with my Bernina.  

These aren't the sort of projects I can just whip out.  I'll post some of my quilting on the blog as I work.  I also plan to share some other sewing/fiber projects during the month. 

Here's the first--placemats.  It's the perfect project to work on applying bindings with mitered corners. 4 placemats =  16 miters!  You'll be a pro when you're done!  

These placemats, which look like Spring are made using a fabric with the design printed in squares. I just quilted along the line between the different designs, making this an easy project. 

Here is slide show of applying a binding to a quilt. This binding was made with scrap strips so the binding may change colors between frames. For the quilt, I used a 2 1/2 inch double fold binding with diagonal seams between the binding strips.  

With the placemats, I used straight 1/4 inch seams between binding strips.  They are a bit easier to manage on a small project.  On the last side of the placemat, overlap the end of the binding strip 1/2 inch over the beginning piece of binding.  (With diagonal seams measure 2 1/2 inches OR the width of the fabric cut for the binding).   Cut the end piece at that 1/2 inch point.  Open up the folds in the binding, put right sides together and sew a 1/4 inch seam. (With the diagonal seams, follow photos below).  Finger press the seam open, turn the binding to the right side and finish sewing the binding to the placemat. 

Have fun working on your miters!  Enjoy your new placemats!  

Happy Ground Hog's Day!!  Any Ground Hog in Massachusetts foolish enough to dig out of the burrow is definitely NOT seeing her shadow today--we are in the middle of a Nor'easter!  Better luck next time!

"Construction Zone": A modern twist on Bonnie Hunter's "Grand Illusion" 2014 Mystery Quilt

This week Boston had the largest January snow storm on record--24 1/2 inches. It was predicted well in advance.  "Snow Day!" I thought.  "I can sit inside and quilt and watch the snow accumulate outside."  That so did not happen!   I spent the snow day snow-blowing and shoveling.  And catching up with neighbors-- that's one of the great things about Big Snow in this city.  (My neighbor @franklin.e, an artist at work at home during the storm, did a watercolor of me shoveling show. It's on IG at #snowdraw.  How cool is that)!!

I did find some time yesterday to finish up my Modern take on Bonnie Hunter's "Grand Illusion" 2014 Winter Mystery quilt.  It was made from the orphan blocks I had left over after I decided to make the quilt twin size instead of queen size. 

This morning I went out and shoveled around the fence in the backyard so I could take some photos to share with you. Then I went out front and put the quilt on a sunny snow drift in the front yard to get the photos of the quilting.  That's why the photos are a bit ripply!

Shoveled out for photos!

This modern quilt is a snapshot of the assembly of the "Grand Illusion" quilt. (Click the link to see my completed "Grand Illusion" quilt top).   Top to bottom:  Outer border, inner border, "exploded block" on the left, block components on center right, blocks falling off the sewing table bottom left and completed block on the bottom right.

Here are some pictures of the quilting. I used my walking foot for the geometric/straight quilting and did free motion quilting for the flowers and vine.  I used the serpentine stitch (#4 on my Bernina) to create the motion of the blocks falling off the table onto the floor. 

And here is the back.  The backing fabric wasn't wide enough so I added some the left over border strips.

"Construction Zone" Back

Now, time to tackle quilting my real "Grand Illusion" quilt!!

Flying Geese Quilt with African Wax Fabrics--WIP

This flying geese quilt is something I started in the fall.  There was no urgency to complete it so it went to the bottom of the pile when I started working on Christmas quilts. 

This past week, I had a sweet dog friend visiting for a few days. I'm going to call her my "Organizing Assistant Dog."  Maggie isn't as young as she used to be and is a lot slower going up stairs.  So I tried to arrange my activities to keep us on the first floor of the house as much as possible.  My quilting room is on the second floor, so I looked around for projects to work on downstairs.  Thanks to Maggie, I got some bins of scraps sorted, the dining room work area tidied up and I got this quilt top finished. 

Maggie, my Organizing Assistant Dog.  You can see by her intent look that she is keeping me on task!!

I already had the flying geese blocks done.  Since all the precision sewing was completed, I was happy to use my light weight traveling sewing machine to sew the quilt together. 

The quilt is all improv.  I had some ideas about the background but not a planned design. The yellow, blue and orange are colors in the African Wax fabrics.  The yellow and orange are on the opposite side of the color wheel from the royal blue, making them bold accents.  There is nothing subtle about this quilt but I really like design and the way it came together.   

Thanks, Maggie!

"I Spy" Slab Blocks

I'm a member of the Boston Modern Quilt Guild.  The guild is making a few charity quilts for children.  They requested 12 1/2 inch square slab blocks in rainbow colors.  Members of the guild are limited to making 3-4 blocks--they don't want to get inundated!!

Knowing the quilts were going to children, I couldn't resist including some novelty fabrics.  There are paints and painting tools in the hot pink block.  The yellow block is more fun.  It has 

• cats
• ladybugs (2 sizes)!
• butterflies
• lemons
• flowers (2 styles of daisies and one generic flower)

I've made a number of "I Spy" quilts in the past using several different patterns.  

While I was sewing these slabs I realized this would be a really fun way to make an "I Spy" quilt.  It is so random that it can incorporate little pieces of fabrics that wouldn't work in a set pattern. A slab block "I Spy Quilt" would really make an incredible treasure hunt! 

Need help constructing your own slab blocks?  Cheryl Arkison has a chapter in Sunday Morning Quilts for a quilt called "The Missing U" which is constructed with slab blocks.  The instructions for the slab construction are on pages 48-49 of the book.  (More info about the book can be found in the Recommended Reading tab above).  Cheryl also has a slab block how-to on her blog, Dining Room Empire.  In that 2013 post, she was collecting slab blocks to make quilts for flood victims in Canada. That project is now completed. If you use the instructions on her blog here's one helpful hint from the book.  When your block is done, sew a 1/8 inch seam around all 4 sides to keep all those seams in the block from pulling apart when you handle the blocks prior to final sewing.  It's an extra step, but you'll be glad you took the time to do it!

An "I Spy Quilt" isn't on my to-do list at the moment. But I do like this idea!

Economy Block Quilt with Birdhouse Fabric Border--WIP

I finished this quilt top one afternoon last week.  The sun was shining and I decided to get a photo while the weather was good.  I finished pressing the top and used a fur-remover tape roller to remove the loose threads on it's surface.  I looked up.  The sky was dark grey, the wind was blowing and it was snowing!  15 minutes later, it was all over. The sun came back out and it remained windy--but I got my photos.  Winter in New England!  Go figure. 

I found the this birdhouse fabric, "Country Folk Wurk [sic] by Cranston Village, while this quilt was still in the "thinking" stage.  The steep roofs on the birdhouses were the inspiration for using the Economy Block as the focus block in this quilt.

I found a great backing fabric on-line at Connecting Threads.  This project is on hold until it arrives! 

Economy Block Bird Quilt with a Broken Chain--WIP

I've got the body of the Economy Block Bird quilt completed.  That's Tipper, my English Springer Spaniel, in the corner of the photo.  He's from a hunting line of Springers.  Springer Spaniels flush and retriever birds when used in hunting.  He is very "birdie"--it's in his blood.  
Note how he is keeping his eye on this quilt.  Must be all the birds the center of the Economy Blocks!!

The alternating block in the quilt is a chain bock.  Rather than have the chain track in parallel lines across the quilt, I've broken the chain by turning the direction of the chain block in each row.  I think it gives the quilt a lot of motion. 

With one more vertical and horizontal row of blocks, this would be a twin size.  I'm going to use 2 borders instead, the more traditional look in a quilt. Why?  Because one of the border fabrics is the reason why I chose the Economy Block pattern!  

One border is on.  One to go.  I'll post the finished top next week. 

Modern Twist on Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion: "Construction Zone!"

Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Winter 2014 Mystery Quilt was designed to be a queen size quilt.  As I was assembling the quilt I decided to make a twin size quilt by omitting one of the vertical rows of blocks.  That left me with lots of partially completed orphan blocks.

I had toyed with the idea of changing the quilt to try to give it some modern aesthetic, but decided that was just too difficult to do with a mystery quilt.  I wasn't willing to wait until the reveal to start sewing. 

However, my stack of orphan bits, pieces and blocks gave me the perfect opportunity to create a Modern Quilt.   I call this design "Construction Zone."  I took the elements of the Grand Illusion quilt and laid them out the way you see them when you are sewing a Bonnie Hunter quilt together. 

On the top row are the component blocks for the outer border on the left and the border unit on the right. 

Below that is the inner border, yellow on my quilt.

In the middle of the quilt on the left are the units set out they way the final block and it's green checkered border will be sewn together.  In the middle right are some of the individual components of the focus block.  

The completed focus block with its border is at the bottom on the right. On the left are block units falling off the sewing table and piling up on the floor! (It always happens at some point in a project this complex)!! One of the fallen blocks is attached by machine appliqué. The corner of that block will extend over the border of the finished quilt. 

This was so much fun to make.  I put the pieces up on the design wall but the assembly was all improv.  I sewed pieces together, measured and cut and sewed some more.

I'm giving away the "real" Grand Illusion quilt so it's great to have this lap size quilt to keep.  And it makes me smile!

Economy Block Quilt with a Chain--WIP

Here's a quick peek at one of the quilts I should be working on!!  I've gotten distracted doing other things this week--like cleaning the cellar so that dogs have a play area in this super cold weather!

The focus unit in this quilt is the square-in-a-square block, also known as the Economy Block. This was the "hot" block of 2014!   I made 2 wall hangings using this block but this is the first time I'm using it for a bed size quilt. 

As you can see in the apple wall hanging I made last year, putting the Economy blocks next to each other can create a star secondary design.  

Economy Block wall hanging 15 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches square, Economy blocks finish at 4 3/4 inches

I didn't have quite enough of the bird fabric to do a whole quilt of Economy blocks.  So I'm alternating the Economy blocks with a chain block.  

This is all I've done so far!  Hopefully I'll get back to the sewing machine in the next few days!  

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Completed Top

My Bonnie Hunter Grand Illusion Winter 2014 Mystery Quilt Completed Top!  

At the last moment, my quilt took a change in direction...and went to the dogs!  In a good way!  I'd been asked to make a quilt for a little girl who loves dogs.  Her favorite colors are pink and purple. As I was putting together the large blocks in this quilt I realized this is the perfect pink and purple quilt.  It just needed dogs!  

Some turquoise dog related print fabric was already in my piecing so the basis of the dog theme was already there. The cornerstone blocks were the perfect place to add the dogs. I had just enough previously fussy cut dog fabric in the right color way to cut out the 3 1/2 inch blocks I needed. 

Here are some of the dog blocks and one of the turquoise half square triangle patches with a ball, bones and a vanishing squirrel!   I had to smile when I saw the rabbit in the square above the pointer at the bottom corner of the quilt!  "Turn around puppy! The rabbit's behind you!!"

I deleted the last vertical row of blocks which makes this a generous twin size quilt at 74 x 88 inches.  That leaves me with 5 large orphan blocks--and some interesting ideas about how to use them.  Stay tuned!

Check out the Linky on Bonnie Hunter's Blog to see what other folks have done!  There are lots of great quilts and quite a number of quilts with variant number color ways.  This project has been great fun!

Baby Quilt in a Weekend #2: "Giraffe Party!"

Happy New Year's!  Here's a baby quilt pattern to welcome in 2015. 

We've all had this happen...we need a baby quilt and we need it yesterday!   Here is the 2nd in a series of Baby Quilts in a Weekend.  With a bit of diligence, this quilt can be completed in just 2 days.  The dishes may not get washed but the quilt will be finished and ready to wrap! 

I've had this the giraffe fabric in my stash for several years.  I found it on a excursion to Keepsake Quilting, long before grey had become a hot color for baby's rooms.  The fabric was so unique.  I knew that it would make a cute baby quilt for the right family some day. 

Because there are giraffes in the focus fabric, I wanted everything about the quilt to be T-A-L-L!  The blocks are tall and the quilting design is vertical.

The quilt blocks are simple rectangles with a 2 1/2 inch strip of Kona cotton used as an accent color.

Block of the focus fabric with the strip of accent fabric, ready for sewing

The colored strips are on opposite sides of the focus fabric in each horizontal row.  Row 1 has the strips on the right, Row 2 has them on the left.  There are 5 rows in the quilt, so there are an uneven number of right and left blocks.

The mother of the baby receiving this quilt loves celebrations. I had some fabric with tiny peach and grey pennants which matched the focus fabric. I added to to the top of one block in each row of the quilt.  They are the reason why this quilt is named "Giraffe Party"!    
 

While I love the strips with the pennants on individual blocks, and while I really did want them in this quilt, I won't use them when I make this pattern again.  I think the white strips running down the quilt in a stair-step pattern detracts from the verticality of the quilt's design.  I think the quilt is a lot more interesting in use than it is hanging up for a photograph.

Giraffe Party!  40 x 50 inches

I did part of the quilting with my walking foot and part by free motion quilting. All the quilting is vertical, running from top to bottom of the quilt. 

My cat, Chester, had had surgery the week I was working on this quilt. He came to sit beside me on my chair while I was doing the quilting. It's always a tight fit when he does this, but even tighter due to the Elizabethan Collar he was wearing. (The collar kept him from reaching, and removing the stitches at the surgical site).   At one point he must have leaned forward bumped one of the stitch choice buttons on the front of my machine.  I was quite surprised when I reached the end of my row and realized that Chester had made a design change (a hemming stitch) without my permission!  I got a good chuckle about his creativity and then did a bit of un-sewing!

The basic quilting is straight lines with varying numbers of parallel lines and varying distance between some of the adjacent lines.  I chose to do a vine and leaf free motion design through the center of the blocks of focus fabric, seen in the photo at the top of this post. When you flip the quilt over to the back, it looks like a whole cloth quilt design. It's really beautiful, making this quilt truly reversible. 

Quilting on the back of the quilt

To make this quilt:

Yardage:

• Focus fabric: 1 1/2 yards
• Assorted solid color strips: 25 strips 2 1/2 inches x 10 1/2 inches (3/4 yard if the solid color strips are to be all the same color)
• Binding:  1/2 yard
• Backing: 1 3/4 yards
• 1 crib size quilt batting  45 x 60 inches

Instructions:

1. Cut 25 blocks 6 1/2 inches wide x 10 1/2 inches long from the focus fabric
2. Sew a 2 1/2 inch x 10 1/2 inch strip of the solid color fabric to the RIGHT side of 15 of the focus fabric rectangles
3. Sew a 2 1/2 inch x 10 1/2 inch strip of the solid color fabrics to the LEFT side of the remaining 10 focus fabric rectangles.
4. Sew the quilt together in horizontal rows--5 blocks to each row, starting with blocks with the colored strip on the RIGHT side of the block.  In row 2 the colored strips will be on the LEFT side of the block.
5. Sew the 5 completed rows together to finish the quilt top.
6. Sandwich the quilt top, quilt batting and backing fabric and quilt as desired. 
7. Cut 5  strips of the binding fabric,  2 1/2 inches x Width of fabric (40 inches).  Sew strips together to make the binding. Fold the binding in half across the 2 1/2 width and press.  Attach binding to your quilt. 
8. Add a label!  You're done!

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Part 5

Hard to believe we are already on Part 5 (and week 5!) of Bonnie Hunter's Winter Mystery Quilt. This week's assignment was straightforward 4 patch blocks. 

I spun the seams on the back of these blocks.  They were easy to spin. It was almost as if these blocks wanted to spin!  I do like those tiny 4 patches which appear when the seams of a block are spun.  But the sad thing is, only you know they are there!  Unless of course, the quilt survives to a grand old age, starts to wears out and someone in a future generation decides to take it apart!  

I tried to spin the seams in the pieced blocks in Part 4.  That was a struggle.  I finally decided they were better pressed without spinning.  

I suspect that we probably have made most, if not all, of the blocks needed for this quilt. I think there might just be some serious sewing activity on New Year's weekend!  I can't think of a better way to start off 2015!

Christmas Woodlands Lap Quilt

Here is my completed "Christmas Woodlands" Lap Quilt.   I went out to the local Urban Wild conservation area so I could photograph this quilt in a wood!  

As you may recall from my November 20, 2014 post, the Amanita muscaria, a mushroom with a red cap and white polka dots, is used as a Christmas ornament in Europe.  

Three ornaments I made with Sculpey Oven-Bake Clay

Click the link which follows to see pictures of this quilt when it was still a Work in Progress and to see a fabulous photograph of real Amanita muscaria mushrooms in the wild. 

I'm really pleased with this quilt which I designed in Electric Quilt 7 using a Block Turned Quilt template in the EQ7 Layout Library.  It's such a happy, fun quilt.  I'm really enjoying using it during this Christmas season.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Part 4

It was so great to read Bonnie Hunter's instructions for Part 4  and finding that part of this step was done back in Part 1.  Bonnie is really good about looking ahead at the calendar and planning the work so that the week of the major holidays there is less sewing time needed to complete that week's step.  Thanks Bonnie!

Above are 2 more sets of Broken Dishes blocks.  It was snowing when I took the blocks outdoors to photograph them.  Can you spot the 2 snowflakes on the grey patch of the left hand block? It's such a swirly fabric that the snowflakes look like they are part of the design!

To see how other quilters are progressing, click here to view the Part 4 Linky for Grand Illusion on Bonnie Hunter's Blog.

I've tried out some titanium coated sewing machine needles this past week.  I have always used Schmetz needles and have been very happy with them.  But I had heard good things about titanium coated sewing machine needles so I purchased some Superior Titanium Coated Needles to give them a try.  I used a Topstitch 90/14 needle to do some quilting and really didn't see any difference.  But I was amazed at how beautifully the Topstich 80/12 worked for piecing.  The needle moved so easily and smoothly through the fabrics.  The eye of the needle is larger than most sewing machine needles so threading the needle is really easy.  

I'm not giving up my Schmetz needles.  I still really like them a lot.  But I'm happy to know about the Superior needles. With the titanium coating, they are supposed to last longer than regular needles.  I haven't used them long enough to comment on that yet.  However, I think using titanium coated needles might make a lot of sense when you are doing a project with lots of piecing-- like this Bonnie Hunter Winter Mystery Quilt!  

For the record:  I don't have any connection with the Superior needle company nor with the Schmetz needle company.  

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog last week based on the photo of the scissors destroyed by my dog Hazel!  I enjoyed your great comments and appreciated your commiseration!  Hazel is well, no harm done to her.  I don't think she even swallowed any of the pieces from plastic handles she chewed up!  

Here are a couple of photos of Hazel with her new wide wale corduroy Pink Pig and a well loved Nylabone-- more appropriate dog toys than my sewing scissors!

Hanukkah Mini Quilt

This weekend I went to a guild holiday party.  There were some Christmas items in the gift grab but nothing for Hanukkah.  I celebrate Christmas so the grab item I took to the party was my Selvage Christmas Tree Mug Rug. 

I realized the strip piecing I used for the tree mug rug could easily be adapted to make a Hanukkah Menorah.  

For this mini quilt I used strips of quilting cotton 1 1/4 inches x 3 inches for the 8 candles and  1 1/4 inches x 4 inches for the central candle.  The background material is flannel.  The strips between the candle strips were cut 1 x 3 inches.  The horizontal strips just above the 8 candles, adjacent to the central candle were cut 1 1/2 inches x width needed for the line of candles.  The other strips I cut to sizes that I thought looked nice.

There is a single selvage in this mini quilt.  It's the selvage from the striped quilting cotton.  I cut the strip to show the numbers from 1 to 8 --the number of days of Hanukkah.

The flames are pieces of felt.  I glued a tiny square of the rough side of a hook and loop fastening material on the back of each flame to help it catch and stay on the flannel of the mini quilt.

I put the flames on a piece of turquoise felt  to keep them together until needed. 

With the quilting, this mini quilt is just stiff enough to stand on its own when placed upright in a slightly curved position.  That was an unexpected bonus for this 9 x 15 inch mini quilt!  What fun!

Happy Hanukkah!

Mystery Quilt! Bonnie Hunter's Grand Illusion Part 3

It's so easy sewing green!  Well, maybe not THAT easy!  But I was really happy to see Bonnie gave us straight strip sets for Step 3.   

I set up a fence on my sewing machine to get those 1/4 inch seams perfect.  My sets with 2 strips measured exactly 3 1/2 inches.  I had a harder time when all 4 strips were stitched together. I had to press the 4 strip sets with a hot iron to get them to measure 6 1/2 inches 

Here are my 2 strip sets ready to sew together.  I cut my strips at least 20 1/4 inches long with most about closer to 21 inches long.  That allowed me to cut ten 2 inch sections out of each 4 strip set.  Overall, I needed twelve 4 strip sets to make the required 120 8 patch blocks.

My Lab mix, Hazel, who is going to be 4 years old in January, has weighed in with a dog's comment the amount of time it was taking to sew Step 3:

Right Hazel.  I hear you!  Too much sewing, not enough play time with dogs!    (Shh--don't tell Hazel---I still have 110 8 patches to sew together to finish this step)! 

Click here for the Step 3 Linky at Bonnie Hunters blog, Quiltville.blogspot.com to see how everyone is doing!

Using Quilting Scraps to Celebrate the Holidays

I settled down at my dining room table the other day to wrap holiday presents.  The table is a nice big surface and it is where my cutting mat lives.  I had brought out the wrapping paper but not the ribbons and I was at the point where I was ready to tie some bows.  

On the table was a mound of trimmings from my recent projects--strips from straightening fabrics for cutting, a few pretty selvages and a few wider trimmings from cutting the backing after a quilt was done and ready for binding.   My mom, a knitter, used yarn remants instead of ribbons on the presents she wrapped.  I decided to use my collections of odd strips to decorate my packages--carrying on a family tradition, but as a quilter!

TIP:  If you wrap presents on your cutting mat, don't use any wrapping or cards with glitter. One fleck of glitter will ruin your rotary cutter blade.   GOT GLITTER?  Put the cutting mat away until you are done and your surface has been cleaned and is glitter free.

Gifts wrapped, I looked over at the greeting cards which were propped on a table in the living room.  And I noticed that the table needed to be dusted. Only a few cards have arrived but I know more are coming. Did I want to pick them all up every time I need to dust?  Not really. 

I have sometimes hung my cards to ribbons taped to the wall.  Another Ah-Ha moment--strip scraps would make a great, colorful card swag!  And to carry on the quilting theme, I used Clover Wonder Clips to attach the cards to my swag.  Those little red clips are the best--good for all sorts of things in addition to keeping a binding in place during sewing!

Scrappy Holiday Swag with Greeting cards.  (The wooden structure at the top of the photo is the cat walk my brother build for the cats)!

The evening I that I wrote this post I went to the annual holiday party at the Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild.  We always have a Yankee swap.  When all the swapping was done, I came home with a set of 3 beautifully quilted Santa potholders.  The wrapping for this present was a fat quarter of fabric, not paper!  I appreciated this quilter's use of fabric in place of  disposable wrapping paper!   Here are 2 of the potholders on top of the FQ wrapping.  Aren't they fun?

Quilted Santas on one side of the potholders, poinsettias on the flip side.  Quilter--PBQ Guild member, identity unknown

Have fun with your Holiday preparations.  Try using some of those quilting scraps!  What else can you do with them?  Leave me a comment if you have other Holiday uses for your quilting scraps!  I'd love to hear what you're doing!