Baby Boy Porter - Monkeys

It seems that every other week a baby shower is being thrown and it is absolutely the most fun to go to a shower with good friends, yummy goodies, and a reason to celebrate. I had spoken to this mom to be and she was very excited about monkey's. Luckily, while in Madison Wisconsin on business I found some wonderful fabric at Stitcher's Crossing for this baby quilt. Although the pattern and quilting was simple the vibrant fabrics make this ~36x36 inch blanket very special. I was worried about doing too complex of a pattern with the monkey fabric since it wouldn't be able to be seen if the pieces were small.

Baby Girl Eastie

Today I attended a beautiful Baby Shower for the upcoming arrival of Baby Eastham! There were about 4 of us attending that were pregnant and of us their are 2 girls 1 boy, 1 unknown. I've got a few more quilts to get cracking on! I loved this quilt for Baby Eastham because the colors were so fun. I've found that like in this case a particular fabric or two (usually a fat quarter) started it all and then I built off of it. This pattern came from the book Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts by Mary Hickey with the exception of the 9 patch block which is my substitution for the block in her pattern.

Little Boys and Sail Boats

Here's a baby quilt I made for a little one named Jack! A friend of mine, Colleen, and I picked out the fabric on New Years Eve and created the pattern and put most of it together before midnight. I decided to try quilting a pattern that I traced instead of my usual stitch in the ditch. It's not perfect but for his dad a former Naval Officer and his mom a sweet friend the boats were also a theme for his nursery and it fit perfectly with his new environment. I just heard today that his quilt is used a lot! It makes me happy to know it's used, and well loved. Welcome to the world Jack!

Wedding Quilt

This quilt was made for a close friend and her husband for their wedding in October 2010. I enjoyed the process of putting the Yellow Brick Road pattern together for the front and then creating my own pattern for the back. The fabric line reminded me of Allison's halloween costume and the colors reminded me of a couch that Ben and Allison were looking at on line the last time I visited them. (I know weird inspiration). They had a beautiful wedding but I was unable to attend; but I'm glad that I was able to create a Michelle original that they will have for a lifetime. Last but not least I hired a friend to embroider their Monogram and Wedding date on a patch on the back.

Family Projects and Heirlooms

Tonight's binding project was the finishing touches on a quilt that has made its way through the family. This isn't the first nor will it be the last project that is completed this way.

My mom, sisters and I live across the country from one another. Mom and my youngest sister live in Southern California, the middle sister lives in Houston, Texas and then there's me up here in Massachusetts. Since I started quilting they have showed some interest in but have never taken a class. I bought projects for them early on choosing easy quilt projects and usually walking them through some of the steps to the project on the phone or via Skype.

This latest quilt was bought for my sister, Cherie, for Mothers Day. I bought a My Sister and Me Design pattern called "Cherry Turnover" that used Oh Cherry Oh Moda pre-cuts. The project should have been pretty simple because no cutting was required. Cherie was early on in her pregnancy and I thought she'd like a project to do. I should have known my sister, somewhat of a workaholic, wasn't going to work on her project whatsoever before the baby was born. In fact she

Eventually the quilt got sent to my youngest sister and Mom who put the top together. After trying to explain how to miter the borders to no avail it got sent to me and I finished the top, selected and prepared the back and put it together. I quilted it a few weeks ago and completed it this evening while watching some TV. Two weeks from now it will finally make it to my sister in Texas.

This is just how our projects sometimes get finished and it really is nice to know that each of us have created these projects and they will forever remain in the family.May I be lucky enough to see these passed down to my sister's children.

Create quilts, make memories and enjoy!!

Finished!

Some projects take longer than others. This one has taken me over a year to complete and its been a great project to continue over the year. The bright colors in this quilt lightened my mood in the winter and cheered me up during Yinon's finals and the long months of recruiting. This quilt is the first I will attempt to sell. http://www.etsy.com/shop/shellieme I'm not trying to make a profit, just cover some of the expenses for my hobby, which will allow me to start another quilt.

This quilt was the first which contained a star like shape and it was the first in which I didn't follow the pattern precisely. I used the pattern Lucky Stars by Atkinson Designs, to include some of the fabric from the Tulip panel using fussy cutting. (See the bottom right corner with a butterfly the bottom left with a hummingbird and the center panel). I've titled this quilt, very originally I might add, "Tulips and Butterflies".

The short history of this quilt was that I was looking for a new project and had never made a quilt with star block so I picked up Lucky Stars. About the same time I purchased a few pieces of fabric from the Moda line with these beautiful tulips and butterflies. In less than a weekend I cut it all out. Then I started piecing the blocks together and again it took a few hours the following weekend. Putting the top or blocks together took a few months and was interrupted by our move to Cambridge, MA. I finally got the batting, top, and backing finished and I quilted Tulips and Butterflies over the winter. In the past month I found binding, trimmed the quilt up and today I finished hand sewing the binding. DONE!

This afternoon I put it up on sale at http://www.etsy.com/shop/shellieme and we'll see if I make any money to put towards my next quilt project. Cross your fingers, I'm ready for another project to challenge me - I think I'll try a bargello.

Happy quilting!

Most crafters, seamstresses, quilters, and scrapbookers have lots of projects going simultaneously. Since Yinon's out of the house for a few weeks this summer I've been pulling out my machine and have been working on all of these projects. Currently I have 8 UFO's in the binding stage.
This photo shows left to right starting on the top:
-My sister and Me: Cherry Turnover in Moda Oh Cherry Oh
-Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts by Mary Hickey: Playmates with focus fabric Michael Miller's Flower Fairies
-A Michelle Original baby play pad with Batik's
-_______ - Moda Tulips
Bottom Left
-A Michelle and Heather original Playpen pad with Surfin Monkeys by Benartex Fabric
-Two changing pad sized quilts fabrics unknown
-A quilt kit from Joanne's Fabric
-Another quilt top Made from Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts by Mary Hickey: Playmates with focus fabric Michael Miller's Flower Fairies
It's been fun putting these together but now I need to get them off the couch by finishing the binding.
I'm looking forward to my next project.

Latest Inspiration

I've been inspired by the recent frenzy of sewing among my friends. For mothers day I was given the opportunity to help choose a sewing machine for a new seamstress. She really didn't know what she wanted but she had wanted the option for embroidery and monogramming. The sewing machine chosen that had all the options and was affordable was the Brother 950D. It's the newest model in the Brother line and its very user friendly. At about $750.00 its not the cheapest sewing and embroidery machine but it has the most functionality and options for monogramming. Her first project was a new pad for her baby stroller and she's already finished her second project. Between her and a few other of my students, I'm the proud teacher of a few protege's.

My sewing machine is a Janome DC 2007LE and has none of the embroidery or monogramming capabilities but it allows me to do what I love, QUILT and I've been quilting.

My latest projects are actually UFO's (Unfinished Objects). First, I finished quilting my "Fresh" tulip quilt by outlining the stars and then outlining the flowers n the panel. Next, I put together the quilt sandwich of an UFO of my female family members. I then quilted this quilt (Me and My Sister Design-Cherry Turnover, using Oh Cherry Oh fabrics) and finally I prepared and sewed on the binding. Lastly, I created finally decided which pattern to use from the book Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts and created a quilt by fussy cutting "Flower Fairies" from Michael Miller's
Fairy Dots Apple fabric. This is such a cute project and I'm uploading photos of the pattern and the quilt top.

I've finished so much in three days... So glad I was inspired.

Happy Quilting

Stitch-in-the-Ditch

It's a been quite awhile since I've been able to sit down and quilt. In fact, I'm still quilting the bright tulip quilt mentioned in my last post. I've been busy but also it takes me longer than the average quilter to decide on how I want to quilt a project.

For this project I outlined the quilt blocks in white and then used a variegated thread of orange red and yellow to outline or stitch in the ditch around each star. I'm about half way finished with the stars and then I need to decide what to do with the "Tulip" square in the middle.

I was inspired to return to this project when a friend of mine wanted to learn how to sew. Today we're headed to a local sewing machine store to check out a few sewing/embroidery machines. It's going to be fun!

P.S. Happy Mother's Day mom thank you for teaching me how to sew.

Old / New Project

Tonight I started quilting a quilt that I had started and put together earlier this year. I moved with it in that unfinished state and never got back to it. The quilt from the beginning was very "BRIGHT". It's a fun and bright quilt. I stepped outside of the box when I chose this pattern and fabrics. Most quilters that know me would call me a traditional quilter so this was a bit out there.

When I started this project early in 2009 I decided to change the pattern a bit to work with the line of fabric I had chosen. I fell in love the Moda Fresh by Debbie Strain and decided to fussy cut the panel for some of the blocks. I didn't have a purpose for this quilt except to learn how to make stars but I did learn a lot about putting this one together.

I decided to quilt in the ditch around the interior of each box with a white thread. I'd like to use a multi color thread around the stars. Here's an "as is" photo. I'm only about 1/4 of the way finished witht the quilting. I'll show you a finished quilt picture when I complete it.

Baby Quilt

After going to one quilt show you can't wait to get to another. I planned on visiting my second AQS quilt show in Nashville, TN, for months. I had decided to upgrade from my $99 dollar Brother from Walmart.

So in true quilt show fashion, I played hooky from work for a few hours, met up with my friends, we had to have gotten coffee, and then shopped all morning at the quilt show. Amy, Maria, Linda, and Pam were all there and they helped me to purchase a Janome sewing machine. We also had a great lunch at a pub in the Opry Mills Hotel and Convention Center.

Buying a sewing machine may have been my biggest and most exciting purchase to look forward to at the quilt show; but, the quilt show had another surprise in store for me. I found the fabric for my first child's quilt. A little "premature" my husband said but I couldn't risk not having this perfect fabric line for my baby quilt. That's the thing with fabrics, they are sold in lines, and new fabric lines come out often. Finding fabrics you've passed up the chance to purchase is nearly impossible especially if you are looking for more than one fabric from the line.

This quilt took me the longest to start due to my misunderstanding of the first instruction. I was also very wary of making a mistake because I purchased the quilt as a 'kit' and was limited to the amount of fabric I could screw up on. =-) Putting this quilt together was a lot of fun. I quilted all of it myself after attending a Beginning Quilting class with Linda Bridges at Blooming Stitches (Clarksville, TN). I finally finished the binding today and I am excited to say it is complete. (And I did it all - check out my first all over meander and lots of stitch in the ditch.)

First Quilt Commission - Complete

Since arriving in Cambridge, MA I've had multiple suggestions and requests from friends and family to work on quilts, create quilts or just sew for friends. I'd brushed off the requests in the past, until I had the request to make a quilt from someone's favorite childhood comforter.

I received the blanket in November/ December and was planning to finish it for the holidays. That however didn't happen in the midst of my normal life schedule. I took the queen size comforter (hershey kisses print), removed the original high loft batting, washed the fabric, cut out the border, backing and binding of coordinating fabric and put it together. Then I decided to keep the original quilting design, since twenty years of stitching has left a permanent impression in the fabric. I quilted this 57x75 quilt by quilting over the original design. The older fabric was slightly uncooperative and was extremely stretchy so it wasn't perfect; but, I think I worked it out. Then I spent the past few evenings sewing the binding on. I completed the quilt last night in time for the customer's husband's birthday. I'm excited that its done and I'm hoping its what she expected. Attached are photos of the completed quilt.

I have a few more UFO's (Un-Finished Objects) to finish this month; however, I've got my next commissioning on the horizon and I'm looking forward to it.

Carried Away

So I'm getting carried away with blogging... It's a bit like how I started quilting. Soon after starting to quilt I was introduced to Amy and Maria two fabulous domestic divas, writers, bloggers (It's Whatever - The Leaf Chronicle), and quilters/seamstresses.

So how did I get carried away with quilting, you wonder?

It all started with going to my first American Quilting Society, Quilt Show in Paducah KY.
Amy, Maria and I started the morning with coffee of course and headed off for my first quilt show. We stopped at Hancock's of Paducah, the largest fabric store I had ever seen. While standing over a bin of cut scraps I asked for help from Maria on colors because she is an awesome graphic designer and fabulous with choosing colors. An older quilter asked me something like why I needed help and I said because I'm a new quilter... she called over to her other friend and said, "Hey Mary (I'm paraphrasing) she's a new quilter". I was so excited to be part of the crowd, and felt so accepted....

The quilt show was huge and amazing and I came home with sooo much stuff! Here's a picture of my stash.

Here is what I've made so far with the items above. It's a wall hanging made with a picture of my wonderful husband while he was deployed in Iraq. I made this wall hanging and the photo included using Printed Treasures - Printing Fabric. ...

For those that are looking at the picture and only see a few items used ---this is the beauty of quilting... your stash just grows and grows....

9 Patch Pizazz - In design phase. This quilt was for my brother-in-law who loves to play chess and it inspired the choice of the pattern. For a new quilter you can see how the quilt looks completely different when you choose to move your blocks around.

The Basics

So for those that are not quilters, yet, let me briefly describe the process...





The first three steps can happen in any order.
1) Decide to start a project (You may be inspired while shopping)
2) Choose fabric (This can involve shopping for fabric)
3) Choose a pattern (This can invovle shopping)

4) Prepare fabric for piecing (this usually includes ironing --oh whoops I mean "pressing")
5) Piece fabric together through the following process:
cut, sew, cut, sew, press, cut, sew, cut, sew, press, press press...
6) Complete the top of the quilt (this may include piecing a border)
7) Choose a back for the quilt and batting (the middle of the quilt)
8) Press the top and back again.
8) Baste (put) your quilt sandwich together. (top, batting, back)
9) Choose a quillt pattern and quilt
10) Choose binding, piece binding and bind quilt.

10 Easy steps... HA!!

I have projects in probably everyone of these stages/steps. Mostly its the "choosing" that keeps me from moving forward, you see the creative part of quilting is the more difficult part.

So after that first quilt I convinced my sister and mom to each do a yellow brick road, one with "nature like" batiks and one with a red and white pattern. My sister a frequent traveler decided to piece by hand. My mom took a different route, she decided that quilting by paper instructions and phone explanations was too difficult and sent the cut fabric pieces to my grandmother, a wonderful seamstress, to piece together. I eventually finished the border, had it quilted by Linda Bridges, and sent it for binding to the last sister in the family to finish a Payne (my maiden name) family quilt. Quilts of the same pattern but different fabric or quilts of the same pattern and fabrics with different quilting patterns can look completely different. In an effort to explain this to the newer quilters, I am including a picture of the yellow brick road pattern quilt with nature inspired batiks.

peaceful quilting - Michelle

The Beginning

I've been quilting 2 or 3 years now. As I start this blog I think back to how it started. It was actually my friend Jessy who said we should take a quilting class. The class was taught by Janie Rupe at the Meandering Stitch (no longer open) in Clarksville, TN. It was the everything a quilt store should be (fabulous fabric, coffee, and a friendly staff). We came in the morning of, bought our rulers, pattern (Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs), got help picking our colors through fat quarters (the hardest part) and settled in behind our sewing machines.

Then we learned first you iron. I have to tell you I wasn't thrilled with the idea of so much ironing to quilt. I loved the math part of the quilting process. It's not hard math and it's not intensive; but, for an analytical person like myself I think that piecing with all of the measuring and cutting of the fabric is probably my favoire part of the process (well except maybe the shopping part).

So that first day I picked my fabrics, ironed them, cut them as neded, and started piecing them together. The following weekends I visited the quilt shop a lot. I met Pam, Linda, and many others those first few weeks. I learned a lot about sewing, quilting, fabrics, color theory etc...

That first quilt started me down a road I never thought I'd take. Quilts to me seemed difficult, "BIG", complicated, old. I've now involved 2 sisters, a grandmother, and my mom in quilting. they haven't fallen head over heels for quilting yet; but, we've completed numerous quilts together across the continent (Thank you USPS).

So that first quilt was a lap sized, yellow brick road, based on a Windham Colonial replica fabric (if I remember correctly) and I added some modern patterns in with it. I'm attaching a picture of just the top.

peaceful quilting - Michelle