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.)