A quilt for baby Chloe

I went to a baby shower today for
baby Chloe, who is due to make her
appearance next month.






I wanted to do something special for this new little one.

I wanted to make a quilt but wasn't really sure about doing it. Sometimes I don't know about giving handmade gifts because if the recipient doesn't like the gift they can't exchange or return it.

I finally decided to go ahead with my plan and just hope that the new mom would like it.

I hope she does.



A forgotten picture

My computer was down for seven long weeks and in going through photos on my camera card I found a Christmas project that I never posted. 

This was my first attempt at a twister quilt. Note to self: Next time use a larger twister tool! It wasn't smart to try and learn a new technique with itsy bitsy blocks. The finished piece is only 10" square. 

And yes, after I downloaded the pictures to the computer I noticed the missing bead. Panic immediately ensued. I had the exact number of beads I needed. It was the middle of the night (yes, I was going from room to room at 1:00AM trying to do artsy shots) and the gift needed to be given the next day. There was no time for a trip to JoAnn.

I frantically retraced my steps through the entire house. Yes, I had been in nearly every room of the house with it trying different backgrounds for the picture. I finally found the missing bead nestled in the carpet in the sewing room. It was sewn (securely!) back on and disaster averted. However, I forgot to take a picture with all the beads in place. Oh well. 

Another note to self: It's hard to get good pictures at 1:00AM without natural daylight.

80 log cabins later

It's huge! 92 x 116"

Not a good picture because it's so huge. When I get it back from the quilter I'm going to have to enlist some very tall people to hold it up for me.

I'm not sure how to have her quilt it. Maybe an overall design since the piecing is so busy? Maybe custom quilting in the furrows?  Any suggestions? 

Flower confusion

 Okay....this is going to be easy. 

Take a pile of these:

Add a pile of these:

And poof, within moments a grandmother's garden table runner should appear.

Yeah, right!  This was suspiciously like math with angles and numbers and confusion. I could no more make sense out of this than I could make sense of 

high school algebra. 

Luckily I'm married to a smart man with an analytic mind who saw my confusion and 

quickly drew diagrams for me.

Then came the fun of moving the flowers around again and again. There's two pink ones together, better move that one over here. Ack! Now there's two purple ones together, quick switch, and so it went for an hour...

I only hope that

(1)  I finally got it somewhat balanced and

(2) I can figure out how to put it all back together again.

Stay tuned!

Log cabin options

I can't believe how many different layouts are possible with a simple log cabin block.

I borrowed a book from a friend that showed me 18 different layouts for this sized quilt.

It was fun to play with different looks simply by flipping blocks around. 

(Although my knees didn't think it was fun at all!)

After all that though I decided on a totally different layout than any of these. 

It's much bigger, which is what I was looking for, and it just grabbed my attention when I saw it.  It's a sawtooth star in a barn raising setting.  I think it's going to be beautiful and I'm excited to finish it. I was discouraged when the split star blocks didn't work with the log cabin blocks but in the end, I think I may be happier with just the log cabin blocks alone. I love the idea of a traditional block done in traditional (Civil War reproduction) fabrics. 

I need to make 28 more log cabins and then I can put it together.  

It's going to be a huge quilt with an 8 x 10 setting of 12" blocks.  Stay tuned for progress pictures.

There's hope that this may actually be done by the end of the month.