Serendipitous Countdown to Christmas

I finished this quilt top in November at our Cabin Fever Friendship Group retreat and finished quilting it over our Christmas break.  As per usual, I am just getting around to posting it.  Life has been very busy...  More about that later...  Ellipsis overload...  Seriously...

I used Moda's Countdown to Christmas fabric line. 
One of the cool things about this quilt is that there is a second quilt that can be made simply by using the scraps from this quilt...thus the "Serendipitous" reference in the quilt name. (I haven't finished the second quilt yet.) I stippled the heck out of this thing.  
The back is super-snuggly flannel and that makes the kids VERY happy.  AND that makes ME very happy!

Maci's McBaby Quilt

(Home with a sick baby girl today, so I am trying to catch up a bit.)

Here is a quilt that I made for a friend of mine from high school, Jima Jenkins McCarrens.  Her beautiful baby is named Maci and her nursery colors are camouflage and fuchsia.

Did I mention that I went to high school in Mississippi (and Maci's dad Rick likes to hunt?)

I made most the quilt top at my Idyllwild Quilt Retreat, but had to put a rush on it when Maci made a surprise entrance on November 19, 2011.  Maci has had a rough go of it as she was born with kidney failure.  She is a beautiful baby that has blessed Rick and Jima beyond measure.  You can read more about Maci's growth and progress at the blog that Jima started to keep people informed:  Day by Day with MaciMoo.

The back of the quilt is a super-snuggly camouflage flannel.

I can't wait for Maci to come home from LeBonheur so that she can put this quilt to use.  I hope it provides the comfort that sweet baby deserves.

Fall Bargello

Ahhhh, see how behind I am?  

I completed this Bargello quilt in early October, using the most beautiful batik fabrics.  It was so easy to piece and it looks great in our front room, all year long.   

 The back of this quilt is reminiscent of stained glass.  I may have to post better pictures to show the depth of the colors.  Love.

What's that?  You are wondering if I stippled this quilt??  Hell, yeah.  Did you really need to ask?
:)

Snow Many Friends

Ok, I am pretty sure that I have already posted a picture of this quilt, but I am unable to find it.  If my memory serves me correctly (which it probably isn't,) I posted the quilt top and not the finished/quilted project. So, in the spirit of catching up, I want to post the finished product.

Just a little reminder...

My friendship group exchanged snowman blocks earlier this year.

In case you are unfamiliar with a block exchange, let me give you a quick explanation.  Each member of the group completed eight of the same blocks.  (The only requirement was that they had a snowman included.  There were no size or style parameters.)  So, when we met to exchange the blocks, we gave away all save one of our blocks and then received seven different blocks (one from each of the other members) that we could use to create our friendship quilt.   In order to complete the quilt, I created one more block to have an "even 9" (quilters will probably understand that...others probably not.)

So, here is my little sweetie:

This is one of the four quilts that I entered in the Fallbrook Quilt Show.  It was great to have them lined up with other quilts from my friendship group.  I think that I took some photos at the show, let me see if I can rummage them up.
Well, shucks, I think I may be missing someone's quilt.  We didn't all enter them, but I thought more did.  Below are photos of my quilt, along with Sue's and Linda's.

These were super-fun to create and will always have a special place with my Holiday quilts.  :)

Snuggly Snowmen

On the first day of fall, I am happy to present a quilt with which you can get downright snuggly!

The quilt is made of flannels with some chenille thrown in for good measure. I bought this kit at Road to California Quilt Show. My friend, Linda, and I couldn't quit gushing over how fun this quilt was. The pieces of black simply make the quilt striking! (That is my sweet hubby holding the quilt for me, sporting his head full of curls and no shoes.)


It is, by far, the easiest quilt I have pieced together. What could be easier than piecing square blocks together???? The only issue was in the quilting. It was nearly impossible to quilt over the chenille due to its bulkiness. I simply quilted around those blocks and then just used an old school tack with embroidery floss. Problem solved!

For the back, I used a flannel that I bought on clearance at the Quilter's Cottage. (I got it for a steal!)


The kids love this one! It has been getting much use and I see that it will continue to be a favorite.

It's a Jungle Out There Baby Quilt

Bittersweet.

Sweet-I was so happy to make this baby quilt for Derek and Tina's baby boy (due in October.)

Bitter-the reminder that Derek and Tina will be leaving the first week in August for Beaufort, South Carolina...Derek's new duty-station.

Well, here we are. The end of July. Sigh. Derek and Tina will only be here about two more weeks. :( Jake is used to Derek being gone. He has been deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan five times since 2001. However, this is different. But, I digress.....

For Baby Cooper's quilt, I chose to use Hoffman's "It's a Jungle Out There" fabric line. They actually have three versions: one featuring primary colors, one using neutral tones, and the one I used. :)





Hoffman has a free pattern on their website that I tweaked slightly for this quilt. I will be honest. It turned out a little too busy for my tastes. If I were to do it again, I would probably use more solids within the quilt to add more definition. Maybe????
I decided to use this as the backing fabric because elephants (especially cartoon ones) make me ridiculously happy.





Well, I hope that Baby Cooper enjoys snuggling, drooling, and crawling all over this quilt. <3 <3 <3

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Sunkissed Sherbet

Yes, this post is brought to you with a side of "catch-up." As per usual, no?

In a previous blog post, I mentioned that I had completed my first donation to Kaitlyn's Promise.

Well, I finished my second donation about a month ago and was able to send it off for donation, as well.

I finished most of the quilt top of this quilt while at our Idyllwild Cabin Fever Quilters' Retreat. I loved how easy this was and it really came out pretty nicely. I plan on making some similar quilts to use up some of my fabric rolls, that truly seem to be over-taking me.

For this quilt, I used Moda's Sunkissed line. Love it. It reminds me of sherbet with its oranges and greens, thus the name: Sunkissed Sherbet.
I used a stacked coin idea, but combined it with a bargello technique that I had recently used. I really liked the outcome.



The backing fabric is from the same line and is super-cute.


Another thing that I loved about this line is the "dictionary" entries that were incorporated into the fabric. I used one of these as the binding, as you can (kind of) see in this close-up.


This quilt, along with the Letters to Paris quilt, were both raffled to benefit the Kaitlyn's Promise Memorial Scholarship Fund.
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The Very Quilty Quilt

With summer vacation finally upon us, I am playing a bit of catch-up. (As is par for the course.)

Although my kids are in the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) program and must be placed with teachers who have obtained their GATE certification, I am still somewhat able to pick teachers for them.

So, there are teachers that have had all four of my children.

Last year, to celebrate the kindergarten teacher that had taught all of the kids, I made this Brown Bear, Brown Bear Quilt for Linda DiVerde.

This year, I get to celebrate Joan Dyer. She has not only been there for all of my kids, but she has also been a good friend to me.

I chose to use Eric Carle fabrics again, since he is such a staple in early childhood literature.

This quilt features many of the characters found in the Eric Carle "The Very" series: "The Very Quiet Cricket," "The Very Lonely Firefly," and "The Very Busy Spider," among others. (Check out my mitered corners! This is the first time that I've ever done them.)












She absolutely loved it, and we absolutely love her!

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Letters to Paris Quilt

Last year, I donated two quilts to Kaitlyn's Promise to help raise money for the Kaitlyn Vallery Memorial Scholarship. I was able to donate Charmed Star of Avignon and Twinkling Tesselations.

I finally finished one of the quilts that I will be donating this year. I did the majority of the quilt-top at our Idyllwild Quilt Retreat.

I decided to name the quilt "Letters to Paris," because I used a Moda fabric line called "Pom Pom de Paris" and the cream-colored fabric has tiny letters of the alphabet embedded in it.





(That's my cutie-pie husband holding the quilt for me. See his cycling socks! Thanks, my sweet.)

This is the first quilt that I have made that is set en point. Surprisingly, it wasn't difficult in the least.





The fabrics in this line are so pretty and feminine. They really went together nicely. I included a closer picture, albeit poor quality, in the hopes that you could see the colors better.





I am hoping to get one more quilt finished to donate, if our somewhat chaotic lives cooperates. *fingers crossed*
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(Spring) Cabin Fever Quilters Retreat

This past weekend, I was able to get away to Idyllwild with some of my favorite ladies-my Cabin Fever Quilters Friendship Group.

Donna (the Dynamo) and Mare (the Amazing) planned and organized an outstanding weekend for us all. It was fantastic and can't wait until we do it again.

We spread out over most of the living room/dining room. I'll admit that it did look a bit like a sweatshop. :) (That is my machine and table in the left foreground.)





We stayed up late each night and were up early each morning. (I swear that Donna and Mare didn't sleep, at all.)
I wasn't able to finish all of the projects that I prepped, but I did finish four quilt tops. Hopefully, I will find some time in the coming weeks actually quilt them.
Here are the things that I finished:





Our little group got sooooo much stuff finished!
These belong to Mare and Marie.





This picture shows Marie and Andrina's work.





Next, you can see Andrina and Donna's completed projects.





Here are Sue's completed projects (with mine.)





Finally, these are Linda's Civil War reproduction blocks (and Linda holding them.) She completed 25 of these beautiful blocks!





As much fun as we all had, it was nice to run along our merry way home--





--and spend Sunday with our families.



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Charmed Star of Avignon

For this quilt, I used A Breath of Avignon by Moda Fabrics.  I just love the colors in this fabric line.  Fun!  I used a pattern called Charmed Star by Love Quilt Patterns.  It was super-easy to make because it is almost entirely half-square triangles made from a charm pack.  I did omit the top and bottom row of half-square triangles because I thought it was overkill.  It just didn't seem to fit the pattern, in my opinion. 
This is the second quilt that I will be donating to the raffle that will be held at the crop to raise funds for the Kaitlyn Vallery Memorial Scholarship sponsored by Kaitlyn's Promise.  It will be donated along with my Twinkling Tessellations quilt. 
I had such fun making this one, that I may have to make one to keep around the house. :)

Twinkling Tessellations

Here is my newest quilt!   I am calling it Twinkling Tessellations for what I think are obvious reasons.  I used April Cornell's line called Nature's Notebook.   The pattern was from Quiltmaker magazine and I think it was called "Black and White."  In the pattern, they used coordinating black and white fabrics.  It looked nice, but I really wanted to use the jelly roll and make each "star" from the same fabric.  I like the way it turned out.  This quilt is especially meaningful to me, because I am donating it to a good cause.  Kaitlyn's Promise holds an annual crop to raise funds for the Kaitlyn Vallery Memorial Scholarship and I am donating it (along with another yet unfinished quilt) to be raffled at the event. 

*blush*

This was a fun little quilt to throw together.  I used fabrics from Moda's Blush collection and I used a super-simple pattern from Moda's Bakeshop contributed by CrazyMomQuilts.  I love the way the little trapezoids go together so simply.  This quilt was unbelievably easy (and forgiving.) 

Daniel's Lakers Quilt

Well, Daniel Shea has coveted Papi's Lakers quilt for long enough.  I finished his quilt this weekend.  I used a pattern that I found in a magazine (the name of which has escaped me, presently.)  The pattern consisted of blocks made of pinwheels and 9-patches.  I modified it slightly because I wanted to close the white spaces.  Therefore, I rotated pinwheels in every other other row so that they closed the white spaces.  I quilted by "stitching in the ditching" using my walking foot.  (Man is that a great invention, or what?) I stippled the border just to add some visual interest. 
The gold and royal purple are flannel and the back is almost entirely flannel.  So, it is super-comfy!   I am so proud of myself that I remembered to throw a color-catcher (two for good measure) in the wash before I washed it the first time.  The white is still as white as snow!   Enjoy!

Another Quilts for Kids quilt

Here is another quilt that I made for Quilts for Kids.  For this quilt, I used fabric from my fabric stash.  (Psychedelic, huh?) 
Quilts for Kids accepts handmade quilts from volunteers and gives them to children in need at hospitals across the country.  I hope that this Psychedelic Owl quilt provides comfort to a tween girl somewhere.  :)

Pinwheels A-plenty!

I finished a little lap quilt that I love!   For the pinwheels, I used a charm pack from the American Jane collection of "Happy Campers." The backing and binding are also American Jane, but from the "wee play" collection.  I really love the retro-feel that these fabrics provide.  I quilted it on my Bernina using the ubiquitous stipple pattern that I love so much.  :)

Quilts for Kids quilt

For any quilter (or anyone familiar with a sewing maching , for that matter) that may be interested in participating in something wonderful, let me introduce you to: Quilts for Kids!

It is a wonderful program that provides quilts to children in need during their stay in hospitals around the country.  These quilts are theirs to keep and provide comfort during a stressful time in their young lives. 

Quilts for Kids will send you fabric that is mostly pre-cut and requires minimal prep.  You need only follow the directions provided and you are finished!  The trickiest part is machine-stitching the binding, but it was fun to try something new.   
It warms my heart to be part of such an organization/movement.  Please look into it and donate some of your time, materials, and money (for postage, batting, and binding) and help out some sweet child. 

(Behind the quilt, you'll find my youngest Gabriela.  For her, rainboots are more than an accessory, they are an attitude.  Just sayin'.)

When you finish, you just send it back with the informational materials (so that they may use them again.)

 

Road to California Quilt Show

Wow!   How's that for a summary of the quilts that I saw?   There were so many unbelievably spectacular quilts on display.  I had such a great time with Linda and Carrie.  I wish I had taken more photos, but to be honest, the camera was the last thing on my mind.  I was just overwhelmed at the talent!
Take a look at a small sampling of quilts that caught my eye for one reason or another. 
Be sure to click it to enlarge so that you can see details!