So here she is:

I love the way this quilt turned out; it was one of [...]]]> In an effort to link to my completed quilt projects on the left sidebar of this Arts & Crafts section, I discovered that I had forgotten to share yet another quilt that was completed during the Great Blog Drought of 2010.

So here she is:

I love the way this quilt turned out; it was one of those projects that I was a little unsure of until I put it all together.

My first cousin Ashleigh and her husband Derek welcomed their first baby – a little girl named Emma – on April 7th.  We had a baby shower for her in May and that was the occasion for this quilt.

Emma, of course, is a doll with such fine feminine features; I can’t go on another sentence without sharing a picture of her with you.

I really love this next picture!  It’s of Emma in her 5-generation picture with Ashleigh, her dad David (my uncle), our Grandma Bev, and GG:

So now that you know who this pretty little lady is, I’ll get back to the quilt. 

I asked Ashleigh if she wanted any certain colors or styles for the quilt and she thought pinks and browns were nice.  I think they are nice, too.

I went to my local quilt shop, Adel Quilting & Dry Goods, and found the perfect fabric (in the center of the picture):

Not only was it brown with cute polka dots, some of the polka dots were heart-shaped.  Too precious.  But apparently, many others thought so, too, and that’s why the only remnant of the fabric in the whole shop was a single, solitary fat quarter.  A fat quarter, to the uninitiated, is a 18” x 22” cut of fabric.

Even with the small amount of fabric I had to work with, I still knew that I needed to make it the focal point of the quilt.  So, I picked out several other fabrics I already owned that coordinated with the brown polka dot fabric and set out to make it work.

As you can see, I set the brown polka dot fabric apart from the coordinating prints by surrounding it with white fabrics.  You can’t see it really well in the picture, but all of those white fabrics are different.  I love using as many fabrics as possible in a quilt.

I used the coordinating prints to act as a sashing of sorts, but I also wanted to add interest by offsetting the blocks, creating a staggered effect.

Really, even though this quilt did take a lot of sewing, the layout and construction could not be simpler: it was 480 – 2 1/2” squares arranged by colors to show a pattern.  No difficult sewing with weird shapes or seam intersections, just straightforward, honest to goodness straight seams.  It would be very appropriate for a beginner.  (This is so appropriate right now.)

I quilted it using freehand spirals like I have for a lot of quilts recently and again – it turned out pretty well.  The swirly pattern is pretty universal and looks good on many different quilt tops.

I had just a few lengths of the focus fabric left by the time I was done so I cut them into binding strips, added it to a solid brown binding strips that I already had, and used the combo to complete the binding on the quilt.

Hmmm… have I made any more quilts that I’m forgetting about?!  I think this was the last one… I haven’t quilted in a few months now and I miss it so much.  I hope to get up and running again in the near future.

She’s the only thing I have left of my art show. Amazingly everything sold but her. I now cherish her.

There is a funny story here. At my debut, I was overwhelmed that I sold so many paintings. Never in a million years did I think I would. My brother-in-law Josh quickly took me [...]]]>

She’s the only thing I have left of my art show. Amazingly everything sold but her. I now cherish her.

There is a funny story here. At my debut, I was overwhelmed that I sold so many paintings. Never in a million years did I think I would. My brother-in-law Josh quickly took me off my high horse (no pun intended). Well, yes, I did intend it. He didn’t mince words. He told me it was the worst one. I thought it was hilarious.

Earlier this week, I went to Ephemera to pick up some sold paintings for other people and they told me she was the only thing left. I knew Josh would be smiling.

Who would have thought, a painting I thought was sweet, and perfect for a girls room was the most hated of the whole show?

Oh Black Beauty, to me, you’re now the most precious.

What prompted my memory?

The girls I made this quilt for are in Africa right now!

Two teenage girls from our church decided to raise money so that [...]]]> I posted this quilt on Facebook a while ago, but that was during my extended break from blogging and I just realized that I never shared it on here.

What prompted my memory?

The girls I made this quilt for are in Africa right now!

Two teenage girls from our church decided to raise money so that they could go on a missions trip to South Africa working with HIV/AIDS affected youth.  Pretty incredible, huh?

Somehow – and I admittedly don’t know all the details – their trip was inspired by a movie called Beat the Drum.  Click the link to see the official website for the movie, including the trailer.

I wanted to do something to help and I thought that making a quilt to auction off would bring more money than what I could just write a check for (wrong).

So, I made this:

I didn’t have to buy anything new to make this quilt, I had all the fabric, batting, thread… everything!  I wanted the quilt to be appealing to women and men, that’s why I chose the colors and the pattern, which was essentially the same pattern I designed for this quilt.  Also, red, black and white are school colors around these parts.

The scrappy back.

I loved the swirls that I quilted the last time I made this pattern, so I kept that element, too.  It was a lot of fun to make.

I’d never auctioned a quilt before so after some thought, I decided eBay would be the best bet.  I figured the largest audience would see the quilt on eBay.  Also, as I mentioned before, I posted the information on Facebook so my friends and church family could see it.  I set the auction to run 10 days with a reserve set at $100.  I had no idea what to expect.  When I was taking orders in my custom quilt making business, I would have charged over $300 for a quilt this size (approx. 60” x 70”). 

After it was all said and done, the quilt sold for exactly $100.  The good news was that a family from our church bought the quilt.  The bad news was that the eBay fees ended up being over $18, so I won’t be doing that again!  Ha ha!  Well, I shouldn’t say that… I would definitely make a quilt for charity again, but don’t know if I’d go the eBay route again, or I would have set a higher reserve.

Ah, live and learn.  In the end, the girls going on the mission trip met the amount they each needed to raise and they are in Africa right now caring for the orphans and the sick and the oppressed.  How is that a bad ending?!  It’s not!  And the quilt is now being enjoyed by a family that I love, so classic win-win.

Oh those summer nights…

One thing I love about summer is when finally the heat of the day subsides and you can sit out outside and relax on those cool summer nights. One thing I do not love about summer is the mosquitoes.

I got inspired the other day when searching through one of my favorite [...]]]>

Oh those summer nights…

One thing I love about summer is when finally the heat of the day subsides and you can sit out outside and relax on those cool summer nights. One thing I do not love about summer is the mosquitoes.

I got inspired the other day when searching through one of my favorite blogs: Design Sponge. I love this site. It has a lot of DIY projects, before and afters, and really cool decorating/design ideas for your home. I was inspired by this really cool project where they took old coffee cans and turned them into lanterns.

So, I decided I would attempt to make my own luminaries.

First stop Salvation Army. I was thrilled when I found about a dozen of these old Terry Redlin popcorn containers. Perfect shape, all the same size, and for 49 cents each! Perfect.

Second, I went Ace Hardware to get some spray paint. I’ve been on a yellow kick lately so I decided to go with Krylon Indoor/Outdoor spray paint in Sun Yellow. This stuff is good because it can be used for all sorts of materials and metal is one of them. It’s also nice because it dries to the touch in 10 minutes or less. I already had a hammer at home as well as a nail starter. I use the nail starter when I need to get through some tough material. Lastly, I was able to find these Terra Cotta Tiki Citronella Candles at Ace as well. They were about $2 a piece.

I ditched the lids, took the nail starter and hammer, and randomly made holes in my tins. It was tough to get through. I even had to beg my neighbors for help. But I finally found a solution and got all the holes done.

After I was pleased with the placement of the holes, I spray painted all of them a solid coat of yellow. After the yellow coat dried, I hand-painted the top rim of the tins blue. I just used some acrylic craft paint that I bought from Hobby Lobby. The lip of the tin made it easy to paint an even line across the top. Then I went through and hand-painted the circle patterns throughout. I found this pattern off of one of my fancy paper coffee cups. Inspiration comes from the strangest places. I didn’t trace the pattern, I just kind of eyeballed it in different spots around the tins, making sure to evenly space throughout.

Lastly, I set the candles in the tins and lit them up! Pretty simple. They are neat decorations as well as practical. Now I can sit outside with my luminaries and enjoy the summertime without being completely bitten up.

After my art show, the thought of ever painting again made me want to puke. Well, maybe that’s a little strong. But I was worn out. I had spent every spare minute of my time painting. I painted during lunch breaks from work, I painted after work, I painted on the weekends. Board after board, [...]]]>

After my art show, the thought of ever painting again made me want to puke. Well, maybe that’s a little strong. But I was worn out. I had spent every spare minute of my time painting. I painted during lunch breaks from work, I painted after work, I painted on the weekends. Board after board, I painted. My tiny apartment was filled with paint bottles, brushes, and paint palettes. I was sick of it. So, after my art show I took the weekend off. And relaxed. No painting. Nothing.

It was nice. Then Monday rolled around. I got off work, went home, and it hit me. I had no idea what to do. I was all the sudden hit with all this free time. What do I even do? Watch tv? Read? It felt foreign to me. I started to panic. I never thought I would be faced with this. I couldn’t wait to finish up my squares. Now I was bored.

I expressed to the girls at work this new dilemma I found myself in. My good friend and coworker, Lindsay, thought she could help me out (and help her out at the same time). Her in-laws had asked her to help them with this project that they had in mind. They had an old oar that they wanted painted to hang up in their cabin up north in Minnesota. That sounded pretty interesting to me and I happily took the job.

Lindsay just had a few requirements. The in-laws wanted a lake scene, trees, birds, and the words “up north” incorporated. I’m not really a landscape artist but I thought I could make this look cool if I used my painting style and design sense.

The first step: Pick out a color palette. This helps me whenever I start a new project. It’s nice to have limitations and also to maintain some cohesiveness. I picked out some aquas and browns (which turns out will go handsomely with the cabin interior).

Second: I plan out my design. I use illustrator and draw out to scale what exactly I want this to look like. This makes painting time go a whole lot easier. I also picked out what font I wanted to use. I picked out a font called Kushtie. It’s one of my favorites.

Third: I use graphite transfer paper that I bought from Hobby Lobby. This stuff works great when transferring to an unusual surface. I just lay down the transfer paper on top of the oar, then place my print out of my illustrator file on top of the graphite paper and trace. It worked great.

As you can see in the close up, I wanted to maintain the cool rustic look of the oar so I didn’t let my paint go all the way to the edges of the oar. I think it turned out pretty neat this way.

Lindsay and her husband loved it and I hope the in-laws are happy too! I never thought I would paint an oar, but I think it turned out cool and will be a neat piece to hang out in their cabin!

Stay tuned for more styled segments.

I made this little quilt recently for friends of ours who are having their first child in August. 

I’ve made a lot of quilts lately entirely (or almost entirely) out of 2 1/2” squares of fabric.  I have a lot of fabrics and the smaller the squares, the more I can use – I love [...]]]>

I made this little quilt recently for friends of ours who are having their first child in August. 

I’ve made a lot of quilts lately entirely (or almost entirely) out of 2 1/2” squares of fabric.  I have a lot of fabrics and the smaller the squares, the more I can use – I love that scrappy look.  I just realized that I haven’t blogged about some of the quilts I’ve made lately.  Jeeeez-o, I took a long vacation from the blog, huh?  Sorry, friends, I’ll catch you up soon.

Here is a picture of the back of the quilt.  It contains phrases such as: “it’s a boy”, “nine months”, “bouncing baby boy”, “a new life”, “our little miracle”, “boy meets world”, “we’re expecting”, etc..  So appropriate.

Baby quilts are my favorite.  I think I’ve mentioned this a time or two.  Especially when a person has limited room to sew and quilt (think kitchen table) the smaller sizes are so doable. 

Jett turned 4 over the weekend and Emily sent this card to us:

This is just too perfect!

For a little back story on Jett and his love for Guess Who, click here.

Thanks, Em, these are just so special to us!

We did it both ways – we didn’t find out what we were having the first time around with Jude.  With our other two sons, we did find out at the [...]]]> I just love surprises!  I love it when couples choose to be surprised by the gender of their baby on the day of birth. 

We did it both ways – we didn’t find out what we were having the first time around with Jude.  With our other two sons, we did find out at the 20-week ultrasound.  I would have chosen to be surprised with all of ‘em, but Josh wanted to find out, so that’s how we did it.  Granted, once the decision was made to find out, I couldn’t wait to find out!

I guess I’m telling you this because of a quilt I finished recently.  Our friends Lance and Nicole are pregnant with their first child.  They do not know what they are having.  But I still wanted to make them a quilt for a baby shower held at our church several weeks ago.

It’s tricky to make a baby quilt look like it could be for either a boy or girl.  Greens and yellows are good stand-bys.  I found a fabric line that fit perfectly, used a pattern I had designed quite awhile ago, and stitched it up.  And then I quilted the snot out of it.  Sorry, technical term.

Strip piecing basically is cutting full-length strips of fabric, selvage-to-selvage, and then sewing the long strips together.  [...]]]> I have a lot of experience stripping.  Not on a pole, mind you, stripping as in strip piecing… as in making quilts?  Hello?  Anyone there?!  Saying stripping instead of strip piecing is, like, the oldest quilters joke.  Classic.  Neat.

Strip piecing basically is cutting full-length strips of fabric, selvage-to-selvage, and then sewing the long strips together.  After how-many-ever strips are sewn together, you can go back and cut sections of the long strips to use in patchwork.

I came up with this little number a week or so ago, it was so easy and quick, I plan on using this pattern again soon – and that’s saying something because I usually prefer to do something new for each and every quilt.  But this one… this is too easy and cute not to make it more than once.

When I get my act together and actually have time to write out patterns/instructions, I’m writing this up to share with you.  See you in 2020!

I love the crispness of the white border and sashing in contrast to the other prints.  That reminds me of another reason why I like this pattern:  if you have a lot of coordinating prints, but not much contrast, the fabrics still do well because they’ll be in contrast to the white and not with each other.  See?  Why didn’t you think of that?

One other thing I’ll point out about this particular quilt: I love how the freehand swirls contrast the boxy/geometric look of the quilt.  Softens it up a bit, don’t you think?

Ok, really, the last thing I’ll mention: I love a good striped fabric for the binding.  Nice.

Now that I’m done complimenting my own work (sigh), I’ll leave you to enjoy your weekend.

My sister has been so good about creating a special birthday card for my boys on every birthday.  I had to interrupt Jude as he was playing with LEGOs to show him this card yesterday.  He thought it was pretty sweet, of course.

Here are Jude’s Emily-made cards from the last few years: