New Quilt (brown tones)

(ETA photo in February 2020)

I was so excited coming off the flannel quilt that I immediately got to cutting another quilt top, this time in brown batiks. Since I really struggle with selecting fabrics and patterns, but love to sew, quilt kits - and a good relationship with a local long-arm quilter - are what allow me to continue down the path of creating beautiful and functional pieces for our family.

This one is a discontinued boundless batiks kit from bluprint. I love the way it is coming together!

Flannel Quilt - quilted and bound

This one is going to be a favorite for the girls, I just know it. It's warm, and just heavy enough to get your cozy on in front of the fireplace (or reruns of Parks and Rec).

This is the Marcus Fabrics Blue Boxes Flannel Quilt Kit by Craftsy, quilted by Heather of Blue Turtle Quilting.

Great-Grandmother's Blanket

A couple weeks ago I attended the baby shower that I mentioned in a previous post.  While I was visiting my Aunt asked me to take a look at a blanket that she had received from her Mom many years ago that was developing holes.  

I was able to take the blanket home and repair it with materials that I had on-hand.  It is a lovely blanket, essentially seven strips stitched together to form a rectangle.

It turns out my Grandmother knit this blanket for her Mother-in-Law while she lived with them in the few years preceding her passing.  After a few years around the house that the blanket was passed on to my Aunt.  Our estimate is that the blanket could be more than 50 years old.

I wasn't able to color-match the patches exactly.  At first this bothered me as there are also a few stains on the blanket that I couldn't get out and now there are color irregularities all over.  But I decided that my Grandmother would likely have preferred it this way - mend it with what you have on hand, no need to purchase anything new.  So that is where it ended up.  The new colors now add to the emerging character of the blanket. 

Baby Shower

I come from a big, BIG family. So when I say that I am going to a shower for "my cousin" it could mean one of 19 first cousins (11 boys and 8 girls), many of whom are starting to get married and have kids of their own. That makes for lots of showers, both for weddings and babies. And lots of shower gifts to give. Tonight is a baby shower for one of my younger girl cousins. Well...I'm the oldest girl in the group so they are all younger.

For the past few baby showers I decided to make gifts - something little, special, and practical for the new parents. Last week, with my own not-so-little-baby underfoot, I made this taggie blanket.

Each of my girls loved tags. Of all sorts, mostly the ones on stuffed animals, but the twins were also strangely drawn to drooling over shoe laces. I'm not kidding - laces were hypnotic. Place a shoe in front of them and they were entranced for at least 30 minutes. Give them a shoe lace and they were happy for 45.

[I've always felt a little strange about the fact that my kids played with shoe laces for so many months during their early development. So aside from the obvious safety (choking!) issue, I couldn't ever bring myself to create a 'shoelacie' plaything.]

But, it wasn't until my youngest arrived that I realized the utility of a plaything made entirely of tags. And now I will pass along that seasoned-parent wisdom to my younger cousin. It's a bit wonky - as sewing with a toddler ensures - but it's fun and funky. And most of all its covered in tags.





I started with one 14"x14" square of flannel, and one of polar fleece. I basted the ribbons (raw edges facing out) on two sides of the flannel and then sewed the right sides of the fabric squares together, leaving a gap for turning. Once it was turned, I topstitched all around: to close the gap, for added tag security, and to keep the fabric from shifting around too much.

I'm pretty happy with the result. The plaything is small enough to tuck into a car seat or stroller without being cumbersome, but just big enough to cuddle with and provide entertainment/comfort.

I'm also going to gift one or two of the fabulous bibs from Melissa, but I can't decide which one(s) just yet. They are all so cool it's impossible to choose!

FO: Very colorful art

The pram blanket is done and I feel great. It really was the perfect project to help me heal and move forward again. And just looking at all that color makes me so happy!

Details on the pattern can be found here. It was a good stash-busting project, but I still have enough left-over sock yarn to make at least two more of these. I'm on the lookout for more left-over-sock-yarn projects...maybe striped spring/fall hats for the kids?



I was talking with my husband about this blanket and realized that this is more than a knitted blanket to me - it is a piece of art. Most things I knit are gifts, or items for my family and personal enjoyment. They are fun, lively, look great and (hopefully) wear well.

But this project was something different. It wasn't simply a knitting project, or a vehicle for meditative practice. It was and is artistic expression. I wanted to understand why I feel so different about this project: Is it the use of so much color? Is it the discordance in the colors themselves? Or is this project infused with an intensity of emotion in a way that my other projects typically aren't? I tend to think it's the latter.

Art, while arguably undefinable, is certainly charged with emotion. And I share with all of you that while simple in form and function, this is the most charged piece I've ever knit.

In need of some color comfort

Our family received some very sad news early this week. I won't go into details - I try to keep this blog mostly about my craft - but it sent me in search of some comfort. I happened upon this zig zag pram blanket project/pattern in ravelry awhile back and was drawn to it now, while searching for something to help me through this tough time.

A simple project; the same stitches and pattern over and over again. A focused project; searching for, sorting and loving my left-over sock yarn. A bright project; something to remind me that the sun always rises. A colorful project; I can change colors to suit my mood. A meditative project; to help me process, reflect and heal.

The bonus is that this is a fantastic stash busting project! I think this would also make a fun scarf, or lap blanket in worsted weight yarn. Either could easily be done by increasing or decreasing the number of pattern repeats and/or needle size. I also happened upon another great stash-busting project for 100% wool worsted weight left overs: oven mitts [look on the last page of the book preview]. I'm sure you'll see one of two of these from me before the year is out.

Holiday Project Monday: Down comforters

Ok, not really a gift in the wrap-it-up-and-put-it-under-the-tree sense, but a necessary project for the holidays at our home. With the expected large number of overnight guests I began to gather up lots of bed linens (flannel sheets, blankets, etc.). We keep our home at a cool temperature and I wanted to make sure that everyone would be comfortable during the night. My local thrift store yielded an impressive number of linen finds, including three complete sets of brand name flannel sheets. In the end I came up with enough linens for all the overnight guests and their beds, but I wasn't having any luck with really warm, really nice twin-sized blankets.

A friend of mine - the same friend of the star doll fame - planted a brilliant idea the last time I was as her house. She told a story of sewing and cutting a large down comforter into smaller pieces for her kids. So the week before Christmas, and after some quick internet research on down comforter quality indicators, I ordered a king size down comforter from Overstock.com. I decided this was a double purchase: I wasn't just buying one down comforter, I was actually buying two.

When the box arrived I was giddy with excitement. I immediately set out to laying the blanket, measuring, and sewing two seams down the middle. Unluckily the middle of this comforter was in between two existing seams so I was in for more feather causalities than I planned. Once the seams were sewn I grabbed by scissors and began cutting. Then the feathers really started to fly. I quickly realized that this wasn't a feather storm I could contain by picking out the stragglers from beneath my seams; this called for some innovation.

Let me be the first to tell you that bias tape traps stray feathers beautifully. As I cut the blanket apart I immediately sewed on the bias tape and stopped a majority of the feathers before they emerged. The bias tape I had on hand was purple. C'mon, I couldn't of picked out a more perfect color for my girls if I tried! The sewing job isn't the neatest, but my grand plan includes finding more thrifted sheets, or two from Ikea, to make custom duvet covers.

The final dimensions of the comforters are 52 inches wide by 84 inches long, so they are a bit on the slender side, but they drape nicely over the sides of the beds. I highly recommend this project to anyone that is interested in down comforters for kids. While my heart and soul want to get them the best, warmest comforters money can buy, I will be a happier momma knowing that if accidents befall these twin lovelies - and they will - I won't be upset about it in the least.

Guilt + Sew, Mama, Sew! Fat Quarter Month = Doll Quilts

After reading a post from Sew, Mama, Sew!'s month-long ode to fat quarters I was inspired. Three doll quilts were in order. A dose of mama guilt helped. How could I not have sewn my girls doll quilts before?! Well, maybe you can understand my aversion to sewing anything doll-related after reading this.

With three very young girls around the house we are never in short supply of baby things: diapers, blankets, brushes and cute clothes are everywhere. So when they do play with their dolls they just grab things we use everyday. But I hadn't made anything special for their dolls. In fact they have been hopelessly neglected if I do say so myself (many don't even have clothes to wear).

My girls don't particularly have an affinity for dolls anyway - they seem to prefer more active games like dress-up, spaceship and school - but I thought I would give these a whirl. I have plenty of fat quarters and scraps around the house. I didn't spend one extra cent on these projects, I just used up things I already had in my stash. I even used up some thrifted binding strips that were really too small for anything else. I feel particularly happy about this aspect of the project.

There is one in blue tones, one in green and one in tan/brown.

I also have to share that this was truly an inter-generational project. The girls and my mom created the the 'sandwiches' and helped get them ready for the final quilting. It wasn't hard to convince them to join in once they saw the fabric, masking tape and fluffy batting on the dining room table. Later that afternoon my older girls took turns sitting on my lap while sewing at the machine. I asked only that they sit relatively still, and place their hands on top of mine as we sewed. They sniped stray threads for me, picked up scraps from the sewing room floor, and were generally happy to play near me when not directly involved in the sewing. It didn't result in the most beautiful (or quality) quilting ever - and the experience wasn't without it's stressful moments. But I must say these are among the most meaningful projects I've ever done. I'm not too sure how much the quilts will get used. I couldn't even find them when I was picking up this morning. But right now I don't care. We had fun together.

With so many great little projects going up on the Sew, Mama, Sew! website for fat quarter month, I am tempted to go out and celebrate not spending money on this first project by snapping up some new fat quarters and making more cute things. I really have my eye on this little boxy pouch.

Fall Quilt

Finished just in time for winter! This was the biggest, most massive project I've ever worked on. I felt like I was wrestling with a crocodile to get the darn thing through my machine. I knew I was working with something big when I had to move the living room rug out of the way just to make the sandwich. Boy, was that an ordeal! The girls were wonderful, however, and very respectful: always careful to step around the quilt and not run all over it.

Now that it is finished and I am taking pictures of it I am coming to fully appreciate how bit it actually is. The photos are taken with the quilt on our queen-size bed. And it still spills over the bottom of the bed. I can't believe it. I wanted to make a twin-size quilt, I started out making a twin-size, and am pretty sure that I followed the directions for a twin size, but it came out more like a full or queen. (Note to self: I won't EVER undertake anything this big again - too difficult for a beginner like me to handle. Lap quilts are perfect.) I thought this might go in our living room as an extra blanket for the winter, but maybe this will become a guest blanket. It really is too big and heavy to manage in the living room. Oh well, more excuses to quilt and sew? I can't complain. But any new projects are on hold until after the holidays.

In the meantime I have to quickly learn about piping and putting in a zipper. My mom's handmade holiday gift depends on it!! Yikes!

I did it! I finished it!

Ta da! Here is my first completed quilt, ever. I feel awesome about it. In fact, I feel high from it. I am also irrationally attached to it. I have been carrying it around the house with me just to look at it. Is this strange? Am I coming unhinged? Or, am I just totally in love?

Thanks to everyone for your supportive comments on the previous quilting posts. I took your good thoughts with me into the sewing room - and with your help I accomplished something great! Also, without quilt month, I'm not sure I would have been motivated to get to this project just now. I am so happy that I did though.

The actual quilting wasn't as bad as I expected. I really did need to just jump in and give it a go. I was scared by all the advice I received about getting the layers to lay flat, basting stitches, being sure to start from the middle and work your way out, and on. I thought I would totally mess it all up. But, I just decided to ignore that advice for a moment and went with what I felt the most comfortable with.

The event started last Friday night with my brother-in-law's girlfriend. She helped me tape the backing down and lay the layers flat. Then I went to town with the spray adhesive. This stuff works miracles I tell you. We rolled out the batting (I went with a low loft cotton), sprayed again and then placed the top. We finished with some basting pins for extra insurance.

I did the quilting on Saturday and made binding strips too. For my quilt design I made a square around the outside border and continued with a line down the middle, vertically. Then I went left to right horizontally in a random pattern, following the seams on the front of the quilt. I trimmed it square and attached the binding.

I made the binding myself, which was fine as I had done this before. But attaching it correctly required me to return to the computer for quick tutorial. Well, a big shout out to HELLOmynameisHeather, who has an amazing continuous binding tutorial here. I only ripped one seam on my journey to a finished binding, and that was due to a problem with my machine needle, not the tutorial. As for attaching the back side of the binding, I did that by hand. Here is where I have more questions:

1) Are there special needles for this kind of sewing? Special quilting needles or something?

2) What kind of thread should I be using for this part of the project? Hand-quilting thread, or just the stuff I machine quilted with?

3) Is this why they invented thimbles? My fingers were pretty sore at the end of this exercise, and I've never used a thimble, but maybe this is precisely why they were invented. Any advice here?

4) Are my stitches too close together? I erred on what I thought to be the closer-together side of things for fear that the binding may come unattached. But do they actually need to be this close together? Any experience or advice here would be awesome.

Additional project notes: The pattern is Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. The fabric for the front is a mixture of patterns (some batiks) that I picked up from a quilt store in upstate New York. The backing is Kaffee Fasset, a floating flowers print in green. The finished size is about 40" by 50". I trimmed the border to make it just narrow enough to fit the backing fabric selvedge to selvedge. I figured why piece the back if I don't have to?

It turned out great. No ripples, no rumples and it seems to be a rectangle. I am totally sold and ready to tackle another one. Good thing I signed up for the BTRS lap quilt swap!

Rambling Rows

My youngest had to spend a night in the hospital a couple of weeks ago. There is nothing to worry about, thankfully. All tests came back normal. However, I wanted to post a picture of the blanket (afghan?) that was waiting for us when we arrived in her room. It is a gorgeous handknit blanket made by a kind soul with Project Linus. It beautifully utilizes the rambling rows pattern popularized by Elizabeth Zimmerman. My first encounter with this knitting style was at a seminar I attended in the winter of 2006 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I fell in love with it, but never had the opportunity to try it.