Gift Koi

Greetings from the Bahamas! We are currently floating gently at anchor near Staniel Cay. We are safe and well, and plan to stay here for a while. If you're interested in the details of why, feel free to read my husband's post on our travel blog. This little 4-ft. nurse shark came by to greet us the first day we were here.

Like a number of others in the quilt blogosphere, I've decided to have my writing remain focued on quilting, and leave the pandemic discussions for other forums. That being said, I'm always happy to hear about your thoughts and feelings in the comments, including your reactions to this strange new world we're living in.

Meanwhile, spending even more relaxed hours on the boat means even more sewing for me. I have a number of finishes to share with you over the next few posts. Let's start with this little quilt that I made as a gift for my Mom. 

Designed to just fit the back of her loveseat, it's a simple whole cloth quilt made from a large scale koi print. I love this fabric so much that I bought it in three colorways! The green one ended up on the back of a quilt for my brother and sister-in-law, and I still have a dark blue chunk.

I quilted the fish simply and the background heavily so the koi would pop a bit. In the brown areas I did a watery back and forth motif. In the black areas, I followed the subtle printed design, which was mindless and fun.

My Mom loves horses, so I used this fun Dan Morris print on the back. You can see the heavy quilting more easily over the golden tones. A flanged binding frames the piece and finishes it off.

Here it is in her lovely home. The colors work really well with her decor. The bronze metallic accents pick up the color of the velvet cushions of the chairs and are harmonious with her oriental rug. Most importantly, she is quite happy with it!

Gift Koi was finished before we left the US and I could still mail things out. Here's a sneak peak at one my finishes here in the Bahamas, with that gorgeous blue water in the background. More about this quilt, and more soothing turquoise water pics, soon!

Giving Orphans a Home: Modern

Welcome to part five of Giving Orphans a Home, where we're exploring different ways to use your orphan blocks and finish some quilts!

If you missed it, here are the first four parts of this series:

Part one: Introduction and Simple Sashing

Part two: Almost Enough Blocks

Part three: Medallions

Part four: Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Today I'm sharing a quilt I finished recently from blocks donated to Covered in Love. I'm calling it Modern Love after one of my favorite David Bowie songs. The blocks are all orphans from other quilters' projects and I put them together into a piece that I think is kinda modern.

The Seasoned Homemaker lists these traits as part of what defines a modern quilt. Not every element will show up in every modern quilt:

• The use of bold colors and prints
• High contrast and graphic areas of solid color
• Improvisational piecing
• Minimalism
• Expansive negative space
• Alternate grid work

I had a batch of mostly black, white and dark gray blocks, with many of them containing one more bright color.  Can't get much more high contrast than that! And most of the block designs were fairly minimal. Isn't this curvy ombre shape interesting? I wish I could see the quilt this orphan block is from.

I set the eclectic group of blocks fairly loosely together with a tonal white-on-white background. The columns don't line up exactly. I did that on purpose, and called it "modern  alternate grid work." It's not a mistake, it's a Design Element, ha! How do you like them apples?

Here's another orphan block quilt I did a couple years ago, with a similar feel. That "off grid" idea seemed so weird to me at the time, but putting the purple border around each group of blocks gave it a floaty feeling that seemed to work.

Remembering that, I bordered up a couple of the blocks in Modern Love, too, using various grays. Check out the cool star! She was a little on the small side, so I gave her a couple of on-point log cabin buddies.

The dark gray strips were also donated, so I figured, why not use 'em? So I added a few of the strips in random places. Oop, sorry. Not random. Modern! Minimalist! High contrast! The lipstick binding was another donation and it makes me happy to have this quilt covered with tiny kisses.

The border is made of gray and white rectangular blocks that were already sewn together. Each block contained three squares, so I laid them out in a way that no two similar fabrics were next to each other.

Some black and white pieced stripes/strip sets ended up on the back, and then dangled precariously over the water in Key West. I think this adds to the modern edginess, don't you?

OK, maybe I'm being a little silly, but I hope you're getting the idea that modern quilting can be fun and freeing. But I'm no expert, so here are some other examples of using orphan blocks in a modern way, from around the quilt blogosphere:

Modern doesn't have to be black and white! Here's Sarah's small group of blocks floating off-center, off-grid in a large background of dotty negative space. I think most of us have a big block we could stitch up like this to make a great baby quilt.

Check out Cynthia's left over strips, sewn together in chunks and set off grid onto a clean white background for tons of contrast. The blocks are different sizes, but the colors are harmonious and fun. So pretty!

Cathy's Whigmaleerie in blues and purples is a great example of a different type of off-grid work. Look at all those sizes of blocks! There's no grid at all, really, but the value contrasts within the blocks define lots of yummy edges and angles.  What a great way to use a whole bunch of orphan blocks.

I hope you got a few ideas of ways to use your own orphan blocks in a modern way. Thanks for stopping by this edition of Giving Orphans a Home. See you next time!

Baby quilts

Happy Saturday! Why yes, this is the fifth day in a row that I've blogged. Thanks for noticing! No, I haven't been finishing quilts every day this week. I just had Deadly Blog Backup Syndrome. Turns out that sewing is more fun than writing about sewing. Who knew?

But you didn't tune in to read about blogging, now did you? Too meta. So let's talk quilts instead! Today's finishes are both for babies, so small and cute is the name of the game. The one at the top of this post is a gift for my niece and her third baby. He's due any day now.

When I asked for the nursery theme, she sent this Spoonflower fabric sample. I went looking for a paper pieced curled up fox, and found this one on Etsy. I really don't like paper piecing, and this darned fox reminded me why!

Fortunately, he turned out ok for such a sneaky guy.

For the trees, I've always wanted to try Bright Birch Trees by Crazy Mom Quilts. Someone did a tutorial on the pattern a while ago, and I had that saved on my computer. Instead of doing bright trees, I stuck with black, white and gray scraps for a more natural look. Well, if you consider little anchors embedded in the bark "natural."

A soothing navy backing with little moons will hopefully help baby to snooze. My niece and her family live in Colorado, so I'm calling this one "Sleepy Fox in the Aspens." (Birches, aspens, they're all skinny stripey trunks, right?) It has arrived safely and is brightening up the nursery now.

I made this second baby quilt during Sandra's Beothuk Star quilt along last summer. In a fit of over achievement, I cut fabric for two of the design. The second set of HSTs sat quietly in a baggie until January of this year. Using the colors from butterflies in the center star, I chose purple, green and orange accent fabrics. 

When all the blocks are premade, a quilt comes together quickly! Swirly quilting makes it soft and snuggly. And at 42" square, a single piece of this fun orange kangaroo design makes a fast backing and easy binding. Coincidentally, the first Beothuk quilt was given to my other niece's baby! This one, however, has been donated to Little Lambs Foundation.

Textured pillow for L

Happy Friday! My most recent finish is this little pillow that I made as a gift for a friend. It is about 12"x18".

Each of the six blocks is a different textured design: pleats, ruffles and tucks in purple and turquoise. I used this free tutorial from Teresa Down Under. The specific blocks are:

• 3. Double controlled pleats
• 5. Centered tucks with bow ties
• 6. Gathered strip
• 8. Undulating tucks
• 17. Pleated peakaboo
• 18. Gathered double edge ruffles

I also tried to make #4, "Double controlled pleats with ripple," but it turned out more like "Outta control pleats with cursing." That block is currently in timeout in my crumb bin. That'll teach it!

The quilting is stitch in the ditch around each block with a few extra stitches to hold down some of the more adventurous pleats. I also added prairie points (or as DH calls them, Stegasaurus points) to the outer edge. My first prairies! They're kinda fun. The backing is a simple envelope enclosure in a tonal black.

My friend has Parkinson's disease, and I made this as a sort of "fidget pillow" for her. Fidget pillows and quilts give a person with dementia something to do with their hands. Many of them have zippers and buttons and such. I thought all the different textures would be interesting to touch. Plus, she lives far away and I miss her! So I hope this makes her happy and reminds her of me from time to time.

Wheelchair quilts with feet

Happy Thursday! Today's finishes are two wheelchair quilts that I sent off to the Joyful Stitchers in Alabama. They distribute quilts to nursing homes in their area. The quilts are quite small, only about 36"x48". This size keeps the fabric from getting caught in the wheels while still providing some warmth and color.

The first one was made in January, when the RSC color was green and my own theme-o-the-month was food. I think this panel was meant to be placemats? I fattened up the panels with a scrappy green and cream checkerboard, reminiscent of tablecloths in a casual restaurant. 

The fun panels are all Italian food, an all-time favorite here on the boat. DH's family is Italian and both his Dad and uncle are fantastic cooks. The back is also food themed: cafe tables with wine bottles, and fun teapots. I wouldn't use wine fabric on a kid's quilt, so this is a great way to use up that chunk.

And speaking of DH, here are his feet! You can tell we've gotten back into warm, southerly waters because the weather is perfect for shorts and bare feet.

The second quilt is my own design and made from a jelly roll of batiks. I pieced it many months ago and finally got it finished. One more off the UFO pile, hooray!

It's one of those stitch-and-flip kind of layouts, where you sew together all the strips and then cut sections off the ends. Those sections are flipped over and sewn back in the middle for a bit of contrast. For the quilting, I just did wiggly lines across all the seams. EZPZ.

The back used up the last of this fun VW bus fabric, plus a newspaper collage with upbeat article snippets. I hope it will bring back memories of the 60s for someone. Of course, they say if you can remember the 60s, you weren't really enjoying them fully!



You can tell this piece is slightly longer than the last one, because there are feet but no shorts. Rest assured the shorts are actually there...he was not nekkid in this pic! Is that reassuring, or disappointing?

Quilts Beyond Borders finishes

Happy Wednesday! Today's finishes were all made for Quilts Beyond Borders (QBB,) which provides quilts to children in need all over the world.

This one was made with a batik layer cake, using a free pattern called Cobblestone Street by Robert Kaufman. The layer cake was called "Cockatiel" and the colors really do look like the pretty little birds! 

Usually the quilts for QBB are fairly small, around 40"x60". I heard via my online quilt guild, Sunshine, that one of the QBB regions was collecting slightly larger quilts for teens in a shelter near Baltimore. So I stitched up a few closer in size to 50"x60".

I had a big chunk of this antique airplane fabric that I used on the back. Maybe some future pilot will enjoy it.

Don't stare at this pattern for very long! It will make your eyes cross! This quilt is also a bit larger, and features this kinda crazy double hourglass block in blues and grays. Even though it is busy, I like the strong geometric movement of the design. It is a free pattern from Mary Quilts called Spools.

The back features pale blue stars and a jumble of railroad motifs. The quilting on both these teen-sized pieces is a simple, soft stipple for maximum cuddliness.

QBB requires a sewn-in label, and I try to piece it right into the backing. This one I added later, in the bottom left corner. I cut it using pinking shears so it will hopefully only fray a little.

The third quilt is the standard size for QBB. It is a Round Robin quilt made by 3 or 4 of my guild members. The first person, our resident Quiltin' Harley Dude, Spoon, made the column of interlocking squares, then sent that to the next Robiner in line. 

When it came to my turn, I added these scrappy feathers, made from a pattern called Feather Bed by Anna Marie Horner. It looks like she's selling it now, but it was free when I downloaded it.

Usually the person who starts the Round Robin finishes the quilt, but I knew Spoon was really busy. So I offered to sandwich, quilt and bind this piece. Spoon sent me some backing material, but I stole it for a different quilt and used these chunks from my stash instead. Many thanks to my guild friends for adding their creativity to this quilt!

Wrap A Smile

Happy Tuesday! Today I'm sharing two recent finishes I made for Wrap A Smile. This charity provides quilts for children undergoing cleft palate repair surgery. I shared this first quilt as a flimsy last month, when the RSC color was bright green.

My own theme for January was food, so this quilt uses some green fabrics with fruits and veggies. I had this backing already pieced for another project last year, so steered the top towards pinks and reds, too, to coordinate. 

For the quilting, I tried a motif that I saw on Cathy's blog, "squiggles and loops."

I didn't get a good photo of my quilting, so go check out hers!

The second quilt was made here in February. The RSC color is orange, and my own theme is cats. 

I pulled all the fun kitty fabrics I could find that had at least a little orange in them.

Then I cut squares of various bright orange blenders and made a simple patchwork design. 

The backing uses a large piece of orange, leftover bits from the front, and this super fun kitties-on-black chunk. Wiggly lines of quilting across the seams and scrappy orange binding finish it up.

And speaking of scrappy binding, I had an AHA! organizing moment recently. I usually cut my binding to 2.25" and then put the leftovers in my string bins by color. That's all well and good, but I also deliberately cut scraps to 2.5" for the string bin, and they are hard to tell apart. Then it occurred to me that I could put all the 2.25" binding pieces together in a single bin and they would always be right there, ready to sew together into scrappy binding. No need to separate by color, since there aren't so many to sort through. It's working really well: I've already made three bindings from the bin! Hooray for using scraps efficiently!