Welcome Home, Sajan!

Margaret is now a mommy! Sajan came home from Nepal in July and the whole family just couldn't be more thrilled. I wanted to make a quilt that would wrap him up in something as warm as a welcoming hug, as colorful as green grass and blue sky. I found some fabrics with pulltoys and kites and frogs and all sorts of things little boys love. And I found this super-fun strip-quilt pattern from the Quilts of Valor site. Quilts of Valor is an amazing group that creates and sends handmade quilts to comfort our wounded soldiers. They have a network of piecers, seamstresses, longarm operators, and quilters all over the country and they are also very generous in sharing their patterns. If you have a chance, check their site out and if you have a few dollars send them their way; they are doing very important work.

For this quilt you simply sew strips of fabric together in a 1,2,3,4,5 pattern, repeat the strips several times, and when you get to the end you sew the top and bottom together so that you end up with a big fabric tube.

Then you turn the tube and carefully cut strips the other way... so that you end up with a bunch of fabric "rings." By carefully "unsewing" the rings in order (between 1,2, then 2, 3, then 3,4, etc...), you end up with a bunch of strips that form a diagonal pattern of blocks. So clever, eh? Who thinks these things up!?

I am lucky to have a big porch and on the day i needed to make the quilt "sandwich" I was lucky to have a dry, sunny day with no wind! I pin a king-sized sheet right to the deck, and then I have plenty of room to smooth out and pin the layers. I had run out of acrylic "basting" spray, so i did it the old-fashioned way with a million safety pins.

For the backing I used this gorgeous vintage fabric I had on hand - I'd been saving it for something special and was so happy it blended perfectly with the colors in the quilt top.

Welcome, Sajan!
We are so glad you are here!

Maksim's Quilt

Maksim’s Quilt

This was a commissioned piece I finished in December but didn’t want to post because it was a holiday gift and I didn’t want to ruin a surprise!
The client wanted a quilt, but knew the baby already had plenty of blankies for his crib so we worked on a quilt that would be used as a wallhanging. We chose colors together, and collaborated on a pattern that would be bright and cheerful but not too busy. And of course, we wanted the baby’s uber-cool name to be a big part of the design.



I had not done appliquéd letters before but went online for some tutorials and found a great one here. They recommended the use of Heat n' Bond Lite, but I used Stitch Witchery (fuseable webbing) to keep the letters in place while sewing around them and that worked just fine. I love how they came out! In future, I would probably do a zig-zag stitch around the whole letter, which would be much more time-consuming and add to overall labor cost, but it would make the quilt usable as a blanket; this one should probably be ornamental only.

This shows the self-fabric sleeve on the back; you can just slip a
curtain rod through, put the curtain rod hardware on the wall & voila!

close-up

From all reports, Maksim liked his quilt so much he kissed it! Awwww…. now that makes my job so gratifying.

Garden Patch Baby Quilt / Play Mat

Just finished! This 45" x 46" quilt is perfect for a baby quilt or play mat for when you bring baby visiting, and is up on my Etsy shop now ready for purchase.

(click pic for a closer look :-)

This was an extra-fun project because it was a collaborative effort between my mom and me; she machine-pieced the quilt top out of cheerful pink, blue & green checks, ginghams, and garden prints (including a vintage-look seed packet material I am mad for!). Then she handed it off to me and I gave it batting, a backing of sturdy cotton in a morning glory print, and a contrasty binding of darker green. Quilted "in the ditch" both vertically and horizontally, and on the diagonal green inside border as well. Binding is machine and handstitched, as outlined here: http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/10/binding-tutorial.html. I just love how it came out!

(the back)

This is a sturdy piece you can machine wash in cool water and hang to dry or machine tumble dry on low.

We hope you will love it as much as we loved making it for you!