Josie’s Quilt

I like to have the customer get to see the finished quilt in person before I blog-post it. So I’m super-glad Josie got her quilt this weekend; I’ve been dying to show you!

Josie wanted a queen-sized bed quilt and although I’ve never done one that large (twin throws have been, to date, my upper limit for size) I was super-excited and I said YES! We worked together on choosing a quilt pattern that would be visually interesting but at the same time restful. Some of the patterns we looked at, like the split-rail fence and various interlocking chains are visually interesting, but perhaps too visually “stimulating” when you are in your "oasis." Unconsciously, the eye wants to follow those labyrinths of pattern and you end up going over and over them, which can be less than restful. So we settled on a four-patch pattern which is has a very grounding presence. And then Josie & I collaborated on colors & fabrics too, settling on a lovely mix of batiks, both new and vintage calico and paisley, all in very soft lavenders and blues.

After finishing the quilt top, basting it to the backing and batting, came a humbling moment. I have always done my own machine-quilting but this was the first queen-size piece I’ve done and after one seam it became apparent that no amount of basting and rolling was going to get this thing through the opening of my trusty old Singer home machine. I want to give a shout-out here to Joan Ayers at North Star Qwilts. Joan is a long-arm quilter who took the finished quilt top, batting, and backing and machine-quilted it together in an all-over meandering pattern on her ginormous Nolting Pro 24. It looks AMAZING and Joan was really great to work with. Joan is a volunteer finisher for Quilts of Valor and others who are doing donation quilts as well as volunteering for Beacon Hospice in South Portland. She’s a member of both the Cobblestone and Casco Bay chapters of the Maine Quilt Guild. So if you have UFOs that need to be put together in a timely fashion, contact Joan! And tell her I sent you. :-)

I am just unreasonably proud of my binding.

When the quilt came back to me from North Star I put on a lavender calico binding – machine-sewn to the front, turned and hand stitched to the back. Although all that hand-stitching is time consuming I like to use this method because it's sturdy, and the beveled edges are give the quilt a really nice "finish." I’m so pleased with how it came out and was thrilled when Josie sent pics of it in its new home! I think it looks even better with handsome Max on it, don’t you? :-)

Mom's Hug Quilt

How great it feels to finish a UFO!* This quilt has been "in progress" for a few years... one of those projects you start and then get distracted from, or other projects have to take precedence over and the next thing you know it's shooting you dirty looks from its Tupperware storage in the basement every time you go down to put laundry in, and you feel guilty even glancing in its direction. (I'm not the only one, right?)Technically, I started this quilt when my son Jake (now 12) was just a baby. I must have seen a photo somewhere of a quilt someone had done all from flannels and terrycloth. I decided that instead of donating my old winter pjs or bathrobes to Goodwill (which I do with lots of stuff!), I would hang on to them and use them in a quilt. I cut them up and started piecing them in a modified four-patch that formed this groovy diagonal pattern. I got more than halfway through the quilt top and then my daughter came home from China, and my husband and I divorced, I got a new job and went back to school.. and gosh, things just got busy. But wouldn't it be cool, I thought, long about November of this year, if I could finish this thing up and give it to Jake for a Christmas gift? So whenever I had a few spare minutes and the boy was otherwise occupied I stitched away on this one and lo and behold at 6pm on Christmas Eve it was finished.

Last inch of binding sewn at 6pm Christmas Eve. Phew!

So within this quilt are nights of rocking my boy to sleep, reading him stories, cuddling up and watching movies together. There are lots of hugs in this quilt. When he opened the box on Christmas morning and held the quilt up I told him that no matter where he went or where I was, this quilt was my way of making sure he could always have a hug from mom. Jake's a sentimental boy, and totally "got it." Maybe he even got a little teary, but don't tell him I told you.

Our Buddha-cat Tucker, diggin' on the new quilt

detail, Mom's Hug Quilt

Don't worry, Santa made sure my son also got electronic gee-gaws and computer gadgets and other manly things. I'm not turning him into a complete sissy-boy.

*(Un-Finished Object)

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!

in progress: the Neo-Boho Mango Cheezit Quilt

It started as a love affair between a nouveau-ish vintage paisley and a remnant from a be-ribboned curtain material. They lived together in my stash for a long time, then a friend who was de-stashing her fabrics gifted me with a load of great material (thanks Brooke!) that happened to have some perfect complements to these two, and Voila! a quilt was born.

I loved these so much I used a very simple
checkerboard center to keep the focus on the fabrics.

Modified log-cabin to surround the happy pairing.

A trip to Marden's scored me more yardage of that gorgeous
orange & mango flavored ... er.. patterned fabric.

A row of "stacked coins" on either end, with a different paisley for "end caps."

The top is done, all it needs now is a backing,
batting, quilting, and binding. The binding fabric
is a tiny vintage-repro floral that will bring out
more of those darker reds/oranges in the "stacked
coins" sections and tie the whole thing together.

Finished size will be right around 45" by 60" [correction - finished size is 43" x 63" ) - supposedly "crib quilt" size but goodness, it seems big for a crib; it would work as a coverlet on a twin bed or make a generous lap quilt for cuddling up with some Cheezits and watching LOST. Would also make a lovely wall hanging. If you are interested in using it as a wall hanging please let me know and I can add (at no extra cost) a sleeve into which you can slide a curtain rod for easy, neat hanging. I can put the sleeve on a long side or short, depending on how you'd like it oriented.

Plum Basket Quilt

Just finished today and up in the Etsy shop - a 38" x 39.5" quilt, just the right size for a lap quilt or crib quilt or, actually, what I would do with it is use it as a wall hanging. I used a combination of asian fabrics in plummy purples and blues, a lush Japanese kanji batik, and some calicos of aqua and yellows for something on the opposite of the color wheel. The pattern is a sort of basketweave adaptation. It's machine pieced and quilted and then bound using machine plus hand slip-stitching for an invisible bind at the back.

in progress, strips stitched and ready for sashing in between


quilting the "long lines" first

machine quilting around each square

to paraphrase my friend Brooke, here I am making binding my bitch ;-)
I used the binding method shown here in this tutorial: (click)

The back. I like how the quilting came out, with the stitching around each square.
The benefit to using dark thread to contrast
light backing fabric: it's eye-catching!
The drawback to using dark thread to contrast
light backing fabric: it's eye-catching!
(ie: it shows every misplaced stitch or tension glitch. yikes!)

another closeup of the back with
contrasting hand slip-stitched binding.

Available now in my Etsy shop.
[note: this item has sold]

a few new things

"Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well
be your own, instead of someone else's."
~ Billy Wilder ~

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

"trust" c. 2008 miz annie
(today's Daily Devotion)

I just finished the below pillows and am really pleased with how they came out. I love the Tree of Life motif and found a great deal on a bit of yardage from another Etsy seller. The other fabrics are a mix of funky stripes, a bamboo print, and a great asian "calico" that is shot through with metallic detailing. Sort of a mish-mash but it all works together. These are 14"x14" and are up on my Etsy shop now! I am working on another, larger, pair; those are for a gift.

Front view - Tree of Life panels surrounded by
batiks and asian metallics.

Back view showing the envelope closure with
green silk cord tied around wooden buttons.

In other news, I have another job interview coming up and am very excited about that. I am hoping that when I speak with the neuro-whose-a-maperson regarding my back, the news won't be quite so dire. I am hoping to maybe get in with the pain specialist and see if we can get some cortisone injections on board so that I can find a new job and get settled in before I have to have surgery. Also, if I am doing physical therapy in the interim, there's a chance I may not need the surgery .... I realize this borders on denial, but I am a healer, after all, and I trust that I will find a solution that won't involve me being out of work for an extended period of time while recovering from major surgery. I just don't see how I have that kind of time. I am trusting the universe to meet me halfway on this one. Because I really need it to. Unless, of course, the universe has even bigger and better plans for me, and in that case, bring 'em on!

The well of Providence is deep.
It’s the buckets we bring to it that are small.
~ Mary Webb ~

me and The Bean.

(photo by joan nixon, apparently the only person alive
who can take a decent photo of me. ;-)

Wedding Quilt

Well, it’s finally done, the quilt I started back in May. It is the “bamboo” version of the “bamboo and pinwheels” quilt that I blogged about last spring. I did most of the work back in May and June, then life got a little crazy and I had to put it aside for a bit while I put other parts of my patchwork life in order. This past week, however, found me happily sandwiching the quilt top to the batting & backing, topstitching along those dark green sashing lines, and attempting my first mitered-corner binding.

It’s definitely homemade. It’s not “square;” each of the mitered corners looks a little different, and there are puckers in some places. I am hoping the recipients will look beyond its imperfections and know that it was made with love.

While I was working on this piece, I was thinking about some of the similarities between relationships and quilts. A good relationship is a blending of two people, just like a quilt is a blending of different fabrics. If the fabrics are too much alike, there isn’t enough contrast. Things can get boring. It’s nice to have someone who can kick your butt if need be, or someone who can be up when you’re feeling down, and vice versa. But if the fabrics are too different, they can clash. The aim is for the parts of the whole to complement each other, play off each other. With a quilt, you start with a couple yards of fabric, you cut them up and put them back together in some creative arrangement that allows each to shine while at the same time making the whole add up to more than just the sum of its parts. A good relationship is like that. (I mean, that's what I've heard. Take all relationship advice from me with a grain of salt, or salt shaker...). Anyhow, that’s what I wish for you, Aaron and Nicole. That you always complement each other and that your differences will only be enough to keep life interesting. But most of all, may your marriage always be like a soft place in which you can find comfort and warmth.

Congratulations on your marriage, Aaron & Nicole.

Love, Auntie Annie

(and my quilt inspector, Dakota.)

"yeah. this one'll do. can I lay on it now?"