| As a child, I sewed Barbie doll clothes-- lots of them. Later I designed and sewed all kinds of things, from aprons and pincushions to clothes. I even sewed a couple of winter formal dresses in high school.
Donna, a coworker, introduced me to quilting. From my very first project, I was hooked! I love going to quilt fabric shops to see all of the wonderful colors and textures available in 100% cotton fabrics. I never knew such beautiful fabrics existed. Now I have a very expensive habit!
I prefer to use strip quilting methods. If you decide to try this as a hobby and your sewing machine doesn't come with one, I highly recommend investing in an even-feed walking foot. One thing I like about my new machine is that it has an even feed walking system designed specifically for quilting. Ask me about my new Pfaff sewing machine.
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Baby quilts and sewing projects
So far, I have focused on making baby quilts. Many of our friends and family members have helped fan this craze by having babies (thank you!). :) There is something wonderful about planning and sewing a baby quilt-- it fills me with hope for the new person we will soon meet. I especially like getting to the quilting stage, with the cotton layers keeping my lap warm as I quilt them together.
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Rachael's quilt is reminiscent of a traditional spool pattern, from Ursula Reikes' Even More Quilts for Baby book. It was fun to make because the seams were intentionally offset by 1/4". I chose two complimentary star fabrics in purple and pink pastels, then matched those with a complimentary yellow and green. The backing fabric is a delightful Hoffman tie-dye style fabric with a matching color palette and little bunnies, kitties, hearts, giraffes, and all sorts of baby animals. This quilt has an "easter egg" hidden in the border; while stipple quilting, I was watching the San Francisco Giants game in which Barry Bonds hit his 71 and 72 home runs. I used this inspiration to quilt in the number "71" and "72" within the border. Rachael's Daddy and Mommy are SF Giants fans, so I think they liked this hidden detail! (I digitally highlighted the numbers in the quilting to point out the border locations.)
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I completed my first appliqué baby quilt for Erin Maille in January 2001. Called "Springtime Delight," it combines the nine patch snowflake look with the appliqué flowers in alternating squares. I just love the beautiful, delicate look of this quilt, and really challenged myself with an aggressive quilting pattern, combining a diagonal pattern to accentuate the nine patch lines with a lot of the curves to highlight the flowers. I used the P.S. I Love You line of fabrics, which features coordinated pinks, blues, and greens in a mixture of floral prints and text patterns. The white background is tone-on-tone lettered with white "P.S. I Love You" text, along with several of the pastel color fabrics. |
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I made a Christmas flannel "Cats in the Cabin" wallhanging for friends, December 2000. This was a fun project, and a challenging because it was my first appliqué project, as well as my first attempt to modify a pattern size. Instead of making an 18" finished piece, it came out about 35"... a little bigger than planned, but still pretty! I like how the log cabin made a wreath effect around the cats. I quilted the blue sky behind the cats in a Monet "Starry Night" pattern. I'm very pleased with how this turned out.
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Trevor's quilt was made for a "Jungle and Adventure" nursery theme, October 5, 2000. I used a large animal print fabric for the nine anchor blocks-- the first time I custom-cut blocks to frame very specific portions of a fabric. The blue wave print conveys a feeling of movement, and the green jungle leaf print frames each animal. The backing fabric was a mural-style collection of smiling animal faces. It uses a very vivid set of colors, quite different from my usual default palette! I sewed on the binding using my machine's appliqué stitch, which resulted in a neat effect. This is the "Barney's Block" pattern from Ursula Reikes' Even More Quilts for Baby book. |
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I made a 32" blue-and-white table runner that we kept, using a Bali blue batik and a Hoffman blue floral fabric to create an interlocking pattern of linked squares. I experimented using some floral stitches on my Pfaff (the back is the best side to see the quilting design). After making so many things for others, I agree with Johnathon it is nice to have something we can enjoy ourselves.
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I made a pastel flannel block baby quilt for Rossa Bernard, born May 26, 2000. He is a perfect little redheaded boy, and we got to hold him in the hospital when he was only one day old. I designed the quilt myself, and had fun quilting with the wave stitch on my new sewing machine. Notice the alphabet border, and the baby hand print flannel backing. I really love this quilt!
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Andrew's stuffed fish is made from a "Rumpled Quilt Skin" pattern (2000). Johnathon surprised me with the pattern for Christmas (major brownie points!). The pattern calls for button eyes and lavender buds and flax seed stuffing, but since it was for a 2 year old, I substituted hand-sewn eyes and cotton/poly stuffing. Years ago, one of my favorite hobbies was caring for a large aquarium of cichlid fish. The body style of this pattern really reminds me of those fish, so sewing this fish pattern makes me very happy.
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I made Aidan's quilt in 1999, using reproduction-style fabrics in a "Bricks and Blocks" pattern. Soft muslin showcases the colorful fabric blocks, and the quilting is a diamond pattern. This one was a lot of fun to design, though I had a hard time preventing the cat from walking straight across my ironed fabric blocks as I was planning the color scheme! I think it came out rather nicely.
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Stephanie's "Nine Patch" baby quilt was a labor of love-- not only for the child, but also for the beautiful Hoffman fabrics (1998). Purple is one of my favorite colors, and this soft pastel floral backing is one of my very favorite Hoffmans so far. One of the purple Hoffman fabrics is a soft floral watercolor design with incredible depth and color intensity. We knew in advance that the child was going to be a girl, so I used various purples on a light pink background. This was quilted in a diamond pattern.
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Scotty's quilt is modified from the "Baby Bear" pattern (1998). The horizontal borders of teddy bears really stole the show. This project has country-style charm, which was a good guess because it happened to coordinate well with Scotty's crib decor. The quilt backing is a fabulous sleeping moon and shooting stars fabric. I quilted this one stitch-in-the-ditch by following the zigzag pattern created by the blue and green fabrics.
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Andrew's modified "Double Nine Patch" was my first quilted project (1997). While I had made tied quilts previously, this was an eye-opening experience. Fortunately, it was an addicting kind of torture; I did not fully realize when I picked the pattern that 2" strips end up as 1-1/2" finished squares. By the time I understood how much work was required, I was so far along that modifying the project was not an option. When Andrew decided he was ready for prime time about a month early, I spent many late nights finishing this before we met the new little guy! (Well worth every minute of time, too.)
What I like about this quilt are the bug fabrics in the blue patches, the snowflake design of the pattern, and the hand-sewn quilt tag (the only one I've ever done, and probably will ever do).
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Upcoming projects
I am also working on more quilted fish, and am getting ready to tackle my first queen-size bed quilt. I have the fabrics and the pattern ("Garden Maze")-- now all I need is a space big enough to assemble it all. And I need to start quickly, before the second round of babies arrive! :)
I want to begin working on a tree skirt, but I'm not sure how that's going to progress. I really want to make a log cabin pattern tree skirt (not diamonds or 60 degree angle log cabin). If you've run across a pattern for something like this, please let me know.
Online resources: your mileage may vary
Many companies have online fabric and sewing supply catalogs.
I love Craft Connection, which is a great quilt shop in Colorado. I haven't been there in person (yet), but I'm really impressed with their web site. The site offers a slow but very thorough search engine, and they have broad selection of fabric at decent prices. The color image scans for the fabric are pretty accurate, and they even offer suggestions for matching fabrics. I was recently able to find a book and some fabrics that everyone else sold out of. They shipped my orders within 2 days and they arrived that same week. I've received great, friendly customer service twice on the phone as well. Highly recommended!
One extensive collection of fabric and supplies is Hancock's of Paducah. The color matching between the printed Fabrics for Quilters catalog and the actual fabric I received was not as precise as I'd hoped, but it is a great place to find the latest creations from well-known collections.
You might also try calling Fabric Depot, especially if you're looking for a particular fabric and already know the manufacturer, color and pattern name.
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